Passion Week

Happy Passion Week to you all! This is the week to reflect and remember Christ love for us as He made His way to the cross to pay the penalty for all of mankinds sin!
Sunday, my children and I were on our way to church, half sleeping, listening to worship music on our local Christian radio station. As I was driving I caught a phrase from a song that I have heard many times but some how I missed this line completely until now. Past Redeemer. Jesus. He is my Past Redeemer. Now this was not something I had ever heard...sure I have heard that Jesus paid the price for my past but the actually words, Past Redeemer, I had never heard. I liked it. It has stuck with me. As I went on through my Sunday the words kept coming to mind. Even today, as I went about my housework, the words were silently being whispered to me. "Past Redeemer." Now I don't know about you but when this happens it is usually because God is wanting to tell me something. This evening I was pondering that phrase when I felt the Lord ask me, " Are you living like your past has been redeemed?" I really couldn't answer that because as that moment I realized that I was uncertain what 'redeemed' really meant. So I got some coffee and sat down at the computer and researched the word.
Redeemed: to buy or pay off, clear by payment, to buy back, to recover, to exchange.

Ok, Wow. The Lord is asking me if I am living like Jesus bought and paid off my past. Like Jesus cleared my past by payment of the cross. That He bought back my past, He recovered it, He exchanged it for glory. For righteouness, for virtue, for cleanliness, for the wearing of white. Am I haunted by the skeletons in my closet. Am I embarressed by what I have been or what I have done in the past. Do I duck my head in shame at the thought of someone knowing where I have been? If I am then I am not living like Jesus has redeemed my past. Im not living like I have a Past Redeemer. My answer is yes. I have ducked, I have dodged, I have allowed Satan to tell me that I'm dirty still, that no matter what I believe I will never be good enough for Heaven. But I am good enough for Heaven because of the magnificant work on the cross. Because my Past Redeemer cleared my name when He allowed Himself to become sin in my place on the cross. What would a life look like that has a Past Redeemer? I see a thankful heart. A person that reaches out to the broken knowing and not judging because they too have been there. We need to not make light of what The Past Redeemer did on the cross. When we continue to walk in shame because is who we were then we are making light of what Jesus did on the cross. When we act as though we have no past that had to be redeemed then we are making light of the work of the cross. If you haven't watched the Passion of the Christ, watch it this week and realize that the work of the cross was anything but light. If you have watched it, watched it again. Be reminded of what your Past Redeemer did for you. He bought my past, He recovered my past, Jesus exchange my past for a future of hope, He cleared my name, He recovered the years that the locust ate (Joel 2:25)! This is something to celebrate! If we are going to lead others to Christ and show them how to be free then we must, I must, live like I'm free! Thank You, Jesus, My Past Redeemer, for redeeming me!

Lovingly composed by,
Kathy