As we move through a very fearful time in history with COVID -19 threatening on every front and in every country every continent, let’s not forget to celebrate our Saviour in this precious Holy A holy week, this year, surrounded by some kind of evil force raging on all fronts, against us, around us, beside, behind and before. Yeah, today is Palm Sunday, the celebration of our King, the week before the cross, and we celebrate at home, maybe through virtual connection and Social media! Yet, today, we celebrate our Saviour, who didn’t come to be an earthly king, but a heavenly King and One of greater glory. One of Heavenly glory that would finally defeat the ultimate enemy of death! So as we move through the day our emphasis and focus are on the triumphal entry of our Lord riding into Jerusalem on the lowliness of a borrowed donkey! This event fulfilled an ancient prophecy prophesied back in Zechariah 9:9:
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is He, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
He was their King, but not a military King, arrayed in royal robes of silk and satin, purple or gold, rather He wore the common clothes of humility. His birthplace ~ a stable and His bed ~ a feeding trough. His triumphal entry wasn’t mounted on a prancing steed of pride or a spectacular show horse but rather He approached His ‘palm branch waving,” crowd of fans, on a borrowed donkey, as a lowly servant of God, coming only to seek, to save and to serve. This journey would end in death but the ultimate irony ~ Victory over it! That’s always God’s way ~ Good out of bad!
Christ didn’t come to make war with gunfire and bloodshed or to take by force as earthly kings do, but to win hearts by unconditional love, awesome mercy, amazing grace and His own shed blood and ‘self’ sacrifice for a world lost in wretched sin. He didn’t come to take people captive but to set them free; those bound tightly in their sin and on death row. He doesn’t rule a kingdom of mighty armies but His Kingdom is of Heavenly angels and weakened blood-washed saints who have been refined in the fires of adversity and come forth as gold. Powerful, prayer warriors, who’ve been washed in the Blood of the Lamb, cleansed, forgiven and set free from the chains that bound them; they are those who’ve been purged in the fires of struggle, and trial and who have tasted the results of bad choices in the fast lane and on the downside, yet strengthened, quickened and renewed by them all at the same time. His saints and warriors know how to fight the good fight of faith by putting on the full armour of God in order to stand against the wiles and deceits of the enemy. In all faith, they know how to pray mighty prayers that move the hand of God upon our sin-sick earth to see results for the glory of God’s Kingdom! He came not to take nations down but to heal their land through forgiveness and changed lives. He takes minds and renews. He takes lives and cleanses, setting them on the path of healing to a new life in Christ. His message is not one of anger but of peace with God! A peace that’s not of this world:
“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14: 27:
Only a week after His triumphal entry, Christ carried His own cross to that Gethsemane Hill where He willingly laid down His life for the good of the world. He offered peace, but the majority didn’t get it, and the cross ruled as they nailed Him there ~ as we nailed Him there in those lonely moments, when God turned His back allowing the sin of the world to be laid on Him. It was there on that horrendous yet beautiful cross that Christ took the sin of mankind upon Himself. Let your mind wander to that Hill, to the mercy cross! Let your heart follow to that place where justice and mercy meet; to that scandalous place of bloodshed, horrendous horror, torture, humility and sacrificial servanthood to the ultimate degree! Yet against all odds, three days later, He rose again, defeating death, according to and fulfilling His Father’s will.
Meet Him there at the cross, for forgiveness and then look to His victory over death and the empty grave for hope and everlasting life beyond death!
One day He will rule the world in peace but until then, He still desires to make His triumphal entry into the individual hearts and souls of those that will receive Him; to set up His Kingdom of peace in the lives of humankind one by one and in so doing, heal the nations of the world one heart at a time, through cleansing and forgiveness, saving it and it’s people from its own sinful, self–destruction. He still offers peace but the majority just doesn’t get it!
His motive is salvation! His driving force forgiveness and healing! His message ~ unconditional love and His rule is peace! It’s simple yet many don’t get it! Have you got it?
