My Jesus

I've been reading "A Path Through Suffering" by Elisabeth Elliot, and it has been such a blessing to learn to view suffering and trials in a new light. This moved mountains in my life when I read it, and I would like to share it with you. This is Elisabeth's paraphrasing of Isaiah 53:2-12. It is written in such simplicity and reality that it shook my world, and really opened my eyes to Christ.

"Without beauty, without majesty (we saw him),
no looks to attract our eyes;
a thing despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering,
a man to make people screen their faces;
he was despised and we took no account of him.

And yet ours were the sufferings he bore,
ours the sorrows he carried.
But we, we thought of him as someone punished,
struck by God, and brought low.
Yet he was pierced through for our faults,
crushed for our sins.
On him lies a punishment that brings us peace,
and through his wounds we are healed.

We had all gone astray like sheep,
each taking his own way,
and Yahweh burdened him
with the sins of all of us.
Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly,
he never opened his mouth,
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter-house,
like sheep that is dumb before its shearers
never opening its mouth.

By force and by law he was taken;
would anyone plead his cause?
Yes, he was torn away from the land of the living;
for our faults struck down in death.
They gave him a grave with the wicked,
a tomb with the rich,
though he had done no wrong
and there had been no perjury in his mouth.
Yahweh has been pleased to crush him with suffering.

If he offers his life in atonement,
he shall see his heirs, he shall have a long life
and through him what Yahweh wishes will be done.

His soul's anguish over
he shall see the light and be content.
By his sufferings shall my servant justify many,
taking their faults on himself.

Hence I will grant whole hordes for his tribute,
he shall divide the spoil with the mighty,
for surrendering himself to death
and letting himself to be taken for a sinner,
while he was bearing the faults of many
and praying all the time for sinners. (Is. 53:2-12, JB)

"That is why God has now lifted Him to the heights, and has given him the name beyond all names, so that at the name of Jesus 'every knee shall bow,' whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. And that is why, in the end,'every tongue shall confess' that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil 2:9-11, JBP)."

He is Holy. So so worthy of our worship, our everything.

Holy! Holy! Holy! Is OUR Lord God Almighty!

Oh friend, how he deserves our everything! He did this for us, for you. How can we not fall on our face in adoration and thanks?