Less than a Gallon, and a little More than a Mile
What is your Promised Land?
Is it a dream that God has placed in your heart or is it just a selfish desire for earthly fame and riches. I asked myself that question this morning. Dying to flesh daily is possibly our biggest hurdle in life, if we ever plan on reaching that Promised Land.
I believe God desires to give you the desires of your heart, because He is a good Father; however, if you are a parent, then you know this can be both a good and bad thing. Giving your child everything they desire is usually not a good thing. So how do we balance what we give our children or what we ask God to give us?
According to the Word of God.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.”
Matthew 6:33 says, “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
What do you see standing between you and your dreams? Is it a door, gate, or possibly an intimidating giant? In every circumstance, the next step you take is vitally critical in determining your ability to reach your final destination.
The impossible always stands between you and any God size dream that He has placed in your heart, while the Answer is always found in Jesus. He is the only key that opens the door to the impossible.
What is the cost for you to have access to this key?
Less than a Gallon, a little More than a Mile
Geez, that’s it!
In 1954 Roger Bannister, at age 25, became the first human to conquer running One Mile in under 4 minutes when he finished it in 3:59.4. Once it was realized that it wasn’t impossible, John Landy conquered the same feat just 46 days later. Today, Hicham El Guerrouj is the current men’s record holder with his time of 3:43.13, while Faith Kipyegon has the women’s record of 4:07:89. What once seemed an impossible feat was actually only a doubt hidden by fear. Fear tends to be the biggest obstacle the enemy places between accomplishing any Feat.
How can a kid that didn’t start on his 7th and 8th grade basketball team, somehow become one of the few freshmen in school history to start for his High School varsity’s team? How could a 148 lb senior, who maxed a whopping 120 lbs on the bench press, somehow be chosen as one of the top 20 players in the state of Oklahoma? How could a 17-year-old, who was barely recruited, somehow make a college team? How can that same kid go from the end of the bench his freshman year of college to becoming an All-American his senior year while leading his team to a National Championship? How could an assistant college coach, who was looked over for head coaching positions for 10 straight years, go on to become a head coach taking his team to multiple National Championships?
The Answer to all these questions is Less than a Gallon, a little More than a Mile.
The human body contains just less than One Gallon of blood. In the hours leading up to his capture Jesus, while praying in the garden, Jesus began to sweat some His precious blood as he fully understood the excruciating journey and assignment that awaited Him. Sweating blood is a rare physiological phenomenon that can happen when someone is under so much stress and anguish their capillaries burst and they literally sweat blood. It’s called hematidrosis.
After Jesus willingly surrendered himself to the cohort of Roman soldiers, Pilot’s Temple guards stripped Jesus of His clothes and likely chained Him to a stone pillar. They beat Him again and again with a Roman flagrum, a whip that would have had anywhere from three to twelve strands of leather. Metal balls were woven into the leather, and at the end of each strand were pieces of broken pottery, glass, nails, bone, or twisted metal, designed to grab flesh and rip.
Imagine Jesus as He was beaten over and over and over and over again, huge pieces of skin and muscle being ripped and torn away with every blow. By the time the soldiers were done, His back and buttocks and legs would have been bloody, mangled ribbons of flesh and muscle and sinew. The beating was nicknamed “the half death,” because half the men who received it died from it. But not Jesus. He had more to endure. How much of that gallon of blood remained?
How much was left after they plucked out his beard? We don’t know for sure if Jesus’ beard was plucked out, but we do know this was a normal part of flogging. To pluck it out shamed the person. Isaiah 50:6-11 speaks to this! “I turned My back to those who strike Me, And My cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not hide My face from insults and spitting. For the Lord God helps Me, Therefore, I have not been ashamed or humiliated. Therefore, I have made My face like flint…”
How much of that One Gallon of blood remained after the guards pounded the crown of thorns into Jesus’ skull? The soldiers put a purple robe on Him, twisted together a crown of thorns from the famous Jerusalem thorn bush—with thorns that were up to 3 inches long—and beat it into His skull with a rod, which they also used to batter His face. More than 700 years before Jesus was crucified, the prophet Isaiah prophesied that the Son of God would beaten so badly He wouldn’t even look human.
Jesus became an object of mockery. The Roman soldiers knelt before Him, laughingly calling out, “Hail, King of the Jews!’ And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.”
Jesus was then forced to drag a cross over One Mile. Six more hours of torture awaited our King. The crucifixion of Jesus was beyond brutal. The word excruciating actually was derived from this pain. As the large nails were driven into his ankles and his wrist, the final drips of Jesus blood poured out of his body covering his head, hands, and feet.
On a day 2000 years ago, Jesus gave it all to save you and me. How powerful and valuable is a little less than a gallon of the Messiah’s Blood? It is priceless. The only chance we had to overcome death was Jesus willingness to allow men to humiliate, beat, pluck, flog, and crucify himself for you and me. There should not be a day go by that we don’t think about a little less than a Gallon and a little more than a Mile.