Tag Archives: intercession

Offering

What it really means to be an intercessor.

….and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,

and like a root out of dry ground.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,

a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.

Like one from whom people hide their faces

he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain

and bore  o u r  suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for {our} transgressions,

he was crushed for {our} iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds  w e   a r e   h e a l e d .

6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the LORD has laid on him

the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted,

yet he did not open his mouth;

he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,

and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,

so he did not open his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away.

Yet who of his generation protested?

For he was cut off from the land of the living;

for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked,

and with the rich in his death,

though he had done no violence,

nor was any deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,

and though the LORD makes his life an { O F F E R I N G } for sin,

he will see his offspring and prolong his days,

and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered,

he will see the light of life and be satisfied;

by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,

and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,

and he will divide the spoils with the strong,

because he poured out his life unto death,

and was numbered with the transgressors.

For he bore the sin of many,

and made intercession for the transgressors

{aka the wrongdoer, the miscreant, the guilty party, the villain, the sinner, the evildoer}.

Jesus, the great Intercessor.  He was familiar with pain.  So He knew how to take ours – both what we’ve been hit with and what we have dished out.

My sweet mama called today and we talked about love, the real stand-in-the-gap, intercessory-like-Jesus kind of love.  It is the love that says :: even if your sin/rejection/disdain kills not only my heart but also my mortal body, I will still love you ’til the day I die.  I’ll love you while you pound the nails into my hands, I will love you when you spit in my face.  I will love you while the blood runs from my body and my life-flow hits the ground.  I will love you until the day I die.

Wow.

It is a wonder, Jesus being who He was was, I can even lay claim at all to being a “Christian.”

George-Bailey-esque Trouble

One of the best movie scenes of all times is the very beginning of It’s a Wonderful Life when you see the galaxy of stars and hear the chorus of prayers being offered to God on behalf of George Bailey who is facing such crisis, he is thinking of ending his own life.

“God help George Bailey,” you hear among a sea of voices.  Mr Gower prays, “I owe everything to George Bailey.  Help him, dear Father.”

The movie goes on to explore how important George Bailey was in the lives of everyone he knew.  He was truly a good person.  He truly helped people and sacrificed his own dreams for the good of others.  He was worthy of the prayers of the saints.

Not everyone lives such a valuable, selfless life.  But hopefully everyone knows people who will pray, people whose life have been touched by knowing them.  Wouldn’t you love to hear your name being offered to God like that?  Hearing everyone you know praying you up to the Father?

We know He hears us when we pray….Jeanie

NOTE TO SELF:  Lift up the people I know who may be in George-Bailey-esque trouble right now, whose skies may be arrow-blackened, who may be in a battle for their very souls…