Savior

It sometimes shocks me when I think deeply, long and hard, about how unthankful I am most of the time for salvation. It is an ASTOUNDING thing that God would send His Son to suffer and die for MY sin. Then I am counted as righteous, and I didn't DO anything. John MacArthur preached a sermon on Jesus' true suffering on the cross on Sunday. I told Emily that it goes on my list of Top Ten sermons by him. It just hit me in a way that hasn't before. He was telling us how Jesus suffered both the presence and abandonment of God, on the cross. The presence and abandonment that we would have experienced in hell. God's wrathful presence was made clear in the three hour darkness that started at high noon that day. Then, he was saying that when the darkness ended, Jesus might have expected to experience the immediate comfort of God, but instead He shouted out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?" That's what I deserved to experience, and yet I don't have to. I hardly ever sit and think of what hell would be like. I used to, but I haven't in a long time. To think that Jesus is my SAVIOR. I was thinking yesterday of times I have thought I was close to death or at least serious injury and then someone either helped me swim to the surface of the pool or caught me before I fell, and I, out of utter thankfulness said, "You SAVED me!" A feeling of utter relief! We know that relief and peace because Jesus paid the price. He truly is a WONDERFUL Savior!