I recently had back surgery on the 13 of January. Up until that point I have suffered back pain off and on for about 15 years. There were times that the pain was so bad that I could not work. Turns out I had two bad disc in the lower back. The navy never found the exact problem and I was willing to leave it at that. I wasn’t really to keen on a navy surgeon performing any kind of surgery on my back. I had done physical therapy, tried chiropractors, and even acupuncture once. Nothing worked.
Upon getting out of the navy in 2007 I found myself a new primary physician and began trying to nail down the problems in my back. He ordered MRI’s and x-rays then sent me to an orthopedic specialist who eventually found that I had to bad disc in the lower lumbar region. He talked to me about a new procedure for lumbar fusions which involved entering the body through two incisions in the side instead of cutting through massive amounts of muscle in my back or abdomen.
I have since had the surgery and was on my feet withing days. I am moving very slowly but, I am walking. This procedure is not a pain free one by any means. I have had consistent pain since the operation, which by day 12, has come close to driving me mad. I never cried under the stress of pain throughout 15 years of dealing with back pain, but, yesterday I did. I believe all of the pain I am feeling currently is from the surgery itself. I believe that when all is healed up I will be virtually pain free. After all, I was walking just a day and a half after the surgery.
Paying The Price
Right now I am paying a price of pain for way less pain in my physical future in this body. This makes me think of Yeshua (Jesus) and the price he paid for all of us. The pain I feel has pushed me to the limit of what I can handle in physical pain. Yeshua endure pain and suffering that was way beyond what I or anyone on the planet could take on. I am a little stressed, but, not to the point that my savior and Lord was stressed. Before His suffering you find Him in the garden of Gethsemane praying, and, as He does he is sweating great drops of blood.
And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. (Luke 22:44)
Isaiah the prophet outlines what Yeshua endured and took upon himself as our savior.
First He was not even given the respect as a person.
He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were [our] faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. (Isaiah 53:3)
Second he carried the griefs and sorrows of the the entire human race.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. (Isaiah 53:4)
We are all sinner yet Christ was willing to pay the price for our sin. And if you are a believer there is healing for you beginning the relationship between us and the Father.
But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:5)
We prefer to go our own way.
But he [was] wounded for our transgressions, [he was] bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace [was] upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. (Isaiah 53:6)
He is still willing.
He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. (Isaiah 53: 7)
It please the Lord to punish him in our place. Do you understand the great love being demonstrated here?
Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put [him] to grief: when thou shalt 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. (Isaiah 53:10)
Isaiah has given us a detailed description of what it took to save the souls of the people God loved. The bible says that…
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who ever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
No doubt you have probably heard this verse before. Perhaps you didn’t know what it meant. It was your sin and my sin that brought the Son of God to earth in the form of a man in order that He might die in our place. The punishment for sin is death. It doesn’t matter what sin. It could be rape or murder, or, just a lie or disobedience. Sin is sin and it separates us from the God who created us. There is no amount of good you can do to reverse this. There is not a religion that man has created that take away the sin that separates us from God. Only the blood of the Son of God, the Messiah, is able to remove sin from your life and restore our connection to God the Father. God himself has paid the ultimate price to redeem us from death. He gave everything for us. All he ask is that you trust Him. Repent of your sin. The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand! Soon the King of kings will return to the earth to receive what rightly belongs to Him. Do you belong to Him? Put your trust in Him today. He has given everything for you.
Too Easy?
In the past when I have shared the gospel with people they thought it to be too easy. “There has to be more,” they would say. Well Christ is all you need. There was a heavy price paid for us to have this free gift of salvation. It is a free gift for us but it cost God everything. All of us – men, women, and children are in the same boat. We are all sinners. The price for our sin is what was done on our behalf, the suffering of the Messiah. It is not automatic though. The prophet opens the chapter with two questions:
- Who hath believed our report?
- And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
It is true that these things have been done for all the people of the earth but have you believed the report? Has the arm of the Lord been revealed to you? The price of our sin, our disobedience is quite expensive. I know that I f I had to pay the price it would take an eternity. I’d be dead and separated from God forever. The price is death in case you didn’t gather that from the passages of scripture above. Are you willing to live your life in sin and then spend an eternity in Hell? I can barely stand the pain I am enduring right now as a result of my back surgery. However, it is a price I must pay for future pain relief. If I could get someone else to endure this pain in my place I certainly would.
You’d be a fool to pass up the free gift of salvation for you soul. The pains of hell are absolutely unbearable, but, if you die without Christ you will indeed bear it and, for all eternity. Jesus has done a great and beautiful thing for us. God has shown you his love while you are still a sinner. All you have to do is receive it. Believe the report. The arm of the Lord is revealed to you today.
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Oh, I was hoping for more. My desire was that you realize your need for a savior, that you would repent of your sin, and trust in the Son of God to save your soul and give you eternal life. Your time is growing short.
I am so impressed I had to save it so I continously go back and read things I may have skimmed