We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:6
As presented on *The Lutheran Hour® by Dr. Oswald Hoffmann, March 23, 1975.
Life is a procession. From the moment we are born, we seek survival, safety, and security; we search for happiness, purpose, and meaning. Life is a procession. We process through life devoted to our own best interests. That is what the Bible calls sin: the selfish, reckless, shortsighted, and faithless following of our own imaginations. We process through life with a lot of twisted goals and distorted values and warped standards. We march along arrogantly, desperately, unrealistically, making ourselves or someone else lord, whoever it is that will let us have our own way.
There is one who did not go that way. With all of the pressures of conformity upon Him, He went His way. It was the way of a cross, the way His Father asked Him to go. He started a procession of true life.
Jesus had a mission in life. He came to show His Father to people, to make real on earth the mercy and forgiveness of God. He came to free us from the procession toward death and ruin, to make life a procession of joy, hope, and victory. God His Father confirmed what He had done by raising Him from the dead and from the grave that the procession might continue right into eternity.
Walk with Jesus Christ and know the joys of new life in Him. Celebrate, give thanks, offer worship. Share what you have. Process through life with the blessing of the one who travels with you in the name of the Lord.
Lord God, give us faith in Your Son Jesus that we may step out of the procession that leads to death and join the procession that follows Him to everlasting life. Amen.
Taken from A Message of Hope: Proclaiming the Cross (selections from messages broadcast on *The Lutheran Hour, celebrating 75 years of proclaiming the promise).
Copyright © 2006 by Lutheran Hour Ministries
*The Lutheran Hour is the longest-running Christian radio broadcast in the world. It is a production of Lutheran Hour Ministries. For more information, visit www.lutheranhour.org.
Today's Bible Readings: Joshua 10-12 Luke 10:1-24
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