by Sharon O | Apr 4, 2015 | Uncategorized
The players had to be in alignment for the Crucifixion to take place.
The Roman Soldiers in the garden after Jesus prayed were a part of the plan that was already written.
Judas betrayed him with a kiss because he had to, that was the plan.
It was an intimate betrayal, for to be close enough to give someone a kiss it would be tender and also full of mixed messages.
Luke 22:47 b [Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss. But Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of man with a kiss?”]
The soldiers took hold of him and the disciples didn’t like their attitude towards Jesus.
One of them (some say it was Peter) cut off the ear of the high priests slave, Jesus rebuked him and said “no more” then healed the ear back to wholeness.
It was all a part of the plan.
Jesus had to be arrested, he had to be put on trial.
Chapter 22: 52
Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him.
“Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?
Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple?
I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of the darkness reigns.”
In all the years of reading my bible and the Easter story I have never seen this line before.
when the power of darkness reigns.
Light and dark. Healing and death. Powerful words spoken from a Savior.
The story continues with his ‘arrest’ and the reactions of the disciples.
Beginning with the story of Peter.
I believe this was included to show us how we are as people.
When the bottom drops and it is our life or some one else’s would we deny him too?
We can be as faithful as we hope to be but, when the pressure comes on us, can we really be faithful to the end?
Jesus prepared Peter when he asked him at one point in time, Peter do you love me?
He was testing his heart. He was challenging his zeal and his promise.
Jesus knew the answer, but he wanted Peter to think about the answer before saying “yes”.
Three times Peter said, “Yes Lord” and three times he denied him in the garden, when the mood of the evening became frightening to him.
I don’t think we should judge Peter.
We can sing in church and raise our hands, preach the word and teach the word but when the pressure arrives and we are facing a life or death decision.
Would we say ‘yes Lord, I love you,’ or would we be like Peter.
Who crumbled under pressure and said, “I never knew the man.” vs 61 The rooster crowed.
At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter, suddenly the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind. “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”
vs 62 And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.
by Sharon O | Apr 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
The word of the day is: Good
Today is considered Good Friday, the day Jesus was crucified.
Why do we call it good?
Did a horrific death on a cross seem a good thing?
The suffering. The anguish. The intensive violence.
Good Friday?
Dictionary.com said Good Friday is the Friday before Easter; A Holy Day.
When I think of the Cross do I see something that is good?
It is painful. It is torturous. It is humiliating. It is deep sorrow.
It is anguish of spirit and soul on a wooden splinter filled board.
Yet when I look at the word good in the dictionary it means,
morally excellent, righteous, beneficent, kind, honorable, worthy and good standing.
Jesus on the cross… on good Friday.
Yes the cross is good because without the cross.
We would have no hope.
Without the cross the deep love of the Father could not be placed upon or within us.
Without the cross we would be lost.
Without the cross we would never understand, the compassionate ‘tender’ side of Jesus.
He chose because the Father said, “This is the only way.”
He relinquished his human thoughts and fears and went to the cross, knowing that the only way to salvation was a Savior.
I struggle with the word good today.
I reach deep within myself to understand the magnitude of His sacrifice and His suffering.
No one would ever do it again.
No one has to.
For unto us a Savior was born, and unto us a Savior died.
He came to save us and that is the proof of his deep deep love.
by Sharon O | Apr 3, 2015 | Uncategorized
In the book of John chapter 17 Jesus said a prayer.
It was a prayer to the Father.
Jesus knew the time had come, his death would soon take place.
I can’t imagine the feeling of knowing in a few short days, your life would end, and he also knew the hatred and the hostility he would be subjected to.
He had just told the disciples he would be leaving them, and then he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you.
For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.
I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence
with the glory I had with you before the world began.
I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them.
They knew with certainly that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them.
I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you.
Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by that name you gave me.
None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled.
I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.
I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world, I have sent them in to the world.
For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
My prayer is not for them alone.
I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one,
Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one- I in them and you in me- so that they may be brought to complete unity.
Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.
Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.
I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
This was the last prayer Jesus said before the betrayal of Judas and the Roman soldiers arrested him.
I ask that you read it slow.
It is full of prophecy… relationship, concern for the disciples, concern for others.
It is a conversation and prayer between a Son and a Father.
It is powerful. It is good to read and remember it was all a part of the original ‘plan’ for God to show His love to us.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
We were the reason He came at Christmas and then we were the reason Easter took place.
It had to happen for there needed to be ‘a Savior’ for us.
by Sharon O | Apr 1, 2015 | Uncategorized
It’s hard to believe that the human spirit and behavior is so unpredictable.
We see and experience the emotional side of that during the week of Easter.
In the New Testament we are told of the entry into Jerusalem, the beginning of the Easter week.
The disciples were walking with Jesus when he said to them in
Matthew 21: verse 1
As Jesus and the disciples approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethphage on the Mount of Olives. Jesus sent two of them on ahead. “Go into the village over there,” he said, “As soon as you enter it, you will see a donkey tied there, with it’s colt beside it. Untie them and bring them to me. If anyone asks what you are doing, just say, ‘The Lord needs them’ and he will immediately let you take them.”
This took place to fulfill the prophecy that said, in the Old Testament book of Zechariah 9:9
“Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!
Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey- riding on a donkey’s colt.”
The two disciples did as Jesus commanded. They brought the donkey and the colt to him and threw their garments over the colt, and he sat on it. Most of the crowd spread their garments on the road ahead of him, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Jesus was in the center of the procession, and the people all around them were shouting, “Praise God for the Son of David! Blessings on the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Praise God in the highest heaven!”
The entire city of Jerusalem was in an uproar, as he entered.
“Who is this?” they asked. And the crowds replied, “It’s Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth in Galilee.”
Let’s stop for a minute.
The disciples had no idea what was going on. This was Jesus, who they had spent a lot of time with for many months, do you wonder what they were thinking? I sure do.
It was just the beginning for Jesus and He knew this had to take place to fulfill the prophecy written.
Just like at Christmas when all the prophecy had to be fulfilled.
This season of time was the same for him.
Jesus was in the center.
The people were joyous and exalting him, praising him with adoration.
Then the moods changed and the prophecy continued to be fulfilled.
He would be denied, he would be taken to court, accusations that were not right or real would be thrown at him, he would be lead to the place of the cross.
As it was written:
Jesus was in the center of the story.
by Sharon O | Mar 28, 2015 | Uncategorized
Taking a bit of a detour from the Easter theme.
I have been reading a blog for about a year now.
It is called Mundane Faithfulness and it has been a journey for the author Kara, and her family and her readers.
She passed away last Sunday from stage four cancer.
It’s been quite a journey for her and her little family and for those who have read her words.
This is the last journal writing from her blog.
http://www.mundanefaithfulness.com/home/2015/3/22/homecoming
I share it because, it is so very important to pray for her family and to help in any way we can.
We all miss her even though we have never met, we all cannot know what it will be like, to have her not be the author of her blog any more, as we have shared in the deep abiding love she had in the Lord.
We were there cheering her on and watching as she would make a video for her husband, and her little children, treasures for them later as they grow, pretty painful right now to watch.
Please keep her family in your prayers.
She was a wife and mom to four very beautiful children.
The journey will be hard for all of them to move forward without her.
Saying good bye is never easy.
They will be showing a live stream of her memorial service because of the friends and blog readers who cannot come in person to her service.
If you have a way to donate to her family it would be appreciated.
God desires us to support each other and this little family needs prayers, and if you can also purchase her book it would help the family.
May we pray for them to have comfort as they move through this grief filled time of life.
