Reshaping the Pot

                                           

                                                      Reshaping the Pot

Jeremiah 18:1-6  "...The pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hand; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him."

God sent Jeremiah to visit a potter's house and he sees the potter shaping the "marred" clay with his hand, carefully handling the material and forming it into another pot.

The prophet reminds us that God is the skillful Potter and we are the clay.

He is sovereign and can use what He creates to both destroy evil and create beauty in us. God can shape us even when we are  broken. He, the master Potter, can and is willing to create  new and precious pottery from our shattered pieces. He doesn't look at our broken lives and mistakes them as waste to be thrown away.

Instead, He picks up our pieces and reshapes them as He sees fit.

Even in our brokenness we have immense value to our Master Potter.

In His hands, the broken pieces of our lives can be reshaped into beautiful vessels to be used by Him.

Something beautiful, something good

All my confusion He understood

All I had to offer Him was brokenness and strife

But He made something beautiful of my life!

Clarify Thy Son

A clarifying truth...

Look at Wycliffe's English translation of the Bible (directly from the Latin Vulgate and finished in 1382) and see how he expressed the word we use today -- glorify -- as clarify in his version of John 17.


I love reading it this way:


These things Jesus spake, and when he had cast up his eyes into heaven, he said, 'Father, the hour cometh, clarify thy Son, that thy Son clarify thee....


I have clarified thee on earth, I have ended the work that thou hast given to me to do...


and now, Father, clarify thou me...with the clearness that I had at thee, before the world was made...


Father, they which thou hast given to me, I will that where I am, that they be with thee, that they see my clearness..


And I have given to them the clearness, that thou hast given to me....


What a remarkable way to look at it -- when we truly glorify God we make Him clearly visible to those around us -- we should be making Him clear -- clearly seen and free of impurities -- I remember my mother teaching me how to clarify butter --

Prayer for today - that I will clarify the Person of Jesus Christ and the presence of our Father and the Holy Spirit in my walk and in my talk...
everywhere I go - that He will be clearly seen in me!

May the mind of Christ my Savior

Live in me from day to day

By His love and power controlling

All I do and say.

May the peace of God my Father

Rule my life in every thing

That I may be calm to comfort

Sick and sorrowing....

Or, another song we love..."Let Others See Jesus in You"!



I looked up "clarify" in the dictionary -- from Middle English and Latin -- to make illustrious, clear, bright, famous...1.  make or become clear and free from impurities  2. to make or become easier to understand....



Clarify is a great, spiritually functional word!

A Chosen People (Con't)

(con't. from yesterday, April 9)

Part 3

Read Zechariah, chapter 3 

  Satan is always standing by us, accusing us. His words are relentless. "You keep messing up. You won't be faithful! You won't obey Him! Remember yesterday? You are not worthy to be His child! You are a hypocrite  and everybody knows it. Just give it up!"

  The way we can silence and rebuke Satan is to face him and proclaim the gospel truth: "Yes, I sometimes fail, but He has forgiven me and will always forgive me and will always love me!" And immediately thank God for His grace and forgiveness! Even as Satan is speaking to you, begin to thank and praise God for His eternal faithfulness! Turn every accusation of Satan into a praise for our Savior!

  Yes! That's how we rebuke Satan -- we turn his curses of us into praises for our Savior Jesus! Yes, look  at Satan, but gaze at Jesus!

   Yes, glance at Satan, but gaze at Jesus!

   Look at verses 3 and 4.  The guilt of the high priest is demonstrated by the filthy clothes he wears. God, in His grace, has them removed and re-clothes him in righteous garments. Just like Jesus did at the cross. We gave Him all our filthy garbage and clothing and He exchanges it for His garments of righteousness: a vivid picture of forgiveness.

                                       ************************************

"I delight greatly in the LORD; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of His righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels" (Isaiah 61:10).

  Jesus wore our sins when He was on the cross so that we could wear His righteousness forever!

  What's more, He restores Joshua to his role as high priest, even placing the priestly turban with the words "Holy to the Lord", described in Exodus 28.

  What has Joshua done to deserve this or make it happen?

  Absolutely nothing!

  It is all an act of God's grace.

  Because of Jesus we didn't get what we deserved -- punishment for our sins. But also because of Jesus we got what we didn't deserve -- His mercy and forgiveness!

  Review chapter 3 and see what Joshua received. He was...

