Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: There were many forms of crucifixion, all of them hideous. They were designed to strip a person of all human dignity, every vestige of it. It was introduced to the Mediterranean world from the East. The Assyrians thought of it, and the bas-reliefs that are dug up in the desert in the archaeological digs of this day show victims impaled against the walls of the cities as they would overrun a city. That's what they'd do with their enemies. Well, the Persians followed them, and under Darius I, they were wont to put down rebellion in the same way. In Daniel's day, Daniel saw at least 3,000 crucifixions in his time. They were crucifying their own people. Those were dark and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap.

Seventy-six years before Christ, a Hasmonean King Alexander Jannaeus put down a revolt within the sight of his palace. These were his own subjects too. He and his friends watched while they had their dinner parties and, just for extra kicks apparently, had the wives and the kids that belonged to the crucified victims brought and butchered in front of the men as they died. In Qumran, the place where they've found all sorts of writings of those days, dug them up, if you remember, in the caves in the Judean desert, an Israelite writing about this says the Israelites or the Jewish people never, ever put anyone to death in this dreadful fashion. This hanging men up alive was never before done in Israel, they said.

Now, Herod the Great descended from those Hasmonean kings, the king that put everybody in front of the palace so that he could enjoy the sight. Herod the Great was ferocious. Even though he was ferocious, even though he hunted down the babies and killed all those children, he never crucified anyone. It was the Romans. It was left to the Romans to make crucifixion a routine means of execution in Israel. It was a capital punishment reserved for slaves, and Roman citizens were exempt from such degrading penalties. I did tell you in an earlier message that in 4 B.C. Varus crucified 2,000 ringleaders of the Jews. There was an uprising in the Galilean area where the holy family lived, and the crosses were put along the side of the road, if you remember, as a gruesome sight so that these writhing victims would be a deterrent to people having the same idea.

Now, when Jesus, who was not a Roman citizen, belonged to one of those lesser breeds without the law, as the Romans put it, was convicted of sedition, it followed quite naturally that he would be crucified. Cicero said this is the most cruel and revolting punishment. Josephus said the most pitiable of deaths. It was prolonged, it was excruciating, it was utterly humiliating, naked, stark naked to the jeers of the crowd. The agony, the cramps, the dehydration, the flies, the stench, it was all there. Usually they buried the corpses, but not always. And there would be many corpses lying around Calvary by the time Jesus got there that they'd not bothered burying, picked clean by the vultures that forever hovered above that place of living death.

Now, on the cross, there was a seat. Maybe you've seen that in some of the pictures. It was not there to alleviate the sufferings of the victim. It was rather there to prolong the agony. For as the body leant against the seat, it put the breathing cage in an impossible situation so that the victim gasped for breath. This was no mercy seat. And the victim was usually fastened by ropes or nails. John tells us that Jesus, at any rate, I don't know about the two thieves, were fastened to the wood with nails. One each at the wrist, not through the hands, just here. Both heels would then be put on top of each other. To accommodate this, if you can think about it, the legs would have to be broken. And so the legs of the two thieves were broken in order that the broken legs could be more naturally put heel to heel and one nail used to put them through on the cross.

However, Jesus' legs were not broken. They were not broken, as the prophet says, "Not one bone of him shall be broken." And not what bone of him was broken, another prophecy that came true about the Christ of God on the cross. However, because his legs were not broken, the agony was exacerbated. If you can imagine having your heels put together in a manner in order that a nail should be put through them without being broken meant a twisting of those legs that must have been absolutely excruciating. And so as the man hung upon the cross, trying to alleviate the incredible pain, he would go into these paroxysms as the pain grew. I remember trying to capture some of this, wondering where the snake was.

Round a hammer in the grass, a snake lies crass, mouth open, forked tongue busy, smiling. Lewd men gape, purity raped, hangs bare, splayed out on a stake of splintered wood. His nerves shivering, quivering, tearing, bearing the weight of the hate of God against him because of our sin. Jesus suffers, frying his flesh in the sun, blood and mucus in his hair, flies feasting round his mouth, his eyes. Jesus dies. Naked came he to us, helpless then, helpless now, bound then, bound now, crying then, crying now. Where are you, Father? And way back then as now then, coiled round itself, a viper all intent hellbent was smiling. And so Christ dies a death of dread, while round his head a crown of thorns and other things weigh heavy on his mind. Redemption busy with his Father's work expires for humankind.

