The Sunday Post October 19, 2014

Articles/Illustrations of Faith, Quotes, poetry and devotions…sunday post church river slider

Smokey Barn News
Sunday October 19, 2014
Robertson County, Tenn.

“The Sunday Post” is a column comprised of articles of Faith, poetry and devotions…

Vicarious Suffering

We don’t hear the word “vicarious” very often but it is one every Christian should know. It means in the context of our post today the suffering of one in the place of another. In a very real sense it can be applied to the suffering, death, and hardships on our soldiers. They go to the battlefield so you and I do not have to. Our soldiers are enduring incredible hardships so we can stay home. America is not at war. America is at the mall, and it is only possible because others are suffering in our stead. As admirable as this vicarious suffering of our military is, it pales by comparison to what Jesus did on the cross.

The BibleThe Godhood of Jesus was not diminished on the cross. He was and is infinitely God. This made it possible for Jesus to suffer and die for the sins of the world. God was able to reach way back to the Garden of Eden and gather up the sins of every man, woman, and child, and heap them upon the Lord Jesus to be atoned for. More than that God reached forward into history and collected all the sins men would commit in the future and put them on His only begotten Son as well as the sins of the past. Now someone is going to say that Jesus did not die for my future sins but you need to remember that when He died all your sins were future, for you had not yet been born. Jesus died for sinners and that includes me and you.

Isaiah 53:3-5 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
woman clinging to cross

Dictionary of Vicarious…(adjective) performed, exercised, received, or suffered in place of another: vicarious punishment. …taking the place of another person or thing; acting or serving as a substitute. Word

Etymology Online Dictionary- 1630s, “taking the place of another,” from Latin vicarius “that supplies a place; substituted, delegated,” from vicis “a change, exchange, interchange; succession, alternation, substitution…. From 1690s as “done or experienced in place of another” (usually in reference to punishment, often of Christ); from 1929 as “experienced imaginatively through another.”

For Me…

There was a school with a class of students that no teacher had been able to handle. Two or three teachers had been run off from this school in one year by the unruly students.

A young man, just out of college, heard about the class and applied to the school.

The principal asked the young man, ‘Do you know what you are asking for?

old class with teacherNo one else has been able to handle these students. You are just asking for a terrible beating’. After a few moments of silent prayer, the young man looked at the principal and said, ‘Sir, with your consent I accept the challenge. Just give me a trial basis.’

The next morning the young man stood before the class. He said to the class, ‘Young people, I came here today to conduct school. But I realize I can’t do it by myself. I must have your help.

One big boy they called Big Tom, in the back of the room whispered to his Buddies, “I won’t need any help.”

The young teacher told the class that if they were to have school, there would have to be some rules to go by. But he also added that he would allow the students to make up the rules and that he would list them on the blackboard. This was certainly different, the students thought!

One young man suggested ‘NO STEALING.’ Another one shouted ‘BE ON TIME FOR CLASS.’ Pretty soon they had 10 rules listed on the board.

The Teacher then asked the class what the punishment should be for breaking these rules. ‘Rules are no good unless they are enforced’, he said. Someone in the class suggested that if the rules were broken, they should receive 10 licks with a rod across their back with their coat off.

The teacher thought that this was pretty harsh, so he asked the class if they would stand by this punishment. The class agreed.

Everything went along pretty good for two or three days.. Then Big Tom came in one day very upset. He declared that someone had stolen his lunch.

little timmyAfter talking with the students, they came to the conclusion that little Timmy had stolen Big Tom’s lunch. Someone had seen little Timmy with Big Tom’s lunch! The teacher called little Timmy up to the front of the room.

Little Timmy admitted he had taken Big Tom’s lunch. So the teacher asked him, ‘Do you know the punishment? Little Timmy nodded that he did. ‘You must remove your coat,’ the teacher instructed.

The little fellow had come with a great big coat on. Little Timmy said to the teacher, ‘I am guilty and I am willing to take my punishment, but please don’t make me take off my coat.’

The teacher reminded little Timmy of the rules and punishments and again told him he must remove his coat and take his punishment like a man. The little fellow started to unbutton that old coat. As he did so, the teacher saw he did not have a shirt on under the coat.

