Merry Christmas in July! and we just had Easter yesterday – and Good Friday and summer VBS fun!!!
A blessed week we have been having and celebrating = and all that good stuff!!!
I know that the blessing comes to all, and imagine the blessings to one little sheep – one little child – by the extravagant outpouring of LOVE to them. Imagine it to us!!!
I feel like that sheep too – exhausted but blessed – and one more night tonight.
Last night we enjoyed learning about Jesus and His Sacrifice of our sins – we watched a beautiful portrayal of Jesus going to the cross – and we got light sticks for shining HIS Light… (and the actor portraying Him was beaming ear to ear with a smile that could not be beat)
Jesus loves the little children so much! Jesus got us out of a sticky situation of sin and we made SLIME for the sticky situation in Imagination Station – and watched a demo of a sin snowball styrofoam dissolving in acetone nail polish remover – and we also made our own Northern Lights in water with a touch of hydrogen peroxide and glitter and highlighter markers that oozed out awesome colors.
Well, Merry Christmas in July! July 25th. No the calendar is not messed up – it is a movie reference and celebrated in pockets… And well, honestly we need to remind these kids what happened on Christmas and what happened on Easter. You would be surprised, I always am, that the kids mix up naming those holidays – they really do. We have a LOT to teach – and Jesus has a LOT to share – and VBS is one of the most fun ways to do that…
HOPE – if you need HOPE – TRUST JESUS!!!! Yeah – hope in our future is brightened to know that Jesus is already with these children and the ones to come – and with us too…
If we know in His Victory – we KNOW LIFE – we KNOW HOPE – share that GOOD NEWS!
Easter morning was a blessing of being able to stroll into the cemetery with the lack of fearing death. Jesus VICTORIOUS, celebrated on Easter morning… Us knowing He overcame and we won’t have the eternal sting of death either one day, in rising one day WITH His command.
Yes, we do have such sorrow for our lost loved ones – as my daughter was able to express in the cemetery when we went later that afternoon. Yet even then as I comforted her, I could think of the peace these folks had now – whether they feared death or not, they were now at peace.
The fear of death, however, came back for me surely quickly as I rode the roads home, with a good but NEW driver at the wheel. Whew, Jesus take the wheel, the whoa, the woe, and the whew… I gripped that “Oh God bar” in the view of a few semi-trucks swerving and us going into construction cattle corral-like chutes with no breathing room… Whew, we are fine, and I took over in the last 45 minutes as it got dark… Whew, Whew, thank you Lord for the safe arrival home. Praise that is due!!! And THANK YOU LORD for an extra and safe driver as she journeys now through life.
Life moves fast and the road bumpy bumps as the Day grows long…
Remember however that we have ULTIMATE PEACE ahead of us, even if we have a bumpy ride getting there. Like our roads, life it seems is always “under construction”… We are to know the narrow gate is Jesus Himself getting us through to heaven. Sometimes it feels like someone “picked up” the life we have and is shaking us, like a game, into a slot labeled home. But we are the know that as Jesus holds our hand, we are going to need Him for this bumpy road challenge course called life. Our challenge to keep looking to Him.
We need to hold onto this fixation upon Him, especially when we travel into the rest of this year. After that early morning celebration, we need the Holy Spirit hope and movement going forward, staying on track, lighting the way.
Back up home, I took a moment to see the natural gorgeous waterfalls. We all do love waterfalls, the sight and loud sound, but probably not being in a barrel tumbling down them. We appreciate simply sitting or walking around the waterfalls and hearing that crashing water sound helps drown out noise of our heads overthinking, help us remember that the Lord moves mountains and is IN CONTROL. With a rumble of a waterfall crash or with the calmness of still water, He hold it all in His Power.
In driving, my new driver did well, my new “passenger position” is what stressed me out. In life you also have to let Jesus drive, you have to keep your eyes on Jesus more than the earthly road. And ask for that fresh filling of Spirit – fresh air in the tires that we need to keep rolling…
Follow the Light, the Jesus Headlights, He knows the Way…
Amen to today!
