Day 4, On The Road To Pentecost: SOMETHING MARVELOUS

Psalm 118:1-24

The Lord God of the universe is on the move in His creation.  Not just on the move, though.  God is on the move in redemptive, restoring and reinvigorating ways.  God’s chosen, “the chief cornerstone,” of all that God is doing in the world has so powerfully moved in history that the psalmist proclaims, “You have become my salvation” (Ps. 118:22, 21).  Salvation isn’t something God gives or distributes.  God is our Salvation.  Salvation is something God is to us.  More than this, salvation is Someone God is to us. No wonder the Psalmist says, “This is the LORD’S doing; it is marvelous in our eyes” (Ps. 118:23).  To that end, when the Psalmist speaks of that time in which God is doing something marvelous in His creation, he describes it this way, “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Ps. 118:24).  

What Jesus accomplished in His life, death, and resurrection is something marvelous to behold.  It staggers the imagination to realize that death is a defeated foe, that life is not without meaning, and that our lives can be stamped with God’s marvelous, redeeming, restoring, reinvigorating, and amazing grace.  

As one who lives in the aftermath of what cancer can do in a body, and facing my own mortality in poignant and powerful ways because of it, I can testify that God’s amazing grace is at work.  I am banged up, beat up, and somedays, fed up, with my broken body.  However, into the damage has come God’s “chief cornerstone,” and because of Him “there’s a deep settled peace in my soul” (a line from the Gospel song, “Hidden Peace,” by John S. Brown, 1899).  

Like so many of you I, too, have looked into the realities of my world, and I say with the psalmist, “Open to me the gates of righteousness; I shall enter through them, I shall give thanks to the LORD” (Ps. 118:19).  God has so profoundly impacted my life that whether I continue to live or if I die today, “I…will tell of the works of the LORD” (Ps. 118:17).

God’s grace stuns us into a new reality, a new way of being. When the apostle Paul was awakened to God’s grace and explained what it means, he simply said, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).  What a great grace.  What a great life.  What a great God.  Hear this prayer of Augustine, 354-430,

Look upon us, O Lord, and let all the darkness of our souls vanish before the beams of thy brightness. Fill us with holy love, and open to us the treasures of thy wisdom. All our desire is known unto thee, therefore perfect what thou hast begun, and what thy Spirit has awakened us to ask in prayer. We seek thy face, turn thy face unto us and show us thy glory. Then shall our longing be satisfied, and our peace shall be perfect.  

Day3, On The Road To Pentecost: THE SOUND OF SALVATION

Psalm 118:1-24

“The sound of joyful shouting and salvation is in the tents of the righteous” (Ps. 118:15).  This is an interesting phrase, isn’t it?  “The sound of joyful shouting,” and “the sound of salvation.”  “Joyful shouting,” I get; but, what does salvation sound like?  I’ve never even thought of salvation as having a “sound.”  

I am thinking the psalmist had to turn to metaphor to express the faith of God’s people.  Some things have to be experienced and, once experienced, it is often difficult to describe for someone who wasn’t at the experience, exactly what it was like. Some experiences need to be shared with others, but how does one share them?  Maybe the “sound of … salvation” must be heard by one’s self before it can be grasped, if “grasped” is even the right word. 

I love the word “salvation” because it implies a need of some kind from which someone needs to be delivered.  Metaphorically, we might see it as someone being in deep trouble who doesn’t have the resources at hand to solve the problem.  So, going down for the third time, as it were, and crying out for help, they know that if help doesn’t come, they’ve had it.  Then, wonder of wonders, they feel the hand of someone who has come into their story, with the strength to save them. In a few moments they find themselves in the place of safety and deliverance.  The near tragedy has passed and they know they were saved.  

