Inspirations

It's Good Friday.  The day my Lord was crucified.  Two thousand years ago, more or less Jesus was hung on a tree and killed and I am amazed.  What amazes me is not the amount of pain he suffered, not the way he died, not even the humbleness with which he endured shame and pain.  No, what amazes me is that he chose to suffer a cruel beating and death for me.   He didn’t have to die.  He had other choices.  What amazes me is that when he was dying on the cross, he was looking through eternity past, present and future and did not see a people who loved him but people who hated him. He saw sinful, stubborn, rebellious people; that’s what we all are apart from God.  If I’m honest with myself, I know that I’ve done things worthy of death. Knowing all that in advance, Jesus still said, “My child, I love you enough to die for you.”  I know how sinful I can be, so I amazed that the creator of the universe would die for me.  It...

Have you ever seen some people that seem to have such strong faith that it amazed you?  I have seen some  and to be honest sometimes I wish I had more faith because my own seem often so fragile and weak.  As I was reading and reflecting on the account of Jesus resurrection on that first Easter morning, my mind went to the women who went to the tomb. As I read, I could just see these women headed to the tomb.  It was early and they carefully carried the spices they would need for Jesus’ body.   The body that was laid in a tomb with a huge rock rolled in front of it AND , guards posted at the tomb.  There were guards to be sure no one got to Jesus body.  Most of us would have probably not even bothered to go to the tomb.  We would see the hopelessness of the situation and write it off as impossible.  Nevertheless, these ladies had enough faith to go to the tomb WITH spices.  They may not have known how, but they knew that they were g...

One of my favorite things is chocolate.  Any kind of chocolate, as long as it's good. One kind of chocolate is called bittersweet.  It is definitely the best for cookies if they last long enough to get them made.  Today is a bittersweet day. It is Good Friday, the day that my Lord was crucified.  He willingly suffered a death that most of us can’t even imagine. The truly amazing part is that he knew ahead of time that this would happen and yet made the choice to pay that price. He chose death. He suffered this death for people that that did not love him.  He said there was no greater love than this that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Do you know what that means?  He called us friends, when we were still separated from him by sin for surely there was no greater love that the love Jesus demonstrated by his death on the cross.  That is amazing. As I think of the price that Jesus paid to build a bridge so we could get to him,...

I love that as I read the account of the Triumphal entry into Jerusalem, two different accounts tell about Jesus cursing a fig tree so that it withers. I have often wondered what the significance of this event was. Why did Jesus even take the time to curse the fig tree? Since I believe that nothing is in the scriptures by accident, and Jesus was intentional. Jesus had a reason for everything he did. Then, what did Jesus want his disciples to learn?  Well, I believe that Jesus, knowing that he was going to leave them, wanted them to know how powerful just a little faith could be. Maybe he wanted them to see firsthand what faith could do.  He knew that they would need to rely on faith once he was gone and he wanted to give them a picture of what faith could do.  He knew that they would face many obstacles and he wanted them to be strong and set their sights high on the impossible.  Maybe, looking down though the ages he knew that we would need a picture of what...