True Community

How tightly do you hold on to what you believe is yours? How well do you share with others? Are you more likely to hold on to a possession or give it away? Are you willing to lend things to others? If you borrow somethings, do you return it? Is your life about possessions?

Most of us work hard to earn money so we can buy what we need. We often buy, not only what we need, but many things we do not need but want. We also like to hold on to what we believe is ours. We may share with some while holding back from others.

Have you noticed that the more we acquire the less we want to share? This is not to say we do not donate to charities. In fact, there are some billionaires and millionaires who are big philanthropists. Our churches are filled with some of the most giving people in our country. But we often do not give away our possessions. We hold on to them as though they are gold.

The early believers came together and shared everything they had. They even shared their homes. They understood that all they had was a blessing from God and everything they possessed was God’s. They knew that he had blessed them with the privilege of being appointed stewards of his property for a time. They understood they were to be wise in its use and one part of the use was to bless others.

We do not have to give everything away. However, we cannot be stingy, holding onto everything tightly. It is less about the physical and more about our attitude. The more we come to realize that everything belongs to God, and we are made stewards by him, the more likely we are to use what he has blessed us with to bless others.

I pray we all understand that everything belongs to God. I pray we know we are privileged to be stewards for a time. I pray each one of us asks God to change our attitude toward possessions. Know God owns everything. Thank God for your blessings. Be willing to share your blessings with others. Ask God for wisdom in your sharing.

Acts 4:32 Now the whole group of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one claimed private ownership of any possessions, but everything they owned was held in common.

Empty Grave

Three women (Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Salome) went to minister to the body of Jesus. It is apparent they did not know that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea had done so on Friday (John 19:38-42). These ladies were also concerned with who they might get to roll the stone away.

However, when they arrived, the stone was already rolled away. They encountered someone looking like a young man as they entered the tomb. They were told that Jesus had been raised from the dead and that He was not there. Jesus had already started to go show Himself to others after His resurrection.

I dare say none of us have ever seen someone who has been resurrected from being dead. We have gone to funerals, said our final goodbyes, and had no thought the person would come back to life in a few days. So, we can only imagine what it would be like to go to the cemetery, find an empty grave, and to be told the person was both alive and no longer there.

The significance of the empty grave cannot be overstated. Christianity is the only religion in all the world who has a risen Savior. No other religion makes such a claim. Not only that, but within two to three decades after the resurrection, some of the apostles and other followers were being martyred for their belief and faith in Jesus’ resurrection. May God bless us with a faith that strong and that compels us to tell others of His resurrection.

I pray each one of us will ask God to strengthen our faith. I pray we see the empty grave as an amazing sign of God’s power. I pray each one of us are willing to tell others about Jesus’ resurrection. Know the grave is empty. Know that Jesus is alive today. Ask God to increase your faith. Tell others about Jesus’ resurrection.

Mark 16:5-6 As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man, dressed in a white robe, sitting on the right side; and they were alarmed. But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed; you are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here. Look, there is the place they laid him.”

Overwhelming Fear

Have you lived in fear? Do you know what it is like to lose all hope? Have you experienced the pitch-black darkness, whether from the elements or on the inside? Are you in darkness now? Would you like to get out of the darkness? Have you turned to the One who can bring you out of it?

Being in the dark is not fun. It is downright depressing. We can be filled with fear in the dark. When hope has been lost, we no longer have anywhere to turn. Our darkness may be the physical dark, or it may be a dark place we are in. Either way, fear can set in.

I can distinctly remember being in the pitch-black of night. I was doing field training in Okinawa. We set up a defensive perimeter and were in fighting holes awaiting an attack. We were in the jungle on a hillside. The jungle canopy blocked all light that would have come from the moon and stars. I could not see my own hand held within a few inches of my face. In the quiet, the smallest sound is as if it were the loud pop of a snare drum. Though I knew it was an exercise, I was thinking about what else was in the jungle.

Our fears can spiral out of control, just like it did with the disciples after Jesus had been crucified. They were holed up in a house with doors barred. They were shaking like leaves on a tree. They were afraid they were next. Their fear drove them to think they were more important than they were, and that the Jewish leadership was hunting them down. The Jewish leadership didn’t want them. They had already gotten rid of the ringleader. They figured all His followers would scatter in the wind.

