Day One hundred and seventy-six

The following are excerpts from The Jesus Storybook Bible. I love this book. The author, Sally Lloyd-Jones, has an amazing way with words that gets right to the emotion of the story. Even though it is a children's book, I am getting to know Jesus more personally.


"....this is how God will rescue the whole world. My life will break and God's broken world will mend. My heart will tear apart-and your will heal. Just as the passover lamb died, so now I will die instead of you. My blood will wash away all of your sins. And you'll be clean on the inside-in your hearts."~~Jesus to His disciples during the Last Supper

" 'Papa! Father!' Jesus cried. And He fell to the ground. 'Is there any other way to get Your children back? To heal their hearts? To get rid of the poison?' 
   But Jesus knew- there was no other way. All the poison of sin was going to have to go into His heart.
   God was going to pour into Jesus' heart all the sadness and brokenness in people's hearts. He was going to pour into Jesus' body all the sickness in people's bodies. God was going to have to blame His son for everything that had gone wrong. It would crush Jesus.
   But there was something else, something even more horrible. When people ran away from God, they lost God-it was what happened when they ran away. Not being closes to God was like a punishment. Jesus was going to take that punishment.
    Jesus knew what that meant. He was going to lose His Father-and that, Jesus knew, would break His heart in two."~~Jesus in the garden

"They nailed Jesus to the cross. People shouted, 'If you were really the Son of God, you could just climb down off that cross!' And of course they were right. Jesus could have just climbed down. Actually, He could have just said a word and made it all stop....But Jesus stayed.
    You see, they didn't understand. It wasn't the nails that kept Jesus there. It was love."
    'Papa?' Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky. 'Papa? Where are You? Don't leave Me!'
    And for the first time-and the last-when He spoke, nothing happened. Just a horrible, endless silence. God didn't answer. He turned away from His Boy.
    Tears rolled down Jesus' face. The face of the One who would wipe away every tear from every eye.
    Even though it was midday, a dreadful darkness covered the face of the world. The sun could not shine. The earth trembled and quaked. The great mountain shook. Rocks split in two. Until it seemed that the whole world would break. That creation itself would tear apart.
    The full force of the storm of God's fierce anger at sin was coming down. On His own Son. Instead of His people. It was the only way God could destroy sin, and not destroy His children whose hearts were filled with sin. 
    Then Jesus shouted out in a loud voice, 'It is finished!'
    And it was. He had done it. Jesus had rescued the whole world."

To be continued....