{"id":1172,"date":"2015-12-16T14:14:41","date_gmt":"2015-12-16T14:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1172"},"modified":"2015-12-05T14:51:21","modified_gmt":"2015-12-05T14:51:21","slug":"jesus-longs-for-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1172","title":{"rendered":"Jesus Longs For US"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"08-02-15<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 Howdy Prodigal!\u00a0 What are you doing over there?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prodigal:\u00a0 I am at the cross and wondering what it really means with Jesus?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Me:\u00a0 There is a lot of talk about that but I like what Ravi Zacharias said in his book Jesus Among Other gods The Absolute Claims of The Christian Message.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The first and foremost reality is that suffering and death are not only enemies of life, but a means of reminding us of life’s twin realities, love and hate.\u00a0 Here, the love and hate did not just happen.\u00a0 The paths were chosen.\u00a0 Those who hurt Him hated Him.\u00a0 Those who hated Him, He loved.\u00a0 Those who killed Him wanted to be rid of Him.\u00a0 By allowing Himself to be killed, He made it possible for them to live.\u00a0 The crucifixion of Jesus was the embodied expression of rebellion against God.\u00a0 His desolation was a profound attempt to break apart the very being of God, in the Holy Trinity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But here is the point.\u00a0 He did not die as a martyr for a cause, as others have done; nor was He just nonviolent so that the enemy would surrender through public outcry, as still others have done.\u00a0 He did not even die because He was willing to pay the price that someone else would live.\u00a0 He came to lay down His life so that the very ones who killed Him, who represented all of us, could be forgiven because of the price that He paid in the hell of a world that does not recognize His voice.\u00a0 Those who had rejected the text and manipulated the context of His Word saw and heard what God incarnate disclosed of reality.\u00a0 Every feeling they experienced, every state of mind, every utterance was the opposite of what Jesus felt, did, and said.\u00a0 His counter perspective stands in brilliant and sharp contrast, even as He invited them on the basis of that death to come to Him for forgiveness, because He longed to reach out to them.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Do you see how Jesus stands for something different?\u00a0\u00a0 This is not the world.\u00a0 This is not even something me or you would think of.\u00a0 We choose to follow lesser people and ideas.\u00a0 Why not follow something as amazing as this?<\/p>\n

Jesus is reaching out to you!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Matthew 7:24<\/p>\n

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Jennifer Van Allen<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

www.theprodigalpig.com<\/p>\n

www.faithincounseling.org<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Me:\u00a0 Howdy Prodigal!\u00a0 What are you doing over there?   Prodigal:\u00a0 I am at the cross and wondering what it really means with Jesus?   Me:\u00a0 There is a lot of talk about that but I like what Ravi Zacharias said in his book Jesus Among Other gods The Absolute Claims of The Christian … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nJesus Longs For US - The Prodigal Pig<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.theprodigalpig.com\/?p=1172\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jesus Longs For US - 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