     Chosen!

     Rescued!

     Secured!

     Forgiven!

     Declared righteous and holy!

   All from God's amazing grace...

    And all a preview of what Jesus would do when He came! Zechariah's vision was truly a prototype, a preview of coming attractions -- of glorious times to come!

   And God allowed Zechariah to have a review of it!

   He was so blessed.  And we are even more blessed -- Because WE have been

     CHOSEN!

     RESCUED!

     SECURED!

     FORGIVEN!

     DECLARED RIGHTEOUS AND HOLY!

   And so the greatest evil in all of world history became the greatest gift in all of world history!!

                              "When He shall come with trumpet sound, 

                    O may I then in Him be found. 

                    Dressed in His righteousness alone, 

                    Faultless to stand before the throne."

                                --- From "The Solid Rock"

 

A Chosen People

 Part 1

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praise of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light" (1 Peter 2:9).

I love finding glimpses of Jesus in the Old Testament. And there are so many! As Sally Lloyd-Jones says, "Every story whispers His name."

A really special example is the prophet Zechariah, who has the task of encouraging his people to finish the rebuilding of the temple when they return from exile. God sends him visions of future things that will come, because they are His chosen people! Forever!

Years ago -- many years ago -- when we went to the local movie theater, in addition to the main movie, they presented a feature called "Previews of Coming Attractions." They were enticing us to watch for the great things coming soon! In a way, the Old Testament is like that: presenting previews, prototypes, of what is coming next! And Zechariah is like that -- a hint, a preview, of something even more wonderful coming! And it's all about Jesus -- the best is yet to come!

Read chapter 3 in the Zechariah record. Verses 1-3 set the stage for us. We have a powerful picture of that unseen battle happening in the spiritual realm. There  is Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord, while Satan stands beside him to accuse him. That's what Satan does! He accuses, he shames, he recounts past sins. Here he is ready at accuse Joshua -- probably pointing out everything he has ever done wrong, his failures, his unworthiness.

And he is doing this right now -- to us!

He is the prosecuting attorney! But what does God say? And what happens next?

Part 2

Read again Zechariah, chapter 3.

Verse 2. It appears that Satan, the prosecutor of Joshua, has not started his tirade. But God silences him even before he begins. And how does God describe Joshua? "A burning stick snatched from the fire."

You  probably have sat near a bonfire. And you have seen a charred log, burned down, blackened and smoldering. It's been through the flames. It still has its shape, but is not what it once was. It looks ruined, maybe useless. This is the picture Zechariah gives us: a person pulled out of destruction, rescued from what could have utterly consumed him entirely, and says to Satan, "This one? I have pulled this one out of the fire and will use him in my work!"

 We call this "grace".
 And we call it "redemption"! 

Because this is what God has done for us!

Another preview of what Jesus did when He came - 500 years years later. That vision God gave Zechariah was another "Preview of Coming Attractions"! Jesus Himself came to earth, our greater High Priest, to that temple, and to the cross,   and saved us from eternal destruction.

(Con't in Part 3 - tomorrow)

The Miracle We are Really After

 
                                                  

                                                  The Miracle We Are Really After

 I love these words from Frederick Buechner:

"For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars, there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-to-day lives who in one way or another is trying to get messages through our blindness as we move around knee deep in the fragrant muck and misery and marvel of the world.

It is not objective proof of God's existence that we want, but the experience of God's Presence.

That is the miracle we are really after and that is also, I think, the miracle we really get."

That's true for me. I don't need a brilliant scientist to try to prove to me that there is or is not a God.

The question is, if there is  God, does He want anything from me? Anything to do with me?

I remember C S Lewis' words when he abandoned atheism and embraced Christ. His atheist colleagues were horrified at his decision to become a Christian and ridiculed him relentlessly that he decided to believe in God.

He said, "It's not that I believe in God, but that I believe in THIS God," he said, and he held out his Bible to them.

The miracle he was really after was the miracle he really received.

And so have I.

Four quartets - T. S. Eliot - When He Became a Christian

 

                                When T. S. Eliot Became a Christian

From Four Quartets

The wild thyme unseen, or the winter lightning
Or the waterfall, or music heard so deeply
That it is not heard at all...
...These are only hints and guesses,
Hints followed by guesses; and the rest
Is prayer, observance, discipline, thought and action.
The hint half guessed, the gift half understood, is
   Incarnation.

