Day of Sacrificial Love

     Early this morning, the religious leader met to plan how they would get Jesus put to death.  Judas came in and interrupted their meeting.  He felt convicted about what he had done to  Jesus.  He told the leaders that he knew he had sinned because he had betrayed an innocent man.  The leaders asked him, “What do we care?  That is your problem.”  Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver down on the floor of the temple and went out and hung himself.  Remember how Jesus warned that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born? 

     The religious leaders bought a cemetery for people from other countries with the silver pieces.  This was just what the prophet Jeremiah said would happen in the Old Testament Scriptures.  

     The religious leaders had no real power to have someone put to death for a crime, or any other reason, but the Romans did.  They took Jesus to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate.  When Jesus stood before Governor Pilate,  he asked Jesus, “Are You King of the Jews?”  Jesus told Him He was.  Immediately, the religious leaders that had bullied Him all week began shouting accusations at  Jesus. Jesus did not respond to them at all.  

     Every year at Passover time, the Roman Governor would free one prisoner.  The crowds were gathering in front of Governor Pilates' house, the Praetorium, to see who the prisoner to released was.  Pilate asked them who it was they wanted to be let go, Barabbas or Jesus Who is called, the Messiah?  Pilate sat down as the crowd talked it over.  He sat down next to his wife.  She told him that she had a nightmare the night before and that it was really awful.  She told Pilate that he should leave Jesus alone because He was innocent of any crime.

     In the meantime, the religious leaders walked among the crowd and talked them into having Barabbas let go, and having  Jesus put to death.  Governor Pilate was sure the people would say to let Jesus go.  He remembered how just five days before on Sunday,  Jesus rode in and they treated Him like a King. Again Pilate asked the crowd which prisoner would go free.  The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”  “Then what should I do with Jesus, who is called, the Messiah?”, Pilate asked.  The crowd shouted back, “Crucify Him!”  Pilate asked them, “Why, what crime has He committed?”  The mob roared louder, “Crucify Him!”  Pilate was hoping the crowd would change their minds because he felt in his heart that his wife was right.  But, he knew he was getting nowhere with this crowd because they were starting to riot.  Governor Pilate had a servant bring him a bowl of water.  He washed his hands in front of everyone and told the crowd, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.  The responsibility is yours!”  Pilate was nervous about what was happening so he washed his hands of the whole mess.  The crowd yelled back that they would take responsibility for Jesus’ death, they and their children.

     Barabbas was involved in trying to overthrow the government, and he was murderer.  Jesus was innocent.  The whole of His life He did no wrong.  He was good to everyone.  But, Pilate let Barabbas go to the people and He ordered that Jesus be flogged and turned over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.  They flogged Jesus with a whip. The whips were made of long skinny leather.  Each leather piece had pieces of metal and of bone sewn to it to cut the skin.  The end of each piece was weighed down with lead.  They tied Jesus to a post and whipped Him over and over with these leather whips.  His skin was all torn and blood flowed out of Him.  Most people never lived through this horrible beating.  After this,  Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

     Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and then they called out the whole regiment of soldiers and government leaders.  In front of everyone they stripped the clothes off of His cut up body and put a bright red robe on Him.  They took branches with thorns and made a crown.  They shoved the crown on Jesus’ head.  The thorns tore the skin on His head.  Then they put a stick in His hand.  They mocked Jesus.  They said things like, “Hail! King of the Jews!”  They spit on him and grabbed the stick out of His hand using it to hit Him in the head with it.  When tired of mocking Him, they removed the red robe and put His own clothes back on Him.  Then, they took Him to be crucified.

    The soldiers made Jesus walk down a long road.  They made Him carry a very heavy cross made out of a tree down this road, The Via Dolorosa.  This was the cross they were going to crucify Him on.  He was bloody and beaten, almost to death.  He was not able to carry the cross the whole way.  The soldiers grabbed a man along the road and made him carry  Jesus’ cross and walk with it behind Him.  They would not help Him themselves.  They were as vile to Jesus as they could be.  They took Him out to a place called, “Golgotha” which means, “Place of the Skull”.  When the Romans executed someone they hung them on a cross. With rope they tied the criminal to the cross.  Not Jesus.  They laid the cross down on the ground and then put Jesus on top of the cross.  They took long nails and nailed His hands and feet to the cross.  They raised the cross up and put it in the ground.  Everyone could see Jesus nailed to the cross.    They could see that His skin was broken open, they could see His bruises, and they could see His blood running down.  It was then that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”   Jesus loved people, all people.  He loves us today.  No matter what they did to Him, or how badly we behave today,  Jesus loves us, and will forgive us.  Since He forgave these people for what they were doing, and He was in so much pain, nearly dead, He will certainly forgive us if we ask Him to.  He loves us that much!

    Even still, the crowd kept on mocking Him and insulting Him.  They said things like, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!”  They put a sign on the top of the cross as He was dying that said, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS”.  The religious leaders mocked Him, too.  They yelled and said if He would save Himself they would believe He was the Son of God.

     Jesus saw his mother, His mother’s sister and his dear friend, Mary Magdalene, standing near the cross.  Jesus was dying.  He knew He would not be on the earth anymore to watch over his mother in her old age.  He talked to his mother and said, “Dear woman, here is your son.”  He was talking about His disciple,  John.  He said to John, “Here is your mother.”  From that day on,  Jesus’ mother stayed with the disciple  John.   Jesus took care of His mother even though He was on a cross and dying.  

     There were two criminals hanging on crosses with Jesus, one on each side.  They were tied and not nailed to their crosses.  They had not been treated like Jesus.  One of them mocked Jesus while he was on his cross.  He said to Jesus, “ If You are the Messiah, prove it by saving Yourself and us, too, while You are at it!”   The other criminal stopped him and said, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?  We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”  Then he looked at Jesus and said, “Jesus , remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”   Jesus said to him,  “I assure you, today you will be with me in, Paradise.”  You see, that man believed Jesus was the Christ.  He knew Jesus was the Savior and though his life must not have reflected it, he desired righteousness.  He would go to Heaven because he was sorry and asked Jesus for His hand.   Jesus always takes someone for His own when they want Him to.

