Jesus suffered for you

     God has been blessing me with more work than I can handle.  I am praying that He will help me with my priorities, so that I do not replace Him with His blessings.  Since this blog is part of a calling God gave me last year, I have to figure out how to make it a priority while still getting all the work done for my photography business.
     Yesterday I was listening to the radio and a song by Todd Agnew, called "My Jesus" came on. Click here for a youtube video for that song.  My Jesus by Todd Agnew   The song reminded me that Jesus paid the ultimate price so that we could have intimacy with Him.  Do we only think of His sacrifice at Easter time?  As you read the description of His suffering below, consider what sacrifice you are willing to make for your precious Bridegroom.

Isaiah 53:1-12 (from The Message)
Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?

     Who would have thought God’s

     saving power would look like this?
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,

     a scrubby plant in a parched field.

There was nothing attractive about him,

     nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,

     a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.

One look at him and people turned away.

     We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—

     our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.

We thought he brought it on himself,

     that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,

     that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!

He took the punishment, and that made us whole.

     Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.

     We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins,

     everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured,

     but he didn’t say a word.

Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered

     and like a sheep being sheared,

     he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—

     and did anyone really know what was happening?

He died without a thought for his own welfare,

     beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,

     threw him in a grave with a rich man,

Even though he’d never hurt a soul

     or said one word that wasn’t true.
Still, it’s what God had in mind all along,

     to crush him with pain.

The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin

     so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life.

And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.
     Out of that terrible travail of soul,

     he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.

Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,

     will make many “righteous ones,”

     as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—

     the best of everything, the highest honors—

Because he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch,

     because he embraced the company of the lowest.

He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,

     he took up the cause of all the black sheep.