_{Greetings Adland family,}

_{No member showcase yet again this week but we do have a devotional for our departed Jesus this Easter weekend.}

_{Happy Easter to you and to your families.}

_{God_bless you. :)  Your Prayerwarrior}

<sub>Easter celebrates an event that proved Jesus was who He claimed to be. He was God in the flesh, and He came to earth to save us. And that meant He had to die for us.

After a night of beatings and mocking, after being crowned with painful thorns, Jesus was crucified. Crucifixion is probably the most brutal and torturous death penalty ever devised by men. His hands were stretched out wide against the cross and nailed through the two bones in each wrist. As the nails went through this part of the flesh, they would strike the nerve that travels up the arm and cause excruciating pain.

If you hang this way for any period of time, the muscles around your chest cavity become paralyzed. You can breathe in but you can't breathe out. Death on a cross is really a simple matter of suffocation, except the Romans didn't want to make it that easy. They'd take a person's knees and bend them a little bit and nail the feet to the cross.

So a man would hang there in absolute agony until the pain in his chest was about to explode, and then he would lift himself up on his nailed feet to grab a breath. When the pain in his feet grew unbearable, he'd let himself back down again until the pain in his lungs became unbearable. It was an incredibly torturous event.

Eventually, the soldiers would break the legs of the criminal to hasten death by suffocation.

In the case of Jesus, they didn't have to break His legs, because He had already died. But just to make sure, they stuck a spear in His side. Water and blood came out of the chest cavity, which, doctors say, only happens if the heart rips. You can call it what you want, but Jesus died of a broken heart.                   

Why did Jesus have to die? Because He alone was able to pay for your sins. You deserved punishment, but Jesus paid the penalty for you: "For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18 NIV).</sub>

<sub>"God gave Jesus to die for our sins, and He raised Him to life, so that we would be made acceptable to God" (Romans 4:25 CEV). Jesus' death and resurrection make us acceptable to God.

Would you be surprised to know that most people do not accept themselves? I've been a pastor now for over 30 years and I've talked to tens of thousands of people, and I've found that most people really don't like themselves inside. They wish they were different. They wish they looked different. They wish they acted different.

We don't accept ourselves and so we spend our lives trying to find acceptance among other people; but even more important than being accepted by other people is being accepted by God. That's a problem. Why? Because God is perfect and you're not. And neither am I.

God lives in a perfect place called heaven, so God has a problem. How does He get imperfect people into a perfect place where He is perfect? (Because, obviously, if He allowed imperfect people in a perfect place it wouldn't be perfect anymore.) God has to come up with a plan for imperfect people to be able to live in a perfect place.

God's plan is what I call "The Great Exchange."

The Bible says, "God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God's goodness into us!" (2 Corinthians 5:21 LB). 

 It is Christ's goodness in you that makes you acceptable. You're not perfect, but He is. So God says, "We'll do a little switcheroo here. Jesus will take your sins and you get My goodness in your life." That's quite a deal!

A lot of people feel trapped by their past. They say, "If you knew what I've done, you'd know I'd never be acceptable to God." I don’t know what you've done, but God does and He still accepts you: "God says He will accept us and acquit us—declare us 'not guilty'—if we trust Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, by coming to Christ, no matter who we are or what we have been like" (Romans 3:22 LB). 

No matter who we are or what we've been like! We can all be saved. He makes us acceptable to God.</sub>

_{You to dear Myrna HAPPY EASTER!}

_{God_bless you and your family}

_{Thank you dear friend JILL, thank you for that power point slide show, nice to the eyes :)}

_{What better way to express my feelings and thoughts of my favorite time of the year, well this and Christmas lol}

_{but i gotta tell you JILL Easter is my New Year! woo whooo!! lol.}

_{So i wanted to give some of that to you guys, i know i give but i had another idea? what can i do?? LOL.}

_{God_bless you Jill and your family. HAPPY EASTER!}