Isaiah 49:16 CJB
"I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, your walls are always before me.”
John 12:13 CJB
They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting, “Deliver us!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of Adonai, the King of Isra’el!”
Revelation 7:9 CJB
After this, I looked; and there before me was a huge crowd, too large for anyone to count, from every nation, tribe, people and language. They were standing in front of the throne and in front of the Lamb, dressed in white robes and holding palm branches in their hands;
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Happy Palm Sunday my friends.
I spent today thinking about life and death in the various ways it can happen throughout our lives. We already know that the wages of sin is death and separation from life with God in this world and the next. But what about in our daily lives.
Jesus came so we could have life everlasting through His ministry life, death, and resurrection life.
How amazing to see how often Jesus dealt with death throughout His earthly ministry. So many moments of healing the nearly dead, raising the dead, bringing joyful life into people's lives and opening dead eyes to see the truth.
Jesus always saw things differently then what people expected and wanted. He often chose strange ways of bringing life to dead eyes, dead minds, and dead expectations (John 9:6).
Even as Jesus was speaking God's Kingdom good news, people were expecting a physical deliverer of Roman occupation and a king on an earthy throne. But Jesus knew that He would be bringing death to their earthly hopes and true life throughout all eternity.
As Jesus was moving through His ministry time and into His epic conclusion, He entered Jerusalem on a donkey with palm fronds and coats as His red carpet to a cheering crowd joyful to see their dreams fully birthed--this was going to be their worldly king.
What an epic scene that was! To stand cheering for the king who brings healing miracles and resurrection life was utterly amazing (John 11). And yet we know that their joy and anticipation for deliverance from Rome was not the plan that God had. God's kingdom agenda was and is a greater deliverance.
Often our plans and outcomes of life are not what God has in mind. We often go from joyous delight to broken sobs as death in various forms finds it's way into our lives. Sometimes it's death of a dream job/business, a relationship, a minor goal like overcoming procrastination/decluttering/saving/losing weight, a financial ruin in the form of a layoff, house fire, hurricane, etc., or flood (as was my case).
My financial peace and joy became a death under the weight of a flood that filled our home. At one moment there was joy and laughter and then the next there was death, destruction, sobbing, and utter heartache.
But God! God saw that flood as not death but LIFE. He saw it as the way to bring life and healing to my brokenness and the impact He wanted me to make for His kingdom agenda. He wanted me on a path to bring healing and life to others and He knew that this was the only way to get me to a place of obedience to His calling.
Where has death become life for you? Where has your idea of a happy life needed to be changed to bring about God's kingdom agenda in you and through you?
Jesus Christ new from the moment His earthly ministry began (life) that He was speeding toward excruciating death to bring LIFE everlasting to all who call on His name.
Jesus knew that with His obedience that what would be heartbreaking to some would mean LIFE everlasting for them and all those who call Him Lord and Savior.
This world is not our final home. And God wants us to be mindful of the greater plan. His will be done. His kingdom agenda come whether through joy, pain, sorrow, shame released, shattered dreams, relationships broken, sin revealed and forgiven, death, or birth, let His will be done in your life and mine.
John 12:23-25 CJB
23 Yeshua gave them this answer: “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Yes, indeed! I tell you that unless a grain of wheat that falls to the ground dies, it stays just a grain; but if it dies, it produces a big harvest. 25 He who loves his life loses it, but he who hates his life in this world will keep it safe right on into eternal life!
Let's pray:
Jesus we are in awe of You! We sing holy, holy, holy is the lamb who was slain for us. Blessed are You who came to save, redeem, and heal.
Lord we don't like the pain that this world brings. We don't like death, destruction, and things not going our way.
Please Jesus help us to have a kingdom mindset. Please help us to bring all things to You and to trust in Your redeeming and transforming way that leads to life everlasting.
Please forgive us our sins and help us to destroy the mindsets, habits, and thoughts that keep us sinning and bringing pain into our lives and lives around us.
We are Your people and we rejoice in being a part of Your kingdom agenda. Please help us to read Your word, hear Your Holy Spirit, and do Your will.
Thank You Jesus, Amen.
Additional verses to meditate on this palm Sunday week as we head into Easter weekend:
Psalm 56:14 CJB
For you rescued me from death, you kept my feet from stumbling, so that I can walk in God’s presence, in the light of life.
Psalm 107:14 CJB
He led them from darkness, from death-dark gloom, shattering their chains.
Psalm 116:8 CJB
Yes, you have rescued me from death, my eyes from tears and my feet from falling
Psalm 116:15 CJB
From Adonai’s point of view, the death of those faithful to Him is costly.
John 5:24 CJB
Yes, indeed! I tell you that whoever hears what I am saying and trusts the One who sent me has eternal life — that is, he will not come up for judgment but has already crossed over from death to life!
Acts 2:24 CJB
“But God has raised him up and freed him from the suffering of death; it was impossible that death could keep its hold on him.
Romans 6:4 CJB
Through immersion into his death we were buried with him; so that just as, through the glory of the Father, the Messiah was raised from the dead, likewise we too might live a new life.
Romans 6:23 CJB
For what one earns from sin is death; but eternal life is what one receives as a free gift from God, in union with the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.
Hebrews 9:14 CJB
then how much more the blood of the Messiah, who, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself to God as a sacrifice without blemish, will purify our conscience from works that lead to death, so that we can serve the living God!
Psalm 92:13 CJB
The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar in the L’vanon.
Judges 4:5 CJB
She used to sit under D’vorah’s Palm between Ramah and Beit-El, in the hills of Efrayim; and the people of Isra’el would come to her for judgment.
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
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