‘Today is my day to sorrow’, thought the tiny flower growing beside a rock. ‘Last night a great trouble came over me as a man, or something more than a man, sat by my side and wept. His tears were so great that when they splashed upon me I felt sick and my roots were weakened. I tried to reach out to the man, but I am just a flower and cannot draw attention to myself like a bird can with her song. He cried and screamed and begged and pleaded, but no peace came to this man. I hoped that He would look at me and I could make Him smile. He left and then returned, even sadder when He came back. All I could do was sit with Him. Then I sensed a resolve in His being and He went to stand once more. He stumbled and His hands landed near me. I tried to be radiant to bring Him comfort, finally He saw me, He smiled very gently, then He rose to His feet. “Thank you my radiant flower.” He said, then He left.
I feel that something great and tragic happened that night. Today I feel as though a friend is calling out for mercy. Today I feel sad. But being a flower, I know that tomorrow will bring new joy and hope.’
Category: power of God
Don’t miss it
Don’t miss it
I remember hearing a Christian lady arguing with a scholar. She had asked a simple question but the scholar -not of Christian theology- had seen that she was a Christian and had decided to take her to the mat because of it. He used big words in several different languages and quoted the Bible back to her claiming his vast knowledge was proof that he could say that Jesus wasn’t God. When she tried to explain how he had misrepresented the scriptures he had chosen to quote, and what they truly meant within the context they are in, he had fought back by listing his degrees from some of the big name brand schools and claimed her lack of degree showed how she couldn’t understand scripture even of it were true. ( His expression. I fully know scripture is true). Finally she was so tired of him she simply shook her head and said, “You’ve missed the whole point.”
In this guys vast learning and studying he had claimed himself equal to Christ, he thought his knowledge of God placed him next to God on equal level with Jesus, because Jesus had come simply to prophesy about a new way to God, but wasn’t actually God Himself. He had missed the whole point. (We won’t go into how much of what he said was wrong and which chapters of the Bible prove how wrong this ‘learned man’ was, that would take too long.)
We can’t be Jesus. Jesus wasn’t a prophet or a scholar. If He had been than we would be in trouble because His death wouldn’t have meant a thing. We cannot sit equal to Jesus at God’s side. He was and is and always will be God’s only son. He is God. Jesus made it so we don’t need a priest, or a degree or a scholar to understand Him and be close to Him. The new covenant was an open relationship with God, not as little Christs oursleves, but as servants who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb. Before Jesus died, we couldn’t talk to God ourselves, we couldn’t ask for our own sins to be forgiven, and we always had to bring a sacrifice- now we can talk to God about everything, we don’t need a priest to ask for our sins to be forgiven, we can ask for it ourselves, and now we have a communion with the last sacrifice ever needed and through Him we are no longer slaves but friends. Study your Bible and learn as much about God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit as humanly possible, but don’t feel your knowledge of God replaces a relationship with God. Don’t miss the point of the cross.
Silent Wednesday
In the waiting
Today is silent Wednesday, silent because there isn’t really and event that happened today, it was more like a day of waiting. Waiting for the final bell to toll in this part of the story. The waiting must have been terrible. Imagine knowing the horrors that await you and still going forward to face them. So many can’t take the life they are in, too many give up before they have the chance to see the turn around, and these people don’t even know what lies ahead of them. Jesus knew what was coming and had the power to stop it. But for the sake of love, for the sake of me, He went forward. He knew His Father’s plan was perfect even though it would cause Him so much grief, the suffering didn’t change who His Father was in His eyes. He could have called down Legions upon Legions of angels to come and save Him. He could have simply took those who already loved Him with Him to Heaven and left the rest of us and not suffered at all. Yet He died and rose again, because that’s how much He loves us. Today would have been so hard for Jesus. Don’t let Him wait alone, stop and spend some time with Him today❤️ thank you Jesus for dying for me, even though I wasn’t yet born. You chose me, and I am grateful.
Beneath His feet
If I were the sandals beneath His feet.
If I were the sandals beneath His feet, oh the places I would go. I would step into the Temple and hear Him teach the crowd. I would walk along the Jordan and see fish fill a boat. I would come too close for comfort to lepers and not fear their disease. I would see the lame man walk and watch the blind man see. Would I undstand His parables? Would I question who He was? Or would I know just be being near Him that He was God’s only son? I would stand upon a hill top and see the devil face to face. I would hear Jesus refuse to bow to sin. I would be stained by the sweat of donkeys. I would taste the sweet dew of morning on garden grass. I would be made wet by His tears. I would hear Him pray for all of us left. I would stand on a platform and watch a crooked trial. I would be hit by His blood, and strain to hear His defense. I would weep when He said nothing to free Himself. I would be gambled for at the foot of a cross. I would be shaken as the Vail was torn. I would break deep down as I realized He was gone. Then I would be far away from Him. I would be stuck on the feet of a Roman soldier. Then I would spend a long night outside a tomb and be terrified as the big stone rolled away. I would cry for joy as I watched the feet I knew so well and loved so dear walk past me in a glow I could not explain. I would hear from the soldiers later that He had been seen around, appearing before those He loved. Then I would see Him no longer. But I had heard Him say that He would return someday. I long for that day. The day when at His feet I might remain.
