Tag Archives: Newsboys

Thirty Pieces of Silver

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by Sandy Kirby Quandt

Thirty pieces of silver.

The price the leading priests and teachers of the Jewish law paid Judas Iscariot to hand Jesus the Messiah over to them to be killed. Money Judas accepted to betray the man he’d lived with and learned from for three years. Coins he tried to return once he understood the impact of what his betrayal actually meant to Christ, and to himself.

Thirty pieces of silver.

We may look at Judas and wonder how anyone who knew Jesus could do such a thing.

Sometimes, I believe, we overlook the times we’ve betrayed Jesus with our sins. I’ve heard that whenever we sin we’re crucifying Christ all over again because it was for our sins he died.

Sobering thought.

Today I would like for us to think about God’s grace in light of the fact we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

Through Christ’s sacrifice God justifies the ungodly. (Romans 4:5)

And while we were still sinners Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

We aren’t to take God’s grace lightly by continuing to sin. (Romans 6:1)

The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus. (Romans 6:23)

Through Christ’s death and resurrection God graciously redeems those who repent and turn back to him.

God has mercy on those on whom he will have mercy. (Romans 9:18)

Those are some things I’d like us to contemplate as we approach the day we call Good Friday.

On that day, Jesus Christ was crucified for our sins so those of us who claim him as Lord and Savior can be made right with God.

Amazing love.

Is there a special way you reflect on what Jesus did for each of us on Good Friday?

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The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching. The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction. Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples, and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted, and they promised to give him money. So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around. Luke 22:1-6 (NLT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Glory Hallelujah He Reigns!!!

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By Sandy Kirby Quandt

Tomorrow is the day celebrated as Good Friday. The day God’s son, Jesus the Christ, willingly laid his life on the cross of Calvary to save sinners like me, like you, from a world of darkness at the hand of Satan.

No one took Jesus’ life from him. He gave it up. He took the sins of the world upon his perfect, sinless self to save us from the wrath we so deserve from his Father, God, the Righteous Judge. Jesus suffered so we wouldn’t have to.

It has been said it wasn’t nails that held Jesus to the cross. No. It was his love for us.

Jesus paid the price we owed for our sins but could never pay. In return for his gift of grace, he asks us to believe and confess he is God’s son, the Savior who died for us and is preparing a place for us to live with him eternally in heaven. When we truly believe and trust he is our Lord and Savior, we’ll repent, turn from our sins, and follow the life Jesus wants for us. We’ll go and tell others so they can believe, too.

That Friday all those years ago, did not seem very good at all until Resurrection Sunday dawned, and the tomb where Jesus’ body had been laid was empty. Just as he foretold, he rose to life again.

Death could not hold him. Satan could not hold him. Our sin could not hold him. And hell itself could not hold him.

Glory Hallelujah He Reigns now and forever! And because Christ reigns, all the powers of hell itself tremble. For they know their defeat is sure.

Praise God!

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With a loud cry Jesus died. The curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The army officer who was standing there in front of the cross saw how Jesus had died. “This man was really the Son of God!” he said. Mark 15:37-39 (GNT)

I wish you well.

Sandy

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Unfortunate Encounter

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By Sandy Kirby Quandt

Around 0 Dark Thirty Halloween night, I was wakened by the smell of coffee. Not the fragrant aroma I so loved as a child when I stood in the coffee aisle at the local A&P store. Nope. What I smelled was the stench of burnt coffee.

Realizing both Pilot and Bear were missing, I left the bedroom to search for them.

While I briefly entertained the thought that our neighbor’s cat had startled a skunk under the bedroom window, my walk through the house, and outside through the garage, confirmed what I feared.

Bear had been the one who riled a skunk with disastrous results. I found Pilot up to his elbows in a solution of baking soda and peroxide, leaned over our very odoriferous pup.

“Why didn’t you wake me? I could have helped,” I asked. Although, in reality, I’m glad Pilot didn’t wake me. Have you ever been around a dog who has just been shunked?

By the time I offered assistance, Bear had already been rubbed down three different times, with one more washing left before he was declared passable enough to be banished to the garage until morning.

The tee shirt Pilot wore throughout the ordeal was destined for the trash can.

Bear saw the skunk and couldn’t control himself. Must be whatever part of Terrier/Lab/ Australian Shepherd, and possibly Boxer, is thrown into the mix of his lineage. Or, it could just be his obstinance.

Either way, Bear refused to listen to his master, Pilot. He refused to retreat from the impending doom, and lunged headfirst, literally, and paid the consequences of having to endure repeated scrubbings to remove the stench he caused.

While this will be one more dog story Pilot and I have to go along with the countless others we’ve accumulated over the years, there are several things I believe we humans can learn from it.

  • When we don’t listen to our Master, Jesus’, voice, we end up in stinky situations
  • When we chase after things we shouldn’t, the consequences can be disastrous
  • When we get close enough to our Adversary for him to spray his stench all over us, we carry that stench with us until it is washed away
  • We can’t get the stench off on our own, we have to depend on our Master to do that
  • Our unfortunate encounters may lead to banishment

Fortunately, like Bear, we have a kind, loving, sacrificial Father who allowed his Son to take our stench upon himself and face brief banishment from the Father, to make us clean.

Jesus willingly left his throne in heaven, came to earth as a man, endured all the hardships we endure so he would know what we face, be sympathetic, and plead our case to his Father.

 

Jesus took our sins – our stench – upon himself and faced, for the first and only time, God briefly forsaking him because of those sins.

Jesus allowed the men he created to murder him horridly on the cross, without an ounce of mercy.

All so you and I could be washed clean by his precious, sacrificial blood.

Jesus paid it all so we wouldn’t have to.

Thank you, Jesus.

Pie…your pop needs a new Dallas Cowboys tee shirt, and you know I’m not about to get it for him. 🙂

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Remove my sin, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Psalm 51:7

I wish you well.

Sandy

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One of my posts is scheduled to appear on Inspire a Fire November 4, 2014. Please stop by.