I pray we all release our fears. I pray we don’t allow fear to spiral out of control. I pray each one of us will reach out to Jesus when we find ourselves in a dark place and ask Him to bring us into the light. Let go of your fear. Hold onto your faith in Jesus. Ask Him to bring you into the light.

John 20:19a When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews

Forsaken

Have you been forsaken? Have you had people turn their back on you? Have you been pushed aside or shunned? Have your family or close friends pushed you away? Did you feel dejected? Were you so far down in the dumps you thought you would never get out again?

Having people you trusted turn their back on you can hurt deeply. Being shunned by family or close friends can be depressing. Being ignored or pushed away can make you feel all alone. The effect can last a long time, perhaps a lifetime. It may change how we relate to others.

Jesus felt all of that and more. Try to imagine it. He is the Son of God. The Holy Spirit was in Him. He is the second person in the Trinity. But at that moment, the Father and the Holy Spirit left Him all alone. He was in excruciating pain. He was seeking comfort from the Father. Instead, He received nothing. The connection between Him and the Father was cut.

We know why He did it. He knows why He did it. Our failures are too many to count. As the Psalmist says, our sin is ever before us. Since God cannot be in the presence of sin, Jesus had to be the perfect sacrifice so that we can be cleansed and come into the presence of Almighty God. But knowing why a hard thing must be done does not make it any easier.

When we feel rebellious. When we just want to do what we want to do. When we want to return to our favorite sin. We need to remember what Jesus went through, the feeling of being left alone, Him being forsaken by the Father. Perhaps if we remember that, we will rethink committing the sin we have in our heart.

I pray we all think about what Jesus went through. I pray we put ourselves in His shoes for just a few minutes. I pray each one of us will decide to step away from our favorite sin. Put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. Think about His feelings on the cross. Thank Him for taking your place.

Mark 15:33-34 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Betrayed

Have you been betrayed by a friend? Was there someone who you thought you could trust who later turned against you? Did you think you were making a difference only to have your feet cut out from under you? How did that make you feel? Were you hurt? Were you angry?

Being betrayed can cause a range of emotions…none of them good. We may be resentful, angry, distraught, depressed, or even vengeful. Depending on who the person betrayed us to, we may feel hopeless. No, being betrayed is not good for our mental well-being.

We read that Judas Iscariot betrayed Jesus. But do we consider the range of emotions Jesus may have felt when He saw Judas coming up the hill with a cohort of soldiers to take Him into custody? Even though Jesus knew it was going to happen, He wasn’t looking forward to it. However, Jesus did what many of us do when we have others to take care of and face a bad situation. He summoned His courage to face it and be a positive example for His disciples.

Do we betray Jesus? When we willfully sin, we do. Our sin is the reason for Him having to go to the cross. Do we feel guilty? Do we resent sinning? Do we repent? Jesus is the reason we are forgiven. Yet, He did not intend on us continuing in our sin. He wants us to allow His Holy Spirit to change us from the inside out. As we release our selfish attitude and seek to do the will of the Father, we begin the process of eliminating our willful sinning. We begin to live the life God wants us to live and become the person he wants us to be.

I pray we all let go of our selfishness. I pray we allow the Holy Spirit to change us. I pray each one of us seek to do God’s will and become the person God intended us to be. Ponder Jesus’ feelings of being betrayed. Give up your selfishness. Allow the Holy Spirit to change you. Stop willfully sinning. Know that you are forgiven.

Mark 14:10-11 Then Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve, went to the chief priests in order to betray him to them. When they heard it, they were greatly pleased, and promised to give him money. So he began to look for an opportunity to betray him.

Urgency

Have you had people hunting you down? Have you been wanted for questioning about a crime? Has the Internal Revenue Service sought you out to discuss your tax return? Were you falsely accused of wrongdoing? How did it feel? Were you afraid of what might be coming?