The Bible refers to our Living God as one who saves.  He comes into the stuff of our lives with deliverance and mercy and grace in His arsenal.  Coming right down into the trenches of life, He saves us; and, for the rest of our lives, no matter where the journey might take us, we know that it is only because of God that we even have a story to tell.  What does salvation sound like?  Maybe it sounds like “amazement,” if amazement could have a sound.  Maybe it sounds like “pure wonder,” if pure wonder could have a sound.  Maybe it sounds like that feeling of experiencing something so awesome that one blurts out, “it’s too good to be true,” If that emotion could have a sound.   

Throughout the life of Jesus people were amazed at Him, mystified by what He taught, how he interacted with people, and how he touched people and brought healing into their lives.  In this light, maybe salvation sounds like hope.  Good Friday thought it had destroyed hope.  Easter says, “Not so fast.  It’s not over yet.  God is on the move.”  

God is on the move in our lives, isn’t He?  And, He is on the move in resurrection power.  

Day 2, On The Road To Pentecost: EASTER PEOPLE

Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24

Journeying toward the Day of Pentecost, we begin in the act of Thanksgiving.  Followers of the Messiah live in thanksgiving.  The resurrection of Jesus is so powerful a reality that it finds expression in the thanks-giving people.  In the Old Testament, the ways of God are so beautiful and His love so profound that when pursued they become life-transforming.  For the ancient Jews this reality lead the psalmist to say, ‘The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation” (Ps. 118:14).

Easter people know about salvation.  They know about God’s everlasting lovingkindness.  They know the power of their God.  It isn’t simply an intellectual knowing.  More than this, it is an experiencing of something so foreign to what the mind can naturally conceive that it impacts the mind, the emotions, the will, and the physical world of one who has encountered Jesus in His resurrection.

Easter people know that God is on the move and they know that “His lovingkindness is everlasting” (Ps. 18:2).  They know that somehow, some way, their lives are lived from within the life of one of whom death itself had to bow.  They live in the very real world but in it they join with John Newton and sing,

Thro’ many dangers, toils, and snares  

I have already come. 

‘Tis grace hath bro’t me safe thus far, 

and grace will lead me home”  

      (From Amazing Grace, by John Newton, 1779)

On the journey of life God is present in grace to be God in our story, God in His world.  God is present, day by day, as strength, song, salvation. Death still speaks in our world but that death is a defeated foe.  Jesus has conquered death so that when death speaks, eternal life speaks louder. Death screams and Jesus simply points to an empty tomb.  

Never forget that we are Easter people.  We are resurrection people.  We are victorious people.  

“So grant us the certainty that beyond death there is life, Where the broken things are mended, and the lost things found; where there is rest for the weary, and joy for the sad; where all we have hoped and willed of good shall exist; where the dram will come true, and the ideal will be realized; where we shall be for ever with our Lord.  So grant us the Easter certainty that life is stronger than death; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen” 

          (William Barclay, A Barclay Prayer Book, ã The    

           William Barclay Estate 1990, 2003, p. 67)

On The Road To Pentecost, Day 1: WE'VE ONLY JUST BEGUN

Matthew 28:6

On Easter we begin a fifty-day journey to Pentecost Sunday, a day in history that literally catapulted the Christ event of Palestine, to a worldwide movement of the Living Word of God.  So powerful was the event of Pentecost that the story of Jesus resonates today with about 2.3 billion people around the planet, and the message is still changing lives.

Concerning Easter, Professor N. T. Wright said this, “The message of Easter is that God's new world has been unveiled in Jesus Christ and that you're now invited to belong to it.”  This means that Easter is the transition into the immense and unmistakable influence of the Resurrected and now living, Christ Jesus.

In the fifty-day journey to Pentecost my prayer is that the Holy Spirit might awaken in us a deep and profound response to what God is doing in the world.  We will look at various Scriptures that will quicken our thinking and hopefully our obedience.  As we journey I pray we will accept by faith that God is at work in His world and in our lives, leading and guiding and directing us into a way of being which can only make sense as we grasp the fact that the things God is doing in His world  are “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9, NASB).