     By this time it was noon.  For three hours, from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, the whole land was dark.  The light from the sun was totally gone.  At three o’clock that Friday afternoon,  Jesus cried out and said, “It is finished!”   To God He then cried out, “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”  Jesus’ body died on the cross that afternoon at three o’clock.  At that moment miracles began occurring.  There was a place in the temple called, “The Holy of Holies”.  Common people were not allowed to go in there.  Only special priests could go in.  No one but these special priests even saw the inside of this sanctuary.  The moment Jesus gave up His Spirit and died, the big curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies sanctuary ripped right down the middle!  It was as high as the ceiling and went all of the way to the floor, and was very heavy.  No man did this, God did it.  There was a huge and scary earthquake.  Many rocks split in half and tombs came open.  Can you imagine the noise and the shaking of the whole earth?  The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the cross were terrified and said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

     Remember that at the Last Supper in the upper room the night before, Jesus talked about His body being broken for the disciples?  Remember Jesus saying that the wine in the cup was His blood shed for them?  Remember these were new things the disciples had never heard before?  The bread and wine was to remind them of something wonderful God did for His people years before.  This would now be the event that God’s people would remember when they break bread and have the cup.  This was going to be the new and better covenant God made with His people,  with anyone that loves Jesus.  This is the new wonderful thing God did for His people. Jesus paid the price for man’s sin, He did freely and all we have to do is believe He is the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and confess so with our mouth and we will be in right standing with God. 

     There was a man named Joseph from,  Arimathea.  He was a priest on the council of religious leaders, but he disagreed with what they had done to Jesus.  He loved Jesus and knew He was the Messiah.  He had been a secret follower of Jesus.  He feared the religious leaders and so He went to get permission from Governor Pilate to take Jesus’ body off of the cross and bury it.  Pilate granted Joseph permission to do this.

     Joseph was a wealthy man.  He was an old man as well.  He had men carve out a rock in the side of a hill to make himself a tomb for when he died.  But, he gave his tomb to Jesus.  Oh, but what Joseph did not know was that Jesus was only going to need it for three days!  

     Joseph and another secret follower of Jesus, Nicodemus, went to the cross and took Jesus down.  They washed his body with perfumed oil and wrapped Jesus with spices and a long sheet of linen cloth, for this was the custom.  The tomb Joseph was giving Jesus was in a beautiful garden, near where the crucifixion took place.  Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus body to the new tomb and laid Him there.  The women that loved Jesus so much had followed Joseph and Nicodemus.  Once they had laid Jesus to rest they went home and bought spices and perfumed oil to anoint His body.  They would not be able to anoint His body with the spices and oils tomorrow as it was the Jewish sabbath, and it was not allowed.  But, day after tomorrow, Sunday, they will go tend to His body.

   Today was completely about sacrifice that came from Jesus’ deep love for us. Oh Father, take my life and make count for You, never letting this grace you have given me prove vain.

   Thank You Jesus for such amazing and unconditional love,

Day of Authority!

   Last night Jesus went back to Bethany where his dear friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived to eat and spend the night. This morning all those years ago while Jesus walked out of Bethany He was hungry. He saw a fig tree with leaves on it. A Fig tree is different than other fruit trees, the figs bloom before the leaves appear.  If a Fig tree has leaves , it should have fruit.  This Fig tree had lots of leaves, and no fruit. Like other times Jesus used things the people could relate to and understand, He used this Fig tree to teach the disciples something very important. His time was at hand and He wanted to teach them everything they would need to know when He left at the end of the week. Jesus said to the Fig tree, “May you never bear fruit again!”   When the disciples saw the fig tree withered and dead the next morning they were perplexed and asked Jesus about this. They had seen Jesus heal the sick, make the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the lame walk.  They had seen Him raise Jairus’ daughter, a widows son and Lazarus from the dead.  All that was very amazing indeed!  But, they had never seen Jesus curse anything.  This made a big impact on the them. When  Jesus spoke to them about the Fig tree, He was using it to show His disciples how the people of Israel were behaving, well - misbehaving.  They looked like they were doing right and were living for God, but they did not accept God’s Son,  Jesus.  They were fake.   Jesus was showing them that religious pretenders did not and would not ever bear fruit.  Just like the fake and fruitless Fig tree, these people were cursed. They knew He was very serious about the lesson He was teaching them.  The disciples did not want to be empty and fake on the inside and only pretending to be living for God on the outside.  They would listen very carefully from now on to everything Jesus had to say.  Then, they would do what He said.  They wanted to be good men that Jesus could call His friend.   

   But, so like Jesus it did not stop there. Jesus told them something that is great news for us still today that believe Him and have made Him Lord of our lives. He told the disciples that if they really have faith in God, and would not doubt Him or His Word, they could do things like this and more.  If it is God’s will, we can have whatever we ask for.  We have to know what God says we can have, and we can find that in our Bible.  All we have to do is just believe what God says is true, ask for it and receive it.  That is how we receive salvation and everything else from God. What wonderful news!!!!!!!  Jesus was telling the disciples that the authority He had, they would have too.  He was going to leave that power with them, with us. It is the power from the victory we will see at the end of the week. Tonight Jesus will go back to the Mount of Olives and sleep.  That is where He went to stay when He had to get out of the public’s eye after He had raised Lazarus from being dead.  He knows this night is one He must get rest because tomorrow will hold much for Him to do.

   Thank you Father for the patience you showed us through Your Son Jesus with every parable and lesson You taught us!

Day of Praise!

