Acupuncture

I have been having acupuncture done on my neck. The worst thing about it is not having needles over an inch long stuck into my person at 6 or 7 different locations. The worst thing is that I have to STAY STILL the whole time said needles are in place.

This is not an easy task for me. I like to move.

Today, not only was I not supposed to move, but to add to the difficulty of the situation, my nose started to itch. I sat there, head on my hands on a pillow in front of me, breathing into the pillow, wondering if they'd changed the pillowcase or if I was breathing in someone else's germs, and all the while trying to ignore the itch.

I finally heard the timer go off, and was inwardly rejoicing at the prospect of being able to scratch my nose. Imagine my disappointment when the physio lady came in and began TWISTING all of the needles. "I'm just stimulating the acupuncture sites," she said cheerily. "I'll be back in about ten minutes."

Off she went, and I sat there, feeling itchy and uncomfortable. My head hurt from being on my hand, and my nose was still itchy, and now all of the little needles were sending messages to my brain. It wasn't painful... just bothersome.

Ten minutes passed v e r Y S L O W L Y.

In came Craig, the physiotherapist, and out came the needles.

Free at last!

Until the next time.

The Worst Crime

Recently, Tim Challies quoted R. C. Sproul, who reminds us that we are debtors, enemies and criminals.

Tim wrote, that Sproul shows how

it is always the Father who has been offended and the Son who intercedes. We have committed crimes against God and are, thus, justly termed criminals. The Father stands as Judge, passing the just sentence of death. But Christ stands between us and the Father, acting as substitute. Our sin puts us in debt to God so that we are debtors to Him. God is the creditor who demands repayment, but Christ stands in as surety. And sin puts us at enmity with God, making us His enemies. He has been violated by our sin, but Christ intercedes as mediator, opening the way between man and God.

Sproul breaks this down into the following simple table:

Sin As…	Man	God	Christ
Debt	Debtor	Creditor	Surety
Enmity	Enemy	Violated One	Mediator
Crime	Criminal	Judge	Substitute

Christ, by His work on the cross, satisfied the demands of God’s justice with regard to our debt, our state of enmity, and our crime.

NO wonder we needed a Saviour.

And what a Saviour. Linda was thinking of this the other day. She wrote about it on her blog, Treasured Wretch.

She was thinking of the great crime of shedding THE MOST INNOCENT BLOOD of Christ. Who had to pay for that crime?

Why, Jesus!

The injustice of His death was laid upon His own shoulders!

Amazing grace! What a Saviour! He is the Prophet, Priest and King, and so much more. He is our Mediator, our Surety, our Substitute. He stands before the Judge, pleading our case...and He wins, every time! We stand there, undone, without hope, because we know we are guilty of the WORST CRIME - shedding the innocent, pure blood of the King of kings and Lord of lords. In awe we watch Him step forward and say, "I paid this one's debt!" And we are free. Free from debt - the debt that we owed. Free from crime - the life of a criminal that we lived. Free from being the Enemy of God - although we deserved His enmity.

Free to worship, free to serve, free to bow down, free to live a life in awe of the ONE TRUE GOD.

We're free, because of Christ. He paid the price. He paid it all.