Please continue to join us in prayer for:
- God to show us opportunities to share His Salvation and love to everyone we can.
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Take time to rest, allow yourself to feel; mad, sad, angry, alone, acknowledge how you are feeling. If you need help processing these things, reach out we are here, and God is always waiting to be your good, good Father. We are praying for you. It is also good to remember to have some fun, enjoy things. Whatever you are going through currently. God is there. We are here. Let us share the load.
It’s Palm Sunday. The start of Holy Week. There is so much in this one week that Matthew dedicated 5 chapters out of his 28 chapters to this one week of Jesus’ life and teachings. Chapters 21- 26 take us from Jesus Triumphal Entry to his betrayal. So, this week’s reading lesson is Matthew Chapters 21-26. Read a little at a time.
In Matthew 21:1-11 the first part of the story is all about the Donkey colt. That means it was a donkey that no one else had ever ridden. Jesus knew where the colt was and that they were going to ask why these two men were taking it. This owner’s heart must have been prepared ahead of time for him to agree to let two strangers take his possession, his colt and walk away with it. Especially in a time when so many people were entering the city for the festival week. Yet just as Jesus had told them, it was so.
Matthew then tells us that this was a fulfillment of Zechariah the Prophet has spoken of 520 years before Jesus was born. (Zechariah 9:9) Every prophecy had to happen. God made sure there was not a single reason for the Jewish nation to miss the Messiah. Still, most of them did. We can talk for a long time about why that is so, but we must move on. Jesus when sets on the colt and rides towards the city. The crowd that was ahead of and behind him broke out in Praise and Recognition
They placed their cloaks on the ground and cut palm branches and placed them on the ground and waved them. They were celebrating Jesus’s coming. Dancing, singing, shouting praising he Son of David who comes in the name of the Lord. Can you praise God today? Sing, dance, shout! Our Savior came, He redeemed us. He made us His own. Jesus was about to enter Jerusalem, knowing that His presence would lead to His death. A cruel death that no other human being could go through. Jesus still chose to come. If you have read or heard the story before you know the week will end with another procession. One where the crowd was yelling insults, and death threats and spitting and tormenting Jesus. What a difference a week makes.
I am praying that as people are drawn to the love and grace of Jesus this week and we find the opportunity to lead them to salvation through Jesus’ death and Resurrection, we can give them a foundation that will not be moved. So, they became grounded in Jesus love and grace.
This is a time for people to turn to God, to seek His help and salvation. As a church community let’s welcome them and help to grow them up. Pray that we will be a church community strong and true, not a crowd swayed like palm branches in the wind. This week praising and calling on God and next week cursing Him and ignoring Him.