New Every Morning

New Every Morning

One of the most emotion-packed passages in all the Bible is Jeremiah’s extended
dirge found in the book of Lamentations. There he pours out his heart lamenting
the tragedy of Jerusalem’s total destruction, brought on by Israel’s rebellion
against Jehovah.
However, in the midst of His intense grief, the prophet pauses to observe:
This I recall to my mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s
lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never
fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
( Lam 3:21-23 )
Based on this text Thomas Chisholm wrote a wonderful hymn, entitled Great Is
Thy Faithfulness. Some of the lyrics are:

Great is thy faithfulness! Great is thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow;
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

It is easy for us to take for granted God’s amazing character. He is eminently
faithful - worthy of our complete trust in all times and circumstances.
We can totally depend on to our Father’s promise:

“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Heb 13:5

- Leonard White

______
Excruciating

That’s a fairly common word, but do you where it came from? The root is the
Latin word “crux” which means a cross. And so the English word we use to
denote the most extreme suffering was derived from crucifixion. The Roman
statesman Cicero wrote that crucifixion is “a most cruel and disgusting
punishment . . . the very mention of the cross should be far removed not only
from a Roman citizen’s body, but from his mind, his eyes, his ears.”
In Philippians 2:8 Paul reminds us that Christ “humbled Himself by becoming
obedient to the point of death, EVEN DEATH ON A CROSS.” None of us has ever
witnessed the horrendous suffering of a Roman crucifixion. The following
description is taken from “The Life of Christ,” by Frederic W. Farrar:
The victim was laid down upon the implement of torture. His arms
were stretched along the cross-beams; and at the center of the open
palms the point of a huge iron nail was placed, which, by the blow of a
mallet, was driven home into the wood. Through either foot separately,

or possibly through both together, another huge nail tore its way
through the quivering flesh.
The accursed tree with its living human burden was slowly heaved up
by strong arms, and the end of it fixed firmly in a hole dug deep in the
ground. The feet were but little raised above the earth. The victim was
in full reach of every hand that might choose to strike. There, in torture,
the unhappy victim might linger in a living death so cruelly intolerable,
that often he was driven to entreat the executioners to put an end to
anguish too awful for man to bear.
For indeed a death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and
death can have of the horrible and ghastly – dizziness, cramp, thirst,
starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, publicity of shame,
long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of
untended wounds – all intensified just up to the point at which they can
be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would
give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness.
The unnatural position made every movement painful. The lacerated
veins and crushed tendons throbbed with incessant anguish. The
wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrened. The arteries,
especially of the head and stomach, became swollen and oppressed with
surcharged blood; and while each variety of misery went on gradually
increasing, there was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning
and raging thirst.
Such was the death to which Christ was doomed.
“Amazing love! how can it be, that Thou, my God, should die for me?”
- Leonard White



“Father, forgive them,” thus He prayed,
And doubt you that His love was true?
Still patient, gentle, unafraid,
“Forgive, they know not what they do.”
For us the crown of thorns He wore
With patience man has never known;
For us the cruel cross He bore
With meekness man has never shown.
For us He lived, for us He died,
O, sad and solemn holy day,
Renouncing self and earthly pride
That we might know the better way.

Edgar A. Guest

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