His name is Jesus.

Today may just be another Friday to you, but to me, it represents the most sorrowful day in the history of the world: the day that represents when the Savior of mankind + Redeemer of creation was crucified.  The weight of all our sin rested on His shoulders, and He suffered in place of His people. On His right + His left, there were two criminals: one who mocked Him, and another who confessed belief in who He was + was told he would be with Him in paradise that day. Who will you chose to be? Will you side with everyone who put Him on the cross like the hopeless criminal or will you call on His name, depending on Him as your Eternal Refuge as the humble criminal did? In Matthew 1:21, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph before the birth of our Savior and said, "You are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins."

Will you call upon His name, the name of Jesus Christ, and be saved? Will you receive the gift of life that He offered to us by His crucifixion + resurrection + defeat of death? Won't you, as Galatians 2:20 says, be crucified with Christ so you can truly live? If you call on His name + accept the saving grace He offers + repent in submission, you will be hidden with Christ, and will appear with Him in glory when He comes for His holy ones (Colossians 3:3-4 + 1 Thessalonians 3:13).

"He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteem him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was up him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth."

-Isaiah 53:3-9

This is my Jesus. This is my Hope. I praise Him that He loved me first (1 John 4:10 + 4:19). I, also, praise Him for although He undeservingly died a criminal's death, the grave could not hold Him. The third day is coming, and those who are in Him will rejoice! Our God is not dead.