CHAPTER VIII (My Victory is Yours) Excerpt Continued...

    “I am love,” He added after a pause, “and My Father is love. It is the very essence of Our character. Unselfish love is the best way to describe Our personality. In the world, love is often used to describe romantic attraction to someone, or liking someone or something a lot. This is not true love, it is selfishness. Selfishness is the opposite of love. My love is true love, and it is unselfish, and it will last forever. My love will go to the point of giving up everything for the benefit of another. This type of love is definitely worth fighting for... and dying for.”

    Though part of me was still resisting this radical new way of thinking about living... and dying, the other part of me wanted, desperately, to know Him, and be known by Him. And this part of wanting to know Him, and understand Him seemed to be growing stronger all the time.

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CHAPTER IX (Quiet Power) Excerpt...

    Presently I noticed there was a small group of people, mainly women, who were not criticising Jesus. They were crying. I thought that one of them could be Jesus' Mother, and probably the others were women that He had either healed or forgiven. They all seemed to care about Jesus. That’s why they stood, in amongst the blood, stench, hatred, cursing, and death, at the foot of the cross. There was one lone man with them. He tried to comfort the women, but his otherwise sturdy frame was bent over with care and sorrow too. I could feel their pain. Then I felt Jesus’ Spirit reach out to them, and finally He said something.

    “Woman,” He said, looking to the one woman who I thought was His Mother. It might have seemed like a distant, or disrespectful way to address one’s Mother, but not if you had heard the way He said it. It was authoritative, yet gentle. Authoritative in the sense that He was letting her know that He was still in control, and there was no need to fear. She lifted her tear-stained face to Him. She seemed honoured that He would reach out to her, when He was experiencing such pain.

    Then He said, “Look at your son.” At this Jesus looked at the man who was standing beside her and said, “Look at your Mother.” They looked at each other, questioning at first, and then sensing the wisdom of Jesus, the disciple took the hand of his ‘adopted’ Mother. I felt the warmth of this exchange deep in my being.

    Then to me He seemed to say, “I have come to comfort the afflicted. To strengthen the weak. To anoint the fearful.”
He continued, “I am taking upon Myself the sins of the whole world. I am being wounded for your transgressions. I am being crushed for your wrongdoing. In My body and through My sacrifice I am absorbing all of the human pain that you can ever experience. I am feeling your pain and sorrow and carrying your weaknesses. By the cuts in My body... you will be healed.”

    After a pause, He went on, “Everyone in the world has strayed away, like lost sheep. You have left God’s path to follow your own selfish path. My Father has put on Me, the sins of every human. I have been put down, and treated hatefully, but I didn’t say a word to defend Myself. I was led like a lamb to be slaughtered, and as a sheep to be sheared, but I didn’t open My mouth. I was unjustly condemned, and sentenced to be crucified. I have done no wrong, and haven’t deceived anyone, yet I am treated like a criminal.”

    Admiration was starting to overtake me. He loved all of us this much? 

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