   Jesus knew He was going to do something this week that would leave His disciples and anyone else that believed in Him, the power and authority to do great and supernatural things. He knew this would be the longest and hardest week of His life here on Earth. Prophecy like Zechariah's came true today all those years ago:

Rejoice, O people of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!

Look, your King is coming to you.

He is righteous and victorious,

yet He is humble, riding on a donkey—

riding on a donkey’s colt.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, some people laid down their clothes for Him to ride into town on. Others cut branches from Palm trees and laid them down for Him. They knew He was the King God sent. The people gathered around Jesus as He rode into town. They were cheering saying,

“ Hosanna to the Son of David!

‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna means to “save now” and “we adore you”. So, what the people were saying was, we know You will save us now and we praise You for it. They were right, and they were doing what the Psalmist said would happen in Psalm 118. What they did not understand was just what would have to happen for that to come true.

     Jesus set the people right that were exploiting the Temple, answered demeaning questions the religious leaders taunted Him with and did so in love and healed the blind and lame that went to see Him at the Temple this day. The whole while those evil religious leaders were plotting to kill Him and would work hard at that for the rest of this week. This is still though, a day of PRAISE!  What do you praise God for?

Praising God for His unchanging and unconditional love,

Teresa

Matthew 6:14-15

   Earlier this week a friend of mine shared with me something that was said in a setting among friends that involved these verses:

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. "

Matthew 6:14-15

I was confident I knew what those verses did NOT say, and reasonably confident that I knew what Jesus was teaching there. My friend and I were on the same page where our understanding of those verses were concerned. She was going to be busy this week and asked if I would take a closer look at them just to be certain we were not "off beam." You don't have to ask me twice to spend time in the Word diving for pearls. After pondering and spending time in the Word, I thought I might as well post the following which is what I sent her regarding those verses.

   As Christians we know that our eternal salvation is based on ones recognition of being in a state of sin, revelation that Jesus is the only One that has or will ever be the redemption for our sin, and then by the faith of God receive the Grace of His Son Jesus as our Savior. We come to that revelation and believe it in our heart and confess it with our mouth and we are saved, reborn.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 

John 3:16

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that at He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 

1 John 4:10

...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 

Romans 10:9

    Salvation has absolutely nothing to do with what we do, our behavior, our works, and that includes after we are saved. 

“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Ephesians 2:8-9

There is no salvation maintenance program that one must stay one step ahead of their sin in order to keep the warranty current on their salvation status. There is no sin, other than denying Jesus Christ as Savior, that is greater than the redemption Jesus purchased for all mankind.

   There are things in scripture that lay out a blueprint for our lives, an operations manual if you will. Feeding and clothing the poor, visiting the sick and incarcerated, loving and forgiving others are all examples of some of that blueprint for our daily lives. Faith without works is dead, but God does not withhold forgiveness for wrong things done, or right things like forgiving others not done. Those are two very different things. The forgiveness and total restoration for us was a done deal on the cross. God accepted that payment for ALL sin- past, present and future! Choosing to not forgive someone is wrong, and it has consequences, but not damnation, and certainly not God not forgiving us for it. This forgiveness we received at salvation was the reconciliation back to God for us that Jesus came to give us, and it covers ALL of our sin, including not forgiving others. In that same vein, no one that dies outside of being saved will be able to stand in front of God and have any authority or success on being let into to Heaven just because He was a decent chap and forgave people.

   We are the righteousness of God the instant we receive Jesus, salvation. That is because at that instant the Holy Spirit places Jesus in our Spirit. Our old dead man becomes completely alive and permanently a NEW creation. Righteousness and sin do not cohabitate- ever. We live in a flesh body, we have a soul that has emotion, makes decisions and is where our will is, but we ARE a spirit. That spirit is what goes to Heaven, and is where our true life is. That is where Jesus resides in us, and our entire spirit has Him in it.

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 1 Corinthians 5:21

For by one [Holy] Spirit we were all baptized into one body[new birth, Gods’ children]—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:13

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17

 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

1 Thessalonians 5:23

   So having laid all of that out there, what is the consequence these two verses refer to?

   In essence we are not talking about the reconciliatory forgiveness we received at salvation. We are talking about the vanity of hypocrisy of asking for the forgiveness from God that we refuse to give others. This lack of forgiveness does not have anything to do with our right standing (being His righteousness) with God, but everything to do with the breach in daily fellowship with Him. 

  

   In John 13 Jesus uses a foot washing moment to talk to the disciples about how unless He washes them, they can have no part with Him.  

Peter said to Him, “You shall never wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.” John 13:8

Obviously, no one is eternally separated from God because they did not get their feet washed. 

In 1 Corinthians we see what the washing does. 

And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 

1 Corinthians 6:11

Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” John 13:10

The disciples were intimately close to Jesus, daily. They were His disciples, students of what He taught and imitators of what He did. For them there was no spiritual need for a complete washing as a bath would do, but the cleansing from the washing of the daily sin. This type of spiritual daily “foot washing” keeps the fellowship between them and Jesus. Today, it is the daily time with God, the confession of those sins that so easily and regularly beset us that keeps us connected to Him. Not forgiving others is sin and needs to be repented of and forgiven. To not do so interferes with our fellowship, but does not touch our salvation.  The “but not all of you” refers to Judas. Refer up in the first two verses of John 13.

Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He should depart from this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son,to betray Him... John 13:1-2

   This is key in the two verses we are looking at.

“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. "

Matthew 6:14-15

In the prayer Jesus models for those He was teaching that day He says:

“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words. “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. In this manner, therefore, pray:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

                     Verse 12 says, And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.

First off that word has been translated into “transgression” in some versions of the Bible. The word was written “debt”. Here is the word that was used here.  

G3783 opheilēma: properly, that which is justly or legally due, a debt; that which is owed that which is justly or legally due, a debt. something owed, i.e. (figuratively) a due; morally, a fault:—debt. (metaphorically) offense, sin.

