Apr
18
2017
The Sounds In The Sanctuary
Posted in Salvation 4 Comments
It began with a phone call.
My pastor asked me to pray at the end of our church’s Good Friday service.
It was a privilege to be asked.
It was humbling.
I answered, yes.
I was given the passage of Scripture that would be the focus of the service.
I had no idea how the Holy Spirit would lead my prayer.
All I knew was that I was willing to be used in this way.
From the night I was asked, until the day of the service, I read the passage of Scripture.
I wanted God’s Word to wash over me.
I wanted His Living Word to penetrate my heart.
I asked my family and a few praying friends to cover me in prayer.
The day of the service arrived.
I got to church early to sit where all the participants would sit.
The church was dimly lit with all of the shutters on the large windows closed.
The mood was quiet and pensive.
The service began.
The Scripture that had washed over me for days before, was read.
The first of four speakers reflected on a part of the passage.
The Lord’s Supper was served.
Staggered throughout the sanctuary, people got up to eat the bread and drink from the cup.
They knelt down to be served the Lord’s Supper.
From all four corners of the sanctuary, people walked forward.
A dear friend began to sing.
She sang a song I knew but that day I heard it as if for the first time.
I see shattered
You see whole
I see broken
But You see beautiful
And You’re helping me to believe
You’re restoring me piece by piece
There’s nothing too dirty that You can’t make worthy
You wash me in mercy
I am clean
There’s nothing too dirty that You can’t make worthy
You wash me in mercy
I am clean
What was dead now lives again
My heart’s beating, beating inside my chest
Oh I’m coming alive with joy and destiny
Cause You’re restoring me piece by piece
There’s nothing too dirty that You can’t make worthy
You wash me in mercy
I am clean
There’s nothing too dirty that You can’t make worthy
You wash me in mercy
I am clean
Washed in the blood of Your sacrifice
Your blood flowed red and made me white
My dirty rags are purified
I am clean
(Clean, Natalie Grant)
I was undone.
The song, her voice, and the people coming to take part in the Lord’s Supper, moved me.
The truth of the lyrics hit my heart.
The truth I knew and believed fell upon me in a deeper way.
It was more than the song.
It was the sound that filled the sanctuary.
A rough wooden cross was placed in the middle aisle.
On each chair was a 3×5 card and a small pencil.
We were encouraged to write a sin that Jesus has already redeemed.
We were encouraged to write a sin that we are asking Jesus to redeem.
Writing on the 3×5 card was purely voluntary.
After taking the bread and wine, we walked to the cross and were handed a hammer and nail.
That 3×5 card folded in half was to be nailed to the cross.
No one saw the words we wrote.
Only the Lord Jesus knows.
It was for that sin, He died.
It was the sound that filled the sanctuary that made me come undone.
It was the sound of hammering.
It was the sound of nails being driven into that cross.
It was the sound of our sin being nailed there.
Jesus took the wrath on Him that was meant for us.
And I cried.
Before it was time for me to go up for communion, I felt it.
That familiar sciatic pain down my left leg.
Under the care of a wonderful chiropractor, it is pain that I have not had in a while.
But the pain was there in this place as the nails were being hammered into the cross.
I prayed for relief.
When I got up for communion, the pain had subsided.
As I knelt down, a muscle in that same leg tightened in a knot.
I actually had to stick my left leg out a bit behind me as I knelt there.
I prayed again.
The enemy of our souls does anything he possibly can to distract us from God.
Sciatic pain, muscles tightened into a knot, anything he can do to keep our eyes off Jesus.
As the bread was in my hand, the enemy attacked.
After drinking from the cup, I attempted to get up.
The muscle that was knotted did not want to cooperate.
I had to push myself up a bit with my hands.
You are defeated, Satan! I remember thinking in my head as I walked to the cross.
I was handed the hammer and given a nail.
Lord Jesus, help me.
I knelt down and found an open spot and hammered my folded card into the cross.
You are defeated, Satan!
I felt something pinch in my hand.
I realized that I was still holding the plastic cup.
The hammer had cracked the cup in my hand.
And I thought of Jesus.
I stood up from that cross in power.
No pain.
No muscle in a knot.
Victorious!
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
(Romans 8:38,39)
I walked back to my seat.
The sound of hammering continued.
All those cards were nailed to the cross.
Our Lord Jesus took those nails in our place.
It was the end of the service and time for me to get up to pray.
I do not even remember all the things I prayed.
I do remember the sounds in the sanctuary and how they affected me.
I will never forget eating the bread and drinking the juice as nails were hammered into a cross.
The nails were driven into Jesus but that is not what held Him to the cross.
It was Love that held Him there.
It was His love for us that held Jesus to that cruel cross.
We cannot get to Heaven on our own; Jesus had to secure a way for us.
Jesus is the Way.
The bread and the wine: Take and eat. Take and drink.
Do this in remembrance of Me.
It was the sounds of those nails being hammered into a rough cross that I will never forget.
My sin and your sin was in those nails.
But love held Jesus there on that cross.
The enemy is defeated.
Amen.
A beautiful message–I wish more people would realize what God’s gift really means.
Thanks Gina. I was not able to be at the service.
You are welcome, Priscilla! I hope these simple words made you feel as if you were there with us. Blessings, friend!
Gina
Sue,
I hope that as well. It is our job to go and tell.
Gina