Palm Sunday 2013 -

We sang this beautiful hymn in church today, and it touched me deeply. Deep in that part of you that mourns and awakens life in the days between Palm Sunday and Resurrection Sunday. I often think that I mourn all my sorrow during this week, so close is the sorrow to thinking of my Lord dying and the pain of those who loved Him felt, and then - unbounded joy on Resurrection Sunday morning!! Then the joy floods in like no one could believe!! 

If you have the chance to hear a clip of the song, it is just a beautiful tune. I couldn't find somewhere to link it to, but if you have a Trinity hymnal, it is #244. :) I just learned that the person who wrote it, Thomas O. Chisholm, is also who wrote "Great is Thy Faithfulness", another of my favorite hymns. :) 

Isaiah 53 was prophesied hundreds of years before Christ hung on the cross, and it is there that we find the utter sorrow and pain and beauty of the Lamb, sacrificed for the sins of man, to redeem them fully. It also happens to be one of my very favorite passages of Scripture. I know you will probably be reading it a lot this week, but I wanted to include just a little bit, since this hymn was written from verse 5.

Isaiah 53: 4-6, 10-11

"(4)Surely He has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; 

Yet we esteemed Him stricken,smitten by God, and afflicted.

 (5)But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities;

the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. 

(6)All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. 

(10) Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. 

When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days,

and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. 

(11)He shall see the labor of His soul, and be satisfied. 

By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities."

Read it, my dear friends....read it and let it touch you in the place you grieve and live and joy.

"He Was Wounded for our Transgressions" by Thomas O. Chisholm, 1941. 

"He was wounded for our transgressions, He bore our sin in His body on the tree;
for our guilt He gave us peace, for our bondage gave release, 
and with His stripes, and with His stripes, and with His stripes our souls are healed.

He was numbered among transgressors, we did esteem him forsaken by His God;
as our sacrifice He died, that the law be satisfied, 
and all our sin, and all our sin, and all our sin was laid on Him. 

We had wandered, we all had wandered far from the fold of "the Shepherd of the sheep";
but He sought us where we were, on the mountains bleak and bare,
and brought us home, and brought us home, and brought us safely home to God. 

Who can number His generation? Who shall declare all the triumphs of His cross? 
Millions dead now live again, myriads follow in His train! 
Victorious Lord, victorious Lord, victorious Lord and coming King!" 

I tell you, I was in chills just typing that up, and in tears as well. I am that wandering sheep. He found me on that mountain, bleeding from the sharp wounds and cold in the dark, crying for a Savior, and brought me home to Him, and will bring me Home to Him someday, to live forever. Oh, victorious Lord and coming King!

I pray your week is a wonderful time of reflection and JOY. He is victorious, and because He rose, we shall also rise!! Millions dead.....now live again. Myriads follow in His train! - What wondrous Truth!

With much love, always,
~ Jean Marie ~