The root of the word above is G3784 opheilō: (through the idea of accruing); to owe (pecuniarily); figuratively, to be under obligation (ought, must, should); morally, to fail in duty:—behove, be bound, (be) debt(-or), (be) due(-ty), be guilty (indebted), (must) need(-s), ought, owe, should.

   Remember this in Matthew’s gospel in the chapter just preceding the one we have been looking at? 

But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ shall be in danger of the council. But whoever says, ‘You fool!’ shall be in danger of hell fire. Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. 

Matthew 5:22-24

God is all about loving relationship. He want us to abide in His love, and then glorify Him by showing it to others. Now, God is no longer judging the believer. Judgment for our sin has been passed, and the penalty was paid by our dear Jesus on the cross of Calvary. However, men will judge us. As we judge others by imputing anything that exacts something from them, or on them, we are not walking in that love that extends forgiveness. As we judge others by not releasing them with forgiveness, that is how we will be judged and what we have sown is precisely what we will reap. We see this in the Matthew’s gospel in the chapter after the one we are looking at.

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.3 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. Matthew 7:1-7

Matthew 7 just above is one consequence of not forgiving others.

   You may have noticed that I have bolded the words “hypocrite” and “hypocrites” in the verses above. A large portion of Jesus teaching we find in Matthew has to do with religion and the Pharisees self righteousness. Jesus gets very emphatic regarding how dangerous that lifestyle is. He starts out this prayer in Matthew 6 by saying, “And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.” By the time He gets to verse 12, “And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.” He is clearly saying that if when you go to your Father for forgiveness and are not willing to forgive, you are being a double minded man who can expect nothing from Him, you are therefore no better than a hypocrite! For the believer that is where Matthew 7:1-7 comes in and you will reap the judgement you have sown. Again, since God no longer judges us it will be the sow and reap principle already established.

   

   When we pray for forgiveness we must make the amends toward those that have injured us, clearing the dirt on our feet of the everyday walking through life, just a foot washing. Otherwise this consequence of being hypocritically judgmental, reaping what we sow will come round and bite us.

   There is another school of thought out there regarding these verses. Simply put it believes that when someone does not forgive others, they themselves have not genuinely experienced forgiveness from God. I do not believe this to be true of those that are truly believers, period. I do not believe all believers immediately have a compassionate heart toward forgiveness. There are things that take time, process and revelation to actualize. Many scriptures address forgiving others, and those scriptures were talking to the church, believers. 

Postlude:

   After studying this out and pulling my finds together I thought to look in the Amplified Bible and found this. 

For if you forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others[nurturing your hurt and anger with the result that it interferes with your relationship with God], then your Father will not forgive your trespasses. Matthew 6:14-15

I was delighted to see that because in one small bracketed definition the Amplified Bible made the point I pondered this past week. Once again the AMP did not disappoint. 

   For now I will close with this:

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:31-32

Day of Sacrificial Love

     Early this morning, the religious leader met to plan how they would get Jesus put to death.  Judas came in and interrupted their meeting.  He felt convicted about what he had done to  Jesus.  He told the leaders that he knew he had sinned because he had betrayed an innocent man.  The leaders asked him, “What do we care?  That is your problem.”  Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver down on the floor of the temple and went out and hung himself.  Remember how Jesus warned that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born? 

     The religious leaders bought a cemetery for people from other countries with the silver pieces.  This was just what the prophet Jeremiah said would happen in the Old Testament Scriptures.  

     The religious leaders had no real power to have someone put to death for a crime, or any other reason, but the Romans did.  They took Jesus to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate.  When Jesus stood before Governor Pilate,  he asked Jesus, “Are You King of the Jews?”  Jesus told Him He was.  Immediately, the religious leaders that had bullied Him all week began shouting accusations at  Jesus. Jesus did not respond to them at all.  

     Every year at Passover time, the Roman Governor would free one prisoner.  The crowds were gathering in front of Governor Pilates' house, the Praetorium, to see who the prisoner to released was.  Pilate asked them who it was they wanted to be let go, Barabbas or Jesus Who is called, the Messiah?  Pilate sat down as the crowd talked it over.  He sat down next to his wife.  She told him that she had a nightmare the night before and that it was really awful.  She told Pilate that he should leave Jesus alone because He was innocent of any crime.

     In the meantime, the religious leaders walked among the crowd and talked them into having Barabbas let go, and having  Jesus put to death.  Governor Pilate was sure the people would say to let Jesus go.  He remembered how just five days before on Sunday,  Jesus rode in and they treated Him like a King. Again Pilate asked the crowd which prisoner would go free.  The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”  “Then what should I do with Jesus, who is called, the Messiah?”, Pilate asked.  The crowd shouted back, “Crucify Him!”  Pilate asked them, “Why, what crime has He committed?”  The mob roared louder, “Crucify Him!”  Pilate was hoping the crowd would change their minds because he felt in his heart that his wife was right.  But, he knew he was getting nowhere with this crowd because they were starting to riot.  Governor Pilate had a servant bring him a bowl of water.  He washed his hands in front of everyone and told the crowd, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.  The responsibility is yours!”  Pilate was nervous about what was happening so he washed his hands of the whole mess.  The crowd yelled back that they would take responsibility for Jesus’ death, they and their children.

     Barabbas was involved in trying to overthrow the government, and he was murderer.  Jesus was innocent.  The whole of His life He did no wrong.  He was good to everyone.  But, Pilate let Barabbas go to the people and He ordered that Jesus be flogged and turned over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.  They flogged Jesus with a whip. The whips were made of long skinny leather.  Each leather piece had pieces of metal and of bone sewn to it to cut the skin.  The end of each piece was weighed down with lead.  They tied Jesus to a post and whipped Him over and over with these leather whips.  His skin was all torn and blood flowed out of Him.  Most people never lived through this horrible beating.  After this,  Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

     Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and then they called out the whole regiment of soldiers and government leaders.  In front of everyone they stripped the clothes off of His cut up body and put a bright red robe on Him.  They took branches with thorns and made a crown.  They shoved the crown on Jesus’ head.  The thorns tore the skin on His head.  Then they put a stick in His hand.  They mocked Jesus.  They said things like, “Hail! King of the Jews!”  They spit on him and grabbed the stick out of His hand using it to hit Him in the head with it.  When tired of mocking Him, they removed the red robe and put His own clothes back on Him.  Then, they took Him to be crucified.

