Thursday, April 05, 2007

Jesus' Heart

All during Jesus' ministry here on the earth, He demonstrated His deep and abiding love for mankind. You can feel His heart for all the people who came to Him during the three years He walked on the earth. You can feel His heart as He healed the sick, the lame, the deaf, the blind. He wanted to ease the suffering of a hurting world. When he learned that His special friend, Lazarus, had died, He wept to the point that the Jews remarked: "See how much he loved Him."

There is no greater demonstration of His heart for the world than on His journey toward the cross. Before He made His triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey, He stood on the Mount of Olives looking over the entire city, and He wept over it. You can feel the ache in His heart as He says, "If you had only known on this day what would bring you peace"---now it was too late. He came to save God's chosen people. He came as the Messiah they had long been waiting for, and yet they did not know Him or recognize Him. They rejected Him outright. Oh, the pained heart of the Savior!

In the Upper Room, he shared His heart with His disciples letting them know the events that would occur soon in their future. He told them they would be persecuted, betrayed, even put to death because of Him, but encouraged them to stand firm and they would save themselves. He told them He would go to prepare a place for them in heaven, but would return to them and take them to their heavenly home with Him. Can you imagine how Jesus' heart felt knowing that the 12 men he had loved and trained and entrusted the precious gospel message with, would ultimately have to suffer great pain, persecution and sorrow because of Him? You can feel the love He had for them as He washed each disciples' feet personally.

You can feel His heart as He prayed in the Garden of Gethesemane with such deep anguish of soul that He sweat great drops of blood from His pores. Who was He praying for? He prayed for Himself that He might complete the work that the Father had sent Him to do. He prayed for His disciples that God would protect them from the evil one and would sanctify them with the truth that Jesus had entrusted to them. He prayed for you and me -- all believers---that we would believe the message that God loved us and that Jesus would pay the penalty for our sins by His shed blood on the cross and that we would accept His precioius gift of salvation that we might spend eternity with Him.

Then lastly you can feel Jesus' heart as he hung on the cross, and to the very men who put Him there to suffer and die, He cried out to the Father: "Forgive them, for they know not what they do."

Jesus loves me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so,
Little ones to Him belong,
They are weak, but He is strong.
Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves me,
The Bible tells me so!

Jesus loves you and me!
Sandy

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