"By His Wounds..." By Kaiya Raven

"He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities; by His wounds we are healed"~ Isaiah 53:5

Some of you may know that verse from worship songs, some of you may know it straight from when you read about it, some of you may take it from your heart and have it embedded in the back of your mind, or maybe you have it printed out hanging on your wall with other numerous Bible verses. We're all different, we all have a different way of worshipping, reading, fasting, praying, and we all have different gifts. Yet there is one thing we have in common...We are all Brothers and Sisters in Christ, and take this verse very seriously as it is a part of our walk with our Savior Christ Jesus...

Now, when I was younger, about age 9 or so, I went to church every Sunday with my parents at our Christian Church out in the country. I never understood what Easter was all about, I never knew what Good Friday was, up until when I was 16. That may sound kind of bad because shouldn't everybody know what Good Friday and Easter is all about if you've gone to a church every Sunday? Well, for me, I didn't take in what God had to teach. I didn't know really what His love was like at such a young age, mainly because going to Church for my family was simply just...well, going to Church.

I remember one year on Easter Sunday, my Church had a big cross and the members of the Church would take that cross and we'd walk from one side of the small town not far from the church and back to the church. I was part of helping to carry that cross and yet I did not understand why. I did not ask questions, I did what I was told and moved on. Now to this day, I think about carrying that cross, how there was twenty to thirty people helping carry that big cross. And I think about how Jesus carried the cross on his own until he couldn't anymore, then Simon of Cyrene carried it the rest of the way. I don't think any of us can imagine the pain he went through, the torture and the trauma he endured even before he reached the point of being crucified.

When I finally understood what Easter was all about, and God's love, then my eyes were opened at what Jesus did for me, what he did for all of us. Just like that verse above, "by his wounds we are healed..." It makes me think about this tag I used to have that can hook to key chains. It says "His Pain, Your Gain..." basically it says the same thing.

Many of us understand it, yet many of us may not as to why he had to die. To put it simply...because he loved us, he had each of our names in mind, and he sent his one and only son to die for us on that cross. We cannot comprehend it to it's fullest, simply because it was the biggest price to pay ever. As Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we must all give ourselves up to Him. We all have freedom because of Him, and even when we tithe we give ten percent and keep ninety percent of what God gives us in finances. He wants us to give Him our all, some of the times we will turn from Him, yet when we realize we shouldn't, He forgives us when we ask for it. His love is so great, so big, so awesome!

I want to share this passage...it's Isaiah 53...

"Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? 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. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities, and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities;the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed...

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. 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 her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. 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.Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering,he will see his offspring and prolong his days,and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand...

"After the suffering of his soul,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. 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..."