Passover Lamb

God Provided

God provided protection for His people: Death was coming, and blood was the only thing that could save you. Kill a spotless (perfect and without blame) lamb and mark your door with its blood. Death would literally PASS OVER your home, and those inside would be spared. All you had to do was believe enough to do it. Read all about it here.

The Israelites had just witnessed some pretty serious stuff. The Nile had turned to blood. Bugs and frogs everywhere. But this was the only plague that came with an “opt-out” moment. Serious stuff: Wanna protect the first-born inside? Paint the doorway and stay inside. Protection for the price of a lamb.

God provided a Lamb for us.

We, too, are facing death. Eternal death and separation from God. Blood is still the only thing that will save anyone. But the Lamb for us was Jesus, and His blood on the cross was our doorway protection.

That night – the original Passover – the LORD Himself went through the land to check the doors. (Exodus 12: 23) He didn’t leave a job this important to someone else. He alone checked to see who had believed.

It’s all about the cross.

The cross. The ultimate symbol of Christianity. It means everything to me. Yes, it was a device used for execution. Someone once asked me if I would wear an electric chair on a chain around my neck. -No. Because that is not how my Savior died.

I have a large collections of crosses in my home. Various sizes, shapes and colors. But they all have one thing in common: THEY ARE EMPTY.

Jesus defeated the cross. Yes, He embraced death for me, but then He defeated it. The cross is empty. The tomb is empty. And because of that, I owe Jesus EVERYTHING!

Isaac Watts summed it up nicely:

Alas! and did my Savior bleed And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?
 
Refrain:
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
 
Thy body slain, sweet Jesus, Thine— And bathed in its own blood—
While the firm mark of wrath divine, His soul in anguish stood.
 
Was it for crimes that I had done He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! grace unknown! And love beyond degree!
 
Well might the sun in darkness hide And shut his glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker died, For man the creature’s sin.

Thus might I hide my blushing face While His dear cross appears,
Dissolve my heart in thankfulness, And melt my eyes to tears.
 
But drops of grief can ne’er repay The debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give myself away, ’Tis all that I can do.

Prayer: “Drops of grief can ne’er repay the debt of love I owe:
Here, Lord, I give myself away, ‘Tis all that I can do.”  –Lord, help me to make this my daily prayer. May Christ’s suffering on my behalf be ever on my mind so that I strive to give myself away. It’s all that I can do. In Jesus’ name.

The art today is a combination of gelatos and Inktense blocks. I was traveling this past week, and I didn’t take many supplies with me – gelatos and markers mostly. In a Canson Mixed Media journal that I usually use to clean my brayer after playing with my gelli plate. So I started with the sunrise which I am treating as the day Jesus rose. Easter. The cross is empty. The tomb is empty. And I will never be the same.

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