Jesus is not a sad victim of a fallen world or a victim of a gruesome plot. Good Friday is not a tragedy but a triumph. The perfect plan that God set in motion in the Garden of Eden is now finally coming to fulfillment. God wanted us, his imagers, to bring the world back to the Garden of Eden, but we couldn’t. We tried. We kept creating false gods. We kept wanting to be independent from God, thinking we could do it without Him, but we can’t. Only He can bring peace and redemption.
Think of Passion Week as a chess board. He was thinking outside the realm of two dimensions. God was playing in 3-D where Jesus' contemporaries were playing in 2-D. The Pharisees thought they “had” him, that they were in control, manipulating the "pieces" (checkmate).
But they lost the game before they started, primarily because they were playing based on their own understanding (reason and rules) and not trusting in the Lord, by faith (what they couldn't see). The Pharisees couldn't see the moves that God was making, had made (in the past) and would make (in the future).
Jesus managed every situation, every person, allowing events to happen to get Him where He needed to be – nailed to the cross – for my salvation.
As I move forward and look into the future, Jesus is already there. He is already moving pieces around (or allowing them to be moved around) in different dimensions. My obedience to Him, my surrender and Lordship, and abiding with Him will bring me to the place He wants me to be and transform me into the person He always intended. Just like with Jesus, the point is to get me to where He wants me.
The dimensional aspect is that I may need to allow God to reconcile things in my past that I am holding onto, that I feel are dear to me or just wounds that prevent me from moving forward – to take advantage of whatever it is that Jesus is creating for me in the future. (Jesus tried to get the Pharisees to reconcile their past) God is viewing the totality of my life from His 3-D perfective, while I can only see 2-D. Why? Because God is outside of our time and space…
We can look at the future as “next week”, “next year”, and so forth, but as I contemplate Scripture, I can see that God was “playing 3-D chess” over thousands of years.
For instance:
Yes, I may have to go through trials, similar to what happened to Jesus on Friday. I may have people deny me; I may have family and friends deride me, say bad things about me, even abandon me. All things Jesus went through on Friday. All this may happen to me. If I consider myself a follower (disciple) of Jesus, why wouldn’t I have a similar “Friday” in my life?
Sunday’s promise is my spiritual Promised Land -- better than I can imagine!! I’ve never been there before, but he gave me the GPS – the Holy Spirit. Now all I have to do is sync with Him and follow Him as He leads me to live the abundant life He planned for me.
This post was written by Disciplers Training International.
You can find their website here: disciplers.org
Think of Passion Week as a chess board. He was thinking outside the realm of two dimensions. God was playing in 3-D where Jesus' contemporaries were playing in 2-D. The Pharisees thought they “had” him, that they were in control, manipulating the "pieces" (checkmate).
But they lost the game before they started, primarily because they were playing based on their own understanding (reason and rules) and not trusting in the Lord, by faith (what they couldn't see). The Pharisees couldn't see the moves that God was making, had made (in the past) and would make (in the future).
Jesus managed every situation, every person, allowing events to happen to get Him where He needed to be – nailed to the cross – for my salvation.
As I move forward and look into the future, Jesus is already there. He is already moving pieces around (or allowing them to be moved around) in different dimensions. My obedience to Him, my surrender and Lordship, and abiding with Him will bring me to the place He wants me to be and transform me into the person He always intended. Just like with Jesus, the point is to get me to where He wants me.
The dimensional aspect is that I may need to allow God to reconcile things in my past that I am holding onto, that I feel are dear to me or just wounds that prevent me from moving forward – to take advantage of whatever it is that Jesus is creating for me in the future. (Jesus tried to get the Pharisees to reconcile their past) God is viewing the totality of my life from His 3-D perfective, while I can only see 2-D. Why? Because God is outside of our time and space…
We can look at the future as “next week”, “next year”, and so forth, but as I contemplate Scripture, I can see that God was “playing 3-D chess” over thousands of years.
For instance:
- David penned Psalm 22 (about 900 BC) depicting what would happen on the cross.
- Jesus quoted Psalm 22:1 from the cross “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Psalm 22 describes other things that also happened on the cross.
- Isaiah (about 700 BC) prophesied many things about Jesus (see Chapters 51- 53, especially)
- Zechariah (about 500 BC) prophesied in 9:1 “Look, your King is coming to you; He is righteous and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” (Palm Sunday)
Yes, I may have to go through trials, similar to what happened to Jesus on Friday. I may have people deny me; I may have family and friends deride me, say bad things about me, even abandon me. All things Jesus went through on Friday. All this may happen to me. If I consider myself a follower (disciple) of Jesus, why wouldn’t I have a similar “Friday” in my life?
Sunday’s promise is my spiritual Promised Land -- better than I can imagine!! I’ve never been there before, but he gave me the GPS – the Holy Spirit. Now all I have to do is sync with Him and follow Him as He leads me to live the abundant life He planned for me.
This post was written by Disciplers Training International.
You can find their website here: disciplers.org
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