Maunday Thursday

Truly a sad day in history but one with a very happy ending! Tonight we will have our Maunday Thursday service. It's always just terribly emotional time so I will have to remember the tissues! I am so grateful that God did in fact send His Son to die for my sins. So thankful that He loved me that much!


Shelly


Then Jesus brought them to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and he said, “Sit here while I go on ahead to pray.” He took Peter and Zebedee’s two sons, James and John, and he began to be filled with anguish and deep distress. Matthew 26:36–37



If I had the opportunity to know my entire future from today on, I think I would pass. I would rather not know. But Jesus, being God, knew everything about His future down to the smallest detail.



As He agonized in the Garden of Gethsemane, He knew that in just a few short hours, He would be nailed to a Roman cross and crucified. He knew that He would be humiliated. He would be beaten. He would go through a horrendous whipping. He knew the great anguish that was ahead.



The Bible tells us Jesus was “a man of sorrows, acquainted with bitterest grief” Isaiah 53:3. The Bible also says in Hebrews, “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” 4:15-16.



In other words, God knows what you’re going through. You have a High Priest—that is, Jesus—who has faced the challenges you presently face.



Jesus was in this horrendous, difficult time, experiencing deep loneliness and abandonment by His friends. Yet He went through it.



The next time you face difficulty, the next time you face hardship, the next time you feel misunderstood and abandoned, remember that Jesus already has experienced those things. You have someone who understands you, sympathizes with you, and is there to strengthen you.



Tomorrow is God’s Friday. Please read from the Gospel of John, chapters 18 and 19.



Pastor Hersch