Here the impossible union
Of spheres of existence is actual
Here the past and future
Are conquered and reconciled....

In order to arrive at what you do not know
   You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.
In order to possess what you do not possess
   You must go by the way of dispossession.
In order to arrive at what you are not
   You must go through the way in which you are not.
And what you do not know is the only thing you know
And what you own is what you do not own
And where you are is where you are not....

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
Through the unknown remembered gate
When the last of earth left to discover
Is that which was the beginning...

And all shall be well and
All manner of thing shall be well..

--From Four Quartets






Important dates for T. S. Eliot
     1888 - his birth
     1922 - Wasteland published
     1927 - his conversion from agnosticism/atheism to Christianity
     1930 - Ash Wednesday published -- what he called
                his "Conversion Poem."
     1943 - Four Quartets published -- for which he was
                awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature           
        1965 - his pre-resurrection death

When T. S. Eliot became a Christian - From article by John Piippo

"On June 29, 1927, the brilliant T. S. Eliot converted from Unitarianism to Anglicanism. Some of his former fellow atheists were scandalized. Virginia Woolf was one of them.

Her reaction, writes Peter Hitchens (Christopher's brother) was one of fury and almost physical disgust which was, he says, typical of the educated British middle class.

Woolf wrote, 'I have had a most shameful and distressing interview with poor dear Tom Eliot, who may be called dead to us all from this day forward. He has become an Anglo-Catholic, believes in God and immortality, and goes to church. I was really shocked. A corpse would seem to me more credible that he is. I mean, there's something obscene in a living person sitting by the fire and believing in God.'"

(Hitchens, Peter, The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith, p. 24).

Woolf's response is similar to that of Richard Dawkins who shrinks back in horror every time some brilliant scientist (Like Francis Collins) speaks of his conversion to Christ.

Hitchens comments on Woolf's Eliot-reponse: "Look at these bilious, ill-tempered words: 'Shameful, obscene, dead to us all.' There has always seemed to me to be something frantic and enraged about this passage, concealing its real emotion -- which I suspect is fear that Eliot, as well as being a greater talent than her, may also be right."

               

Does God really confide in us?

The LORD confides in those who fear Him; He makes His covenant known to them.          Psalm 25:14

See, the former things have taken place, and new things I declared; before they spring into being I announce them to you. Isaiah 42:9

For the LORD detests a perverse man, but takes the upright man into His confidence. Proverbs 3:32

How does He speak to us this way?

Through His Word - not only has He confided His plan for the ages, He also opens our eyes to see what He is doing right now around us - in our lives and in the lives of those we love.


Through prayer - His Spirit opens our ears to hear His voice and opens our hearts to receive the message. Sometimes it is just a whisper, and sometimes it is a loud a-ha moment of joy!

Through His community - the people He has brought into ourlives - sometimes we can glean great truths and guidance from them - no one comes into our lives by accidence.

Through circumstances - sometimes it is just so obvious!

What we know:

• God tells us what we need to know when we need to know it. Not before.

• God always takes the initiative in revealing His heart to us.

     Whether I can hear His voice depends on my closeness to Him, my living in His Presence, and my love for Him.

As we become aware of His Presence it will become easier for us the see the way we should go.

Instead of wondering about the road ahead we will focus on staying in communication with Him.

We shouldn't go through life like a sleep-walker, just following our own regular routines and personal agendas.

We should look beyond those rutted paths and let Him lead us onto new trails of adventure and freedom.

He will reveal to us new glorious truths all along the way.

Just stay with Him. Don't let go of His hand!

Anticipating Easter - Max Lucado

A party was the last thing Mary Magdalene expected as she approached the tomb on that Sunday morning.

The last few days had brought nothing to celebrate. 

The Jews could celebrate -- Jesus was out of the way.

The soldiers could celebrate -- their work was done.

But Mary couldn't celebrate. To her the last few days had brought nothing but tragedy.

Mary had been there. She had heard the leaders clamor for Jesus' blood. She had witnessed the Roman whip rip the skin off his back. She had winced as the thorns sliced his brow and wept at the weight of the cross.

In the early morning mist she arises from her mat, takes her spices and aloes and leaves her house, past the Gate of Gennath and up to the hillside.

She anticipates a somber task. By now the body will be swollen. His face will be white. Death's odor will be pungent.