    The soldiers made Jesus walk down a long road.  They made Him carry a very heavy cross made out of a tree down this road, The Via Dolorosa.  This was the cross they were going to crucify Him on.  He was bloody and beaten, almost to death.  He was not able to carry the cross the whole way.  The soldiers grabbed a man along the road and made him carry  Jesus’ cross and walk with it behind Him.  They would not help Him themselves.  They were as vile to Jesus as they could be.  They took Him out to a place called, “Golgotha” which means, “Place of the Skull”.  When the Romans executed someone they hung them on a cross. With rope they tied the criminal to the cross.  Not Jesus.  They laid the cross down on the ground and then put Jesus on top of the cross.  They took long nails and nailed His hands and feet to the cross.  They raised the cross up and put it in the ground.  Everyone could see Jesus nailed to the cross.    They could see that His skin was broken open, they could see His bruises, and they could see His blood running down.  It was then that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”   Jesus loved people, all people.  He loves us today.  No matter what they did to Him, or how badly we behave today,  Jesus loves us, and will forgive us.  Since He forgave these people for what they were doing, and He was in so much pain, nearly dead, He will certainly forgive us if we ask Him to.  He loves us that much!

    Even still, the crowd kept on mocking Him and insulting Him.  They said things like, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!”  They put a sign on the top of the cross as He was dying that said, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS”.  The religious leaders mocked Him, too.  They yelled and said if He would save Himself they would believe He was the Son of God.

     Jesus saw his mother, His mother’s sister and his dear friend, Mary Magdalene, standing near the cross.  Jesus was dying.  He knew He would not be on the earth anymore to watch over his mother in her old age.  He talked to his mother and said, “Dear woman, here is your son.”  He was talking about His disciple,  John.  He said to John, “Here is your mother.”  From that day on,  Jesus’ mother stayed with the disciple  John.   Jesus took care of His mother even though He was on a cross and dying.  

     There were two criminals hanging on crosses with Jesus, one on each side.  They were tied and not nailed to their crosses.  They had not been treated like Jesus.  One of them mocked Jesus while he was on his cross.  He said to Jesus, “ If You are the Messiah, prove it by saving Yourself and us, too, while You are at it!”   The other criminal stopped him and said, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?  We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”  Then he looked at Jesus and said, “Jesus , remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”   Jesus said to him,  “I assure you, today you will be with me in, Paradise.”  You see, that man believed Jesus was the Christ.  He knew Jesus was the Savior and though his life must not have reflected it, he desired righteousness.  He would go to Heaven because he was sorry and asked Jesus for His hand.   Jesus always takes someone for His own when they want Him to.

     By this time it was noon.  For three hours, from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, the whole land was dark.  The light from the sun was totally gone.  At three o’clock that Friday afternoon,  Jesus cried out and said, “It is finished!”   To God He then cried out, “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”  Jesus’ body died on the cross that afternoon at three o’clock.  At that moment miracles began occurring.  There was a place in the temple called, “The Holy of Holies”.  Common people were not allowed to go in there.  Only special priests could go in.  No one but these special priests even saw the inside of this sanctuary.  The moment Jesus gave up His Spirit and died, the big curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies sanctuary ripped right down the middle!  It was as high as the ceiling and went all of the way to the floor, and was very heavy.  No man did this, God did it.  There was a huge and scary earthquake.  Many rocks split in half and tombs came open.  Can you imagine the noise and the shaking of the whole earth?  The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the cross were terrified and said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

     Remember that at the Last Supper in the upper room the night before, Jesus talked about His body being broken for the disciples?  Remember Jesus saying that the wine in the cup was His blood shed for them?  Remember these were new things the disciples had never heard before?  The bread and wine was to remind them of something wonderful God did for His people years before.  This would now be the event that God’s people would remember when they break bread and have the cup.  This was going to be the new and better covenant God made with His people,  with anyone that loves Jesus.  This is the new wonderful thing God did for His people. Jesus paid the price for man’s sin, He did freely and all we have to do is believe He is the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and confess so with our mouth and we will be in right standing with God. 

     There was a man named Joseph from,  Arimathea.  He was a priest on the council of religious leaders, but he disagreed with what they had done to Jesus.  He loved Jesus and knew He was the Messiah.  He had been a secret follower of Jesus.  He feared the religious leaders and so He went to get permission from Governor Pilate to take Jesus’ body off of the cross and bury it.  Pilate granted Joseph permission to do this.

     Joseph was a wealthy man.  He was an old man as well.  He had men carve out a rock in the side of a hill to make himself a tomb for when he died.  But, he gave his tomb to Jesus.  Oh, but what Joseph did not know was that Jesus was only going to need it for three days!  

     Joseph and another secret follower of Jesus, Nicodemus, went to the cross and took Jesus down.  They washed his body with perfumed oil and wrapped Jesus with spices and a long sheet of linen cloth, for this was the custom.  The tomb Joseph was giving Jesus was in a beautiful garden, near where the crucifixion took place.  Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus body to the new tomb and laid Him there.  The women that loved Jesus so much had followed Joseph and Nicodemus.  Once they had laid Jesus to rest they went home and bought spices and perfumed oil to anoint His body.  They would not be able to anoint His body with the spices and oils tomorrow as it was the Jewish sabbath, and it was not allowed.  But, day after tomorrow, Sunday, they will go tend to His body.