In his book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis has this wonderful quote about Aslan, the Lion.  He says of him, 

“He'll be coming and going…One day you'll see him and another you won't. He doesn't like being tied down--and of course he has other countries to attend to. It's quite all right. He'll often drop in. Only you mustn't press him. He's wild, you know. Not like a tame lion….“Aslan is a lion -- the Lion, the great Lion.” 

Then one of the four children who had come into Narnia through the Wardrobe said, 

"Ooh…I'd thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"... "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.” 

This makes me think of the words of Jesus to Nicodemus in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”  

We are not called to manage the Spirit.  We are called to set our sails to the winds of Spirit, and then let God be God.  Whatever happens on the journey we know that it begins with a resurrection and ends with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that literally 

rocked the world.

EASTER: GOD RAISED HIM UP

Luke 24:1-7 and Acts 10:34-43, 

On that first Easter, they went to the tomb and found it empty.  Two men, who were most likely angels, asked them why they were seeking the living among the dead.  Then they spoke words that helped changed human history, “He is not here, but He has risen” (vs. 6).  This became the heart of the message of the early Church and for the Church through the ages, right down to where you and I live today.  In fact, every Sunday the Church proclaims in one way or another, “He has risen.”  

In the first sermon ever preached to a Gentile audience, Peter shared the story of the death and resurrection of Jesus.  In Acts 10:34-43 we read what Peter said to the people,

³⁴ Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵ but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. ³⁶ You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. ³⁷ You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— ³⁸ how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.³⁹ “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, ⁴⁰ but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. ⁴¹ He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. ⁴² He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. ⁴³ All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” (NIV)   

Today, all around the world preachers will preach this story.  It is a story of the greatest news the world could ever hear.  In Jesus we receive forgiveness of sins.  In Christ Jesus, the grace of God comes into the world, into us, if we will only let Him.  We call it Good News, life transforming news, good news that takes us from the death to life, and brings us to the place of new beginnings and awesome possibilities.

He is risen.

He is risen indeed. 

Receive the grace that God gives to you, and live.  

Lent, Day 40: A GREAT SILENCE

I Peter 4:1-8 

About this day in Holy Week, an ancient and anonymous writer said, “Something strange is happening – there is a great silence on earth today, a great silence and stillness. The whole earth keeps silence because the King is asleep.” 

How could it be otherwise?  All the hopes and expectations of those who followed Jesus were buried away in a sealed-up tomb.  It looked so promising, so victorious, so hopeful, and now the one in whom they hoped, lay buried in a borrowed tomb.  It seem to be all for nothing.  How could it end this way?

The believers would not know what was transpiring in the world on that Saturday, until after His resurrection when Jesus revealed Himself to be alive again.  In the moment, however, they were stunned, shocked, and dismayed.  What happened on Friday made no sense to them, and they had no handle on how to anticipate what would happen on Sunday morning.  Now they lived in a land of the in-between: in-between death and resurrection.

In a way, isn’t this where we live?  Yes, we know the victory of Good Friday, and the majesty of Easter Sunday, but many times we live in-between.  Perhaps, you have been there.  You’ve had many unanswered questions, carried much pain, wondered what it means for Jesus to be Lord in the everyday and broken world.  Many times you have looked life in the face and asked, “Why?”  You looked for answers but received only “a great silence.” 

We now know that Jesus was raised up from the grave and this reality has made a profound difference in our lives.  Still, in this dangerous world we walk by faith, and know that in life there is much uncertainty, pain, suffering, bewilderment, frustration.  Sometimes, the silence is deafening.  

We need to remember that Jesus did not come simply to offer easy answers to complicated questions.  Instead, He embraces us in His love, establishes us in His resurrected life,  calls us to prayer, and enables us to “keep fervent in our love for one another.” How do we defeat the kind of evil that sentenced Jesus to die? By allowing His love to cleanse our hearts and fill them with His love.  We may have many questions that will go unanswered until the day of Christ’s return, but we do not live in fear or frustration.  We live in the victory that overcomes the world.