A gray sky gives way to gold as she walks up the narrow trail. As she rounds the final bend, she gasps.

The rock in front of the grave is pushed back.

"Someone took the body." She runs to awaken Peter and John. They rush to see for themselves. She tries to keep up with them but can't.

Peter comes out of the tomb bewildered and John comes out believing, but Mary just sits in front of it weeping. The two men go home and leave her alone with her grief.

But something tells her she is not alone. Maybe she hears a noise. Maybe she hears a whisper. Or maybe she just hears her own heart tell her to take a look for herself.

"Why are you crying?"

"They have taken my Lord away, and I don't know where they have put him."

She still calls him "my Lord." As far as she knows his lips are silent. As far as she knows his body has been carted off by grave robbers. But in spite of it all, he is still her Lord.

Such devotion moves Jesus. It moves him closer to her. She turns and there he stands. She thinks he is the gardener.

Now Jesus could have revealed himself at this point. He could have called for an angel to present him or a band to announce his presence. But he didn't.

He doesn't leave her wondering for long, just long enough to remind us that he loves to surprise us. He waits for us to despair of human strength and then intervenes with heavenly. God waits for us to give up and then -- surprise!

Has it been a while since you let God surprise you?

It's easy to reach the point where we have God figured out.

We know exactly what God does. We break the code. We chart his tendencies. God is a computer. If we push all the right buttons and insert the right data, God is exactly who we thought he was.

Have you got God figured out?

If so, then listen. Listen to God's surprises.

Hear the rocks meant for the adulterous woman drop to the ground.

Listen as Jesus invites a death row convict to ride with him to the kingdom in the front seat of the limo.

Listen as the Messiah whispers to the Samaritan woman, "I who speak to you am he."

Listen to the widow from Nain eating dinner with her son who is supposed to be dead.

And listen to the surprise as Mary's name is spoken by a man she loved -- a man she had buried.

"Miriam."

"Miriam," he said softly. "Surprise!"

When she heard her name she responded correctly. She worshiped him.

The scene has all the elements of a surprise party -- secrecy, wide eyes, amazement, gratitude.

But the celebration is mild in comparison with the one that is being planned for the future.

It will be similar to Mary's, but a lot bigger.

Many more graves will open. Many more names will be called. Many more knees will bow. And many more seekers will celebrate.

It's going to be some party! I want to make sure my name is on the guest list.
 
How about you?

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, 

No mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him

--1 Corinthians 2:9

-- From Six Hours One Friday, by Max Lucado, Chapter 18.

Anticipating Easter - Gethsemane Prayer (2) - Charles Spurgeon

Then Jesus went with  His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."

He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled.

Then He said to them, "My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here an keep watch with Me."

Going a little further, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, "My Father, if it is possible may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will."
      -- Matthew 26:36-39


There are several instructive features in our Savior's prayer in His hour of trial, says Charles Spurgeon.

In Morning and Evening, for March 22, he tells us:

It was a filial prayer. You will find it a stronghold in the day of trial to plead your adoption. You have no rights as a subject -- you have forfeited them by your treason, but nothing can forfeit a child's right to a father's protection. Do not be afraid to say, "My Father, hear my cry."

It was a prayer of resignation. "Yet not as I will, but as You will"...

Let it be as God wills, and God will determine for the best.

Be content to leave your prayer in His hands who knows when to give and how to give, and what to give, and what to withhold.

So pleading, earnestly, importunately, yet with humility and resignation,  you will surely prevail.

Anticipating Easter - Gethsemane Prayer - (1) Charles Spurgeon

Then Jesus went with His disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and He said to them, "Sit here while I go over there and pray."


He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with Him, and He began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then He said to them, "My soul is over whelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep with with Me."


.....Then He returned to His disciples and found them sleeping...
                       Matthew 26:36-40


Thoughts from Charles Spurgeon:


There are several instructive features in our Savior's prayer in His hour of trial.


It was a lonely prayer.


He withdrew even from His three favored disciples.


Believer, be diligent in solitary prayer, especially in times of trial.


Family prayer, social prayer, prayer in the church will not be sufficient; these are very precious, but the fragrance of heaven will be sweetest in your private devotions, where no ear hears but God's. 