“God is Light, in Him there is no darkness at all”, 1st John 1:5
Yesterday, Good Friday, on our annual trek around town carrying a big cross between churches, a pastor speaker challenged us to think about whom we were walking for. We were surely walking in witness of our trek, remembering the way of Jesus, but were we able to walk “in spirit” for the marginalized, wrongly accused, and ignored people. I do pray justice in mercy for downtrodden folks This walk specifically however I thought to myself that as I was walking enjoying the comradery of Christ-followers that perhaps it was best that I frame my mind in prayer for others without this knowledge… I decided I would walk for the LOST.
LOST. Pray one day that they will find that they were found.
I myself being awake and aware now 10 years, I best find myself to pray mercy of those asleep in faith like I was. I pray for the prideful and even angry, those bothered and bitter, the ignorant and arrogant, the LOST. I pray for their Easter to come, to see the light, to rise from their earthly graves.
What does it mean to be lost? Spiritually lost? I didn’t understand until I was found. There surely are millions of skeptical cynics out there, not just bliss ignorance but vengeful dark mud-stuck lost. May we see one day they prayerfully become sincere seekers. As I am THANKFUL to be found, I cry tears of salvation in JOY, so let me spare a Jesus Tear for these lost.
In the Revolutionary War cemetery on our trek, one of our stops, I learned they found very little of the 248 yr old remnants during excavation performed just 30 years ago. They weren’t moving dissolved caskets, just cataloging what was lost now “found”. The land was swamp marsh and “to dust” (mush, mud, dust) so these soldiers returned, lost in flesh but not in memory. The cemetery was unmarked and long lost. Thankfully they had records of written stories of the burials, then they decided to look hard during the whole area’s excavation for development. They found shifted soil with detectors, some artifacts, and structural 4-deep placement. They had known the recruited hospital was nearby, not far from the battlefield but also entrenched in fever episodes of the day. The clues were ready to be picked up. Bur the soldiers had already moved on. The cemetery found but the soldiers gone. We pray them found.
How can we walk for the lost? By leaving trails, traits, teachings behind. By shining the light forward. By great commission continuation. By shifting the soil under others from dry or rocky or thorny into good. Shifted soil makes for a shifted soul and then joyful memories. Pray for the lost and pick up a cross with a shovel attachment and look to find those who need a little shifting.
We pray to keep walking and keep walking to keep praying.
My friend’s son made a cute easter craft project and all the people around Jesus were every which way around the paper. Yes, that’s how life, even post Easter, feels at times, like a trampoline of life. Jesus would understand!
Jesus knew and knows about storms of the weather and the storms of life.
It WAS a wild storm last night, well a normal storm, we forget sometimes that this is how weather works, storms are “normal” – and thus building codes as they are, and it’s why there are drainage places, and places to take cover. It may feel like April fools with cold weather – but yes this too is “seasonal normal”…
I don’t live in tornado areas, my prayers for those folks for sure. We here have “normal storms”. I live on a hill, close my door and ignore them. Well ignore most of my fear now that we don’t have big trees here anymore. And I tamper my fear down while waiting for my youngest to come home late from work. It’s a normal storm so normal concern is normal. (The cat however knew the severity of the storm! Her eyes said volumes! And she knew to hunker down.)
I want to enter this month of Easter thinking of the storms and retreats of Jesus walking the earth. It was just 3 years on earth, that’s so short, yet every step was meaningful and real. Including and especially the retreats. Jesus took retreats, sometimes out of the storm, sometimes into a storm, ALWAYS praying through the storms and through the calm. I hope we remember the Lord’s STRENGTHENING and tap into it.
Jesus weighed not just the day in His sight, but the whole of all from the beginning of time. Jesus IS Alpha and Omega and every little letter in between. Jesus being the Word, provided the letters too to explain His journey. Luke tells us that He often withdrew and prayed. The Lord’s STRENGTHENING came in praying.