As a prayer from the old prayer book says, 

O God, Creator of heaven and earth: Grant that, as the crucified body of your dear Son was laid in the tomb and rested on this holy Sabbath, so we may await with him the coming of the third day, and then rise with him to newness of life; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lent, Day 39 Good Friday: NO STATELY FORM OR MAJESTY

Isaiah 52:13-53:12

I never really know what to say on Good Friday.  This a day of silence and soul searching for me.  So, may I turn to John Newton who, in writing his testimony about the cross, spoke for me?  Maybe he speaks for you, too.  In 1779, this former captain of slave ships, wrote these words, 

I saw One hanging on a tree,
In agony and blood;
He fixed His loving eyes on me,
As near His cross I stood.

Sure, never to my latest breath,
Can I forget that look;
It seemed to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke. 

My conscience felt and owned the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His blood had spilt
And helped to nail Him there. 

A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive:
This blood is for your ransom paid,
I die that you may live.” 

O, can it be, upon a tree
The Savior died for me?
My soul is thrilled, my heart is filled,
To think He died for me!

On his tombstone, Newton had these words printed,

"John Newton, Clerk, once an infidel and libertine, a servant of slaves in Africa, was, by the rich mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, preserved, restored, pardoned, and appointed to preach the faith he had long labored to destroy."

What is it the old song says,  

At the cross, at the cross, where I first saw the light,  

and the burden of my heart rolled away.   

It was there by faith I received my sight,  

and now I am happy all the day!

                             (Ralph E. Hudson, 1885)                                 

Lent, Day 38 Maundy Thursday: STANDING ON GOD'S GROUND

John 13:21-35

The night Jesus was betrayed it was dark, indeed.  Judas scampered off into the night to betray Jesus.  The other eleven disciples were clueless as to what was going on around the table.  Jesus shared one more time, “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him; if God is glorified in Him, God will also glorify Him in Himself, and will glorify Him immediately” (vss. 31-32). 

Let’s not be drawn away from the truth.  Thursday night before His crucifixion on Friday, was a God thing through and through.  None of it caught God off guard.  None of it was beyond the control of God.  All of it was working itself out in the Sovereign hands of God.  Truly, Thursday night in Jerusalem was carried out on God’s ground, holy ground, if you would.   Earlier, Jesus had said, "The Son of Man must be lifted up” (John 12:34).  Now, the hour had come.

The word, "Maundy" comes from the Latin word mandatum, meaning "commandment."  In the Season of Lent, Maundy refers to the commands Jesus gave his disciples at the Last Supper, to humbly love by serving one another, and to remember his sacrifice.  On this Thursday evening of Holy Week Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.  By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34-35).

Even as Jesus faces rejection and the cross, He speaks into the hearts of his disciples and says to them, “love one another.”  That night He modeled love as He washed the feet of the disciples, and shared the bread and the cup with them.  While Judas is off selling Jesus into the hands of His enemies, Jesus has gathered his little band of men around Himself, and shared profound words about what it means to be his disciple – love one another.

A life shaped and formed by “the Teacher and Lord,” is life lived in the words, thoughts, and deeds of love.  The world doesn’t need our dogmas and denominations and theologies.  The world needs love, Jesus kind of love, unselfish love that reaches out to the other, and embraces them from within the embrace of God.  We live in a world filled with words and worldviews and ideologies and philosophies.  Jesus is calling His Church to get down on its knees and serve the people affected by all these ways of being.  What the world needs more than anything else is a Savior, and the only way the world will ever know it has one is if the people of the Savior live faithfully to His love, grace, mercy, and truth.  This is how the world will know that we are disciples of Jesus.

