Because It's Nearly Easter

I am fully aware that I am a couple of days late for Scripture Memory, but since I was late with it at the beginning of the month, I think that means I am right on time.  Right?  Anyway, it's been two weeks, and it's time for some more scripture.

I decided that this time I would focus on Easter since it's around the corner.  I have perused several scriptures that reference the free gift of salvation that comes from Christ, as well as reading the different gospel stories about the crucifixion and the discovery of the empty tomb.  So much to consider.  I decided to go a different route and chose, instead, scripture that prophesied the ultimate sacrifice of the Lord's Servant.  Hundreds of years before Christ came into the world, it was prophesied by Isaiah that the Lord's Servant, Christ, would give of his life, a perfect life, as the atoning sacrifice for our sinful lives.

"He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
   and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
   nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
³ He was despised and rejected by mankind,
   a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
   he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
 ⁴ Surely he took up our pain
   and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
   stricken by him, and afflicted.
⁵ But he was pierced for our transgressions,
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
   and by his wounds we are healed.
⁶ We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
   each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
   the iniquity of us all."
-Isaiah 53:2-6 NIV

I wish I could say that I will be memorizing all of that.  However.  I think I am going to take on the last three verses (4-6). Still a healthy chunk, I think. 

While all of chapter 53 is full of amazing prophecy and wonderful truth, I like that these three verses hit the heart of it all: He undeservedly took on our suffering and pain (vs 4), took the punishment that is due for sin so that we would be healed and have peace (vs 5), and just in case I get all high and mighty and think that I'm not that bad, verse 6 reminds me that ALL have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own ways.  The punishment he took was because of me, and for me.  My sin has nailed Him to the cross.  My sin has put a crown of thorns on His head.  My sin pierced His side.  Mine.

*Lord, allow the gravity of what your Son did in my place to sit heavy on my heart.  Let the truth of what He did in my place fill my heart and mouth with gratitude and praise.  Thank you, Lord, for this free gift of salvation.  Not because of anything I have done, but because of what you have done.  You have created me anew so I can do the good things you had planned for me long ago.  Thank you, Lord for this gift. -Amen.*

"⁸ God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. ⁹ Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. ¹⁰ For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago."
-Ephesians 2:8-10 NLT