Thank you for the Easter presents.
We always do Easter baskets in our family, (which originated in Old Catholicism for those wondering, no it did not begin with a bouncy rabbit no matter how cute he is.) The adults receive fancy chocolates, sometimes books, sometimes crafts, sometimes games- you get the picture. Afterwards we always thank each other for our Easter gifts.
But what about the big gift in the basket? The one that Easter is truly all about, do we thank the giver for this gift?
What does Easter mean to you?
In truth the date doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have to be in April for this day to be important. Too many get caught up in the chronology and forget about the event. If it happened in June or October instead, the day of Jesus’s death would still be the most important day in history. He gave us His purity. His honor. His grace. His blamelessness. He gave us a place in Heaven. So let me refrase the question: what does Jesus’s death mean to you? Do we remember to thank Him? He gave us the greatest gift we have, don’t let Easter go by, more importantly don’t let your life go by without stopping and thanking Jesus for His gift. He didn’t have to do it. He chose to.
Category: The Bible
With Him in the garden
‘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.’
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.
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.
Rules are signs of love too.
Jesus is still our hope, our joy, our comforter and friend. Yes He has rules to follow, but they aren’t rules intended to harm us, they are rules set up to help us and protect us. Like all good Fathers, our Father in Heaven gave us a list of rules that keep us out of trouble, those rules don’t mean He doesn’t love us- they prove that He does love us. Jesus reconfirmed those rules when He was ministering so we would know that they were still important. But moving away from that. The laws of God are always getting contorted so we end up saying that God has no rules because His rules make Him sound less loving. That’s not true. Parents who don’t decipline their children may look loving to the child getting away with everything, but from the outside looking in, all people see are parents who don’t care enough about their child to correct him or her. When I was little I was taught to always say ‘please,’ ‘thank you,’ ‘I’m sorry,’ ‘ excuse me’; you know, the basics, yet people are often saying how polite I am just because I use common courtesies that all people should know and use, because my parents cared enough to teach them to me. Having this General basis of knowing polite conversation has helped me a lot in my buisness life. God’s rules are there to help us in all aspects of life. Don’t murder, don’t steal, don’t have affairs, treat others as yourself, one man should be married to one woman, don’t lie, don’t go into buisness with people who don’t share your faith, go the extra mile. So on, and so on. All these rules are there to keep us safe. And God’s plan for our lives is not an agenda that He is forcing on us, it’s simply a plan for us to become the best people we can be. He still loves us. He is still our hope and our joy. His rules that keep us safe don’t change how much He adores us, they are proof that He loves us. And He always will.
He didn’t fix the broken world, but He does fix broken people.
“Help her to know that the world is not a safe or nice place just because Jesus came, but that we still need His grace.”
Tonight I found a video of my Grandfather and Grandmother praying over right after I was born. They said a lot of great and kind things, yet this stood out to me. It’s so terribly true. So many people come to know Jesus and think that by knowing Him the world will suddenly change into a nicer, better place. Then it doesn’t and they- like the seed that fell on the side of the road- lost their faith as soon as bad times came. We preach that Jesus will make everything better, and He does, but not in the way that most people understand. Like the Jewish people expecting the Messiah to over throw the Roman tyrany, we expect something that our carnal minds see, not what God actually has planned. When Jesus comes into our lives and changes things for the better it doesn’t mean that He changes the world around us, it means He changes us. Sometimes God does something crazy and fixes every problem and cures every illness, but many times He doesn’t. Many times He changes our outlook, our plan, sometimes even our friends circle changes to help us where we are in that season. But the most important thing is that He Himself comes into our lives and His presence makes everything better. Jesus didn’t come to make the world a better place, He came to make us better people and to prepare us for His kingdom.
We still need His grace.
Carried in the cross 