Lent, Day 37: THE LORD AND TEACHER

John 13:1-17

Years ago, someone said, “All the claims of Christ can be summed up in two words — “Follow Me.”  In John 10:4 Jesus said of the Shepherd, “When he puts forth all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.” In John 12, Jesus washes the feet of His disciples, and at the end of the powerful moment He said, “You call Me Teacher and Lord; and you are right, for so I am.  If I then, the Lord and Teacher, washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did to you” (vss. 13-17).

Believers are followers of Jesus.  We look to Him to get our agenda.  We look to Him to determine how we shall live in the world.  He lived among His disciples as a humble servant so, when we are following Him, we will live as servants, too.  To have faith isn’t about us.  It is about the life of God in us, doing in and through us whatever God wants to do.  Metaphorically, we will wash the feet of people, even Judas.  But, it is more than metaphor.  It is a life of love, service, commitment, caring, reaching out, embracing the other, and doing it all in the name and for the sake of our “Teacher and Lord.”

The way of the cross is the way of Jesus, and because of what He has done in our lives, it is our way, too.  At least, it should be.  Remember Jesus’ words, “Where I am there My servant will be also” (John 12:26).  If we are where He is, we will be doing what He is doing.  The ways and means of God become the ways and means of our own lives.  We may not be perfect but we are committed to be who Jesus would have us be, doing what Jesus would have us do.  

Oswald Chambers writes in his devotional book, My Utmost For His Highest, these words about following in the steps of Jesus,

The goal of faithfulness is not that we will do work for God, but that He will be free to do His work through us. God calls us to His service and places tremendous responsibilities on us. He expects no complaining on our part and offers no explanation on His part. God wants to use us as He used His own Son. (December 18) 

On this Wednesday of Holy Week may we examine our hearts, not to be hard on ourselves, but to be truthful.  If Jesus really is the Teacher and Lord, then let’s make sure we are doing the right things for the right reasons.  That’s all; doing the right things for the right reasons.  

Lent, Day 36: GO TO THE CROSS

John 12:20-36

A group of people came to see Jesus, and when Jesus was told about their search, He spoke about His upcoming death on the cross.  It was as if Jesus said to the seekers, if you want to find Me, go to the cross. That’s where I will be.  He took it further and said, “Where I am, there My servant will be also.”  In fact, He said, “If anyone serves Me the Father will honor him” (John 12:26).

For Jesus, the future had become present, and it was to the cross He would go to fulfill the will of God.  As He would lay down His life, He told His followers, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal ” (vs.25).  The hour had come, and forever afterwards one could not speak of Jesus but within the perimeters of the cross.  He was a servant that would go all the way to suffering, death, and the grave.  He would be the suffering servant who would rise up out of the grave and bring the very life of God into the world.

The season of Lent reminds us that you and I need a Savior.  We need a Savior who understands us and receives us and cares for us, and who redeems us.  Do you think you need a Savior?  This might just be the question of the age.  Jesus takes us away from conversations about life to a life transforming relationship with Himself.  

Truth is that we Believers are people of the cross, and as Dietrich Bonhoeffer says in these probing, insightful, and challenging words, 

As Christ is Christ only as the suffering and rejected one, so the disciple is a disciple only as one who suffers and is rejected, as one crucified with Jesus. Discipleship, understood as being bound to the person of Jesus Christ, places the disciple under the law of Christ, that is, under the cross. (God is on the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter)

On Tuesday in Holy Week, can we embrace this radical thought, and meet Jesus at the cross?  Can we draw near to Him that He might shape and form us into people of the cross?  Can we drink the cup, and come alive in His life?  Can we choose to be where He is, and to live in a way that reflects our life in God? Yes, it will go against the grain of the world, and leave us vulnerable to worldviews that cannot embrace Jesus.  However,  if we do so, we will discover that Jesus did not stay on the cross but was raised up from the dead, to live as King of kings and Lord of lords.  