#Palmsunday #Holyweek #Soulnotetoself
Yeah, we might truly feel, at such a time as this, the sky is falling with imminent disaster but what on the face of this virus-infested earth are we to do about it? Turns out there’s nothing we can do, except be heroes in our homes to keep others well. I get it that, we may have our own trauma, inside our COVID-19, social distancing, walls with many things churning in our minds. Close quarters, sometimes too close for comfort! Fear of death, safety for our kids and our families coupled with financial pressure, health issues, family struggles, and emotional upheaval, where just coping and keeping our heads above water is hard. There may be many voices to hear and many thoughts to control. Some voices will convey fear, others panic! Other confused voices might lead us off track making us feel completely helpless and hopeless in it all and lure us into a den of temptation, despair and eventually defeat.
Philippians 4: 6, 9
It’s a new day dawning and I get that it’s uncertain. Perhaps our most important message of the hours that come and go would be that given by the writer of Hebrews, in Hebrews 12: 2, “To fix our eyes on Jesus” in these days of uncertainty. The book of Hebrews was written, possibly as a sermon, as an energetic pastoral response to meet the needs of the struggling people of Rome yet, today ‘we’ are those people, struggling, meeting challenges head-on, that we don’t know how t
The world has a mess of stuff on its doorstep! Who knew? Yet just out of the blue, it sideswiped us! Took us off guard and caught us unprepared. Now it’s a full-blown season of questions without many answers, but yet, you gotta know, even the hard times hold beautiful moments for your beautiful soul. This is not a time to press panic buttons and hide away out of fear but It ‘is’ a time of quiet reflection on life as we see it with a “hands-on, how simple life can be” reference. These days of closures and lockdowns and self-isolation provide a much-needed opportunity for a time-out to bask in the presence of the Omnipotent, Omnipresent sovereign God who is in control and who encompasses you on every side and has you in the palm of His nail imprinted hand! He wouldn’t think of letting you go, not even for a second! He’s got your heart all wrapped up sweet and tight and safe in His, nestled in with His vast and unconditional love and held snug with a grace so amazing it’s beyond comprehension! So even on the days when you feel alone ~ you’re not at all. He’s there for you and your beautiful soul in your moments of need ~ held fast with His mercy! So today, beautiful one, it’s simple. Don’t focus on the latest news, but rather fix your eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, and just respond with a thankful heart for His divine watch-care over your family. Let Him work His plan in you and through you. Be alert to His words of guidance and walk in sweet and simple trust. A childlike faith in an all-powerful God is what you need for today ‘cuz a simple faith walk with Him is a victory walk and a win/win situation. Go for it! He’s got you in these uncertain times.
Perhaps when symptoms surfaced and the COVID -19 shouted loud and clear that it was on the rise and rapidly spreading, travel should have been banned on all fronts. Yet it wasn’t! Instead, the economy shouted “money” and “fun” called, so the world took flight and took sail and went wherever they desired, only some, to find themselves returning home with symptoms that tested positive. So now was the time to quarantine. Let’s place them out of reach for a time, while all those they had already come in contact with, go to their homes, their workplaces, their schools, and their circles of influence to watch still more symptoms surface! Yet, we heard from the media, that officials were doing all they could do to smash this bug and nip it in bud.
Yeah, we sit in our brilliance and our intelligence and yet, we lack so much common sense. Now, our world sits in fear as the numbers rise and the death bell tolls. What should our reaction be to this monster that rages around the world? We tend to choose a side, and either appear complacent for fear of what others will think of us, or we take action and appear paranoid. Friends, God has not lost control, but man has and fear and panic are aggressively on the rise! Recession is looming and disease is rampant and God looks on and pities us in our weak, human and finite frames. I’m so thankful He shows mercy to our pitiful condition and showers unending grace over our downfalls. When we think we’re so smart, we’re not, and when we think we’re in control, we’re not, and when the rubber really meets the road, we try to put on the brakes to stop it but we can’t, because we didn’t try soon enough. We let our selves, our fun, our money and our economy get in the way. We did what we did because we desired it and now we’ve fallen flat on our faces with recessions and lockdowns.
Hope and Healing In Hard Places 