   Today was completely about sacrifice that came from Jesus’ deep love for us. Oh Father, take my life and make count for You, never letting this grace you have given me prove vain.

   Thank You Jesus for such amazing and unconditional love,

Day of Authority!

   Last night Jesus went back to Bethany where his dear friends Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived to eat and spend the night. This morning all those years ago while Jesus walked out of Bethany He was hungry. He saw a fig tree with leaves on it. A Fig tree is different than other fruit trees, the figs bloom before the leaves appear.  If a Fig tree has leaves , it should have fruit.  This Fig tree had lots of leaves, and no fruit. Like other times Jesus used things the people could relate to and understand, He used this Fig tree to teach the disciples something very important. His time was at hand and He wanted to teach them everything they would need to know when He left at the end of the week. Jesus said to the Fig tree, “May you never bear fruit again!”   When the disciples saw the fig tree withered and dead the next morning they were perplexed and asked Jesus about this. They had seen Jesus heal the sick, make the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the lame walk.  They had seen Him raise Jairus’ daughter, a widows son and Lazarus from the dead.  All that was very amazing indeed!  But, they had never seen Jesus curse anything.  This made a big impact on the them. When  Jesus spoke to them about the Fig tree, He was using it to show His disciples how the people of Israel were behaving, well - misbehaving.  They looked like they were doing right and were living for God, but they did not accept God’s Son,  Jesus.  They were fake.   Jesus was showing them that religious pretenders did not and would not ever bear fruit.  Just like the fake and fruitless Fig tree, these people were cursed. They knew He was very serious about the lesson He was teaching them.  The disciples did not want to be empty and fake on the inside and only pretending to be living for God on the outside.  They would listen very carefully from now on to everything Jesus had to say.  Then, they would do what He said.  They wanted to be good men that Jesus could call His friend.   

   But, so like Jesus it did not stop there. Jesus told them something that is great news for us still today that believe Him and have made Him Lord of our lives. He told the disciples that if they really have faith in God, and would not doubt Him or His Word, they could do things like this and more.  If it is God’s will, we can have whatever we ask for.  We have to know what God says we can have, and we can find that in our Bible.  All we have to do is just believe what God says is true, ask for it and receive it.  That is how we receive salvation and everything else from God. What wonderful news!!!!!!!  Jesus was telling the disciples that the authority He had, they would have too.  He was going to leave that power with them, with us. It is the power from the victory we will see at the end of the week. Tonight Jesus will go back to the Mount of Olives and sleep.  That is where He went to stay when He had to get out of the public’s eye after He had raised Lazarus from being dead.  He knows this night is one He must get rest because tomorrow will hold much for Him to do.

   Thank you Father for the patience you showed us through Your Son Jesus with every parable and lesson You taught us!

Day of Praise!

   Jesus knew He was going to do something this week that would leave His disciples and anyone else that believed in Him, the power and authority to do great and supernatural things. He knew this would be the longest and hardest week of His life here on Earth. Prophecy like Zechariah's came true today all those years ago:

Rejoice, O people of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!

Look, your King is coming to you.

He is righteous and victorious,

yet He is humble, riding on a donkey—

riding on a donkey’s colt.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, some people laid down their clothes for Him to ride into town on. Others cut branches from Palm trees and laid them down for Him. They knew He was the King God sent. The people gathered around Jesus as He rode into town. They were cheering saying,

“ Hosanna to the Son of David!

‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna means to “save now” and “we adore you”. So, what the people were saying was, we know You will save us now and we praise You for it. They were right, and they were doing what the Psalmist said would happen in Psalm 118. What they did not understand was just what would have to happen for that to come true.

     Jesus set the people right that were exploiting the Temple, answered demeaning questions the religious leaders taunted Him with and did so in love and healed the blind and lame that went to see Him at the Temple this day. The whole while those evil religious leaders were plotting to kill Him and would work hard at that for the rest of this week. This is still though, a day of PRAISE!  What do you praise God for?

Praising God for His unchanging and unconditional love,

Teresa

Day of Sacrificial Love

     Early this morning, the religious leader met to plan how they would get Jesus put to death.  Judas came in and interrupted their meeting.  He felt convicted about what he had done to  Jesus.  He told the leaders that he knew he had sinned because he had betrayed an innocent man.  The leaders asked him, “What do we care?  That is your problem.”  Judas threw the 30 pieces of silver down on the floor of the temple and went out and hung himself.  Remember how Jesus warned that it would have been better for that person to never to have even been born? 

     The religious leaders bought a cemetery for people from other countries with the silver pieces.  This was just what the prophet Jeremiah said would happen in the Old Testament Scriptures.  

     The religious leaders had no real power to have someone put to death for a crime, or any other reason, but the Romans did.  They took Jesus to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilate.  When Jesus stood before Governor Pilate,  he asked Jesus, “Are You King of the Jews?”  Jesus told Him He was.  Immediately, the religious leaders that had bullied Him all week began shouting accusations at  Jesus. Jesus did not respond to them at all.  

     Every year at Passover time, the Roman Governor would free one prisoner.  The crowds were gathering in front of Governor Pilates' house, the Praetorium, to see who the prisoner to released was.  Pilate asked them who it was they wanted to be let go, Barabbas or Jesus Who is called, the Messiah?  Pilate sat down as the crowd talked it over.  He sat down next to his wife.  She told him that she had a nightmare the night before and that it was really awful.  She told Pilate that he should leave Jesus alone because He was innocent of any crime.

