Author: Lori Casto

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” Luke 23:34

God, the Creator of the Universe, sent His son in the form of a baby through a virgin birth. He watched His son’s life, and He watched His death. God put His plan into place and watched it all unfold. He watched as His son took on the sins of the world. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the World that He gave His only son that whoever believes in Him will not parish but have everlasting life.”

Could you imagine watching your child suffer the way God watched Jesus?

Jesus was broken. He went through so much suffering. He was hurt by so many that some of His last words before His death, burial and resurrection, were of forgiveness. The completion of what Jesus came to earth to accomplish included forgiveness. Jesus had to forgive and He asked His Father, God, to do the same.

There’s nothing more beautiful than the brokenness of a savior who gave up everything to give me everlasting life.  There’s nothing more beautiful than the brokenness of my savior who showed me what it’s like to be completely broken and still overcome. There’s nothing more beautiful than my Savior who is willing to forgive and ask His father to forgive so He could be an over comer.

There’s beauty beyond the broken. Jesus is the prime example. He was broken, yet because He overcame, we can overcome. It’s important to recognize Jesus didn’t stay broken and we don’t have to stay broken, either. We don’t have to live in our past situation. We don’t have to stay hurt. We don’t have to live with everything rejection brings.

We can’t experience fullness of joy if we aren’t walking in love which includes exercising forgiveness.

Jesus was denied by Peter, one of the few closest to Him, yet instead of avoiding Him after His resurrection, He sought Him out. The angels even instructed the Mary’s to “get the disciples and Peter.” They mentioned him by name. Jesus walking in love and living in forgiveness completely changed the outcome of the rest of Peter’s life.

We’ll never find beauty if we keep living in the broken. Maybe now is the time to get beyond the broken. Maybe living the love walk is part of the process of letting go of the broken pieces. Maybe the ultimate demonstration of our love walk is unconditional forgiveness.

We can’t experience fullness of joy if we aren’t walking in love and exercising forgiveness. There’s beauty for you just beyond the broken. Maybe today you get to your beauty with your final act of forgiveness, the key to freedom.

How will you devote2day?

But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed. Matthew 27:20

Jesus was standing before the governor and being accused and questioned by the chief priests and elders, those with the most influence. The governor didn’t want Jesus’ blood on his hands, so he permits the crowd to decide. The crowd was to the point of an uproar and shouted, “Crucify Him.”

How long did it take the influencers to cause the crowd who yelled “Hosanna, blessed is He comes in the name of the Lord” to instead yell “Crucify Him?” I believe the influencers were in the original crowd as Jesus entered Jerusalem quietly getting in the ear of anyone who would listen. They had been influencing them since before Jesus even got into town. They were plotting, positioning, writing, and pleading with “the crowd” and it all finally paid off. The influencers got exactly what they wanted.

Jesus let the chief priests and elders (influencers) plead their case. They knew exactly how to provoke the crowd.

Why didn’t Jesus speak up? Why did He let them continue spreading lies & do so much damage?  Jesus was doing the most important thing He could do. He was exercising love. He was demonstrating the love walk. That was just the beginning of the love Jesus would demonstrate.

What does love do? “Love covers a multitude of sins.” Love covers the betrayal. Love covers the denial. Love covers the bruises. Love covers the beating. Love covers the nails.

What must love cover in our own lives? Who must love cover in our own lives? Maybe it’s not necessary to say a word. Maybe we simply let love cover it. There isn’t one thing in our own lives that would be more difficult to cover with love then what Jesus’s love covered.

Today is a great day to demonstrate the love walk. “Love covers a multitude of sins.”

How will you Devote2day?

But when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that He did, and the children crying out in the temple and saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant… Matthew 21:15

• Indignant- angered, outraged, furious, livid, foaming

There was a huge crowd both preparing the way for Jesus and following behind as He was about to enter Jerusalem. When He arrived on a donkey, the crowd was shouting “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!”  It was a joyous and exciting time. Jesus was healing the blind and the lame after He arrived, yet the chief priest and scribes were outraged.

