Today’s #lentphotos subject is #Loss - and I’m loving this picture by @goannatree - of beauty amidst a place of loss… similar to what we see today - the pain of Jesus hanging on the cross..

As spotted on Facebook today, which I then tweeted: “Nails didn’t hold God to a cross. Love did.”#EverythingChanges Six hours, one Friday - by @MaxLucado.

At housegroup earlier this week we were discussing similar to this seen on Facebook also:

I used to think it must have actually been pretty easy for Jesus to die on the cross. After all, he’s God, so surely could handle a few nails in his hands and feet. Then I realised it wasn’t about the physical suffering … it’s about the weight of having every wrong doing that ever existed and ever will exist on his shoulders. And not just a few lies or a bit of speeding on the way to work, but every rape, torture, murder and unthinkable crime against humanity.

And my timelines on Facebook and Twitter are full of ‘It is finished’, etc (haven’t noticed so much of #EverythingChanges yet), but trending are Justin Bieber and The Voice, with the only reference to what’s going on the cheery “Happy Good Friday”.

#BigRead13 Thoughts

This video also came through my Facebook feed (see what connections we can make on a day off that’s a day focused on God - all at once!) and I thought fitted really well with today’s theme of ‘seek and you will find’ - rather than searching for happiness in so many different places (not sure if the computer in the video is intended to equate to computer = bad, but I don’t think so!)

@40Acts

I’m not sure how I feel about today’s challenge, and it really is a challenge. I’ve got Stephen Cherry’s Healing Agony in my reading list pile as I have much to think about on this issue. There’s things that I’ve struggled to say “I forgive you” and mean it … and then I feel like I’m “failing” - yet something else to beat myself up about… I’ve forgiven some pretty massive things, but struggling in particular with someone who said they didn’t have to talk to me about what forgiveness was required for because God had already forgiven them… and that was enough - but I’m sure there are parts in the Bible that talk about also settling up with your human counterpart if you know that you have done something that requires forgiveness… and then trying to remember the forgive 70×7 when someone who’s hurt you badly does it all over again in the way that they deal with the process of trying to find ways to come to terms with things & move on… It’s a long journey without a simplistic answer.

Brian Draper: Lent 40

The 7 sentences Jesus said on the Cross:

1. “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do …”
   
2. “Truly I say to you, today you will be in paradise.”
3. Jesus said to his mother: “Woman, this is your son.” Then he said to the disciple: “This is your mother.”
4. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”
5. “I am thirsty”
6. “It is finished.”
7. “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit”

With some great insights as to how these tied into his ministry, and how we are to remember that “In Him was life”. Remember. Remember. Remember.