“As you have the light, believe in the light. Then the light will be within you, and shining through your lives. You’ll be children of light.”
                               (Jesus, in John 12:36, MSG)

Lent, Day 35: WORSHIP AS WITNESS

John 12:1-11

It was quite a sitting. Jesus was at the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus, whom just hours before had been raised up by Jesus.  Mary broke open a very value perfume and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiping his feet with her hair.  Judas, the treasurer of the disciples, a thief, and the one planning on betraying Jesus at the right time, complains about Mary’s action.  A large group of people were outside the home, hoping to get a look at Lazarus who had been dead but who had been brought back to life by Jesus.  Among the people gathered outside the home were the chief priests who had come not only to capture and kill Jesus, but also to capture and kill Lazarus, because on account of Lazarus “many of the Jews were going away and were believing in Jesus” (vs. 11).  

What a scene.  There was humble worship on the part of Mary, amazement on the part of the crowd, selfishness and deceit on the part of Judas, and the high priests with murder in their hearts. You can’t make this stuff up.  It was a gathering of human beings, all living out their own agenda.  Some of them were for Jesus.  Some didn’t care one way or the other.  Others wanted Him dead.   Some were open.  Some were closed.  Others, just came to see the show.

In the midst of it all Jesus had set His sights on the soon coming weekend.  He saw Mary’s act as a preparation for his burial.  He had set His sights on Jerusalem, and nothing would distract Him from His mission.

I think it was William Temple who said this about worship,

Worship is the submission of all our nature to God. It is the quickening of conscience by His holiness; the nourishment of mind with His truth; the purifying of imagination by His beauty; the opening of the heart to His love; the surrender of the will to His purpose -- and all of this gathered up in adoration, the most selfless emotion of which our nature is capable and therefore the chief remedy for that self-centeredness which is our original sin and the source of all actual sin.

If Mary had not done what she did, the rest of the event most likely would not have made it into our holy writings.  Her worship set the stage and created the story.  It makes me wonder if my worship has any real effect in the world.  It makes me think that if Believers worshipped for mindfully, and with reckless abandon to God, we might be making a greater impact in the world than we now are. The truth is that worship is at the center of who we are as followers of Jesus.  

In Mary's outrageous act, the stage is set for the next few days.  On Friday, chaos will ensue.  On Sunday, however, earth shaking news will sound forth from the empty tomb, and worship will fill the heavens.

Palm Sunday, BEHOLD YOUR KING

Psalm 118:1-2 & Matthew 21:1-10

Five days before His crucifixion, Jesus came into Jerusalem with the people around Him shouting, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of LORD” (Matt. 21:9).  It was a parade of celebration and joy, uplifting in every way.  The celebration and joy would come to a screeching halt on Friday, but on this day it was celebration, blind though it was.

The psalmist calls us to 

Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; for His lovingkindness is everlasting.  Oh let Israel say, “His lovingkindness is everlasting.(Psalm 118:1-2)

On Palm Sunday the people returned to Psalm 118 with these words, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD” (vs. 26).  They saw in Jesus the fulfillment of the prophetic proclamation concerning the coming Messiah.  On Friday, their hopes would be dashed because on that day, Jesus did not look like a conquering Messiah.  

What does our Messiah look like?  Can we make room in our hearts for a suffering servant-Messiah?  Do we only love Him on parade days or can we drink the cup that Jesus drinks (Mark 10:38)?  Do we see the Messiah as one who most go through the death of Friday but who is raised up from the dead on the following Sunday?  Can we receive a whole Messiah, not one who simply makes us feel good?  Can we, too, walk the Via Dolorosa, and still hold tightly to the Messiah alongside whom we walk?

These questions are not for the faint of heart. These are commitment questions that call us to examine ourselves, search our inner being, and make tough decisions. We read about Palm Sunday not simply to join in on the celebration.  We read about it to face down our inner lives to see where we stand in relationship with God.  Can we drink the cup of Jesus?  Can we follow Him all the way to death and on to the resurrection?  Are we in it simply for what it means to us, or are we in it for what it means to God?