Now, the three writers of the Gospels of this terrible record that they penned later relieve it with some little vignettes, some vignettes of the people around the cross, the little groups of people that gathered and individuals too. But Mark alone tells the story with unrelieved horror, adding after it was done the information about the curtain being rent in twain from the top to the bottom, the story of the centurion that said, "Behold, this must be a son of God," and the little bit about the graves being opened and people appearing in resurrection, although most commentators think that's to do with the time Jesus was resurrected and not at this moment.

Jesus died very quickly. Some two or three hours, six hours or whatever, whereas usually two or three days elapsed before a victim slipped into unconsciousness. Jesus, however, was aware to the end. And when he died, it came suddenly, as if by a deliberate act of will. It was Jesus that was in charge of this crucifixion, not the Romans, not the Jews, not the people, but God himself. He had arrived here at the point of human history, at the crossroads of human history by his own design. Max Lucado in his book, "No Wonder They Called Him Savior," says, "The cross rests on the line of history like a compelling diamond. My," he says, "what a piece of wood." And that little phrase has been running through my heart and my mind all this week. My, what a piece of wood.

History has idolized it and despised it, gold-plated it, learned it, worn it, trashed it. History has done everything but ignore it. That's the one option the cross does not offer. Paul called it the core of the Gospel. And if the account is true, Max Lucado says, "It is history's hinge. If not, its history's hoax." He says the challenge is this: if the cross is nothing new to you, it should be. You've seen it, you've worn it, you've thought about it, you've read about it, maybe you've even prayed to it. But do you know it? You cannot be a Christian without the cross. I want to say that again. You cannot be a Christian without the cross. It's like buying a car without an engine. It's impossible.

John Stott, talking about Holman Hunt's marvelous picture, "The Shadow of Death." We know Holman Hunt's picture of Jesus knocking on the door. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Remember, with the lantern? Maybe you've seen that, and that the handle is on the inside so we can open the door and let him in. That's his probably most famous painting. But there is a more famous painting actually of Holman Hunt's, and it's called "The Shadow of Death." And it depicts Jesus in his youth. And he's at the carpenter's bench. And as he's working there, there is the shadow of a cross as his father is working with him with a crossbeam against a crossbeam, perhaps for a house or a table. It throws the shadow of the cross. And Mary is in the corner of that picture, and she looks up with this startled look upon her face. His death, says Stott, was central to his mission. I believe that too.

There's a man in England called Malcolm Muggeridge. He's a very famous atheist. He was known all over the world for his literary genius. He was brought up in a lower-class socialist home and became a communist. But in his early days, he went to church to a Methodist chapel. And there they believed in a Jesus of good causes, and he believed in that too. And in Malcolm Muggeridge's heart was born this intense desire to save the world by goodness, by man's goodness, by the good humanness of man. And that's why he followed the communist conceptions and philosophies. He believed in this Jesus of good cause and he became a moving force in literature towards all the Western world. His books and his speeches and then later his television appearance. He spent some time in Russia, he became a dyed-in-the-wool communist.

He says this about his childhood. He could not understand how the cross could have anything or need to have anything to do with anything. "Then," he says, "I would catch a glimpse of the cross. Not necessarily a crucifix. Maybe two pieces of wood by accident nailed together on a telegraph post, for instance. And suddenly my heart would stand still. In an instinctive, intuitive way, I understood that something more important, more tumultuous, more passionate was at issue than our good causes, however admirable they might be. As I remembered that this symbol, considered derisory in my home, was yet also the focus of inconceivable hopes and dreams. And as I remembered this, a sense of my own failure lay leadenly upon me. I should have worn it over my heart, carried it as a precious standard, never to be wrested out of my hands, even though I fell, still borne aloft. It should have been my cult, my uniform, my language of life. I shall have no excuse. I can't say I didn't know. I knew from the beginning and I turned away."

