July 10, 2013 - Isaiah 53

As I read from a very familiar passage this morning and made the words us and we personal, all I could do was put my face in my hands and with gratitude cry "thank you." I don't know about you, but being unhealthy most of my life spawned a myriad of physical and emotional issues. Sometimes, a few of those try to manifest and bring discouragement to me again. Gotta keep it real. But when I re-read this verse a minute ago, I was flooded with a powerful reminder that Jesus was willing to suffer that I could be healed. The Bible says, "for the joy set before him He endured the cross." Isaiah 53 reminds me that while mankind viewed Jesus' death from one perspective, the truth shouts another. As you read this passage today, can you stop, make it personal and praise God that His plan included eternal health through salvation as well as physical health while we maneuver through life? Just reading this again infuses JOY in my heart. I am HEALED - I am WHOLE - I am WELL. Say that several times today! Thank you, Jesus. (tears in my eyes) Love you, PK Isaiah 53 The Message (MSG) 53 Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? 2-6 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.