--From Morning and Evening, March 22,

         Charles Spurgeon

Anticipating Easter - The Final 3 Hours - John MacArthur

The Final Three Hours on the Cross

(MT) Now from the sixth hour until the ninth hour, (LK) the sun was darkened [and] (MT) there was darkness over all the land. (MT) And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?" (MK) which is translated, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?"

(MT) Some of those who stood there, when they heard that, said, "Look, (MT) this Man is calling for Elijah!"

(JN) After this, Jesus, knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I thirst!" Now a vessel full of sour wine was sitting there. (MT) Immediately one of then ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine and put it on a reed of (JN) hyssop, and put it to His mouth

(MT) and offered it to Him to drink. The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him and (MK) take Him down." (JN) So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, "It is finished!"

(LK) And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, "Father, into your hands I commit My spirit." Having said this, (JN) and bowing His head, (LK) He breathed His last (MT) and yielded up His spirit.

(MT - Matthew) 27:45-50
(MK - Mark) 15:33-37
(LK - Luke) 23:4-45a
(JN - John) 19:28-30


Notes from John MacArthur:

1. From the 6th hour until the 9th hour - From noon until 3 PM. The crucifixion began at 9 AM and so the 6th hour marked the halfway point of Jesus' six hours on the cross.

2. Darkness - A mark of divine judgment (cf. Isaiah 5:30,13:10-11; Joel 2:1-2; Amos 5:20; Zephaniah 1:14-15; Matthew 8:12, 22:13, 25:30).

The geographical extent of the darkness is not known, although the writings of the church fathers hint that is extended beyond Israel.

This could not have been caused by an eclipse because Jews used a lunar calendar. Passover always fell on full moon, making solar eclipse out of the question. This was a supernatural darkness.

3. Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani - "Eli" is Hebrew, the rest Aramaic. (Mark 15:34 gives the entire wail in Aramaic.)

This cry is a fulfillment of Psalm 22:1, one of the many striking parallels between that psalm and the specific events of the crucifixion.

Christ at that moment was experiencing the abandonment and despair that resulted from the outpouring of divine wrath on Him as sin-bearer (cf. Matthew 26:39).

[Note: Christ cried out "My God," not "Abba," and not "Father," His usual terms of addressing His Father. This is the only time in the gospels He did not address God as His Father.]

4. Why have You forsaken Me? Jesus felt keenly His abandonment by the Father resulting from God's wrath being poured out on Him as the substitute for sinners (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21).

5. Sour wine - The drink here is not the same as the "wine mixed with myrrh" offered to Him as He marched to the cross (Matthew 27:34) which was intended to lessen the pain. The purpose of this cheap, sour wine (cf. Mark 15:36) is to prolong life and increase the torture.

The term harkens back to Psalm 69:21 where the same word is found in the Septuagint. Hyssop is a little plant that is ideal for sprinkling. (see Exodus 12:22).

[See also Psalm 51]

6. Elijah - Further mockery which in effect meant, "Let the forerunner come and save this so-called Messiah" (cf. Luke 1:17).

7."It is finished!" The verb here carries the idea of fulfilling one's mission and religious obligations (see John 17:4). The entire work of redemption has been brought to completion.

The single Greek word here translated it is finished
has been found in the papyri being placed on receipts for taxes meaning "paid in full" (see Colossians 3:13-14).

8. Cried out with a loud voice - Demonstrating amazing strength in light of the intense suffering He had endured. His shout reveals that His life did not slowly ebb away, but that He voluntarily gave it up (John 10:17-18).

9. Into Your hands - This quotes Psalm 31:5, and the manner of His death accords with John 10:18. Normally, victims of crucifixion died much slower death. He, bring in control, simply yielded up His soul(John 10:18; 19:30), committing it to God. Thus He offered Himself without spot to God (Hebrews 9:14).

10. Yielded up His spirit - A voluntary act. The sentence signaled that Jesus "handed over" His spirit as an act of His will. No one took His life from Him for He voluntarily and willingly gave it up (see John 10:17-18).



These notes taken from One Perfect Life, by John MacArthur

Anticipating Easter - Ancient Words

Ancient Words about the Messiah Jesus....


Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows,
yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our
iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter...

He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 
                                -- Isaiah 53: 4-9, written about 700 BC

The punishment that brought us peace was upon him

By his wounds we are healed


And that's why we call that Black Friday...
Good Friday!