They were so full of anger they were practically foaming at the mouth. I think the crowd that was excited to see Jesus greatly outnumbered the chief priests, scribes, and Pharisees. Yet, the same crowd who welcomed Jesus, would later yell “Crucify Him!” The crowd was so easily influenced by those so influential.

A little while later in chapter 22, Jesus had been teaching, when a scribe asked Him a very important question…

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?” Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’  This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:36-40

The Holy Spirit has been taking me on a “love journey.” Just when I think He’s ready for me to move on, He adds another layer or reminder to what He is showing me about love. I noticed that a scribe, one of the very people who is an influencer to sending Jesus to the cross, is asking Jesus what the greatest commandment is. Jesus knew exactly who He was talking to and exactly what was about to happen.

I think it’s entirely possible Jesus was not only telling the scribe the greatest commandments, but He was also reminding Himself. (The love your neighbor part) How much love do you have to possess to love the ones who sent you to the cross? How much love must you possess to love those who nailed your hands to a cross or beat you or put a crown of thorns on your head? How much love must you possess when your very own denies and betrays you?

Remember, the influencers (chief scribes, priest) and the people responsible for Jesus’ death and everything that took place on His horrific journey, kept their hands clean. They weren’t the ones doing the beating or nailing Jesus to the cross. They didn’t touch blood one time. They were eloquent. They said all the right words to plant seeds and change the minds of those around them. The crowd did the rest. The people who once held palm branches were now yelling “Crucify Him. Crucify Him.”

The influencer is eloquent. He’s cunning. He’s sly. He’s clever. He’s a fox. His hands always stay clean. He never carries out what He influences us to do. We do it and we enjoy it for the moment. We deny Jesus. We betray Jesus. We may as well have been the ones nailing Him to the cross. Yet, Jesus loves us. He loves us so much He went through the process of death on a cross to save us from our sins.

How deep is God’s love for us? He sent His Son, Jesus, to give the ultimate life sacrifice of love. My humanness doesn’t allow me to fully comprehend it. This week, as we think of Jesus death, burial, and resurrection, the least we can do is try to comprehend and demonstrate the same kind of love that God has for us.

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders (every weight) and the sin that so easily entangles. (ensnares) And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter (Author & Finisher) of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-3

Consider Him

Consider the Savior of the World who is the sinless Son of God and everything He went through for us.

Consider the rejection, denial and betrayal He went through. Consider the loneliness He must have felt. Consider the bruises and stripes he received from the beating He took. Consider the crown of thorns He wore and the blood that ran down his cheeks. Consider the nails that pierced His hands. Consider the cross he carried and hung on. Consider His death, burial, and resurrection.

When you feel like giving up, consider Him. When you grow tired, consider Him. When you lose heart, consider Him. Keep your eyes on Jesus and don’t stop reading His word. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you as you continue to consider Him. What hinders you? What weighs you down? Isn’t time to let it go? Put the weights down. They are too heavy.

It’s time to consider Him.

Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; Hebrews 12:14-15 NKJV

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. Hebrews 12:14-15 NIV

•  Holy- Set apart; God-like, the highest calling of a Christ-follower; completion, maturity, progressive, never complete, yet to be lived;
•  Grace- unmerited favor, Gods continual mercy; The exercise of love, kindness, mercy, favor; disposition to benefit or serve another; favor bestowed, or privilege conferred.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. Lamentations 3:22-23

God has been showing me so much lately. Some things have been reminders, other things revelation.

1. We can’t be living in the joy God wills for us if we don’t exercise love

2. True exercised love isn’t on the surface. We need to be willing to get in the pit and truly invest in lives

3. True love is in layers. True love exercises forgiveness every day.

4. God shows continual mercy & grace. We are to live holy lives. We, therefore, need to show mercy and grace continually as He shows us. If we don’t, we are in danger of becoming bitter.