<FONT size="5"><FONT COLOR="blue">MEDICAL DOCTOR DESCRIBES THE CROSS</FONT c></FONT s>
<FONT COLOR="maroon"><FONT size="4">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 his 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 in 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 effort 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
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 the cat-o-nine tails until his back was a bloody pulp, then the Bible records 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 up 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 on. The "crown" the soldiers made him was from a plant called the Judean Thorn, which had spines on it up to 6 inches long! This was rammed on and into his scalp over and over. Then the most horrible thing happened. God left him alone on the cross. 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 cut off from it so completely that he could no longer hear God! It is no wonder to me that at 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 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 just over six hours he said “it is finished” and died. 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 that 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 top to 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 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!</FONT s></FONT c>
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MY GOD HOW YOU SUFFERED FOR ME! HOW YOU MUST TRULY LOVE ME. I LOVE YOU LORD! LORD YOU SUFFERED FOR ME MORE IN A DAY THAN I COULD EVER REPAY IN TEN THOUSAND LIFETIMES, YOU ARE OUR MIGHTY GOD! I AM HUMBLED IN YOUR PRESENCE LORD!</FONT c>
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Slattier@JESUSaves.every1.net <FONT COLOR="#000000" SIZE="1" FACE="Verdana, Helvetica, Arial">This message has been edited by SLattier on 04-12-2001 at 11:10 PM</font>
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