Jesus prayed in obedience not in requests alone. Alignment with God is not God aligning with our will. There are storms, there is HOPE, and with God there is guidance and strengthening.
“The Lord stood with me and strengthened me.”
Let us start this month with the wind still blowing, the storms still passing, but ourselves walking with Jesus, standing with Jesus, resting with Jesus, and just plain living with Jesus as we trail out of and into each day. Let us pray through our way, HIS WAY, and always one day at a time…
Amen
—
Luke 5:15-16 NKJV
However, the report went around concerning Him all the more; and great multitudes came together to hear, and to be healed by Him of their infirmities. So He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed.
If there’s one thing that has gone unexplained this Christmas, for me, it is the appearance of what I could say is way too many christmas penguins!!! I have no explanation, but I have visualized more penguins this year, than ever. But it’s probably because I know I have a heightened awareness of noticing them. I don’t necessarily like this (nothing against regular penguins, mind you), I don’t like it because it reminds me of a falsehood planted by a movie “When Santa Claus Comes to Town”, showing one penguin “Topper” to work with Santa at Santa’s workshop – but it’s the wrong attribute of the North Pole, penguins are only at the South Pole (and remarkable animals they are) – it is the carried away portion of interpretation I don’t like, for no good reason. And I DO know that this is ALL SILLY and there’s plenty of Santa Christmas unexpected and unexplained – and SILLY. I mean I have no problems with other Santa misconceptions, I’m not sure why these penguins BUG ME this year specifically, except that my last resort (should have been my first resort) is to connect my situation of visualization with a spiritual perspective and I write what it COULD mean in a devotion… It’s all personal because I have to process verbally in some format..
(Hilarity aside, I do NOT want to collect penguins, so nobody send me one… And I already have a few.)
I started asking this morning: “Lord, let’s close this chapter away this year, ok?”, before I undecorate, let me know what I should write, process, penguin away. I know that there is a lesson in unexplained penguins with a yet connected Christmas experience – this is of a foreigner – so perhaps for my writing and certainly there’s lots in the pondering to explain in the real Christmas story of You without even placing it on a certain date that got introduced thousand plus years ago as a calendar feast day… Perhaps we can be reminded that as beautiful as this earth is, we are foreigners here. As beautiful as Christmas scenes are, You came in not with flashing lights and neon, but humbled as a baby, You were and still are viewed too as foreign and even radical in love, to so many who don’t know You, do not understood You.
Christmas unexplained became Easter realized for so many, including us in faith.
Lord, You are not of this world, but connected fully to it’s people, and creatures, and creations. You Lord, remind us to work in place, be Your hands and feet in our little corner of the earth, at Christmas and always. Ah… our mindset also must shift to not be afraid to humbly move away from comfort and into the foxholes of life, move into mission and movement. Take the baby of our Christmas faith and raise it up in foreign territory, like Joseph and Mary going to Egypt, and back, protecting the Jesus in our personal perspective and care.
I’m not ready to put away Christmas decorations yet, we only just now got some snow and the tucked away feeling that I allow myself for January (but not February because that finds me ready for winter camping with scouts and polar plunges etc)… but for now I will stay in and ponder christmas unexplained and process what can be processed with the explanation that as homey as we make it here in our houses or this earth, it’s still not our home.
Work in the world, like Jesus, but stay away from the trappings…
Let us waddle like a penguin in danger and away from it (like this ice this morning), walk like a penguin and yet fly in faith with Jesus to wherever we need to go, explained or not…
Christmas unexplained is faith realized…
Amen
—-
Paul’s exhortation to fellow Jesus believers in those early days:
Hebrews 13:1-2, 5-NIV
Concluding Exhortations
Keep on loving one another as brothers and sisters. Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.
…
Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.” So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?”
Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith. Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by eating ceremonial foods, which is of no benefit to those who do so. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
—
John 8:12-30
Dispute Over Jesus’ Testimony
When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
The Pharisees challenged him, “Here you are, appearing as your own witness; your testimony is not valid.”
