No One Left Behind

 

In the darkness, just hours before Easter morning, a rescue was unfolding in the mountains of Iran. An airman who survived when the F15E in which he was the weapons officer was shot down. Injured and alone, he made his way to a rocky mountaintop and waited …  while hundreds of military personnel and intelligence officers worked to create a rescue plan! Millions of dollars were spent; many lives were put on the line to complete the mission.

In the end the motto that ‘no one is left behind’ became truth and the man was saved. What a story of courage and commitment on the part of so many for the sake of just one.

This recent weekend Christians marked another rescue mission, accomplished at great expense. God’s grace caused Him to come to His Creation, in the Person of Jesus. The death of Christ at the Cross opened the way to freedom, your rescue and mine. Luke records Jesus’ words – “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”  (19:10)

John says that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.” (3:16-17)

Do you sometimes feel that you are beyond hope, that for reasons known only to you you’re convinced that God could not love you? Perhaps the scorn of another has made you feel worthless. It might be the memory of some great failure that you cannot forget. It may be weight of accumulated shame as you have become more aware of just how sinful you are. I know those feelings, too, but I also know the love of God that provides a grace so wide and deep that no person it outside its reach – truly!

Jesus did not just die for the world, my friend. He died for you and me so that we could live eternally. He met Evil and paid the ransom so that we can walk freely with God, our Father. The Word says that (God) “has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”  (Colossians 1) Believe it and live!

Further developing the thought the inspired passage says – “May you be filled with joy, always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.”  (Colossians 1: 12-14)

A Gospel song expresses the truth this way –
In lovingkindness Jesus came,
My soul in mercy to reclaim.
And from the depths of sin and shame
Through grace He lifted me.

From sinking sand – He lifted me,
With tender hand – He lifted me.
From shades of night
To plains of light,
O praise His name He lifted me!

Don’t live in the shadows any longer. Banish dread and guilt today.
With faith, tell the Lord Jesus that you accept His rescue.
Thank Him for forgiveness, for freedom, and for life eternal.

For it is true that “if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.” (John 8)

__________________

Video of this blog https://www.youtube.com/@JerScott55

Hope Lost

 

Saturday, April 4, 2026
Hope lost, Tomb sealed! Matthew 27:62-66

Use your imagination as you think about Jesus’ friends huddled in a room the day after watching Him die and seeing His body taken down and hastily placed in a tomb. Matthew tells us a little bit about that day.

62 The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. 63 “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 “Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.

The religious leaders knew what Jesus had promised. Though they did not believe they were concerned enough to want a guard in place. But, the discouraged followers of Jesus were not so brave. Their Jesus was dead. Their hopes were dashed. All the wonderful miracles and amazing teaching was forgotten in their grief. What would they do now?

We know the WHOLE story and quickly skip over that ‘hopeless’ Saturday as we aim at Resurrection Sunday! They were not able to stretch faith enough to believe that a crucified Man could or would live again.

Friend, days like that will come. Your expectations will be crushed. Your prayers will seem to bounce off of the ceiling. Your heart will break and your faith will be tested. In those moments, we do well to look past the ‘obvious circumstances’ and to the Word of God. Yes, it is important to clarify our understanding of God’s Word and promise. Many silly things have been done in the Name of God by people who had the best of intentions and the poorest of Biblical understanding.

God’s promises are ‘yes and amen.’  
He promises us life eternal and we can face death with hope.
He promises that He will never leave us, never forsake us, and we can endure dark days.
He promises that He is always ‘at work’ on behalf of those who love Him to accomplish
               His purposes, so we can step out in faith.

If you are struggling with a situation that seems to defy the promise of God, soak yourself in the 73^rd Psalm. The writer struggles with faith, tested, and disappointed until he renewed his worship, humbly. Renewed faith leads him to this declaration.
“My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart
    and my portion forever.
 Those who are far from you will perish;
    you destroy all who are unfaithful to you.
But as for me, it is good to be near God.
    I have made the Sovereign Lord my refuge;
    I will tell of all your deeds.”

Is a dark time? Hold onto Jesus. Cry. Tears are a language He understands. Do not abandon the fellowship of Christians. Faith will come again.

As the old saying goes  - “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s comin!”

______________

For reflection -
Am I authentic about my disappointments?
Do I continue to build strong relationships with other Christians that will strengthen my faith?
Is prayer a first priority even if the only thing I do is cry?

 

It's a Promise Unequaled!

 

Good Friday, April 3, 2026
Celebrate the Covenant- again and again! Mark 14:17-24

Christians through time have celebrated the sacrifice of Jesus with Bread and Cup, speaking to us of the broken body and shed blood of Jesus. On the night before He died, the Lord Jesus observed the Jewish Passover that marked the deliverance of the Jewish people from the judgment that fell on Egypt when the first-born of every household perished. He made it a moment for disciples through time. We read-  
When evening came, Jesus arrived with the Twelve. … 22 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”

23 Then he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, and they all drank from it. 24 “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. 25 “Truly I tell you, I will not drink again from the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God.” 26 When they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

At FDC, we close almost every Sunday worship gathering with the Lord’s Table, remembering the wonder of God’s gift to us. It is not just a ritual tacked onto the end of the service that we hurry through. It is a holy moment and has been part of Christian worship for 2 millennia.

The bread that we eat holds so much richness for us. Jesus spoke of Himself as the “Bread of Life.”  He promised that as we come to Him in faith and give our lives to His care, we will find the kind of deep satisfaction that a hungry person feels after a good meal. Bread comes from seeds that are ground and broken to provide sustenance. Jesus became our Bread only after allowing Himself to be broken. And, we learn that from His brokenness emerges our wholeness. Yes, when you take that bit of bread, remember the true Bread given in Him, and be fed not in your physical body but in your spirit!

As we take the Cup it is a wonder-filled moment of worship. Jesus spoke of the covenant written in love because of His spilled blood. The ancient practice before God was that sin demanded sacrifice. “Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” In the First Covenant, the blood of a lamb was shed to cover the sin of the people.

Christ Jesus is the “Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”  (John 1) Though we are sinners by nature, our guilt is removed, washed away by Christ who died in our place. He wrote a New Covenant, an agreement with God and humanity at the Cross. The result is that “we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus … (so) let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings.” 

What a mystery that we are now at peace with a Holy God, not because we are good enough, not because we have made some great sacrifice, but because Christ has provided for us what we could never earn for ourselves. We need not live in shame, guilt, or fear because “the One who knows us best, loves us most.”

So next time we take that little cup with bread and juice, let’s truly worship giving thanks for the Bread of Life and the blood-sworn Covenant of which the Cup speaks.

__________

For reflection –
Have I received God’s grace gift for myself or am I still attempting to gain His favor?
When I worship in the time of Holy Communion, do I prepare my mind and heart for the Spirit’s work?
How can I give proper thanks to God for His great and precious promise?

 

If you would like to share your thoughts or prayer needs with me you may do by emailing me – JerScott55@gmail.com

For a video of this devotion go to https://www.youtube.com/@FaithDiscoveryChurch