“As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage on the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, ‘Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her.  Untie them and bring them to me.  If anyone says anything to you, tell him that the Lord needs them, and he will send them right away.’  This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet:  ‘Say to the Daughter of Zion, See, your king comes to you, gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.'”   Matthew 21:1-5

I love these little details about the preparation for Jesus’ Triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  God is indeed a God of details.  He had planned and prepared for Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem down to the place he would enter the city and the animal He would ride.  He had the people and animals ready and willing to serve.  These details fulfilled a prophecy given in two places Isaiah 62:11 and Zechariah 9:9.  Both of these were given hundreds of years before the actual entry by Jesus into Jerusalem.    God also used of a donkey for Jesus’ entry which was important as it was symbolic of his humility, peace and Davidic royalty.    What a God we worship and serve!  He planned these things for His Son’s entry hundreds of years beforehand.  Why do we not trust Him with the details of our lives?   Do you doubt He is capable?  Do you doubt that He cares?  I pray your answer to those questions is No!  I think perhaps these questions come from our own inability to relinquish control of our lives to Him.

Prayer:   Lord, I know you have wonderful plans for me to prosper and give me a hope and a future. Help me to trust you with the details of my life.  Build up my confidence and cause me to know with assurance that I am surrounded by your love and protection.  Amen.

Blessings as you grow in trust,

Linda

 

 

 

Today as I sit to blog my internet is down and I have a field trip with my grandson in just a few minutes so no time to call! Here is my scripture choice for today as we anticipate the entry into Jerusalem on Sunday.

“This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. O LORD, save us; O LORD, grant us success. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD. From the house of the LORD we bless you. The LORD is God, and he has made his light shine upon us. With boughs I hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar. You are my God, and I will give you thanks; you are my God, and I will exalt you. Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever.”  Psalm 118:24-29

May the closing verses of this Psalm bring you joy today as you think about the greatness of God and what He has done for you!

Blessings,

Linda

 

“Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord.  They will proclaim his righteousness to a people yet unborn-for he has done it.”  Psalm 22:30-31

As we near Palm Sunday which begins Holy Week, the time between Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem and the crucifixion which ends with Easter or Resurrection Sunday, a good question to ask ourselves is: Who have I told of the Christ?  David tells us that all future generations will know and proclaim His righteousness.  Are you filled with joy and gratitude over the sacrifice’s Christ made on your behalf?  Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Who can you tell of this great love?  Is there someone you can invite to church on Sunday?  As Palm Sunday approaches be ready to greet the Savior, open your arms to Him and share His great love and redemption with someone. Be a proclaimer of Christ’s righteousness because He had done it.  He has saved and restored us to a right relationship with God the Father through His work on the cross.  Share the joy today.

Joyful in Him,

Linda

“Praise be to you , O LORD, God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.  Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours.  Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all.  Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things, in your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all.  Now our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.”   1 Chronicles 29:10-13

David uttered this prayer of thanksgiving and praise to God as he passed the torch for building the temple to his son Solomon.  David had gathered much of the materials and wealth needed for this project.  David’s understanding of God’s power comes in verse 14 “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this?  Every thing comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”   How do you view the things that you ‘own’?   Do you consider them to be yours or do you attribute them to God’s providential hand of favor upon you?  The ‘it’s mine’ attitude leads us towards selfishness, self-centeredness and the delusional thinking that on our own we can make and produce things.  The ‘it’s His’ attitude and that all I have comes from God leads us toward thankfulness, a grateful spirit, and humility before Almighty God.  I am reminded of the words in Micah 6:8 He has showed you, O man, what is good.  And what does the Lord require of you?  To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”  Will you endeavor to walk humbly before God today acknowledging that all you have comes from Him? Will you praise Him, like David, as Sovereign Lord and Creator, full of majesty, power, strength and splendor in His glorious name?

Thanks be to my Lord and Savior,

Linda

 

 

Building on yesterday’s blog about repentance, let’s look at  Acts 3:19 “Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”   Your thought may be- I’m a good person and I don’t deliberately sin.  What have I ever done that needs to be wiped out?  I don’t murder or steal.    Isaiah reminds us in 59:2 “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear.”   Sin, no matter how small, separates us from Holy God.  God can not tolerate sin so without Jesus to make us clean in His sight we are lost and truly in need of repentance.  Through Jesus we are made clean and whole, forgiven.  Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”  Jesus’ path to the cross through His pain and suffering provides a way for you and I to be forgiven.  Without His sacrifice on the cross, we would left in our sin without hope of salvation.   Romans 5:8 -11 tell us about God’s solution to the problem of our sin separating us from Him.  “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this:  While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him though the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!  Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, though whom we have now received reconciliation.”   Paul uses complex words like justified, reconciled and reconciliation in these verses but the meaning is clear- through Christ’s death on the cross and the shedding of His innocent blood we can receive forgiveness and be brought back into full relationship with Holy God our Father.  Praise and Thank Jesus today for this wonderful gift of sacrifice that has provided you a way to salvation and hope for eternity.  That hope is the refreshing that comes from the Lord though repentance.