     In the meantime, the religious leaders walked among the crowd and talked them into having Barabbas let go, and having  Jesus put to death.  Governor Pilate was sure the people would say to let Jesus go.  He remembered how just five days before on Sunday,  Jesus rode in and they treated Him like a King. Again Pilate asked the crowd which prisoner would go free.  The crowd shouted back, “Barabbas!”  “Then what should I do with Jesus, who is called, the Messiah?”, Pilate asked.  The crowd shouted back, “Crucify Him!”  Pilate asked them, “Why, what crime has He committed?”  The mob roared louder, “Crucify Him!”  Pilate was hoping the crowd would change their minds because he felt in his heart that his wife was right.  But, he knew he was getting nowhere with this crowd because they were starting to riot.  Governor Pilate had a servant bring him a bowl of water.  He washed his hands in front of everyone and told the crowd, “I am innocent of this man’s blood.  The responsibility is yours!”  Pilate was nervous about what was happening so he washed his hands of the whole mess.  The crowd yelled back that they would take responsibility for Jesus’ death, they and their children.

     Barabbas was involved in trying to overthrow the government, and he was murderer.  Jesus was innocent.  The whole of His life He did no wrong.  He was good to everyone.  But, Pilate let Barabbas go to the people and He ordered that Jesus be flogged and turned over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.  They flogged Jesus with a whip. The whips were made of long skinny leather.  Each leather piece had pieces of metal and of bone sewn to it to cut the skin.  The end of each piece was weighed down with lead.  They tied Jesus to a post and whipped Him over and over with these leather whips.  His skin was all torn and blood flowed out of Him.  Most people never lived through this horrible beating.  After this,  Jesus was turned over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.

     Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the Praetorium and then they called out the whole regiment of soldiers and government leaders.  In front of everyone they stripped the clothes off of His cut up body and put a bright red robe on Him.  They took branches with thorns and made a crown.  They shoved the crown on Jesus’ head.  The thorns tore the skin on His head.  Then they put a stick in His hand.  They mocked Jesus.  They said things like, “Hail! King of the Jews!”  They spit on him and grabbed the stick out of His hand using it to hit Him in the head with it.  When tired of mocking Him, they removed the red robe and put His own clothes back on Him.  Then, they took Him to be crucified.

    The soldiers made Jesus walk down a long road.  They made Him carry a very heavy cross made out of a tree down this road, The Via Dolorosa.  This was the cross they were going to crucify Him on.  He was bloody and beaten, almost to death.  He was not able to carry the cross the whole way.  The soldiers grabbed a man along the road and made him carry  Jesus’ cross and walk with it behind Him.  They would not help Him themselves.  They were as vile to Jesus as they could be.  They took Him out to a place called, “Golgotha” which means, “Place of the Skull”.  When the Romans executed someone they hung them on a cross. With rope they tied the criminal to the cross.  Not Jesus.  They laid the cross down on the ground and then put Jesus on top of the cross.  They took long nails and nailed His hands and feet to the cross.  They raised the cross up and put it in the ground.  Everyone could see Jesus nailed to the cross.    They could see that His skin was broken open, they could see His bruises, and they could see His blood running down.  It was then that Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.”   Jesus loved people, all people.  He loves us today.  No matter what they did to Him, or how badly we behave today,  Jesus loves us, and will forgive us.  Since He forgave these people for what they were doing, and He was in so much pain, nearly dead, He will certainly forgive us if we ask Him to.  He loves us that much!

    Even still, the crowd kept on mocking Him and insulting Him.  They said things like, “If You are the King of the Jews, save Yourself!”  They put a sign on the top of the cross as He was dying that said, “THIS IS JESUS, THE KING OF THE JEWS”.  The religious leaders mocked Him, too.  They yelled and said if He would save Himself they would believe He was the Son of God.

     Jesus saw his mother, His mother’s sister and his dear friend, Mary Magdalene, standing near the cross.  Jesus was dying.  He knew He would not be on the earth anymore to watch over his mother in her old age.  He talked to his mother and said, “Dear woman, here is your son.”  He was talking about His disciple,  John.  He said to John, “Here is your mother.”  From that day on,  Jesus’ mother stayed with the disciple  John.   Jesus took care of His mother even though He was on a cross and dying.  

     There were two criminals hanging on crosses with Jesus, one on each side.  They were tied and not nailed to their crosses.  They had not been treated like Jesus.  One of them mocked Jesus while he was on his cross.  He said to Jesus, “ If You are the Messiah, prove it by saving Yourself and us, too, while You are at it!”   The other criminal stopped him and said, “Don’t you fear God even when you have been sentenced to die?  We deserve to die for our crimes, but this man hasn’t done anything wrong.”  Then he looked at Jesus and said, “Jesus , remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”   Jesus said to him,  “I assure you, today you will be with me in, Paradise.”  You see, that man believed Jesus was the Christ.  He knew Jesus was the Savior and though his life must not have reflected it, he desired righteousness.  He would go to Heaven because he was sorry and asked Jesus for His hand.   Jesus always takes someone for His own when they want Him to.

     By this time it was noon.  For three hours, from noon until three o’clock in the afternoon, the whole land was dark.  The light from the sun was totally gone.  At three o’clock that Friday afternoon,  Jesus cried out and said, “It is finished!”   To God He then cried out, “Into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”  Jesus’ body died on the cross that afternoon at three o’clock.  At that moment miracles began occurring.  There was a place in the temple called, “The Holy of Holies”.  Common people were not allowed to go in there.  Only special priests could go in.  No one but these special priests even saw the inside of this sanctuary.  The moment Jesus gave up His Spirit and died, the big curtain in the temple that separated the Holy of Holies sanctuary ripped right down the middle!  It was as high as the ceiling and went all of the way to the floor, and was very heavy.  No man did this, God did it.  There was a huge and scary earthquake.  Many rocks split in half and tombs came open.  Can you imagine the noise and the shaking of the whole earth?  The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the cross were terrified and said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”

     Remember that at the Last Supper in the upper room the night before, Jesus talked about His body being broken for the disciples?  Remember Jesus saying that the wine in the cup was His blood shed for them?  Remember these were new things the disciples had never heard before?  The bread and wine was to remind them of something wonderful God did for His people years before.  This would now be the event that God’s people would remember when they break bread and have the cup.  This was going to be the new and better covenant God made with His people,  with anyone that loves Jesus.  This is the new wonderful thing God did for His people. Jesus paid the price for man’s sin, He did freely and all we have to do is believe He is the Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts and confess so with our mouth and we will be in right standing with God. 