If only I were the sandals beneath His feet.
Warrior who rides in on an animal of peace for the sake of the ones He loves.
“…Look, your king is coming to you…he is humble, riding on a donkey…” Zechariah 9:9
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ ” They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” “Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
Mark 11:1-4.
Everything about Jesus coming and his ministry were preordained right to the Donkey. In a time when so many felt like what they needed was a warrior they ended up with a gentle and merciful King. Some days all you want is for Jesus to be the type of King who would come with through with his sword, beheading our enemies and setting us free. But that has never been Jesus’s character. Jesus doesn’t want to lose a single soul, so he comes riding on a donkey. For the sake of us, he would set aside his great power and die by human hands. In the final hour Jesus Will Come and he will destroy the enemy! Wielding a sword and killing all evil. But till that day comes we have to remain as occupiers, not taking up battle arms against people but against the devil who works through people. We don’t always want to go to the World on the back of a donkey, but until Jesus returns to Vanquish the enemy, we must ride out on animals of burden and peace, with our sword of the Spirit ready by our side. Jesus will come again, and when He does He will come as a warrior king with His army to defeat the true enemy- the devil will fall. But He wants to take back as many souls from the devil as possible before the final hour strikes, so he comes in peace because He chooses not to be our enemy even when we kill Him, because He loves us and wants us. What a sad and terrible day this must have been as Jesus saw people who should have loved Him, praising Him only while it was convinient. When He was no longer popular they shouted to crucify Him and to set the false Jesus free- they chose Barabas.
Still He comes in peace to a world full of lost and wandering souls who desperately need Him.
Modeling chocolate
Have you ever tried to form clay? Or modeling chocolate? Or fondant?
Anything you try to form into a new shape has one common problem, it wants to do it’s own thing. You try to form it one way, it shifts to another. You try to make it round, it goes pointy; you want it flat, it develops bubles; you try to make a fower and you get an elephant. Clay is paitence building and time consuming.
We are told that we are clay and that God is the Potter. He knows what he intends us to look like in the end, so he molds us, and then he fixes our cracks, and then he shapes us again. Just like modeling chocolate, every time God tries to put us into the shape he intended us to be we try and mold ourselves into the shape we think we should be. Where God intended a beautiful flower we are becoming a cracked and crooked elephant. What a blessing it is that God is patient. If he got bored or annoyed he could crumple us up and throw us away and give up entirely, but he doesn’t. He keeps working with us, shift by shift, small movement by small movement, until we begin to take proper shape. God has a perfect and beautiful plan to create us into something wonderful, if only we would stop trying to form ourselves into what we think is perfect, if we let go and let the Potter do his job we will become something beautiful In the end.
The enemy cannot win forever
Remember in the Two Towers? When Frodo and Sam are walking on the road of the old kings that had been taken by the enemy and they came across the statue of the great king. Violent hands had knocked off the king’s head and replaced it with a rock with a symbol of the enemy as a mockery to the king of old. Yet in the grass where the old king’s head lay, beard broken off and stone scarred, flowers of tiny gold and silver blossoms had encircled the kings head, crowning it once again, as if in honor to the old king, and Frodo said, “the enemy cannot win forever.”
I see in my mind an image of Jesus. People have marred it and the enemy set up something honoring himself and mocking Christ in the place of where Jesus’s earthly honor once stood. Yet there are still some who refuse to bow to the enemy, some who wish to be jewels in the true King’s crown. In a moment of sun in the dark world my heart cries out, “the enemy cannot win forever.” The true King will return in all His glory as He really is, not as how the enemy has made Him appear. He will vanquish all evil and we who honored Him still, even when it looked like He might be defeated, will sit at His feat in His throne room and be blessed by His presence. This will not last forever. Whatever darkness is getting inside your head, whatever fear you feel, whatever evil you see, it will all be destroyed when the King returns- when Jesus comes back to take us home. Long live the King!
What is meant to last?
Tea pot rock. The Hoodoos. Minter Gardens. Notre Dame. Black hills mustangs.
Just to name a very small few.
