Holy Week Day Seven: The Curtain is Torn!

Holy Week Day Seven: The Curtain is Torn!
Passage: Mark 15:33-38

"Make a curtain of blue, purple and scarlet yarn and finely twisted linen, with cherubim woven into it by a skilled worker. Hang it with gold hooks on four posts of acacia wood overlaid with gold and standing on four silver bases. Hang the curtain from the clasps and place the ark of the covenant law behind the curtain. The curtain will separate the Holy Place from the Most Holy Place."
Exodus 26:31-33

"The Lord said to Moses: "Tell your brother Aaron that he is not to come whenever he chooses into the Most Holy Place behind the curtain in front of the atonement cover on the ark, or else he will die. For I will appear in the cloud over the atonement cover."
Leviticus 16:2

"With a loud cry, Jesus breathed his last. The curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom."
Mark 15:37-38

Only one man could enter the Most Holy Place: the high priest. He was only allowed on one day every year: the tenth day of the seventh month, or the Day of Atonement. And he had to bring blood of an atonement sacrifice for himself and for the people of Israel, as well as a burnt offering, to enter even then (see Leviticus 16).

The penalty for entering God's presence without blood is death. This curtain separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple in order to protect the people from that death. This is the same curtain that was torn in two from top to bottom at the exact moment that Jesus died on the cross.

I love picturing what might have happened to tear the curtain like that. It's not like someone sneaked in with a pair of scissors and cut a little bit off the bottom, and then ripped it up from there. If it had been done by a human, they would have died. I like to picture a huge angel (invisible to people) stepping up to the curtain from behind, grasping the middle, and then rrrriiiiiiiiiiip! Imagine the shock on the faces of the people who saw the curtain being torn by itself! The stark fear they felt at the realization that God's holy presence was not contained any longer!

So what does this mean? What does it signify? Why was the curtain in the temple torn?

1. Jesus' death caused a shift in God's relationship with people. Humanity no longer needed the protection of the old covenant, because through Jesus' sacrifice God had made a new and better one. Jesus' blood offered better protection from sin than the blood of bulls and goats. So the curtain was no longer needed. Jesus' blood protects us once and for all, and perfectly. As long as we are under its protection, there is no longer the risk of being killed by entering God's presence.
2. God was establishing a new dwelling place for his presence, and was leaving the old one behind. "Look, your house is left to you desolate." (Jesus speaking to Jerusalem in Matthew 23:38). Just like we spoke about on Day Two (clearing the temple), God's Holy Spirit--his presence--has entered our hearts, making them his new temple. Through the Holy Spirit, God now dwells in our hearts (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Jesus' death cleared the way for this to be possible. And once God had established his new covenant with his new perfect sacrifice, the old temple became obsolete.

So you see, even though it was not easy for Jesus to give his life, the fruit that his sacrifice bore was all the reward he could have asked for!

"For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Hebrews 12:2

Jesus' great love is what drove him to make a way for us to dwell with him forever. His reward--his joy--was his success in that endeavor. He so longs for a deep, intimate relationship with every person on earth. Including you! 

Right Response

Take a look at this parable found in Matthew 13:44-46:

"The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it."

You are the treasure God found. You are the fine pearl. He sold everything he had just so he could have you. And just like the parable says, selling everything to purchase you was a joy!

The curtain is torn! Jesus got all the technical details out of the way of having this relationship, and so now everything else is left up to you. 

So here is your challenge for today:

• Are you going to choose to have a relationship with him? Can you feel the longing he has to spend time with you, and live with you forever?
• How deep and intimate are you willing to go? You are not ever going to reach a point where God is the one satisfied! There is always a deeper level he longs to take you to.
• That parable about the treasure and the pearl can go both ways. God's love is the most precious treasure you will ever find! Just like we spoke about on Day Five, it is worth giving up everything for. It may not always be convenient, and it may not always be easy, but it can still be a joy! Jesus was willing to do whatever it took to make this amazing relationship happen. Are you?

Holy Week Day Six: Getting Us To Heaven Is Not Easy

Introduction

Main Passage: Mark 14:12-36

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+14%3A12-36&version=NIV)

Mark 14:12-16. Sometimes we know what Jesus wants to do, and he waits to do it until we present ourselves for his service.

