It;s Friday and for those of you that don’t have that song still stuck in your head you realize that we are on the verge of one of my favorite weeks of the year. It kicks of this weekend with what has been called Palm Sunday and then ends next week with the Resurection day on the Passover! This is exciting stuff.
And so today I thought I would share one of my favorite verses and one of the verses motivates me to keep writing this blog. When Jesus was entering Jersalem he was being praised by the residents there, much to the chagrin of the “religious leaders” of the time. Take a look:
35 They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. 36 As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road.
37 When he came near the place where the road goes down the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of disciples began joyfully to praise God in loud voices for all the miracles they had seen:
38 “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”
39 Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Jesus, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples!”
What I love about this verse is that Jesus says hey if you silence them, even the stones will cry out and testify to me! That’s pretty powerful!
But why does that motivate me? As much as I would love to see stones literally praising him, I think that is my job to testify of his love and grace and mercy.
How about you, are you letting the rocks do your job, or are you keeping them relegated to a back up role?
It’s seems like it was just Easter, but here is it Halloween. ( we know who is coming right around the bend!)
The amazing thing about Halloween to me is the growth of adult costumes. I remember trickertreatin’ ( that’s is one word correct?) when I was a young lad and remember just one home where the adults would be in costume. Now it seems that is so much the norm. A few weeks back we received the costume advertisement with the Sunday paper and I was amazed that there was like 2 pages of children’s costumes and 4 pages of adult costumes. I guess we do like to dress up and pretend to be something else.
So in the spirit of putting on costumes, I thought it might be good to remember to continually dress up your own spirit and not let it pretend to be (or become) something else. There’s a verse in Ephesians that talks about putting on the costume of a Roman soldier ( spiritually of course). That’s a good one to consider as we approach the dress up and eat lots of candy holiday.
13Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 18And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Ephesians 6:13-18 (New International Version)
Get out your orange and black, celebrate another year of bountiful harvest, give and get as much candy as you possibly can and make sure you have your toothbrush handy to keep those teethers from decay! And most importantly “be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power”
Its Easter Monday. Can you imagine the thoughts running through the minds of Jesus’ followers when they woke up and realized the events of the weekend? Do you think it was hard to get to work on that Monday! Wow! Now we take the joy of Easter and the victory of the Christ’s actions into our daily lives. I know this morning when I was running, I felt a little lighter on my feet (and believe me that was not because of my weight!)
Anyway, enjoy the day, and as you interact with others, remember the actions of the Christ and the impact that can have on your life – if you let it!
Ephesians 2:4-6 (New International Version)
4But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,
I am still pumped. Yes, it didn’t happen for the Mountaineers, and that, well, that really stinks. But there is another reason to be even more stoked today then a basketball game – even if the outcome had been different. I am stoked, even overjoyed because —
He’s Alive He’s Alive! Christ is Risen from the Dead!
6He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” 8Then they remembered his words. Luke 24:6-8 NIV
1What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? 3Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
5If we have been united with him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection. 6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.
8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness. 14For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace. Romans 6:1-14 (New International Version)
Thats Real! That’s life changing and that pumps me up!
Hey! Its Good Friday. What a day. Lots of you get a day off today. It officially summer in the South (over 80 today). The Mountaineers are in the Final Four tomorrow. All of our sins are nailed to a tree and the veil is torn! Most Excellent!
Yes, The Christ was nailed to the tree for our faults, and the veil that protected the Holy Of Holy’s in the Temple was torn in two – signify a new relationship with God. We Are Free from the Law, we are free from sin, we are free to speak to God ( through our new high priest the Christ). This is one of my favorite verses in the entire Bible. The Veil is Torn! Wow!
50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. Matthew 27:50-51 (New International Version)
This is good stuff. Take advantage of this free gift today and give away to others just as freely.
And check out these two videos this weekend as well – and remember He may have been crucified on Friday, but on Sunday – He’s Alive He’s Alive!