Anticipating Easter - Philip Yancey

Random notes from Philip Yancey's book, The Jesus I Never Knew, Part One, Who He Was


I would have puzzled over the strange mixture represented by the Twelve.  Simon the Zealot belongs to the party violently opposing Rome, while Matthew the tax collector has recently been employed by Rome's puppet ruler.

No scholars like Nicodemus or wealthy patrons like Joseph of Arimathea have made it into the Twelve.

In my observation, in fact, the disciples' most obvious trait seems to be their denseness. "Are you so dull?" Jesus asks again and again.

While he is trying to teach them servant leadership, they are squabbling about who deserves the most favored position.


Oddly, as I look back on Jesus' time from the present perspective, it is the very ordinariness of the disciples that gives me hope.

Jesus does not seem to choose his followers on the basis of native talent or perfectibility or potential for greatness.

When he lived on earth he surrounded himself with ordinary people who misunderstood him, failed to exercise much spiritual power, and sometimes behaved like churlish schoolchildren.

Three followers in particular (the brothers James and John and Peter) Jesus singled out for his strongest reprimands -- yet they would become prominent leaders of the early church.

I cannot avoid the impression that Jesus prefers working with unpromising recruits.

Once, after he sent out seventy-two disciples on a training mission, Jesus rejoiced at the successes they reported back.

No passage in the Gospels shows him more exuberant. "At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said 'I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.'"

