Faith

by Debbie Wallis

overwhelming emotion of abandonment by His Father. "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" Matthew 27:46. Jesus became sin on our behalf and God the Father had to turn His back upon the Son Hab 1:13 says that God is too pure to look upon evil When Jesus bore our sins in His body on the cross (1 Pet 2:24), God the Father spiritually turned away We have no capacity to appreciate the utterly horrific experience of having the sins of the world put upon Jesus as He hung in excruciating pain from that cross The physical pain was immense and the spiritual heaviness must have been even greater of our sin. If you think you are not beautiful and loved by God…think about the cross. God has always loved you. Every step Jesus took closer to His death was because you are lovely and loved by God He saw Adam and Eve when they talked to Satan He saw their sin against His Word He saw their shame and He said,” I shall put enmity between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise His heel,” Genesis 3:15 The “He” is Jesus God made a way for our sins to be forgiven at the point sin entered the human race God said that Jesus, the Seed, will come and be killed by man for all mankind other would leave us lost. The gift of the cross will drastically change your way of living. The birth of Christ lead to the life He gave at the cross. Christ is the good news of Christmas so, keep saying, ”Merry Christmas!” it’s the most wonderful time of the year!

Jesus defeated death and rose again! He now sits at the right hand of God “I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also,” John 14:3

If you don’t have a Bible please contact me at sfadebbie@yahoo com and I will provide you one

“For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,” Isaiah 9:6

It is Christmas time and Jesus is the reason we even have this season I cannot think about the birth of baby Jesus without remembering the cross on which He died The cross is where we see the true heart of God It’s where love went to die for everything you and I did and will ever do in contradiction to love The cross is the perfect representation of God The cross is where we see the ugliness of our sins. The cross is where God met an ungrateful world and poured out His unconditional love.

The cross is where God gave His perfect sacrifice for you and for me "He made Him who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him," 2 Cor 5:21 The cross is where Jesus was crushed for our redemption Jesus felt the

Jesus was born for you. He lived a sinless life so you could relate to His temptations. He chose right over wrong every time because He had a life goal and it was to die for you. He had to remain pure so He could be a perfect, blemish free and blameless sacrifice at the cross for you

He didn’t defend Himself when He was falsely accused He chose to be guilty of your sins He carried the cross for you He stayed on the cross for you With every agonizing lash of the whip He made a conscious decision that you were worth dying for He accepted your sins as His own so that He could pay the penalty of death for you He took back the keys of hell for your life and defied the grave so you could live eternally with Him in Heaven. Jesus went to the cross for one reason; desire. “Father, I desire that they would be with Me where I am,” John 17:24.

“Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,” Genesis 1:26 God has always loved you

When rebellion entered Adam and Eve’s life they hid from their nakedness We hide from God because we feel the embarrassment

This Christmas focus on the short distance between the manger and the cross. They both were a valuable gift. One without the