Seven Last Words of Christ: Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands!

Seven Last Words of Christ: Father, I entrust my spirit into your hands! (Luke 23:46)

Jesus was finished. He had taken care of everything he had to do. He had taught, he had mentored his apostles, he had even made sure his mother would be taken care of. And now he was through.

There was no reason for him to hang on any longer.

And he was tired, beyond all imagining. Tired, exhausted, weak, in pain and he was ready to go. There was nothing holding him here.

Waiting for him was rest. Waiting for him was peace. Waiting for him were the angels and home.

So, here, what seems to be the last thing Jesus said, he says I give myself to you. My life is your anyway and I give myself to you.

And he died. That part of Jesus that was human was finished. His life was complete. His mission, at least the first part, was done.

But – even though he was dead physically, he was still alive eternally, spiritually. And that was the point of the whole thing.

daily java

Daily Java:

The Lord has given me a strong warning not to think like everyone else does. He said,
 “Don’t call everything a conspiracy, like they do,
      and don’t live in dread of what frightens them.
 Make the Lord of Heaven’s Armies holy in your life.
      He is the one you should fear.
He is the one who should make you tremble.
     He will keep you safe.” (Isaiah 8:11-14)

Today is the commemoration of 9/11, remembering the atrocity of 2001 when Muslim terrorists flew hijacked planes into the twin towers of the World Trade Center.

As I listen to people talk about it, there is always the occasional fruitcake that decides that it is a government plot to go to war. They figure the government says, if we can get someone to do this kind of thin, everyone will let us attack the middle east and we can grab their oil reserves.

You hear these conspiracies everywhere about everything. And after a while, if you listen enough, even the well-balanced of mind can begin to wonder if there is any truth in them.

But the Lord told Isaiah, and it fits so well for us today, don’t live in fear. Don’t take everything as a fearful thing. Don’t live in dread, don’t let the mindset of the world take over.

The world is afraid because there is no hope for it. They have not embraced the heart of God and therefore they are afraid: afraid of conspiracies, disasters, everything. Everything looms large in their lives because this life is all they have.

The apostle Paul told us in 2 Timothy 1:7, For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline. We do not have a God that requires us to be afraid. The Spirit that the Lord gave us was a Spirit of victory, not fear.

If we are afraid all the time, we do not have the Spirit of God in control. He is a Spirit of power and rules over our lives giving us power over this world.

We will never know what went through those men’s minds as they hijacked those planes and flew them in the World Trade Center.

But one thing for sure, we do not have to sit around in fear of it happening again. It may happen again, and other things may happen. But we do not have to be afraid.

As Jesus himself said: Don’t be afraid of those who want to kill your body; they cannot touch your soul. Fear only God, who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

We do not have to be afraid. God is in control.