From such a ragtag band Jesus founded a church that has not stopped growing in nineteen centuries.

~~~~~~~

[Note: the selection of the Twelve gives me hope, too. And Christ actually selected these men Himself. Unlike most rabbis, whose followers came to them seeking appointment, Jesus  sought each of these men, as Mark tells us in his Gospel (Mark 3), for specific reasons:

     Jesus went up on a mountain and called to
     him those he wanted, and they came to him...
     that they might be with him and that he might
     send them out to preach.....

These are the men He wanted to be with.....

And it is from these men that we have the Easter story and its miracle of re-birth and gift of authority and power through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It's the way God worked then and the way He works now.]

Thank you, God, that you have chosen to take the
poor, ordinary and powerless people (and that includes me) to accomplish your Kingdom work!

Anticipating Easter - The Really Good News - Jerry Bridges

It is difficult for decent, upright Americans to accept the fact that we are by nature hostile to God, that we cannot please Him.

This is because we have confused general American morality, plus a dose of Sunday church attendance, with obedience to God's Law.


Most Americans have never been seriously confronted with the exceedingly high standard of God's eternal Law. When they are, they typically reveal their hostility to it.

...We were spiritually dead, enmeshed in a culture totally opposed to God, under the dominion of Satan, and slaves of our own sinful natures


Apart from the supernatural work of God in our lives, we were helpless to do anything about our condition.

When Lazarus lay dead in the tomb he could not decide to come to life again.

In fact, Lazarus could not even respond to Jesus' call, "Lazarus, come out!" unless with that call Jesus gave him life (see John 11:1-44 for full story).


Lazarus' condition, as he lay dead in the tomb, is a picture of our spiritual predicament. We can hear the call of the gospel a hundred times, but unless that call is accompanied by the life-giving power of the Holy Sprit, we can no more respond to it than Lazarus could respond to a vocal call from Jesus.


I know it is difficult for us to accept the fact that we could not just decide to trust Christ in much the same way we might decide to buy more life insurance.

The truth is, we did decide to trust Christ, but the reason we made that decision is that God first made us spiritually alive.

This is part of the good news.

God comes to us when  we are spiritually dead, when we don't even realize our condition, and gives us the spiritual ability to see our plight and to see in Christ the solution.

God doesn't just come partway to meet us in our need. He comes all the way.

When we were dead He made us alive in Christ Jesus.

And the first act of that new life is to turn in faith to Jesus.
 
  -- From The Gospel for Real Life, Chapter 11,
              by Jerry Bridges

Anticipating Easter - Palm Sunday

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you! He is just and having salvation, lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey.  Zechariah 9:9

Four descriptions in this verse describe the Messiah's character:

(1) He is King, (2) He is just, (3) He brings salvation, and (4) He is humble.


When Christ rode that young donkey into Jerusalem at the beginning of that final Passover week, He was fulfilling specific prophecy, complete in detail that could not be mistaken or disregarded.

The next day the great crowd that had come to the Feast heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They  took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

     "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!
     Blessed is the King of Israel!"

Jesus found a young donkey and sat upon it, as it is written,

     "O daughter of Zion; see, your king is coming, seated on a
     donkey's colt."  John 12:12-15


The Church refers to this event as Palm Sunday, or The Triumphal Entry.

It is recorded in all four gospels and marks a distinctive adjustment in Christ's ministry. Before this He seemed plagued with the problem of too much acclaim (His 'time had not yet come,' He often said).

Now, He even chided the Pharisees when they asked Jesus to quiet the tone of the crowd, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out." (Luke 19:40)

Who was in the crowd that day? A group from Bethany, still rejoicing at the miracle of Lazarus being brought back from the dead. Many pilgrims from all over the Empire arriving for Passover. Matthew talks about the lame, the blind and children being there. The text also refers to religious leaders.

And Roman legions were there to keep the crowds in check as the population of the city began to swell in advance of the Feast.

Crowd control in Jerusalem was always a security problem for the Romans, and for their puppet Jewish administrators who were jealous of their positions of authority within the structure of the Empire.

But about those Roman legions. I wonder what they thought. Were they secretly - or not so secretly -  making fun?

The typical Roman officer on duty in Jerusalem would have witnessed a number of important processions and 'Triumphal Entries.'

Probably even in Rome where the spectacle of the event would have dwarfed this small occasion in Jerusalem.

Might it have been like the Oscars being presented in Mississippi?

Jerusalem was an important city - a hub of the Empire. But not the place to honor a great King?

Did the Roman soldiers hang back and sneer at the procession of peasants from Galilee with the blind, the lame and children?

Did they perhaps laugh at all the provincial pomp and zeal? Thinking of how it would have been done in Rome, where they really "knew how to put on productions like this!"

Accustomed to honoring a triumphal king riding on a stallion or chariot, surrounded by the glitter of important adoring crowds, the object of this crowd's attention was a solitary figure, on a small donkey, with a borrowed coat draped across the backbone serving as his saddle.

And he was "weeping" (!) we are told in Luke 19 as He considered the fate of the city!

What kind of King was this?

Not the usual kind of King, that's for sure.

Anticipating Easter - What Else Happened on Good Friday?

                    What Else Happened on Good Friday?

"God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."   (2  Corinthians 5:21)

This verse talks about two transactions: (1)  believers' sins are placed (imputed) on Christ, and He pays the total penalty due in full, and (2) then His righteousness is placed (imputed) on them and they are rewarded for it!

This process is sometimes called the "Great Exchange."

It's like I bundled up in a trash bag all my garbage - my sin and guilt, sadness, brokenness, disappointments and hurts and all the other negatives stuff I have accumulated and hoarded over the years  - and handed that bag to Christ.

He took that bag from my hands and presented me with a treasure chest - a chest full of priceless jewels: forgiveness, cleansing, hope and joy, meaning and purpose -  a limitless overflowing supply to last me for all eternity! - and a place in God's family where I could be with Him forever!

