"Unfiltered Hope" -2

"O let not the oppressed return ashamed: let the poor and needy praise thy name." (Psalms 74:21) Seeing how it's Good Friday, I thought I would go ahead and keep this verse and title for such a day as today. If we could ever have an example of someone who made himself available, who better than Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. I am wondering where the term "Good" might have come from, because things really did not look so good on that day when Jesus was nailed upon that cross. I know the angels declared "Good Tidings of Great Joy" on the day that Jesus was born; so maybe "Good" is the result of what they declared. Nonetheless, the result of that day when Jesus died for the sins of the world was no doubt good for all mankind, but I still have got to wonder why we took the liberty to call it "Good Friday." I guess if we really wanted to hope in something good, there is no greater hope than the fact that our sins have been paid for, and that we have been given eternal life. So, I guess it's also fitting to refer to this day as "Good" as we remember the goodness of God and the unbelievable price He paid for our sins! In that line of thinking, is the reason I choose this title and verse for today, because it is totally unbelievable that God would do such a thing; it just does not make any sense at all that He would do such a thing, yet it was His will and His pleasure to do it! If you study this verse from the angle of the cross, you might discover something that could radically change your life for ever. It has to do with the word "oppressed," which is a word that means crushed or afflicted. At first I thought this could be speaking more about the children of Israel returning back from being held captive; but it has that 'gate' which opens up to a whole new meaning, the meaning of hope. I guess what I am trying to say, is that it gives a whole new meaning to the term, "Come as you are." Or maybe, it's not a new meaning at all, but just that it expresses the reason we need to bring everything to the cross; leaving nothing behind, or nothing to fall back into. What I am trying to say, is that God wants us to know how much we are afflicted, and how much we need Him to save us from our affliction. It's not even really about asking Him for forgiveness, it's more about believing that He has forgiven us; not even because Jesus died for our sins, although we could not have been forgiven without that happening; but we believe that He has forgiven us, because He loves us! It is His love for us that gives us hope...
"See, my servant will prosper; he will be highly lifted exalted. But many were amazed when they saw him. His face was so disfigured he seemed hardly human, and from his appearance, one would scarcely know he was a man. And he will startle many nations. Kings will stand speechless in his presence. For they will see what they had not been told; they will understand what they had not heard about. Who shall believe our report? To whom has the LORD revealed his powerful arm? My servant grew up in the LORD'S presence like a tender green shoot, like a root in dry ground. There was nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance, nothing to attract us to him. He was despised and rejected -a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care. Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down. And we thought his troubles were a punishment from God, a punishment for his own sins! But he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed. All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God's paths to follow our own. Yet the LORD laid on him the sins of us all." (Isaiah 52:13-53:6) NLT