Preparing for Easter....with JOY!

Have you had your JOY JUICE today? In preparation for Easter, it’s just the thing we need!

I'm going to post my radio devotionals this week leading up to Easter.  I believe that we so often simply "go through the motions" and forget WHY we celebrate Easter.  So each day this week, please "tune in" to my radio program or to this blog (or both) and really concentrate on  “The JOY of Easter”! 

 Sunday we will celebrate Jesus’ resurrection.  That’s the part of the story that brings us such JOY!!  But we must remember, He first had to die.  The joy for us as Christians is that His love was so great that He WILLINGLY did this for us.  John 3:16 tells us clearly that:  " God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

According to the scripture, the purpose of His life was to offer Himself as a sacrifice for the sins of mankind.  Jesus was so certain of His purpose that He predicted when and how He would die (Matthew 26:2). 

Do you know your purpose?  Simply put, it is to glorify God.  As Hebrews 12:2 says: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him, endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (NIV)

Jesus looked beyond the suffering, shame and death he knew was to come and focused on the JOY that would be the result.