Traditions are not bad in and of themselves

Wednesday, I was invited to come and speak to the students of Heritage High School and their FCA luncheon.

God gave me the words to remind the students to not go through this most important weekend on "auto-pilot."

We have a lot of traditions don't we? One of my families traditions is to go to Provinos on one of our family members Birthdays and eat so many garlic rolls that we almost get sick! Churches have tons of traditions also.

Traditions are not bad in and of themselves. Traditions cause us to pause and remember why something is so special. It's when we just go through the motions and forget the reason for the tradition that we get tripped up.

Jesus paid the ultimate price for our salvation and eternal life, (which begins when you ask Jesus into your heart), by dying on the cross for our sins.

He made the decision to do that while in the Garden of Gethsemane. The word Gethsemane means "oil press." There was an oil press, no dout, in the garden there. It is what they did in the Garden-pressed the olive juice out of the olives from the trees.

Jesus, while in the Garden was "pressed out" for us. Through, blood, sweat and tears-Jesus set his face like flint for the cross. It was there He told His Heavenly Father "Not my will but your's be done." God's will meant He would have to endure the most painful, excrutiating, hideous, grotesque death imaginable. But the thing that caused Jesus's heart to be "depressed unto death" was not the physical pain caused by nails, thorns, or whips. The thing that scared Jesus most was the instant all of the sin of mankind would be thrown on Him and when His Heavenly Father, God, would have to turn away from Him.

Jesus did it all for me, and you!

Happy Easter!
I will be off next week for Spring Break.
See you Soon