Good Friday Message From Iraq

My husband wrote this while he was in Iraq working as a civilian contractor on Good Friday, April 6, 2007. As I reread it just today, I thought I would share it with all of you. My husband used to be a pastor and loves to write messages. Below is his original Good Friday message to the world.

Before you read it, know that Jesus died on the cross because He loves you. His sacrifice on the cross paid the penalty for your sins. He arose on Easter Sunday and lives in Heaven with God the Father, sitting at His right hand. If you will just ask Him, He will forgive your sins and come into your life and be with you each and every day. When you die, He will welcome you into Heaven to be with Him forever, but you have to ask. Read John 3:16:

"For 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." (NIV)

Happy Good Friday to each of you on this wonderful spring day.

While you were sleeping in the night, Jesus was praying for you. He loved you then and he loves you now. Even though he was nervous and scared about what was going to happen to him, he still remembered to pray for you.

While you were sleeping in the night the religious leaders came and arrested Jesus. They falsely accused him of all sorts of things.

Then they beat him and carried him off to a weak-kneed ruler who allowed bad people to do bad things to a good person. It was not fair but it was all part of the plan.

While you are going about your day, Jesus will be on trial for his life. The people will finally decide that he needs to die. The same people who witnessed his miracles have been mislead by the bad people. They want a murderer to be released so they can kill an innocent man.

About the time you go to eat lunch, they will hang him on a cross where he will die a horrible death. He will hang for three hours while the insects munch on his raw flesh and his lifeblood flows freely down the cross. While he hangs there, his lungs will fill with fluid, making it hard for him to breath.

About the time school gets out in the afternoon, Jesus will cry out, "It is finished". The curtain in the temple will tear in two and dead people will come alive. A centurion will say, "Surely this man was the Son of God". In other words, we have killed an innocent man.

While you are watching the news on TV this evening, people will be preparing Jesus for burial. By the time you go to bed, he will have been dead for seven hours.

Even though you will probably not think about him all day today, Jesus has had you on his mind.

God Bless You.....

David Schulze

www.iraq-up-close-and-personal.com