Month: March 2021

“The disciples. . . brought the donkey and the colt, placed their cloaks on them, and Jesus sat on them. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road.” “The chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowd to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus executed.” Matthew 21:7. 8; 27:20

            I’m often amazed at how quickly the crowd turned on Jesus. It was only a matter of days between adoration and condemnation. On Sunday, He wrote into Jerusalem while a very large crowd praised Him. By Friday, the crowd was calling for His execution. How can this be? Of course, it’s possible that the two crowds were made up of different people. Maybe those that welcomed Him on Sunday were no where to be found on Friday. Or maybe the Friday crowd was a little peeved at all the to-do made by the Sunday crowd. However, it seems unlikely that it would be a completely new group of people. After all, Jesus had spent the week days teaching in the Temple. He didn’t try to hide. He was very visible all week so His followers had probably been sitting at his feet drinking in His teachings. So why the change?

            I think there are two reasons. One is stated in the verses above. The Friday crowd was being told what to do by the chief priests and the elders. These very important men were basically telling the crowd that they had it all wrong. Jesus wasn’t someone to be praised (so they said). It would be in their best interest to get rid of Jesus, even if it meant pardoning a condemned murderer. And the crowd believed them. Or at least, they acted like they did. It’s hard to know if they obeyed the priests out of fear of what these influential men would do to them if they didn’t, or if they really were convinced that Jesus was a danger to them.

            The other reason may have been that their own attitudes towards Jesus had changed in the intervening days. Before Jesus came to Jerusalem, the people had likely heard of the miracles He had done. Who wouldn’t want to welcome someone who could heal the incurable, feed the masses, and even calm the storms raging around you? Of course He was welcome! But then they listened to His teachings. Things like obedience, and giving up everything for God, and all their good works weren’t good enough. These were some difficult teachings to take to heart! Their Sunday excitement could have very easily died away when they realized that Jesus wasn’t some genie in a lamp come to grant their every wish, and that following Him meant a lot more than just laying branches on the road. It meant laying yourself on the altar.

            What about you? Are you a Palm Sunday follower? You’re happy to follow Christ as long as He grants your every wish. Or are you a Good Friday person? You’re angry with Jesus for all He asks of you and you’re not at all sure He’s worth it. Praise God those aren’t the only two choices! There was also the very small minority of followers who may have faltered during the trials and crucifixion, but they truly believed. If they disappeared into hiding during the horrendous happenings of Good Friday, at least they reappeared later. They came out of hiding, they confronted their fears, they accepted the amazing gifts of God, including the Holy Spirit, and they went on to spread the news of Jesus across the known world. That’s the kind of follower I want to be. A Resurrection Sunday and beyond kind of follower! A follower that knows that no matter how dark things may look here on earth, the battle is already won, the price is already paid, and I’m celebrating every day because I’m spending eternity with the God who loves me enough to pay the highest price for me!

“Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” 1 Timothy 6:17

            Are you rich? I don’t mean to be prying into your financial affairs. When I ask that question, I’m actually asking about your attitude. Do you feel like you have enough money to meet your needs? Do you think you have enough possessions? Or is there that one thing that if you just had, you’d be happy? If I could only live in that neighborhood, or drive that car or wear those clothes, or be able to travel to that place, then I’d be happy. The truth is, if you’re not happy now, you won’t be happy if you have those things.

            This verse tells us that wealth is uncertain. If we just look at our world, we see the truth of that. Think about it. How easy is it to lose all our money? One unexpected crisis and suddenly our comfortable nest egg is gone. Now what? How do we respond as we watch the things that were our supposed source of happiness run down the drain? It’s scary to think that our happiness depends on money.

            Let’s go back to my first question: Are you rich? The truly wealthy are those who know that real wealth doesn’t depend on their bank balance. It doesn’t matter if you live in a mansion or a one room hut. If you’re looking to God to supply your needs, you’re wealthy. You never have to worry about money running out or some catastrophic event wiping out your resources. God’s riches are endless. And He will always meet all our needs.

            This verse goes beyond our needs. It says that He will also supply everything for our enjoyment. There are those times when I live as if I don’t believe this verse. I may be believing that God will meet my needs, but I fall into the trap of thinking that if I just had one more thing, then He would also be providing for my enjoyment. But this verse doesn’t say that He’s going to provide. It says He already is providing. So if I’m not satisfied, it just may be that I’m looking to the wrong things to provide enjoyment. The truth is, there are things all around us to fill us with pleasure if we would only see all that God has already provided. Too often, I miss that because I have my eyes fixed on the one thing I don’t have instead of enjoying the many things He’s already given me. When we change our focus to see all that God has already richly provided, we’ll see that we are rich beyond measure!