Incredibly, Malcolm Muggeridge was converted through the life and witness of Mother Teresa in India on assignment as a top professional journalist. And he came to Christ. Later he said, "The only authentic Jesus is the Jesus who died on the cross. The cross is central to Christianity. And if you think of the word of Christianity, there is a T standing right in the middle of it. And that's it. You cannot be a Christian and just follow a Jesus who is the best man that ever lived. He was not only the best man that ever lived, and he was not the best man that ever lived if he told lies about the cross. You can't have it both ways."

Well, the disciples believed in the cross of Christ. They believed what the Master Jesus had told them about it, that it was the only way to heaven. The cross you see tells me what God thinks about my sin, that it must be judged. That there on the cross, the Lamb of God lay bleeding and dying. And that if I, as it were, in the pictures that have been given to the Jewish people throughout the Old Testament, lay my hands on his head upon the cross, my sin is imputed to him. And instead of me suffering justly for my sin, he bears it in his own body on the tree, as 1 Peter tells us.

All the Old Testament rituals point to it. John the Baptist pointed to Jesus and said, "There he is! He's come to take away the sin of the world!" And open your book of Revelation. There in heaven John saw it was a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. "Worthy is the lamb that was slain!" That's what the angels are singing. That's what the archangels are singing. That's what we'll be singing. Not worthy is the Jesus of good causes, the best man that ever lived, yes, all of that. But worthy is the lamb that was slain. You see, the cross is the only way into heaven. There's a door in the cross. And as Jesus hangs against that door, he says again, "I am the way. You cannot go to heaven except through the cross of Christ." And by that, I mean if you have never said, "Thank you Jesus for dying for me personally. If I was the only person left on earth, you would have had to come and die for me in order for me to go to heaven." If we have never personally understood that and personally acknowledged it and personally thanked him for it, we will not be in heaven. Though we call him Lord, though we sing the hymns, though we come to Bible study, though we give our money, though we give our body to be burned, we won't be there. For there is no other name given among men whereby we must be saved. It is not the Jesus of good causes that will take us to heaven. It is the Christ on the cross.

And so as we quietly approach the cross, I want us to see it through the eyes of the onlookers and also to hear what he wants us to hear about his cross today through the seven last words that he gave from the cross. After the farce of a trial, Pilate caved in to the demands of the leaders and he delivered Jesus to be crucified. First of all, they had to have their fun. Crucified victims were generally scourged with the flagellum, as you know, the leather-thronged whip with bits of metal tied along the throngs. As I thought of that, standing in that place where they played games with Jesus in Jerusalem, I remember the night before that experience on a holy land trip, writing these words to offer as my prayer in that place.

Scourged my king a platted crown, runs the blood of Godhead down. Ripped the flesh, the beard pulled out, cruel this sport and rude this shout. Scourged my king a platted crown, runs the blood of Godhead down. Scourged my king in soldier's den, exposed to beasts that dressed like men. Smelt the blood of prey soon caught and set my Jesus all at naught. Scourged my king a platted crown, runs the blood of Godhead down. Scourged my king a platted crown, here I kneel a trembling down. Beat my fists in silent fury while your world ignores your story. Scourged my king a platted crown, runs the blood of Godhead down. Scourged my king a platted crown, runs the blood of Godhead down. Can I doubt your Father's loss? Broken God on broken cross. Have I a wound or scar in me that mirrors thine on Calvary? Scourged my king a platted crown, runs the blood of Godhead down.

And so Jesus was scourged and led out to Calvary. After he was scourged, they took him out of his playclothes, dressed him again in his own, and led him to Calvary. And when he got there, as you know, they laid him with his bleeding, broken back on that rough cross and nailed him to it. And as those soldiers that had played their games with Jesus in their hall nailed him to the cross, he prayed, "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." Now, this does not mean they didn't know what they were doing in the sense of crucifying a man; they knew what they were doing. They didn't know *who* they were crucifying. That's what it means. They didn't know it was the Son of God.

And Jesus appeals to the Father. He doesn't say, "I forgive them." He appeals to his Father to forgive them. Can you imagine the Father watching the soldiers crucify his son? He needed to forgive them. Any sin against man is a sin against God. You know, most of the world doesn't know what they're doing. Most of the world doesn't realize that by bypassing the cross, trying to get to heaven another way, they are literally being a soldier, crucifying him again. These were the same men that had played their games with him, that had mocked him and spat on him and were all the way through the crucifixion teasing him with vinegar and gall.

