PREVIEWS

Jesus will never leave you in the dark.

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John 16:20 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

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There are times in which the Lord will speak to one’s heart, but for whatever reason, the understanding may not be fully engaged to perceive what the Lord wants to show us.  Never fear.  The Lord will not leave you in the dark as long as you seek Him.  He has promised us in His Word that if we would seek, we would find.  He has further promised us in His Word that “if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God to gives liberally to all men and upbraids not.”

Jesus was speaking to His disciples of His soon demise, and they could not understand the import of what He was saying to them.  So they asked Him, and He explained in the simplest possible terms what they would encounter in the next few days.  He would pray until His sweat was mixed with blood from His head, be betrayed, arrested, beaten, mocked, stripped naked, lashed with the Roman flagrum, have His beard torn out by the hands-full, crowned with a thorn cap, blind-folded and beaten more, and forced to carry His cross.  Falling under its weight, He would ultimately be crucified on that cross, exposed to open shame before all who viewed Him.  Spikes up to more than a pound in weight would be driven through His hands and feet.  His body would wrench with pain as it fought for breath and convulsed under the stress of trying to live.  In that time on the cross, the viewers would mock Him, one thief crucified by His side would ridicule Him, and Father would turn His back on Him.  The stress (spirit, soul, and body) would be so great that our Lord Who knowingly came to give His life for our salvation would be driven to the point of asking the Father, “Why have You forsaken Me?”  And there He would die, having been consumed by the torment to His being that He did not even resemble a human being.  Dying before His tormentors thought He would, they pierced His side, and blood and water flowed.  While the world rejoiced over this spectacle, His family and disciples that remained were in the deepest possible sorrow.

Ah, but praise the Lord, it would not remain so.  Something was about to change that would alter the course of eternity.  He would not remain dead.  He had said, “No man takes My life from Me.  I lay it down, and I shall take it up again.”  And He did precisely that.  After three days in which His body was in the tomb and His spirit and soul were in hell, Father refused to allow Him to see corruption.  He had been the Son of God through natural birth, and now, once again, Father called Him Son, raising Him from the dead by the power of Holy Spirit.  It was at that point, coming to the tomb, seeing Him in the garden, handling Him in the upper room, walking with Him on the road to Emmaeus, and breakfasting with Him by the Sea of Galilee that their sorrow was “turned into joy.”  Rejoice, dear child of God.  He still lives! 

Manna for Today – John 16:16-24; Matthew 7:7; Luke 11:9; James 1:5; Hebrews 1

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