3 When we were overwhelmed by sins,
you forgave our transgressions.Although we may feel overwhelmed by the multitude of our sins, God will forgive them all if we ask sincerely. Do you feel as though God could never forgive you, that your sins are too many, or that some of them are too great? The good news is that God can and will forgive them all. Nobody is beyond redemption, and nobody is so full of sin that he or she cannot be made clean. Verse and commentary above is copied from the Life Application Study Bible Reading Plan on YouVersion. Check it out at http://www.youversion.com/ .
Any Dr JOE comments will be in BLUE :0)
Luke 24:1-12
Jesus Has Risen
1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb.2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb,3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them.5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead?6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee:7 'The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'"8 Then they remembered his words.
9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others.10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles.11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.
All of Christianity hinges on the resurrection. If the story was made up, the authors of the time would not have used women as the ones to discover the tomb, since women were not even considered reliable enough to testify in the court of the time. The whole story is bizarre. The Creator of the universe proves His power over all things by being humiliated, tortured, and killed first, then rising from the dead. God proved that He decides what will happen, not the devil, not us. He surrendered Himself to us to be destroyed to prove that we can't destroy Him (and to pay the price for our sin). He will always and forever prevail. Why then do I still struggle to let Him prevail in my life? Why do I keep trying in 10,000 different ways to do things my way. Why don't I trust Him in all things at all times. Why is my focus so often on earthly treasures not heavenly ones? Each new year and each new moment is an opportunity to let our minds be renewed and transformed by Him. It's more like giving up than it is like going down a list of things to do. Jesus needs to be numbers 1- gazillion on our list of things to do. I've been a Christian for 18 years and I'm 50 years old. No matter how hard I've tried, I just don't seem to get into the Jesus groove for very long. I'm weak and so easily distracted by the things of the world. Oh, Lord Jesus, I'm tired of fighting. Please help me.
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