Apparently Jesus asked for a drink. Can you imagine when he'd last had one? Probably the night before in the upper room when he'd drunk the wine and broken the bread. He had had a whole night of horror, the trial, I bet they didn't give him any drinks. And then the scourging, they certainly wouldn't relieve that with any drinks. And then carrying his cross through the streets of Jerusalem quite a way. Can you imagine how thirsty he was in the midday, Middle Eastern sun? And apparently as they put him on the cross, he had asked for a drink. And so they offered him vinegar and gall, a bitter, bitter drink and one that would not be given to assuaging his thirst. And during the crucifixion, a soldier here, a soldier there would push it in his face, tormenting him under the blistering heat. These were the soldiers that gambled for his clothes.

Now, the Jew's dress was a headdress, shoes, a linen undergarment or girdle, a coat, a tunic that hung below the knee, and an outer garment and a cloak, and possibly a staff. I don't know if you've seen pictures of a Jew in these clothes, but they're very typical even today. You can go to the Middle Eastern regions and you can see a lot of people still dressed as Jesus was dressed. They would look like him. And the tunic that went from his shoulders down below his knees was the garment that was woven in one piece. I wonder if Mary had made it. Who knows? But somebody lovingly had woven that garment by hand.

And when they divided the garments between them, for it was the soldier's pitiable loot or booty from a crucifixion, if they had the unfortunate job, and I'm sure none of them really enjoyed it, though brutalized by their system and their society they did it, they were given the clothes of the victims. And so the clothes of the thieves such as they were and the clothes of Jesus were all in piles, and as the victims lay writhing and screaming behind him and the thieves cursing the air, Jesus praying, they began to play games for this woven robe. The others were just probably put out among them and one would put a headdress on and say, "Oh, I'll have this. I need another headdress for when I'm off duty," and one would try a girdle round him, and the sandals and the shoes they would take their big Roman boots off or their sandals and they would try the sandals on. As I began to think about that this week, I wondered who got his clothes and specifically who got Jesus' sandals.

Who got Jesus' sandals? Who his headdress claimed? Who his outer garment to keep him from the rain? Who his staff and girdle? Who his robe applied? Who got Jesus' sandals when him they crucified? Who cast lots for tunic, scoffing while they played, joining in the taunting of him who'd been betrayed? Who dipped sponge in vinegar and pushed it in his face? Who got Jesus' sandals? The sin-sick human race. We the soldiers callous, we the guilty live, drawing lots for judgment, betting he'll forgive. We'll take our chance in heaven and him we'll crucify and trust the God will welcome us that fateful day we die. But when we face the Father, he'll say to us one thing: "Oh, you got Jesus' sandals. I wondered where they'd been." And unless we see ourselves in Jesus' sandals, we will never understand we crucified him. It was our sin that did it.

And you know, other people have said to me, "I would never have done it. I don't care what you say. I couldn't have done it." If you had been born a Roman soldier, you could. And it's only the pre-knowledge of God and his grace that we were born in America or wherever and that God has graced and gifted us the ability to be perhaps of other heart, to be a woman and not a man, to be who we are. Don't say I would never have done it. Never say never. If you had been a Roman soldier, you could have been the Roman soldier that got Jesus' sandals. And if you could put yourself in his sandals right now, then maybe you can get the point I'm giving you. It's because of me, it's because of you he died.

And so the first word of Jesus from the cross was that. "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing." They didn't really understand, but we do. And the greatest words of condemnation in the scriptures are for those that do understand, that have heard the Gospel from our earliest days and yet circumvent the cross. A Jesus of good causes. The bloody cross is unnecessary. A Jesus of gore is not my idea of being a Christian. Do you know how offensive that is to the Father that allowed Jesus, his beloved son to go through all this? Do you know what God the Father thinks of people that think nothing of the cross of his son Jesus Christ? The Bible tells us.

You see, only God can forgive sins. And the next word of Jesus from the cross tells us that, for there were two thieves crucified each side of Jesus. You can read about this in Luke's Gospel as well. And when they were crucified, they railed on him. They said, "Curse God and die like us!" And they couldn't understand why he didn't. But if you remember the story, one of those thieves saw something different in Jesus, even as the centurion, one of the soldiers did too. "Surely this was a son of God," when the centurion said that, incidentally, he was not saying this is the Son of God, the Messiah. He wouldn't understand any of that. He and his gods were courageous and brave, and when he saw the way Jesus died, he said, "Surely this is a son of the gods. He is dying so courageously and bravely, differently from the two thieves cursing and screaming at us and at God himself."