Jesus answered, “Even if I testify on my own behalf, my testimony is valid, for I know where I came from and where I am going. But you have no idea where I come from or where I am going. You judge by human standards; I pass judgment on no one. But if I do judge, my decisions are true, because I am not alone. I stand with the Father, who sent me. In your own Law it is written that the testimony of two witnesses is true. I am one who testifies for myself; my other witness is the Father, who sent me.”
Then they asked him, “Where is your father?”
“You do not know me or my Father,” Jesus replied. “If you knew me, you would know my Father also.” He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come.
Dispute Over Who Jesus Is
Once more Jesus said to them, “I am going away, and you will look for me, and you will die in your sin. Where I go, you cannot come.” This made the Jews ask, “Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, ‘Where I go, you cannot come’?” But he continued, “You are from below; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins; if you do not believe that I am he, you will indeed die in your sins.”
“Who are you?” they asked.
“Just what I have been telling you from the beginning,” Jesus replied. “I have much to say in judgment of you. But he who sent me is trustworthy, and what I have heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not understand that he was telling them about his Father. So Jesus said, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he and that I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me. The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him.” Even as he spoke, many believed in him.
It’s still Christmas for people, for those still celebrating and for those who wait for loved ones delayed in visiting, or are in the hospital. The tree will hold, the fridge will preserve, the date on the calendar means little compared to the celebration stage. Just like every holiday, it is the celebrating that is a state of mind over everything. It’s the REALNESS of the SAVIOR over the symbolism, the CONNECTION over the commercialism of convenience. (And why would precious gifts go 50% off based on a date anyway if they were THAT important in life.) Let us choose Christmas cheer over gifts this time of year.
What’s real Christmas? Jesus arriving! Jesus arriving to fulfill prophesy (as written in Micah 5), be the babe of humble means from Bethlehem in lowly Judah, AND to be wonderful counselor, Jesus to be Mighty King of the ultimate Kingdom, AND to rule as KING upon His return on earth, AND to be acknowledged as KING of our hearts all the days in between… Real Christmas becomes Real Easter… Real Easter becomes a wait to see Jesus return from the heavens… “and He will be our peace…”
What about the Israelites and all the scattered Jewish people? Jesus Messiah will come back for Gentiles and Jews. Micah 5 states about a Savior: He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.
Micah educates all that Jewish people will be scattered, but remain loyal to Israel: The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples – AND – lifted up in triumph over your enemies. This is not just ancient history but future prophesy. And with God’s “anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me”,God will surely demonstrate His Almighty Power.
So Jesus keeps Christmas Spirit alive and we worship God for His Greatness, celebrating Jesus for His Mission, and stay tuned to the HolySpirit for directions on giving credit where credit is due: God from ancient old is still current and will reign again on earth. Jesus wants to reign in our hearts forever.
We know it as prophesy AND now TRUTH.
CHRISTMAS continues for those still learning about Jesus. Easter comes for saving all. And Jesus comes again to put all evil down forever.
Amen
—
Micah 5 NIV
A Promised Ruler From Bethlehem
Marshal your troops now, city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod.
“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”
Therefore Israel will be abandoned until the time when she who is in labor bears a son, and the rest of his brothers return to join the Israelites.
He will stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they will live securely, for then his greatness will reach to the ends of the earth.
And he will be our peace when the Assyrians invade our land and march through our fortresses. We will raise against them seven shepherds, even eight commanders, who will rule the land of Assyria with the sword, the land of Nimrod with drawn sword. He will deliver us from the Assyrians when they invade our land and march across our borders.
The remnant of Jacob will be in the midst of many peoples like dew from the Lord, like showers on the grass, which do not wait for anyone or depend on man. The remnant of Jacob will be among the nations, in the midst of many peoples, like a lion among the beasts of the forest, like a young lion among flocks of sheep, which mauls and mangles as it goes, and no one can rescue. Your hand will be lifted up in triumph over your enemies, and all your foes will be destroyed.