Being pulled in for questioning can be nerve wracking. Having the IRS reviewing your tax returns with you personally can be stressful, even if you did them perfectly. Being falsely accused of wrongdoing can be very upsetting. We can experience a variety of negative emotions.

A couple days before the Passover Jesus was being hunted. The Jewish leadership were on the prowl, looking for Him. They had a contingent of soldiers, we would call them security guards, who were likely looking for Him as well. They had had enough of Him. His triumphal entry had gotten the people all riled up. They were opposed to His teachings and now He might be going to cause an uprising. They were fearful of losing their way of doing things and their prestige.

But Jesus was not in Jerusalem. He was in Bethany, a village a couple miles away. Make no mistake about it, Jesus knew they were looking for Him. He knew what would happen. It was for this reason He had come to Jerusalem at this time. Knowing this did not necessarily relieve Him of the emotions roiling inside. In fact, it may have added urgency to His desire to teach all that He could before He went to the cross. The time was short.

We may know of people who experienced something similar. It may have been someone who was diagnosed with a disease that only gave them a few months to live. The urgency to check off some items on their bucket list ramped up. Jesus was doing all He could to prepare His disciples for what would happen in a couple days. Have we prepared ourselves and others?

I pray we all recognize the urgency Jesus had those last few days. I pray we seek to carry out His will for our lives. I pray each one of us prepare ourselves and others for the day we pass from this life into eternal life. See Jesus’ urgency. Set your priorities. Prepare yourself. Prepare others.

Mark 14:1-2 It was two days before the Passover and the festival of Unleavened Bread. The chief priests and the scribes were looking for a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him; for they said, “Not during the festival, or there may be a riot among the people.”

Offering to God

Do you like to talk about money? Do you discuss paying your bills? Do you talk about how much money you make? Is money a source of discontentment? Is it a source of embarrassment? Or do you think very little about money? How much do you put in the offering plate?

Money can be a very divisive topic for people. Throughout history, there was a large divide between the haves and the have nots. It has not been until the last couple hundred years that a middle class has emerged. It seems as though everyone is fighting for the almighty dollar.

Jesus talked a lot about money during His time on this earth. He even pointed out what it means to make an offering of money to God. As He was sitting within the temple grounds, He was observing what people were putting into the offering box when He witnessed a widow put in a couple small copper coins. To put that into perspective, it would be equivalent to about eight minutes of work for a day laborer. If a person was working for minimum wage today, she would have put in about 50 cents.

But the importance is not necessarily the small amount but the fact it was all she had. Think of a woman pulling out the last two quarters from her pocketbook and putting them in the offering plate. She had nothing else. She was trusting God to provide for her needs. This is an example of a very strong faith, for widows were homeless and destitute, unless they had a family who would take care of them in that patriarchal society.

We are called to walk in faith. We are to trust God in everything, which includes offering money to the church. Not only should we pray that God guide us in our offering, but we should pray for those who determine how the offering will be used. Pray that God guides those people to use the offering wisely and to support God’s work to expand his kingdom here on earth.

I pray we all seek God’s guidance for offering our money to him. I pray we make an offering that is acceptable to him. I pray each one of us put our faith in God, trusting him to provide for our needs. Give back to God. Give to the church. Ask God for guidance. Pray for those making monetary decisions. Trust God in all things.

Mark 12:41 A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which are worth a penny. Then he called his disciples and said to them, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the treasury.”

Reverent and Respectful

How much do you know about what happened during Holy Week? Have you followed the events of Jesus during the last week before He went to the cross? It is during Holy Week that Jesus publicly proclaimed He was the Messiah. He no longer told people to be silent.

Jesus entered Jerusalem to great fanfare. The people were proclaiming Him the conquering king. They were hoping He was going to throw the Roman soldiers out of Israel and elevate Israel as a prominent nation again. Though they misunderstood what He was going to do, they recognized Him as King.

The day after His triumphal entry into Jerusalem, Jesus begins to reveal His true identity. He goes into the temple and clears the business that had invaded it in support of sacrifices. Slowly, over the years, sellers of sacrificial animals had moved in. Money exchangers had also moved to exchange currencies for people who came from other countries. These people were making money, and very possibly extorting people, within the temple grounds. Jesus chased all of them out.