     There was a man named Joseph from,  Arimathea.  He was a priest on the council of religious leaders, but he disagreed with what they had done to Jesus.  He loved Jesus and knew He was the Messiah.  He had been a secret follower of Jesus.  He feared the religious leaders and so He went to get permission from Governor Pilate to take Jesus’ body off of the cross and bury it.  Pilate granted Joseph permission to do this.

     Joseph was a wealthy man.  He was an old man as well.  He had men carve out a rock in the side of a hill to make himself a tomb for when he died.  But, he gave his tomb to Jesus.  Oh, but what Joseph did not know was that Jesus was only going to need it for three days!  

     Joseph and another secret follower of Jesus, Nicodemus, went to the cross and took Jesus down.  They washed his body with perfumed oil and wrapped Jesus with spices and a long sheet of linen cloth, for this was the custom.  The tomb Joseph was giving Jesus was in a beautiful garden, near where the crucifixion took place.  Joseph and Nicodemus took Jesus body to the new tomb and laid Him there.  The women that loved Jesus so much had followed Joseph and Nicodemus.  Once they had laid Jesus to rest they went home and bought spices and perfumed oil to anoint His body.  They would not be able to anoint His body with the spices and oils tomorrow as it was the Jewish sabbath, and it was not allowed.  But, day after tomorrow, Sunday, they will go tend to His body.

   Today was completely about sacrifice that came from Jesus’ deep love for us. Oh Father, take my life and make count for You, never letting this grace you have given me prove vain.

   Thank You Jesus for such amazing and unconditional love,

Day of Authority

   Last night Jesus went back to Bethany where his dear friend Mary, Martha and Lazarus lived to eat and spend the night. This morning all those years ago while Jesus walked out of Bethany He was hungry. He saw a fig tree with leaves on it. A Fig tree is different than other fruit trees, the figs bloom before the leaves appear.  If a Fig tree has leaves , it should have fruit.  This Fig tree had lots of leaves, and no fruit. Like other times Jesus used things the people could relate to and understand, He used this Fig tree to teach the disciples something very important. His time was at hand and He wanted to teach them everything they would need to know when He left at the end of the week. Jesus said to the Fig tree, “May you never bear fruit again!”   When the disciples saw the fig tree withered and dead the next morning they were perplexed and asked Jesus about this. They had seen Jesus heal the sick, make the blind to see, the deaf to hear and the lame walk.  They had seen Him raise Jairus’ daughter, a widows son and Lazarus from the dead.  All that was very amazing indeed!  But, they had never seen Jesus curse anything.  This made a big impact on the them. When  Jesus spoke to them about the Fig tree, He was using it to show His disciples how the people of Israel were behaving, well - misbehaving.  They looked like they were doing right and were living for God, but they did not accept God’s Son,  Jesus.  They were fake.   Jesus was showing them that religious pretenders did not and would not ever bear fruit.  Just like the fake and fruitless Fig tree, these people were cursed. They knew He was very serious about the lesson He was teaching them.  The disciples did not want to be empty and fake on the inside and only pretending to be living for God on the outside.  They would listen very carefully from now on to everything Jesus had to say.  Then, they would do what He said.  They wanted to be good men that Jesus could call His friend.   

   But, so like Jesus it did not stop there. Jesus told them something that is great news for us still today that believe Him and have made Him Lord of our lives. He told the disciples that if they really have faith in God, and would not doubt Him or His Word, they could do things like this and more.  If it is God’s will, we can have whatever we ask for.  We have to know what God says we can have, and we can find that in our Bible.  All we have to do is just believe what God says is true, ask for it and receive it.  That is how we receive salvation and everything else from God. What wonderful news!!!!!!!  Jesus was telling the disciples that the authority He had, they would have too.  He was going to leave that power with them, with us. It is the power from the victory we will see at the end of the week. Tonight Jesus will go back to the Mount of Olives and sleep.  That is where He went to stay when He had to get out of the public’s eye after He had raised Lazarus from being dead.  He knows this night is one He must get rest because tomorrow will hold much for Him to do.

   Thank you Father for the patience you showed us through Your Son Jesus with every parable and lesson You taught us!

Day of Praise!

   Jesus knew He was going to do something this week that would leave His disciples and anyone else that believed in Him, the power and authority to do great and supernatural things. He knew this would be the longest and hardest week of His life here on Earth. Prophecy like Zechariah's came true today all those years ago:

Rejoice, O people of Zion!

Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!

Look, your King is coming to you.

He is righteous and victorious,

yet He is humble, riding on a donkey—

riding on a donkey’s colt.

As Jesus entered Jerusalem, some people laid down their clothes for Him to ride into town on. Others cut branches from Palm trees and laid them down for Him. They knew He was the King God sent. The people gathered around Jesus as He rode into town. They were cheering saying,

“ Hosanna to the Son of David!

‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!’

Hosanna in the highest!”

Hosanna means to “save now” and “we adore you”. So, what the people were saying was, we know You will save us now and we praise You for it. They were right, and they were doing what the Psalmist said would happen in Psalm 118. What they did not understand was just what would have to happen for that to come true.

     Jesus set the people right that were exploiting the Temple, answered demeaning questions the religious leaders taunted Him with and did so in love and healed the blind and lame that went to see Him at the Temple this day. The whole while those evil religious leaders were plotting to kill Him and would work hard at that for the rest of this week. This is still though, a day of PRAISE!  What do you praise God for?

Praising God for His unchanging and unconditional love,

Teresa