“In that day,” declares the Lord, “I will destroy your horses from among you and demolish your chariots. I will destroy the cities of your land and tear down all your strongholds. I will destroy your witchcraft and you will no longer cast spells. I will destroy your idols and your sacred stones from among you; you will no longer bow down to the work of your hands. I will uproot from among you your Asherah poles when I demolish your cities. I will take vengeance in anger and wrath on the nations that have not obeyed me.”
I didn’t know the snow would stick, it’s BEAUTIFUL!!! Just enough to be pretty, will probably melt later, won’t stick around for a white Christmas, but technically I can say we have snow! It’s even on the winter solstice!
It was sort of predicted, without the hype this time around! I had just gotten my “SNOWBARU” car decorations on, a new wreath this year with big flakes when the real stuff came, unexpectedly, and I appreciated it melting on a busy Christmas-time preparation day. Still much to do…
Expectation and appreciation for a White as Snow situation was unfolding in a manger in Bethlehem, in the Christmas gift of Christ. Isaiah forecasted this, he predicted in prophesy, and became a scribe of the Lord’s special message, for a Savior would come, Who would cleanse the sins of all “WHITE AS SNOW”…
Reading Isaiah, it is clear the earth’s people would take a while to respond, as the prophets told of Jesus coming, but only a few saw the light through the hundreds of years passing… Only a few knew to look. It’s so clear now IN the LIGHT, but for those who walk in darkness still, we pray they see. It’s still a long winter, so much to do before spring. If only we can see the preparation time as purposeful.
Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow”
So, in an AMAZING Way, the Lord brings as CHRISTMAS SNOW – His mercy and grace to last forever – to forgive us – to bring us into His fold. Jesus was prophesied to come to earth and shepherd us, although His physical body melted as snow, pain and sorrow in a short 33years before crucifixion, HE ROSE and rehydrated our lives with His Living Water, and separated our sin far away from us. WASHED CLEAN. Christmas, Easter and Forever.
A gift of a Savior is SALVATION FOREVER. Thank you Isaiah for your forecast. Thank You Lord for the snow, and You as our GIFT.
Now that is perfect Christmas preparation…
Amen
—
Isaiah 1:18
“Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, They shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, They shall be as wool.”
Isaiah 51:1-6 NKJV
The Lord Comforts Zion
“Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness, You who seek the Lord: Look to the rock from which you were hewn, And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug. Look to Abraham your father, And to Sarah who bore you; For I called him alone, And blessed him and increased him.”
For the Lord will comfort Zion, He will comfort all her waste places; He will make her wilderness like Eden, And her desert like the garden of the Lord; Joy and gladness will be found in it, Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
“Listen to Me, My people; And give ear to Me, O My nation: For law will proceed from Me, And I will make My justice rest As a light of the peoples. My righteousness is near, My salvation has gone forth, And My arms will judge the peoples; The coastlands will wait upon Me, And on My arm they will trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens, And look on the earth beneath. For the heavens will vanish away like smoke, The earth will grow old like a garment, And those who dwell in it will die in like manner; But My salvation will be forever, And My righteousness will not be abolished.
I’m making soup for Holy Thursday church meal – a simple meal – not a huge feast. I’m making 2 kinds of soup: 16 bean and tomato. I’ve never made these kinds of soup, but I’m OK, grateful, because I am following roughly to recipe, and it’s not gonna be SO bad, right? Just add more garlic…
Like I said, I’m not really perfect on recipe, making some substitutions. It’s even an unknown if I bring it hot or cold and heat it up there… I’ll figure it out along the way, it’s a journey right? It’s just soup. It’s going to be alright, croutons or no croutons.
Jesus didn’t live life so flippantly and spur of the moment… He was preparing for the Passover meal, Holy Thursday, the Last Supper… He had it planned down to the hair of the head of everybody who was there. He had it planned down to the ear of everybody who would hear about it forever. He had the room, the table seats, the cushions, the captive audience and even the betrayal planned. He knew what was in the soup and how it would go down.