Exchanging my garbage for His treasure chest is the best deal in the universe! How could anyone ever turn that deal down?

Our Lord's prefect righteousness is like a glorious mantel that covers all our imperfections and gives us the right to be His children!

Isaiah said it this way: "He has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robes of righteousness" (Isaiah 61:10).

In other words: God treated Christ as if He had sinned all my sins, so He could treat me as if I ever sinned at all!

Christ took all the abuse I deserved, so God could give me that royal treatment He deserved!

It is, any way you look at it, amazing grace!

(To 'impute' is a legal term. It means to legally transfer ownership of something from one person to another. The noun is 'imputation.')

Anticipating Easter - And Still We Call This Friday Good

When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals--one on his right, the other on his left.

Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

The people stood watching, and the rulers even sneered at him. They said, "He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One."

The soldiers also came up and mocked him. They offered him wine vinegar and said, "If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."

There was a written notice above him, which read: This is the King of the Jews.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: "Aren't you the Christ? Save yourself and us!"

But the other criminal rebuked him, "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong."

Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you
come into your kingdom."

Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

When he said this, he breathed his last.

    Luke 23:33-46

Anticipating Easter - The Easter Gospel

How Paul explains the Easter Gospel.....

Now, brothers I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you. For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance.

     That Christ died for our sins according to the
          Scriptures,
     that he was buried,
     that he was raised on the third day
     according to the Scriptures,
     and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the  
         Twelve.

After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time.

But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.

For as in Adam all died, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Thanks be to God!
He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.



    1 Corinthians 15:1, 3-6, 12-14, 20-22, 57

Anticipating Easter - Why Barabbas? Why not Jesus?

Pilate:

"But it is your custom for me to release to you one prisoner at the time of the Passover. Do you want me to release the 'King of the Jews'?"

The crowd:

They shouted back, "No, not him! Give us Barabbas!"
Now Barabbas had taken part in a rebellion.

(John 18:39-40)





The world will always choose a robber, insurrectionist, or murderer to the innocent Jesus.

Why? Because Barabbas is one of them, and however dangerous he may be, he is at least controllable.

They can handle him. 

But how do you handle Jesus?



Tom Skinner writes in Words of Revolution:

Barabbas is the guy who was going to destroy the system. Barabbas was going to burn them out. Barabbas was going to kill them. Why would they want Barabbas?

It's very simple.

If you let Barabbas go, and he starts another disturbance or another riot, you can always call out the National Guard, the federal troops or the Marines to put his thing down. All you have to do is push a few tanks into his neighborhood and you can squash whatever he's up to. You can find out where he's keeping his guns and raid his apartment. You can always stop Barabbas.

But the question is: How do you stop Jesus?

How do you stop a Man who has no guns, no tanks, no ammunition, but still is shaking the whole Roman empire?

How do you stop a Man, who -- without firing a shot -- is getting revolutionary results?

They figured there's only one answer -- get rid of Him.

They made the same mistake people have made down throughout the history of man.

They thought they could get rid of the idea by getting rid of the man from whom the idea comes.

So they said, "We can get rid of Jesus. We don't want him to rule over us."

Barabbas would never really ask to run your life.

Jesus would ask to run you life. Jesus would ask for the right to rule  over you!

And that's the problem.

Men would rather be enslaved to tyranny than let Jesus rule their lives. They would rather be exploited  than let Christ determine their lives.

So they said, "Give us Barabbas!"

So great was their opposition to Jesus, that they chose a convicted dangerous murderer over the mild Jesus.


Barabbas is an Aramaic word meaning "son of a father" - "Bar" means "son" and "abba" means "father."

So by his name we can consider him a representative type of all the sons of all the fathers who have ever been born into this world.

We, like Barabbas, are all of Adam's race. We are in rebellion against God. We are robbers of His glory. We are murderers of our souls and the souls of others. We are bound in the dark prison of our sin.

Like Barabbas, we all seek freedom.

And like in the case of Barabbas, Jesus gave His life to bring us that freedom!

Anticipating Easter - For Your Good - Philip Yancey

The last weeks of Christ's life on earth:

Holy Week - Crucifixion - Resurrection - 40 days - His Ascension back to heavenly glory

Now I am going to him who sent me, yet none of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' Because I have said these things you are filled with grief. But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  (John 16:5-7)

Jesus was giving His last words to His disciples, at the last meal they shared just before He was arrested.


At the time the disciples had no idea what Jesus meant. How can it be good that He is going away?

They ate the "body, broken for you" without comprehending the drastic change, that the mission God had assigned to the Son, the Son was now entrusting to them.

"As you sent Me into the world, I have sent them into the world," Jesus prayed.

Jesus left few traces of himself on earth. He wrote no books or even pamphlets. A wanderer, he left no home or even belongings that could be enshrined in a museum.

He did not marry, settle down, and begin a dynasty.

We would, in fact, know nothing about him except for the traces he left in human beings.

That was his design. The law and the prophets had focused like a beam of light on the One who was to come, and now that light, as if hitting a prism, would fracture and shoot out in a human spectrum of waves and colors.

Six weeks later, the disciples would find out what Jesus had meant by the words for your good.

As Augustine put it, "You ascended from before our eyes, and we turned back grieving, only to find you in our hearts."

Would it be too much to say that, ever since the Ascension, Jesus has sought other bodies in which to begin the life he lived on earth? The church serves as   an extension of the Incarnation, God's primary way of establishing his presence in the world.

All along he had planned to depart in order to carry on his work in other bodies. Their bodies. Our bodies. The new body of Christ.

The church is where God lives now.

      -- From The Jesus I Never Knew,
                          by Philip Yancey