Crowns of GLORY

I was raised Roman Catholic, and I am thankful for parents who taught me about God. We went to church as a family every week. We honored and revered God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit. The One True Triune GOD. When God moved me out of the RCC, I went kicking against the pricks, like Paul. One becomes used to religious rituals, often to the point where the ritual is seemingly more important than the growing closer to Our Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit through relationship. Weekly Mass WAS “church” for me.

Id been saved since I was a little girl, thanks to my mom, who knelt down and looked me in the eye one Good Friday afternoon, (when I defiantly wanted to ride my bike instead of contemplate Jesus during the hours of 12-3) and said, “I want you to go to a quiet place and sit down and THINK about WHAT JESUS HAS DONE FOR YOU”

That led me to a place of repentance and child-like understanding of His Cross, His Blood, His Suffering, and His Resurrection that I had never realized before. I sat on our back porch and cried buckets of tears as I realized the suffering Christ endured FOR ME. I opened my heart and let Jesus in. And He’s been with me ever since.

But GOD had so much MORE for me than weekly Mass and the ordinances of the RCC,  and He knew I would not receive MY necessary spiritual growth remaining where I was, so He moved me on to places where He knew I would GROW in the things of His Spirit as I grew closer to Jesus, Holy Spirit, and Our Heavenly Father.

Most RCC’s have a crucifix depicting the suffering Christ on the cross. Sorrow fills your heart as you gaze at these representations. The crown of thorns always made me shudder. Ive been pierced by thorns! They HURT. To have literal THORNS smashed into your head, piercing your skin, made me realize the mocking hatred those who crucified Him had in their hearts toward Him.

The nails in his wrists and ankles—how can one EVEN IMAGINE such torment? His back opened; wounded for our transgressions, by the cat of nine tails; that horrendous whip of torture- now pinned onto that rough wood, moving up and down, becoming even more scraped in attempts to force air into his suffocating lungs—to breathe the final breaths on this fallen earth…where each procured breath was pain upon pain.

By now the sadness of His Crucifixion is almost unendurable and one is forced to look away and compelled to cry for His Suffering is too much to bear! 

He’d never sinned. He didn’t know the awful feeling inside a sinful soul or the separation from The Father that it brings. He’d never BEEN SEPARATED from His Father by sin. As He FEELS OUR SINS being cast upon Him while, at the same time, His Holy Blood pours forth in a miraculous cleansing flood, he experiences the awful dread of sin— HE FEELS the SAME separation that a sin-filled soul feels—and He cries out:

“My God, my God! Why have you abandoned me?”.
Jesus was proclaiming scripture. Psalm 22. The scripture that foretold that very moment was now occurring, and He was letting everyone know this BY THE WORD, just as He had made Himself known as Messiah through reading Isaiah in the temple. Luke 4:16-21
Now he was speaking forth His agony already written of; and making it known WHY HE CAME to earth.

Personally, I don’t believe for one second that GOD abandoned His Only Begotten Son—In fact, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, being Triune GOD—three in one- were all there, for if not, then God Himself would have had to separate Himself FROM Himself—He was there the whole time; His heart aching through this one-time holy GOD in THE FLESH sacrifice for all-time sin—But Jesus in the flesh-remember-FULLY MAN and FULLY GOD— FELT the separation that sin puts between God and man as OUR SINS invaded his holiness. Sin’s horror overwhelmed Him to the point where He possibly could not FEEL THE PRESENCE OF HIS FATHER WITH HIM. It must’ve been the most torturous feeling He had ever felt on earth, far worse than the physical pain he was feeling. Our sin is what separates us from God. Jesus’ sinless holy blood is the ONLY true redemption; the Only Way to The Father.

He proclaims loudly:
“FATHER, forgive them, for they know NOT what they do!”

He understands, through feeling this sin separation, that if those who crucified him remain in their sin they are condemned and they will forever be separated from God. He cant bear that thought, because He Himself FEELS such as He sacrifices Himself for US. He pleads with His Father to FORGIVE THEIR SIN, as His redemptive blood pools at the bottom of the cross, where his crucifiers stand mocking Him. In his final agony and pain, His thoughts are of others, and he pleads for their souls.
Then, he says:
“IT IS FINISHED.”

‘Father, Ive done what You sent me to
do. Your will I completed.’

He dies on that cross. For me. For you. For all IN THE WORLD who open their heart to let Him in.

I was working out one day and God kept drawing my eyes to two things in my workout/office room.

A head of the crucified Christ, with a crown of thorns, and a painting on the wall of the same depiction of Christ. His head, with the crown of thorns. Both had been given to me as gifts long ago.

Then, I heard Jesus say:

“I NO LONGER WEAR A CROWN OF THORNS.
I WEAR CROWNS OF GLORY. “

John 17:1-5

He did not want me displaying those any longer! He wants me to focus on the RISEN CHRIST! The One who OVERCAME satan, sin, and death! The One who forgives! The One Who completes! The One Who gives us ETERNAL LIFE! The One Who wears so many CROWNS OF GLORY that they reach out into eternity! He is NO LONGER ON THE CROSS! He ROSE FROM THE DEAD. He LIVES! He rules! He Reigns!

And, He is returning soon!

In no way do I mean to negate the agony of what Christ Jesus endured for me, for my brothers and sisters in Christ, for the world; but rather He showed ME to focus on WHAT WAS ACHIEVED THROUGH IT.
GLORY to GOD FOREVER! 

I was having a campfire that night and felt compelled to BURN those two things in that fire. It was apparent to me that God was not honored by them. Something strange happened. As I burned the wooden image, which was from Israel, it took on the shape of a snake… I watched as it curled and twisted and finally was totally consumed-the head being the last part incinerated.
coincidence?

Rest in the knowledge that He is Risen and He is returning for His Own.
SOON
Revelation 22:20