HALLELUJAH! What a Savior!

HALLELUJAH! What a Savior!

This morning I share with you from Isaiah 53 from THE MESSAGE
(NavPress). As you reflect and meditate today on what HE did for YOU on
the Cross -- He paid a debt that He didn't owe because we had a debt we
couldn't pay -- He did this all for you and me!!!

1 Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought
God's saving power would look like this? 2 The servant grew up before
God - a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was
nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.
3 He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew
pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down
on him, thought he was scum.

4 But the fact is, it was our pains he carried - our
disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it
on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. 5 But it
was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him
- our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his
bruises we get healed. 6 We're all like sheep who've wandered off and
gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has
piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him. 7 He
was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken
to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in
silence. 8 Justice miscarried, and he was led off - and did anyone
really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own
welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. 9 They buried him with
the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he'd never
hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.

10 Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with
pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that
he'd see life come from it - life, life, and more life. And God's plan
will deeply prosper through him. 11 Out of that terrible travail of
soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what
he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous
ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. 12 Therefore I'll
reward him extravagantly - the best of everything, the highest honors -
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he
embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin
of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Take some time today to get alone with the Lord and tell Him how
much you love Him. Thank Him for dying for You! Hallelujah! what a
Savior.