I read this this morning:

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. And the stripped Him, and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after weaving a crown of horns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him and mocked Him, saying, "Hail Jesus King of the Jews!" And they spat on Him, and took the reed and began to beat Him on the head. And after they mocked Him, they took His robe of and put His garments on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. Matthew 27:27-31 NAS

Dear sisters, this is Our Lord! This is OUR Savior! If you name the name of Jesus, this is what He who created you endured for you. The passage above is just the beginning of His crucifixion. He endured quietly the treatment above to save YOUR soul from Hell, eternal separation from Him. Let us choose then, while we can on this earth to SEEK Him daily. I hope you can tell by now from following my blog that the Lord alone has given me an intense passion for women to embrace bible literacy and application. Please DO NOT MISS this, ladies. God has written His word to teach us about Himself, He is the great Teacher! Christian books, blogs, bible studies all these things are wonderful supplements that the Lord has allowed in our culture, but NONE can take the place of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are all sufficient and in His word we will find an amazing Savior who endured the crown of thorns, was beat on His head by a reed and spat on by those who rejected Him, that one day we can stand before Him and not be rejected!

As I read this this morning, I was mindful of the fact that Christ endured this because through and through I am a sinner. Even as I am being sanctified daily by Him, I am still a sinner, and will never be made perfect until He calls me home. Thus, I should be constantly seeking Him, in His word because His word is "living and active and sharper than any two edged sword piercing as far as the division of the soul and the spirit, both of joins and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart." Hebrews 4:12. If we are not in His word, we will not rightly judge our thoughts and intentions, we will not know whether our motives are pure, because Romans 3:10, "There is none righteous, not even one" (NAS). I am saved by His infinite grace, and if you name the name of Christ you are too...but that doesn't mean we are to stop at salvation and just let it ride. We are to passionately pursue Him, we are to cry out to God to bless us with an insatiable hunger for Him, His word and prayer. God wants us to desire Him, He created us to desire Him. Over and over in my life I go back to a quote by John Piper, "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." How can we be truly satisfied in Him if we are not in His word? How can we awaken to the amazing love story of our Lord in the pages of scripture, and humble ourselves before Him if we are not seeking to know Him through His word? How can we expect God to change our situation or circumstances if we are not willing to seek Him and know Him, that we would live a life worthy of the gospel of Christ (Phil. 1:27) being mindful that our citizenship is in Heaven (Phil. 3:20).

Ladies...SET YOUR alarm! Get up before the kids or stay up past them, DO WHATEVER IT TAKES to be in the Word of God. Meet daily with your Savior! Not out of tradition or habit but out of LOVE. We are to "love the Lord our God" love Him and know Him. I've been thinking a lot about this, I would not have married my spouse having only spent 10 minutes a day with him for a few years. I wouldn't have known him well enough, and yet so many of us ask Jesus into our lives, which is by far a more important decision than accepting a marriage proposal, and fail to give Him at least 10 minutes a day. Another challenge for us as women is found in Deut. 6:6-7, as mothers we are commanded, "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up." How then can you teach your sons diligently if you do not know the word of God yourself? Your children will learn how to apply God's word by seeing you live it out for yourself.

Sisters...He was mocked for you and I, He endured for you and I. He went to the cross to redeem us, unworthy sinners in desperate need of a Worthy, Holy and Perfect Savior. He set out resolutely for Jerusalem with the knowledge of our souls in His mind. He knew we absolutely needed Him to endure what was before Him, and He did. He endured it, and was gloriously resurrected that we can call Him Savior, and so we sinners can, "see how great LOVE the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the children of God; and such we are." 1 John 3:1