Another thing Jesus did not leave the chance, Jesus knew the crew. Jesus knew who they were that day and so importantly that he knew whom they would become, how they would touch lives, how they would spread the church and knowledge of His Good News. But of course He also cautioned them to not go it alone because He knew how they would need and accept the Holy Spirit and be moved by it. He knew whom they would become FOR HIM – us too.
These disciples were not perfect but they were PERFECT FOR JESUS. These bumbling seemingly clueless disciples would become spirit-filled and so noticeably changed that people would take notice. These disciples would become the beginners of the church and so effective beyond their understanding, but all within the knowledge and the plan of Jesus. Wow.
What about us? What do we bring to the soup? Do we fear to tread because we don’t realize we are being led? Do we hesitate to open our mouths for fear of retaliation? We are Thursday night disciples and we need to cook a bit more in maturation – feel the heat and even the burn of Friday- simmer on Saturday – rest then realize that the Sunday Soup is Ready! Hallelujah! Easter Sunday awaits our praise!!!… Now, don’t put the soup into the back of the fridge now that it is made and raised, but keep ladling it out, with a Holy Spirit pour… keep it going… pass it on...
We probably never think that we are ready. But Jesus didn’t pick us only to simmer, instead He picked us to Shine. Like soup that seemed so hard to make before gathering ingredients, it’s easier when we read His Recipe, settle down and look at our abilities and our tools (I mean I do own 2 crockpots and like 17 ladles, I might as well use them), and then get busy to feed the hungry, share the love.
I am truly talking not about soup but sharing the LOVE of JESUS with all whom we meet – and then when they are surprised and complementary to us – tell them that it was God Who cooked up this moment – not us – if you are to boast then boast in the Lord.
I’m sure this evening I will be surprised when people say (if they say) this is good soup. I am certainly surprised when people see spiritual hope in me. But I am to remember that the One who cooks up this whole life is the Lord Himself. Who am I to not know Him as good and know His protection to keep stirring up life in Him for Him. Who am I to know now growth and maturity and go with it for He Himself is the One who cooks up this life for us to keep sharing Him – one ladle or a whole pot at a time.
Let’s keep stirring the pot.
Let’s listen to the Lord.
Let us taste and know that He is good.
Amen
—
Taste and see that the Lord is good;
blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.
Fear the Lord, you his holy people,
for those who fear him lack nothing.
The lions may grow weak and hungry,
but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing.
Come, my children, listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days,
Greater Love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.
Today Palm Sunday, we are waving our palms and saying Hosanna, seeing You Jesus as a great king. May we see You Jesus as OUR King, a Heavenly king and not just an earthly king. May we be walking with You this whole week, still saying Hosanna as we want to grow – grow from the sheep being fed – to disciples being led.
May our Hosannas come with hope everlasting and a willingness to believe. Oh Jesus, Lord, please keep us from becoming that crowd that scorns You, denies You, and leaves You hanging by Friday. We ask Lord to remain walking step by step and be a witness as we all get to Thursday, Your last supper on earth, Your Passover feast, to break bread with You. We want to try to stay awake with You in the garden. We WANT to be Your friend, but our sleepiness is shown in Your tears. And please console us on Friday, Lord, open our eyes to see why such darkness was necessary in death and then truly allow us to see the Light overcoming darkness, by GLORIOUS Sunday. Let us not remain those wondering Saturday people, lost and hopeless. Bring us Lord to Easter and understanding, Jesus let us taste in Your resurrection and Life.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that who-so-ever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
So today Lord, we are Your people who lay down their coats and palms, may we continue all week and for all of our days to lay down our plans for Yours, lay down our expectations for Your enrichment. Kneel at Your cross and tomb then keep walking and share your Good News:
For God sent nothis Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Please Lord send your Holy Spirit. As we receive Your Word today may we be filled with Your Spirit to open our ears and hearts to hear Your Voice as Shephard, know You as Prince of Peace, and to understand You and Your plan for us.