Holy week is about God finalizing His redemption work in Jesus Christ.  On the cross Jesus would say, “It is finished” (John 19:3).  Today, we are invited into that finished work.  God’s grace and love embrace our lives.  

Would you pray with me, 

We give thanks, LORD, for You are good; Your lovingkindness is everlasting.  We join with countless millions, past and present, and say, Your lovingkindness is everlasting.  Amen.

Lent, Day 34: WE ARE GOING UP TO JERUSALEM

Mark 10:32-34

The cross was in His near future, and Jesus knew it.  Along the way He sought to share with His twelve disciples what awaited Him.  They never really got it until after His resurrection, but Jesus continued to lead His disciples into the truth as to what lay ahead.  He also knew the cross event for Him was going to be a cross event for His followers, too.  A bit later, Jesus asked two of His disciples. “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized” (Mark 10:38).  It was going to be a harrowing experience for the disciples, one that would either make them or break them.  

As we journey through Lent, I am wondering if Jesus is also asking us, “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?”. I know the question speaks loudly into my life and causes me to squirm a little bit. Discipleship that involves a cross is no shallow discipleship.  This demands soul searching and prayer, and honest self-talk.  In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” There is nothing casual about following Jesus.  This led Isaac Watts to write of God’s love, 

Love so Amazing, so divine. 

Demands my soul, my life, my all.

How committed to Jesus am I?  How willing am I to give “my soul, my life, my all,” to God’s amazing love?  I read about a lady who went to her pastor one day and asked, “Will you please tell me in a word what your idea of discipleship is?”  The pastor held out a blank sheet of paper and said to her, “It is to sign your name at the bottom of this blank sheet, and to let God fill it in as He wills.”  Again I ask how willing am I to give “my soul, my life, my all” to God’s amazing love?

See from His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down!
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Issac Watts, 1707

Can you sing, “Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul, my life, my all.”?  How shall you and I respond to God amazing love today?  

May God help us to sign the blank sheet of paper, and let God fill it in as He will.

Lent, Day 33: UNALARMED

Philippians 1:21-30

The apostle Paul got me to thinking about what it means for me to live.  I don’t sit around thinking about it all the time, but the apostle helps me come to a point of clarity.  Maybe it is something I need to think about from time to time.  Maybe we all should.

The apostle Paul was so committed to His life in Christ that he was torn between possibly dying in prison or continuing on in his ministry.  Death held no fear for him, and he was ready to receive the outcome of his faith should he die.  At the same time, he wanted to “remain on in the flesh” (vs. 24), so that he could continue his ministry.  He was really torn.  In the end, he thought God would spare his life for the time being and that he would continue in ministry.  

After expressing his thoughts, Paul turned to the Church and said to them, “Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” (vs. 27).  He wanted God’s people to stand “firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (vs. 27).  God’s people were facing persecution and very difficult times.  Paul wanted them to know that they would even suffer for the sake of Jesus (vs. 29-30).  Thus the question, what does it mean for me to live.  

The Season of Lent brings us to the sobering reality that in this world there will be people who do not understand the grace and mercy of God, will be offended at the thought of God, and even make life miserable for those who proclaim Christ Jesus as their Lord.  Still, the call is for us to conduct ourselves “in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ” and to stand “firm in the one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel” (vs. 27).  May it be said of each one of us, “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”  

History tells us that during China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900, insurgents captured a mission station, blocked all the gates but one, and in front of that one gate placed a cross flat on the ground. Then the word was passed to those inside that any who trampled the cross underfoot would be permitted their freedom and life, but that any refusing would be shot. Terribly frightened, the first seven students trampled the cross under their feet and were allowed to go free. But the eighth student, a young girl, refused to commit the sacrilegious act. Kneeling beside the cross in prayer for strength, she arose and moved carefully around the cross, and went out to face the firing squad. Strengthened by her example, every one of the remaining ninety-two students followed her to the firing squad. 