And even worse, he saw a frail and bony frame hidden beneath that coat. The teacher asked little Timmy why he had come to school without a shirt on. Little Timmy replied, ‘My daddy’s dead and my mother is very poor. I don’t have but one shirt, and my mother is washing it today. I wore my big brother’s coat so that I could keep warm.’

The young teacher stood and looked at the frail back with the spine protruding against the skin, and his ribs sticking out. He wondered how he could lay a rod on that little back and without even a shirt on. Still, he knew he must enforce the punishment or the children would not obey the rules. So he drew back to strike little Timmy.

Just then Big Tom stood up and came down the aisle. He asked, ‘Is there anything that says that I can’t take little Timmy’s whipping for him?’

The teacher thought about it and agreed. With that Big Tom ripped his coat off and stooped and stood over little Timmy at the desk. Hesitatingly the teacher began to lay the rod on that big back. But for some strange reason after only five licks that old rod just broke in half. The young teacher buried his face in his hands and began to sob.

He heard a commotion and looked up to find not even one dry eye in the room. Little Timmy had turned and grabbed Big Tom around the neck apologizing to him for stealing his lunch. Little Timmy begged Big Tom to forgive him. He told Big Tom that he would love him till the day he died for taking his whipping for him.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus took our whipping for us? That He shed His precious blood on Calvary so that you and I can have eternal life in Glory with Him? We are unworthy of the price He paid for us, but aren’t you glad He loves us that much?

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Ro 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

1Pe 3:18  For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit

2 Corinthians 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Galatians 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree

Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Hebrews 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

1 Peter 2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit

Just One Angel

Think of the great power that Jesus held under submission in order that His work would be completed. Ten thousand angels wield power beyond the imagination of man. Read below what just one angel did in one night and no one even knew he was there. Jerusalem was under siege by the Sennacherib and the city would fall in the morning, but God dispatched just one small angel and here is the result of his work in one night.

Angel destroying Assyrians2 Kings 19:32-35 Therefore thus saith the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it.

By the way that he came, by the same shall he return, and shall not come into this city, saith the LORD. And it came to pass that night, that the angel of the LORD went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses.

The next morning Sennacherib’s army was short 185,000 soldiers as they were slain in the night and no one even knew the angel was there. General Sennacherib is forced to go home and explain what happened to his army. He was murdered by his own sons. So what could and elite force of thousands of angels do you may ask. The only answer I can give is, more than one can imagine!

-Pastor Brown Sims

Running…

In 1981, a Minnesota radio station reported a story about a stolen car in California. Police were staging an intense search for the vehicle and the driver, even to the point of placing announcements on local radio stations to contact the thief. On the front seat of the stolen car sat a box of crackers that, unknown to the thief, were laced with poison. The car owner had intended to use the crackers as rat bait. Now the police and the owner of the VW Bug were more interested in apprehending the thief to save his life than to recover the car. So often when we run from God, we feel it is to escape his punishment. But what we are actually doing is eluding his rescue.

– Unknown

The Lord said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock”…..BUT you will have to open the door to let him in! Salvation is NOT found in a religion, a lodge or good works, but in a Person… The RISEN LORD JESUS CHRIST! Do not wait until tomorrow. No one is promised Tomorrow and eternity is long.

Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one

Acts 4:12 – Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

Rom 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Hebrews 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus

John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

John 5:24 – Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.

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Click Titles to Read A Past Sunday Post Archive 

“The Sunday Post” October 5, 2014

 “The Sunday Post” September 28, 2014

“The Sunday Post” September 21, 2014

“The Sunday Post” – September 7th, 2014

“The Sunday Post” – July 13, 2014

“The Sunday Post” – July 5, 2014

“The Sunday Post” – June 29, 2014

“The Sunday Post” – June 22, 2014

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Comments (7)

  1. Laura Sheets July 13, 2015
  2. Chris Simpkins October 21, 2014
  3. Sheila Seagroves October 20, 2014
  4. Vickie Sims October 19, 2014
  5. R Dorris October 19, 2014
  6. V. Kirkland October 19, 2014
  7. B. Sims October 19, 2014
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