And Sweet Jesus, may we continue this Holy Week being led in praise and in measured steps, onedayatatime.
Let me take a moment to explain Christian faith – which I know ‘By Faith’. So, I will not be able to explain all of Christianity religions, as there are hundreds of denominations – yet I can speak to the understanding that our Christian faith is to be understood as a relationship over a ritualistic religion. A defining of deity for Christians would certainly be that we follow Christ, Jesus Christ, and that we respect and understand a Divine Trinity of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and Holy Spirit, three in One. The Holy Spirit in the world today and inside each Christian who is ‘moved by the Spirit’ always is to point back to Jesus as our Lord and our Savior. Jesus came into the world 2000 years ago in the flesh (Emmanuel – God with us). Jesus Himself walked the earth for approximately 33 years and is recorded in the New Testament for His teachings and also for His miracles and His mercy. The New Testament also includes the Acts of the Apostles (those who followed Jesus closely in Jesus’s time), the early church, the spreading of the teachings to make disciples of Jesus, and the revelation of Jesus coming again. One of the understandings of Christianity is that Jesus did miracles to point back to ‘the Word’ – which means that Jesus wanted to show that He came to do His Father’s Will – and to fulfill the prophesies of His coming – of His death and resurrection – and of Him coming again. Jesus ALWAYS pointed back to God the Father as the ultimate One in control – Jesus spoke of His short time on earth – but also of His sending the Holy Spirit to help each of us in the world.
By Faith, a known of Christianity is that we are ‘not of this world’ but of Heaven. Jesus came to allow us to gain access back to heaven and to eternity with God our Father, but covering all our sins – by ‘covering us with His blood’ to be white as snow and forgiven of sin. The key aspect of Christianity is that we are to understand that with man it is impossible but with God, all things are possible. And thus Jesus came to earth to fulfill both those prophesies of His coming and of His journey – as well as be the ‘fulfillment of the Law’ which means that the Old Testament requirement for adherence to the laws handed down by God to Moses in the 10 commandments. Because we refer to the lack of adherence to the 10 Commandments as the brokenness of the people, God put in a system of sacrificial rituals, in Old Testament times. Because of this broken system – with broken people ever since Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden broke the original sin – ate of the tree that was forbidden for them to eat from – thus distancing themselves from God’s closest companionship – a system of sacrifice was allowed and required to repair the rift. The Plan from the beginning (we say even before the beginning of time) is that God was planning this ‘New Covenant’ – defined and achieved as ‘redemption’ by Jesus entering the world and then being sacrificed as the ultimate sacrificial lamb – a ransom for all sins of all people. Jesus as fulfilment of now both the laws and the prophesies. What does Jesus ask and require of people to receive this redemption? That we love God and that we love one another. The redemption is from Him, the response is the request of forgiveness of sins (old and current), and the relationship is restored between God and us.
Where do we learn this? We are asked to read the Holy Bible – both Old and New Testaments – and we are asked to look for the relationship – as Jesus lives now in our hearts. God is love – and we love because He first loved us.
By Faith – we believe and experience that when Jesus calls to us as our Shepherd, we hear and understand His Voice – because we all know that the world has so many conflicting noisy distractions clamoring for our attention. By faith we also know in Christianity that the evil in the world is created and fostered by the opposite of the Love of God – by a fallen angel named Satan. By faith, we know from the first readings in the book of Genesis, that Jesus as Messiah would come to crush the head and the power of the devil, and the win over sin and death is already accomplished by the ransom of Jesus for our sins. We also know that Jesus will come again into the world, at any time, to complete the purpose of silencing the devil in all ways. We await that day now, just as the devoted in the old testament times awaited the first coming of Christ. We await that second coming.
By Faith – we are in this world and we make the best of this world and we bring God’s best to it by sharing His Love. “Love Wins” may be a catchy phrase – and it is scriptural: ‘Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.’
By faith – they are to know we are Christians by our Love.
Debbie Upper 