There are so many things that are either gone or are fading that we thought would last forever. Only two of the things listed can be rebuilt or reopened, the rest once gone will be gone for good. It makes you stop to consider, how much of what we care so much about and put so much energy into in this world, will be gone in the next hundred years? The mustangs still could be saved if people would stand up for them; but the rest there’s nothing you can do to help. God never intended for this world to be eternal, not after the fall that is. He plans on rolling it up and tossing it away. Which is so hard for us because this world is all we know. Yet to Him this world is just a short stop for His people before we go to Heaven. Then people start asking why God would do that? Why not just have in Heaven to begin with? We’ve all heard the questions and the answers, yet I feel that the reason God started us here was because it was His plan to start us here, He’s the one writing the story, He can do as He pleases. I heard about an algae living in a space under the ice on the sea floor of the Antarctic; life in an area where life shouldn’t be able to exist. All the scientists from all different science standpoints wanted to explain how it got there, and I just smiled and went, “you had fun with that didn’t you God?”
I get science. I was going into Marine Biology before God called me to a differnt path. Just saying that because I know how some people do the, ‘well people who don’t understand science are the ones who don’t try to explain it,’ thing. God is in control. That makes us feel very small and helpless so we try to come up with things that make it sound like we are in control. Like the latest one that says: God doesn’t actually have a plan or an agenda for your life, He’s just there for you if you need Him.
That’s wrong by the way. People who have read their Bible know that that’s not accurate, and those who believe this and have read their Bibles need to read their Bibles again.
Agenda is a bit of a contorted word these days, it’s one of the many words that have lost their original meaning, but basically it means that there is a plan for you, specifically, and every part of you life has been known and calculated since before you were conceived. You can deviate from that plan, but when you let Him, God will put you back on the right path. I know that that thought can feel scary because it’s a full acknowledgment of the greater power that God has compared to us. But he does have a greater power, an unbelievable power, and yes it is to be feared, but when it’s protecting you because you are one of His children, then it is something to be adored and respected. God sees you. As an open and bare soul. No part of you is hidden from Him. But instead of being terrified or trying to make God smaller so He doesn’t bother you so much, you should lean into His knowledge about you and feel safe knowing that He knows it all and is taking care of you.
God’s plan is for the eternal. For your soul. Even when the Hoodoos are flat and the grasslands (as sad as it will be) are bare, God’s plan for you will remain, because His plan for you ends in you running into His open arms at the end of your story and hearing Him say, “well done, good and faithful servant.”
Don’t leave His path. Don’t run from His plan. His plan is because He loves you and wants you with Him forever.
The day He wore my crown
The day He wore my crown.
The city was Jerusalem
The time was long ago
The people called him Jesus
The crime was the love He showed
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all the pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown
He brought me love that only He could give
I brought Him cause to cry
And though He taught me how to live
I taught Him how to die
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all the pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown
He could have called His holy Father, and said,
“Take me away, please, take me away.”
He could have said, “I’m not guilty.
And I’m not going to stay
I’m not going to pay.”
But He walked right through the gate
And then on up the hill
And as He fell beneath the weight
He cried, “Father, not My will.”
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all His pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown.
And I’m the one to blame
I caused all His pain
He gave Himself, the day He wore my crown.
-Sandi Patti
There isn’t a lot more I could add here. As the day of the betrayal in the garden and the road to the cross draw closer, this song plays over and over and over again in my mind. He wore my crown. I now get to wear a crown of glory because Jesus wore my crown of thorns. We all strive toward the glowing gates of Heaven and the final prize, but do we stop to consider the path that had to be taken for us to to be able to aim for Heaven at all? We dream of golden streets and crowns of jewels, but do we recall a dusty road and a crown of thorns?
That was my crown Jesus wore. That was your crown that pierced His head. That was our crown that soaked up His blood as soldiers mocked Him. He could habe said ‘no’, He wasn’t abligated to die for us, but He chose the thorns, He chose my crown. Don’t forget that.
Down that road is where I long to be.
There’s a road that keeps on calling me.
The pathway of tears, the road of sorrows, the Via Delorosa; the road has many names and titles, yet it always leads one place, to the cross. Oh I don’t mean the Spiritual Cross. I mean the literal cross. The worst part about anything you are dreading is the leading up to it; the road to your school or office, the hall to the doctor’s office, the first signs of a cold. You know what’s coming, and you dread it, yet you are given no choice and must walk down the path to where you are supposed to be. Many walked this road carrying crosses. Only one held no sin. Many felt the pain and shame and fear of going down that road, only one went down it by choice. Many were nailed to crosses to pay for their crimes, only one was nailed to a cross to pay for my crimes, and the crimes of all those who would choose to lay their sins aside and follow Jesus.
There’s a road that keeps calling me. The road to the cross. Yet when I stand on that hill I am not accused, because I gave my life to Jesus and He paid my debt for me.
Carried in the cross 