We may wonder how one man could command so many to leave a prosperous business behind. Why were they afraid of Him? We must understand that Jesus was not just human but also God. He had an aura about Him. He could be commanding when He needed to. He could be more charismatic than anyone we have ever seen. He could command obedience quicker than ten Marine Corps drill instructors. He simply had not shown that ability before now.

We often say, “the church is not a building, it’s the people” and I wonder if we have reduced God’s house to nothing more than a building. Though the saying is true, it is because a church building is where we come together corporately to worship God that it is holy. We should treat the building as such. At the same time, it does not mean we should put the building above people. No, they should both be viewed with reverence and respect.

I pray we all see God’s house as being holy. I pray we view God’s people as being holy. I pray each one of us commit to being reverent and respectful when we are in God’s house. Be reverent toward God in his house. Treat his church as being holy. Be respectful of God’s people. Be in awe of Jesus’ power.

Mark 11:17 He was teaching and saying, “Is it not written, 

‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? 

But you have made it a den of robbers.”

Hosanna!

As Jesus was entering Jerusalem, what we call the triumphal entry, the people were yelling hosanna. I wonder how many of us shout hosanna to Jesus regularly. Do we only do so on Palm Sunday when we are instructed (or shamed) to do so?

Have we forgotten what hosanna means? In the event we have, it means ‘Save us, please!’ It identified the subject as a ruler whom the petitioner was praising. The petitioner recognized their status and submitted to the ruler to be their savior.

In the case of Jesus entering Jerusalem, though the people were praising Him, they were thinking of Him in the wrong context. He was not a political ruler but a spiritual ruler. He was entering Jerusalem to not only save the people there but to save the whole world.

Since we view Jesus as our Savior, we ought to shout hosanna to Him quite often. For it is only He who can save us. It is only Jesus who has brought about reconciliation between us and God. It is only by His acts of love and sacrifice that we can be forgiven of all our wrongs. Jesus is our Savior and He is also our King. As such, He should be the ruler of our lives.

I pray we all accept Jesus as our Savior. I pray we accept Him as our King and Ruler. I pray each one of us will shout hosanna to Him regularly, crying out for His saving grace. Ask Jesus to save you. Praise Jesus as your King. Thank Jesus for being your Savior. Shout hosanna to Jesus.

Mark 1:9-10 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, 

“Hosanna! 

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! 

Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! 

Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

Amazing Rewards

Don’t you love it when a plan comes together? Isn’t it wonderful when you complete a task and your boss rewards you for it? Don’t you love seeing your efforts come to fruition? Have you considered how beautiful it would be to accomplish the tasks God has laid before you?

Having plans that work out as we like makes us feel pretty good. Getting rewards for completing the tasks our boss gives us is nice. Seeing the fruits of our labor brings satisfaction. Our self-esteem goes up and our confidence increases and life is good.

Completing the work God has set before us is much the same with one significant difference. When we complete what God has set before us, we know our work is expanding his kingdom here on earth. We may see that by witnessing others accepting Jesus as their Savior. We may see it in the appreciative eyes of someone who was hungry being filled. No matter what the task is, when we complete it for God, there are rewards.

When the disciples brought the donkey for Jesus to ride into Jerusalem, they were rewarded with a sight that has only occurred once. They saw people putting their coats down on the road while others placed branches down as a welcoming carpet for Jesus to ride on. In other words, they saw the people welcoming the King. I’m sure it was an astonishing sight, and the disciples were filled with wonder.

We read this story and may not fully comprehend its significance. Jesus was receiving the treatment of a king returning from battle having conquered a villainous foe. What the people didn’t realize was…Jesus was riding in to conquer the villainous foe. He was about to conquer through death, burial, and resurrection. He was coming to be crowned the King of kings.

I pray we all complete the tasks God has set before us. I pray we see the fruits of our labor for God. I pray each one of us are amazed at what God does when we serve him with all we have. Complete your assigned tasks. See the fruits of your labor. Notice what God does. Be amazed by his power.

Mark 11:7-8 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields.