Steve

“MARCH 16 Ordeal of Shame In a memoir of the years before World War II, Pierre Van Paassen tells of an act of humiliation by Nazi storm troopers who had seized an elderly Jewish rabbi and dragged him to headquarters. In the far end of the same room, two colleagues were beating another Jew to death. They stripped the rabbi naked and commanded that he preach the sermon he had prepared for the coming Sabbath in the synagogue. The rabbi asked if he could wear his yarmulke, and the Nazis, grinning, agreed. It added to the joke. The trembling rabbi proceeded to deliver in a raspy voice his sermon on what it means to walk humbly before God, all the while being poked and prodded by the hooting Nazis, and all the while hearing the last cries of his neighbor at the end of the room. When I read the Gospel accounts of the imprisonment, torture, and execution of Jesus, I think of that naked rabbi standing humiliated in a police station. I still cannot fathom the indignity, the shame endured by God’s Son on earth, stripped naked, flogged, spat on, struck in the face, garlanded with thorns. Jewish leaders as well as Romans intended the mockery to parody the crime for which the victim had been condemned. Messiah, huh? Great, let’s hear a prophecy.Wham. Who hit you, huh? Thunk. C’mon, tell us, spit it out, Mr. Prophet. For a Messiah, you don’t know much, do you? It went like that all day long, from the bullying game of Blind Man’s Bluff in the high priest’s courtyard, to the professional thuggery of Pilate’s and Herod’s guards, to the catcalls of spectators up the long road to Calvary, and finally to the cross itself where Jesus heard a stream of taunts. I have marveled at, and sometimes openly questioned, the self-restraint God has shown throughout history, allowing the Genghis Khans and the Hitlers and the Stalins to have their way. But nothing—nothing—compares to the self-restraint shown that dark Friday in Jerusalem. With every lash of the whip, every fibrous crunch of fist against flesh, Jesus must have mentally replayed the temptation in the wilderness and in Gethsemane. Legions of angels awaited his command. One word, and the ordeal would end. The Jesus I Never Knew(199 - 200)”
― Philip Yancey, Grace Notes: Daily Readings with Philip Yancey

“Week 24 Day 4 Give a Second Chance Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth. Psalm 71:20 From every piercing sorrow That heaves our breast to-day, Or threatens us to-morrow, Hope turns our eyes away; On wings of faith ascending, We see the land of light, And feel our sorrows ending In infinite delight. Given the responsibility to decide the fate of a court-martialed soldier, would you be willing to give a second chance? As commander in chief, Lincoln was ultimately the one to decide whether or not a young soldier would live or die. Often the convicted soldier would not be much older than a child, not even eighteen years old. At the behest of some of his generals, Lincoln stood firm in his desire to give the younger men a second chance. “I am unwilling for any boy under eighteen to be shot,” he demanded. These young men, according to Lincoln, deserved to learn a lesson by which to live, not die. Many of them ultimately became good husbands and fathers, and some of them even became great military leaders. Lincoln’s forgiving attitude gave them the chance to begin again. Do you help other people start over, or are you eager to put an end to them?”
― Thomas Freiling, Abraham Lincoln's Daily Treasure: Moments of Faith with America's Favorite President—Devotional Readings with Insights of Wisdom and Courage from US President Abraham Lincoln

“Better to go to a house of mourning Than to go to a house of feasting Because athat is the end of all mankind, And the living puts this in his heart.”
― Anonymous, The Legacy Standard Bible - LSB

“God does not give us overcoming life—He gives us life as we overcome. The strain of life is what builds our strength. If there is no strain, there will be no strength.”
― Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest