Have a blessed weekend!

A Medical Dr. Describes the Cross:


The cross is placed on the ground and the exhausted man is quickly thrown backwards with his shoulders against the wood. The legionnaire feels for the depression at the front of the wrist. He drives a heavy, square wrought iron nail through the wrist deep into the wood. Quickly he moves to the other side and repeats the action, being careful not to pull the arms too tightly, but to allow some flex and movement. The cross is then lifted into place. The left foot is press backward against the right foot, and with both feet extended, toes down, a nail is driven through the arch of each, leaving the knees flexed. The victim is now crucified.


As he slowly sags down with more weight on the nails in the wrists, excruciating fiery pain shoots along the fingers and up the arms to explode in the brain the nails in the wrists are putting pressure on the median nerves. As he pushes himself upward to avoid this stretching torment, he places the full weight on the nail through his feet. Again he feels the searing agony of the nail tearing through the nerves between the bones of his feet.


As the arms fatigue, cramps sweep through his muscles, knotting them deep relentless, throbbing pain. With these cramps comes the inability to push himself upward to breathe. Air can be drawn into the lungs but not exhaled. He fights to raise himself in order to get even one small breath.


Finally, carbon dioxide builds up in the lungs and in the blood stream, and the cramps partially subsided. Spasmodically, he is able to push himself upward to exhale and bring in life-giving oxygen. Hours of limitless pain, cycles of twisting, joint wrenching cramps, intermittent partial asphyxiation, searing pain as tissue is torn from his lacerated back as he moves up and down against rough timber.


Then another agony begins: a deep, crushing pain deep in the chest as the pericardium slowly fills with serum and begins to compress the heart. It is now almost over. The loss of tissue fluids has reached a critical level. The compressed heart is struggling to pump heavy, thick, sluggish blood into the tissues. The tortured lungs are making frantic efforts to gasp in small gulps of air. He can feel the chill of death creeping through his tissues.


Finally, He can allow his body to die? All this the bible records with the simple words, "and they crucified Him" in Mark 15:24


Author- unknown


Epilogue -Steve


Our Jesus suffered even more than this, the above was standard fare for any crucifixion. Our Lord's was not "standard." First Jesus was whipped with a "cat-o-nine-tails" until he back was a bloody pulp, then the Bible records that he was bodily beaten, kicked and even clubbed in the head. His beard was ripped from his face along with a sizable amount of flesh. He was required to carry his own (our own) cross to the hill at Golgotha. Along the path he was beaten and kicked some more. To add to the degradation, he was half naked and often spat upon. The "crown" that the soldiers made him was from a plant called the "Judean Thorn," which had spines on it up to six inches long! This was rammed onto and into his scalp over and over. Of course you read about what happened during the crucifixion above but during that time the most horrible thing happened. God left him alone on the cross to die. In order for the reconciliation to be complete for us, Jesus had to die utterly alone and utterly human! It must have been pure hell to be part of the Godhead and be cut off from it so completely in such darkness that he couldn't even hear God anymore! It is no wonder to me that about three in the afternoon he cried out "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani!?" (My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?) asking God why he was left so utterly alone. It is clear in my mind as to why God shook the very foundations of the earth and caused the sky to go black when it was over! Then after he had hung on the cross as above for six hours he said "it is finished" and died. Just after that he was speared in the side. The water and blood (John 19:34) that came out of him confirms the Dr.'s findings about the fluid buildup around the chest cavity. At the very moment Christ's blood hit the earth the Bible records this.


Matthew 27:51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. [52] The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life.


There is SO much power in the blood of Christ. Imagine what those precious drops of blood, diluted with bodily fluid did. Tombs broke and the dead lived! That is what was loosed for us! All we have to do is accept it. The power still resides in Christ's blood to forgive our sin and give us eternal life.


MY GOD HOW YOU SUFFERED FOR ME! HOW YOU MUST TRULY LOVE ME. I LOVE YOU LORD! LORD YOU SUFFERED FOR ME, MORE IN ONE DAY, THAN I COULD EVER REPAY IN TEN THOUSAND LIFETIMES. YOU ARE OUR MIGHTY GOD AND I AM HUMBLED IN YOUR PRESENCE LORD!

A fitting song Lara sang tonight in our Good Friday service:

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Down the Via Dolorosa in Jerusalem that day
The soldiers tried to clear the narrow street
But the crowd pressed in to see
The Man condemned to die on Calvary

He was bleeding from a beating, there were stripes upon His back
And He wore a crown of thorns upon His head
And He bore with every step
The scorn of those who cried out for His death

Down the Via Dolorosa called the way of suffering
Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King,
But He chose to walk that road out of
His love for you and me.
Down the Via Dolorosa, all the way to Calvary.

Por la Via Dolorosa, triste dia en Jerusalem
Los saldados le abrian paso a Jesus
Mas la gente se acercaba
Para ver al que llevaba aquella cruz

Por la Via Dolorosa, que es la via del dolor
Como oveja vino Cristo, Rey, Senor
Y fue El quien quiso ir por su amor por ti y por mi
Por la Via Dolorosa al Calvario y a morir

The blood that would cleanse the souls of all men
Made its way through the heart of Jerusalem.

Down the Via Dolorosa called the way of suffering
Like a lamb came the Messiah, Christ the King
But He chose to walk that road out of His love for you and me
Down the Via Dolorosa, all the way to Calvary.
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What a glorious day to reflect on the risen and living Christ!!!!!!!!

in amongst all the eggs and candy don't forget what REALLY happened 2000 years ago

http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/animations/walk/index.html

http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/animations/risen/index.html