And maybe it was the loving prayer that Jesus prayed, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing," that the thief heard. But as he in his agony, his own death agony suffered the same physical death that Jesus was suffering, something caught his heart. And he started and rebuked his friend on the other cross and said, "Don't you fear God seeing that we're in the same condemnation?" And then he turned to Jesus and said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He got it right. Only God can forgive sins. Only God can take us into the kingdom through the cross. Only Jesus can remember us in front of the Father. When you and I die and stand in front of God and the Father says, when we've arrived there and we're all alone standing in front of our Maker, "Who's this?" Jesus will remember us and he will say, "Father, this is Jill Briscoe." Put your name in there. This is I remember she came to my cross. She stood in my sandals. She said she was sorry. And the Father will say, "I remember her too. Welcome. Come in." "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."

And you know when the forgiveness of God really dawns on us, on what Jesus has done for us, we are then able to forgive others. We are then able to say to those that insult us and revile us and do all this awful stuff to us, whether we're little children or whether we're old, or whether we're wives that have been mistreated, mishandled by our husbands or whatever has happened to us, only if you have experienced the forgiveness of God will you know what it is to truly forgive other people, as you have been forgiven.

I think of Corrie ten Boom faced with the prison guard that had so mistreated her sister to death in the Nazi prisoner-of-war camp. I wrote two little books for children, the "Beginning of a Hero" series about this. One is on Corrie ten Boom's life, one is on Festo Kivengere's life, people who learned to forgive because they had been forgiven. And as Corrie stood in front of that guard, she said her arm would not come up to shake that woman's hand. The woman had been converted. She came up to her after a meeting and said, "Oh, sister Corrie, isn't it wonderful? I too have been to the foot of the cross. I too have stood in Jesus' sandals. I too have been forgiven. Now we are sisters." And all the hatred and all the bitterness welled up in Corrie's heart as she remembered Betsy, her beloved sister, and what had happened to her at Ravensbrück. But she said as she brought her hand up through sheer willpower to shake her hand, it was as if that hot bolt of God's power went through her hand and she was able to do it and say, "Sister."

Now then, only God can do that sort of thing. Only God can lift his hand to shake ours one day when we stand in front of him, for we crucified Jesus. But he will lift his hand and say, "Sister, relative, come in. You are a sister of my son. You belong here." Only God can do that. I think of a more modern situation right here in our church fellowship, of a lovely young girl who had a very happy marriage and her husband took off with barely a teenage girl and left her with two children to raise. She picked up the bits of her life, she joined this church. She began to serve, finding that therapy. And she served in the new members class. And one day about a year later, as she was sitting at the table making name tags, she heard a familiar voice and she looked up into the face of her husband, her ex-husband, and his teenage mistress, both of whom had come to Christ and both of whom were joining this church. As the hostess of that group, she was absolutely frozen. She couldn't move. What could she say? She looked down and made out the name tags, the familiar name of a husband that she still loved and his mistress, barely a teenager. And she heard the voice of Jesus, "Father, forgive them. They really don't know what they're doing." Well, maybe they did know what they were doing, but she got the message from heaven. As she had been forgiven, he would so give her power to forgive. And she told me the story herself. She's a quiet little lady, wonderful Christian lady. She said, "Somehow I stood up and took those name tags, went around and put them on both their chests and said, 'Welcome. Come on, I'll give you a cup of coffee.'" Now, the other side of the cross you can do that, but you have to go through the cross first to even be able to think about it.

"Father, forgive them, they know not what they do. Together today you shall be with me in paradise." And then the third word from the cross: "Woman, behold your son; son, behold your mother." Jesus knew the need of the human race was in the area of relationships. And that Mary was going to be very lonely. Mary was not a stranger to stigma, I want you to know, and it's obvious all her life she'd lived with it. Even when Jesus was in the middle of his ministry, people had called after him down the street after a sermon, "Bastard! Bastard! Bastard!" He never got rid of the stigma. Mary never got rid of the stigma. But oh, now his mother that stood at the foot of his cross had an extra stigma. She was now the mother of a crucified man or of a crucified illegitimate bastard in the eyes of her society. How was she going to cope with that?

Even the Romans used the word crux, C-R-U-X for cross, as a four-letter word. Jesus thought of the answer. As he was dying for the sins of every man and woman who had been born up to then and every man and woman that would be born to the end of time, as he was doing all of that, he took time out to care for a widow and to care for John, his best friend, both of whom were the closest people probably to him on this earth. And he committed them to each other. "Mother, behold your son. Son, behold your mother." He thought of them and the loneliness that was ahead. And you know when the soldier pierced Jesus' side and there came out blood and water, Mary experienced that too in a deeper spiritual, emotional, psychological, ghastly way. A sword pierced her own heart also, as years before Simeon had told her it would. And yet she turned around into the arms of John, and it says in the Bible that he took her into his home from that day on. And you find them there in the upper room on the day of Pentecost together in the forever family of God, the bigger family of God.

And so the moment came when Jesus cried, turning his attention away from all the people he was still ministering to and saving the thief on the cross and his mom and his best friend and caring for them and forgiving the soldiers, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And now there is no thought in his mind save one relationship, and that with his Father, who for never a moment in the whole of eternity had he been separated from. And so Psalm 22 tells us he starts that Psalm, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" And the Psalm is full of lions and wild animals ripping somebody to shreds, and specifically a lion. And of course on Good Friday, the lion got him. But of course on Easter Sunday morning, he got the lion.

And then he said, "I thirst." And what happened on the cross quite simply was that was the point that all our sin somehow we can't understand it was placed on Jesus. And because God is holy, he turned his face away from his son. And Jesus bore it alone in his perfect humanity and his perfect sonship. The Son of God did it alone. And how the Trinity can be divided, who knows? We can never know and we probably shall never know even when we get to heaven. That perhaps is something only God can know and understand. But what we need to know is it happened, and it happened for us.

And so he said, "I thirst." And this time he wet his lips, that's all, with the vinegar that was once more shoved in his face in order that he might cry with the voice of triumph, "It's finished! Tetelestai! Done! I've finished the work you gave me to do!" And once more, the Father and the Son were back together. He'd finished his Father's business. He'd finished the redemption of the world. He'd finished his death on our behalf. Now he could go home. And at that point, the temple curtain split from top, from heavenward to earthward. And suddenly the Holy of Holies was opened to everybody that happened to be there. A way to God was made. And as Hebrews tells us, the Lamb of God took himself the sacrifice and offered himself in the Holy of Holies. And God said, "I accept it!" And the curtain was rent that you and I might not be kept out from the promise of God.

And Jesus said to his spirit, "Spirit, go home." The way that the scripture has it is that this was a dismissal of his spirit. "No man takes my life from me," says Jesus, "I lay it down of myself. Spirit, go home." And so Jesus' spirit was once more united with his Father's spirit and it was over.

You know, we started off this session singing some wonderful songs about the cross, and one of my favorites, I echo theirs: "Beneath the cross of Jesus, I fain would take my stand, the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land, a home within the wilderness, a rest upon the way, from the burning of the noontide heat and the burden of the day. Upon that cross of Jesus, my eyes at times can see the very dying form of one who suffered there for me. And from my smitten heart with tears, two wonders I confess: the wonders of redeeming love and my unworthiness."

Now listen to these words. And if you can, and if you never have, never really have, make them yours. Shut your eyes if you like and let my voice be your voice. "I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place. I ask no other sunshine than the sunshine of your face. Content to let the world go by, to know no gain or loss, my sinful self, my only shame, my glory all the cross."

Let's pray. Continue to make my words yours if you'd like. O Father God, thou who didst let thy son suffer and die as a punishment for sin in my place, thank you. And thank you Jesus Christ for coming and for dying and for doing what was necessary to deal with the sin that separates me from a holy God. I ask you to invade my life as never before, by your spirit to come within, to forgive my sin, to cleanse my heart and my life, my mind, my soul. To help me to understand the cross. Save me, Lord. Forgive me, Lord. Fill me, Lord. I ask it for Jesus Christ' sake, and in his name I pray. Amen.