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

Lent, Day 32: EMBRACED BY GOD

Psalm 31:9-16

In your own life, have you ever been so under the pressures and tyranny of life that you felt like you were about to break?  If so, King David’s prayer might just be for you.

Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am in distress. Tears blur my eyes. My body and soul are withering away. I am dying from grief; my years are shortened by sadness. Sin has drained my strength; I am wasting away from within. I am scorned by all my enemies  and despised by my neighbors — even my friends are afraid to come near me. When they see me on the street, they run the other way.  I am ignored as if I were dead, as if I were a broken pot. I have heard the many rumors about me, and I am surrounded by terror. My enemies conspire against me, plotting to take my life. (vss. 9-3, NLT)

This might just be a prayer for the times in which we live.  We might word it differently, but we have all felt the sense of pain and distress and grief and rejection and being ignored.  The enemy of our souls moves in these circles, after all, and seeks to fulfill his stealing, killing, and destroying ways in us.  

We are not victims, however.  Our lives are embraced by God.  So it is David continued his prayer,

But I am trusting you, O Lord, 
saying, “You are my God!” 
My future is in your hands. (vss. 14-15a, NLT)

The enemy is not God.  The Living God is our God and our future rests in His hands. Lent reminds us of this reality.  No matter how dark the days may be for us, God is our light.  Another of the Psalms prays, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Psalm 119:105).  

When the going gets rough people of Jesus face down their realities from within the embrace of God’s faithfulness.  They don’t run from them; they run right into them, in the power of the Living God.  They do not do this in their own strength but in the strength of God.  Charles Spurgeon was right when he said, “Without the Spirit of God, we can do nothing. We are as ships without the wind, branches without sap, and like coals without fire, we are useless.”

As we walk the journey of Lent, remember that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is at the end of this journey.  Trust the faithfulness of God and live your days within the tremendous power of God.  Remember with David that God is your God.  His unfailing love is surrounding you.  You times are in His hands.

Lent, Day 31: I AM

Matthew 22:23-33

When people who don’t believe in the resurrection start asking questions about life after the resurrection, you know something is afoot.  

Jesus didn’t fall prey to the Sadducees when they came to throw their spin-doctored question to Him.  They believed that at physical death, life was over, ended, stopped, ceased.  Jesus had a different worldview.  They focused on death.  Jesus focused on life.  Death, for Jesus, wasn’t the end; it was a transition into His “Father’s house” (see John 14:2). 

Dying and death take place in the physical world, but for those who have come to faith in Christ Jesus, dying and death were taken care of when Jesus rose up from the dead on that first Easter morning.  Death is the gate to the very presence of God.  This led Jim Hill to write in his song, 

What a day that will be, 

When my Jesus I shall see, 

And I look upon His face, 

The One who saved me by His grace; 

When He takes me by the hand, 

And leads me through the Promised Land, 

What a day, glorious day that will be.                                    

                                       Jim Hill, 1955 

There seems to be a preoccupation with death in the world. Maybe because it is an upcoming fact for all of us.  But Jesus isn’t about death.  He is about life, abundant life, at work in the world right now. If we get too preoccupied with what life in the resurrection might or might not be about, we drift away from the most precious reality of all, that God is with us in Jesus.  What will happen in the resurrection is a God thing, not ours.  We have no capacity to comprehend it.  We can look forward to it, speculate about it, even dream about it, but what we most need to do is to trust the God who comes to us in Jesus, suffers, dies, and is raised again.  In Jesus we are alive.  Let God take care of the details.

In the Lenten Season, we are called to humble ourselves, to seek the face of God, and to pray that God would search us in order that we might be led “in the everlasting way” (Psalm 139:24).  As Fernando Ortega wrote,

And when I come to die; 

Oh, and when I come to die,  

Give me Jesus 

You can have all this world 

But give me Jesus.