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.’”  John 16:33

Is anyone else ready to see some peace on this earth? Anyone besides me want to turn on the news and find they don’t have anything to tell us except good things? Am I the only one who’s tired of all the bad news, the divisions, anger and hatred in the world? Maybe no one else made this mistake, but for many years I assumed this verse meant the earth would be at peace. There would be no more wars or killings or strife. While that would be wonderful, I no longer believe this is talking about that kind of peace. After all, it goes on to say that as long as we’re alive, we will have trouble. Not maybe. Not sometimes. We will have trouble, period. But Jesus promises us that He has overcome the world.

So why don’t I feel like an overcomer? Why do troubles still get me down? Does He mean that He will overcome when He returns? No, this is in past tense. He has overcome, not He will overcome. We need to understand what this means when it says “the world.” When John uses that term, he usually means a world system that is opposed to God. It’s not talking about consequences of our own sins, or things that happen naturally (for example, aging). Rather, in Him we have the power to overcome those temptations that are in opposition to God, the things that can pull us away from God. That’s what He has already overcome and that’s what we have the power to overcome by His Spirit. I know. There are many times I don’t feel like that, either. But it’s at those times that we need to cling tight to verses like these and trust that God is working in our lives to bring about that victory.

So if there will still be wars, and if we will still experience troubles, how can we have peace? It’s those two tiny little words, four small letters: in me. True peace, the peace that Jesus came to bring is only found in Him. If we want more peace, we just need more of Him. If we have Him, we will have peace regardless of what is going on around us, either on the world stage or in our personal lives. It doesn’t even matter how busy our schedules are. This isn’t promising us an absence of turmoil. It’s promising us peace in the midst of turmoil. Even when the storm is raging all around us, we can stand secure in Him, knowing that He’s got this. We can trust the storm completely to His care.

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. . . . Then the man and his wife . . . hid from the Lord God” Genesis 3:6, 8

            I don’t think it’s any secret that we have an enemy of our souls. I don’t usually like talking about Satan. I’d much rather focus my thoughts on the One who has already defeated him. But lately I’ve been struck by how much power we want to give him. And that makes sense. If Satan is the one who is causing us to sin, that takes the responsibility off our shoulders, doesn’t it? Or maybe we think that any difficulty or heartache we may be facing must be Satan causing those problems. That thinking also absolves us of responsibility if the heartache is caused by our own poor choices. Then there’s the sticky question of asking if God has caused something “bad” or even if He allowed it. It’s so much easier to not deal with that question by just assuming the “bad” was caused by our enemy. All of these viewpoints are giving Satan power and authority that I don’t believe he has.

            Satan appears at the very beginning of human history. Adam and Eve are in the garden God had created for them. This serpent appears to Eve and tempts her to eat what God has told her not to eat. All he did was lie about what God had said. That’s it. He didn’t force-feed that fruit to Eve. He didn’t threaten her. He didn’t even tell her how delicious the fruit would taste. She came to that conclusion all by herself. The word translated “food” just means that it’s something to eat. If it was food needed for fuel, a different word would have been used. So this is just a gluttonous craving. Then she gave it to Adam. Again, it wasn’t forced on him. It doesn’t say there was an argument about it. Adam didn’t try to resist the temptation. He just ate, like Eve did. It was their choice, not Satan’s. The results were exactly what Satan was hoping for: they hid from God.

            I think it’s important for us to remember Satan’s goal. He doesn’t care about causing us to suffer for the sake of suffering. He doesn’t make us step on a nail just so we’ll be in pain. His entire desire is to cause us to hide from God. If we look at the story of Job, we see that the reason Satan sent all the suffering on Job was to make Job curse God. Thankfully, Job refused to do that. In the midst of all the suffering, he continued to hold fast to God. Granted, he yelled out his pain and confusion to God. But He still remained faithful. That’s exactly what Satan didn’t want. In fact, he seemed pretty confident that Job would turn against God. That gives us just a glimpse of how little Satan thinks of us. He doesn’t begin to understand the strength we have to resist temptation when we have God’s Spirit in us.

            That leaves us with the question of why bad things happen to good people. It’s easy to say that it’s because Satan has caused them to suffer. Then we don’t have to wrestle with the question anymore. Unfortunately, scripture doesn’t support that view. I don’t pretend to know the answer. But I do think that choosing to place all the blame on Satan sends us in the wrong direction. Instead, we should be going to God and asking Him the questions. Is there something He wants us to learn? Maybe something of which we need to repent? Or perhaps He wants to use our story to help others. Whatever the reason, we won’t know the answers until we run to His loving arms. Once there, we may or may not receive the answer to our questions. Interestingly, we won’t care about the answers anymore because we will have found the only answer that matters: true communion with our loving Father.