Be refreshed today,

Linda

Paul wrote the second letter to the Corinthians to help direct them as false teachers were trying to lead them away from the gospel teachings and to turn them against the apostle.  In this passage we learn about the effects of repentance that we can apply to our lives today.

“Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it.  Though I did regret it-I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while- yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance.  For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us.  Godly sorry brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.  See what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.”  2 Corinthians 7:8-12a 

The truth of this passage is that godly sorrow brings repentance. God wants us to have a repentant heart so that our character may be developed and used for His purposes.  The result of repenting, for the Corinthians, was a turn around in their thinking.  They had no regrets in moving forward to achieve God’s purpose and justice.   Serving God became their goal.  Turning to God changes the heart, the direction and the motivation of the believer and leaves one with no regrets.   Staying with worldly pursuits and goals brings worldly sorrow and troubles that have no future and lead to death and separation from God.   Where are you headed today?  Do you have a repentant heart?  Are you eager and willing to pursue godly goals in your life?  This last week of Lent,  before we head into Jerusalem next Sunday and move towards the cross, hold yourself accountable and face your heart attitude and motives.  Are they aligned with  the Lord?  If not, repent and offer them to God.  Ask Him to replace your worldly heart attitude and goals with His.  May the truth of today’s passage remain in your mind that godly sorrow brings repentance and repentance brings salvation and newness of life. 

Seeking a renewed heart through Jesus,

Linda

“Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked.  For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless.  O LORD Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you.”  Psalm 84:10-12

On this 5th Sunday of Lent, may you find the Lord to be your sun and shield as He lights your way and protects you.  May you be blessed as you worship the one true God and find favor in His sight.  May you be mightily blessed as you put your trust in Him.  May this verse be on your lips today as you worship.

.

Linda

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ.  And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.  Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ.  He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”  2 Corinthians 1:20-23

I find these verses very encouraging.  Paul is telling us that ALL of God’s promises are fulfilled in and through Christ!  Christ helps us to stand firm in faith as we are on solid ground through what He accomplished on the cross.  He blesses us and seals our citizenship in heaven because through our faith in His work we belong to Him.  Finally, Paul says that God gives us His Holy Spirit to indwell our hearts with power so that we can know for sure our faith and future are secure.  What an amazing God we serve!   Do these facts of faith encourage you?  If so, thank God for His many blessings and tell someone today.

Loving our Promise Keeping God,

Linda

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. ” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4

Have you thought about how easily you can give comfort in words, with hugs or actions when you have been in a position to receive comfort?  God tells us in 2 Corinthians that comfort and compassion are attributes of His character.  By way of God’s comfort we too can take that attribute within ourselves and pass it along to others.  The trials we encounter in our life help to build and shape our character.  Those times we desperately needed comfort God sent His Holy Spirit to minister to us and then some of His faithful servants to physically pray with us and for us, to hug and hold us and to do acts of kindness that ease our pain.  How gracious and loving is our God that He would seek to meet us in our pain and help us through our hard times.  Today, as you encounter hurting individuals, remember God’s comfort and take on that attribute and give His comfort to others.  Be quick with a kind word, a hug, a verse of encouragement, prayers and acts of kindness because they go a long way in giving comfort to others.

Thanking God for His love and compassion towards me and thanking my brothers and sisters in Christ who so recently showed me great comfort and compassion.

Linda

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.  Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.  There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.  Their voice goes out into all the earth their words to the ends of the world.  Psalm 19:1-4

Have you ever wondered how someone who does not have the Bible would know that God exists?  The psalmist David says that all of creation speaks of the greatness of its creator.  It is seen day and night by the inhabitants of the earth and proclaims all powerful, sovereign God to be in existence.  David continues in verses 7b-8 “The statues of the LORD are trustworthy, making wise the simple.  The precepts of the LORD are right giving joy to the heart.  The commands of the LORD are radiant giving light to the eyes.”   Not only do we have creation to testify to God and who He is, but we have God’s Word.  The Words of the Bible are God’s words and lead us to Him and allow us to see Him as LORD.

After Jesus entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the religious leaders told Jesus he should scold his followers for proclaiming Him to be king and Lord.   “I tell you,” Jesus replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out.” Luke 19:40   Jesus knew that all creation would proclaim Him Lord.  God created all things to desire to glorify Him as creator and LORD.  What about you?  Do you know God?  Have you seen His creation and yet do not proclaim praise to the Creator?  Think about a beautiful sunset, a mountain’s splendor, a spider’s web and then ask- is God’s creation telling me of His existence? Do you need to read the Bible and ask God to show Himself to you through its words?

Faith comes from knowing, seeing and believing in God.  I pray you will encounter the living God today.

Linda