Mark 14:17-21. In this section, Jesus knows which of his followers will betray him. He knew from the beginning that Judas would take advantage of his trust by bringing his enemies to his secret meeting place. But that doesn’t mean he treated Judas any differently the whole time he was following him. The natural thing for Jesus to do would have been to close off his heart to his betrayer, and steel himself so that the betrayal wouldn’t hurt so much when it happened. But no, Judas was brought into Jesus' inner circle anyway. Jesus would have loved him no less than any of the others. His love is not dependent on someone’s actions. Love always trusts, no matter how certain the future betrayal is.

This is the first demonstration we see today of how much love Jesus truly showed. He chose to open his heart to Judas for three years of ministry and friendship, knowing the whole time what it would ultimately lead to. If Jesus had not loved Judas so much, his betrayal would not have been so significant.

Mark 14:33-36. Here we reach my main focus for the day: this wasn’t easy. In Matthew, Jesus is quoted as saying, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:39) This prayer is a powerful combination of supplication and surrender.

Supplication: Jesus knew to that to the end God would still be approachable. From “Father, may this hour pass from me” to “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus' desperation for his Father's comfort and strength never wavered. If he had ever tried to perform this act of ultimate obedience alone, he would have surely been crushed under its weight before all was accomplished.

Jesus' prayer here, and the way he described what he was going through to his disciples (“overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death”), gives us a glimpse of what it felt like to face such a responsibility: to willingly submit himself to be handed over by his Father to be sacrificed for the sins of all of mankind. If you have ever been faced with obeying something God has told you to do, and the task will make you uncomfortable or nervous, you know that when you reach the brink of surrender your earthly flesh rears up in protest. When Jesus was faced with that same temptation here, he immediately turned to God.

Surrender: No matter how much temptation Jesus faced to indulge in self-pity--or even self-preservation—he was still fully submitted to God the whole time. His surrender to his Father’s will while he was in such distress is honestly one of the most incredible things Jesus did in his life on earth.

There's obviously nothing in our lives that can be adequately compared to what Jesus had to do, but it can be helpful to picture one of our personal experiences so that we can more easily grasp what he did for us. So as you consider this scene in Jesus life, recall a time in your life when you threw a good tantrum. You may be able to remember your early childhood tantrums, or if you’re like me you may have thrown a few as an adult when you’re in prayer sometimes.

Now before we go on, I want to clarify that Jesus was not throwing a tantrum here. There was absolutely no rebellion in his appeal, just overwhelming emotion. But when we, as sinful humans, get overwhelmed by emotions, our tendency is more toward getting caught up in them to the point where we throw up our hands and express our frustration with a good complaining wail of a whine. 

I want you to deliberately recall the moment before you vent your frustration: perhaps you’re frustrated at something that has happened to you that is unfair, unpleasant, uncalled-for, and that you don’t understand and don’t have any control over. You’re being bombarded by emotions such as anger, frustration, and hurt that all feed off of each other until they come to the brink of boiling over.

That's the moment where we find Jesus here. He knew he didn’t deserve anything that was going to be done to him that very night. He knew it would be unfair, unpleasant, and uncalled-for. His emotions boiled over within him until they affected his physical body (sweating drops of blood). How amazing to think that in the midst of all of that, he still

1) Had the presence of mind to turn to God and pour out his request to him

2) Had the self-discipline to submit his will to God's

I wanted to touch on that prayer as a way to introduce my focus for Good Friday:

Holy Week Day Six: Getting Us to Heaven Is Not Easy

It occurs to me a lot that the majority of people (in the USA at least) who believe in heaven also believe that that’s where they'll end up. It seems that the classic mindset is that our default destination is heaven, and that most people go there unless they do something to deserve going to hell (if they believe in hell at all).

This theory sure takes the pressure off, doesn’t it? It’s almost too bad that it isn’t true. The truth is that we aren’t the ones who decide our final destination. If we did, then every person would go to heaven, regardless of what they’ve done. After all, “All a person's ways seem right to him” (Proverbs 16:2). 

Everyone who does something wrong thinks it is excusable for one reason or another. People are very clever in how they form their thoughts about themselves. We are experts at making excuses to avoid feeling guilty. 

But what if guilt is good? In general, I mean. After all, the base function of pain is helpful. It tells you that harm is coming to your body so you can make it stop. What if guilt is the same way? What if the purpose of guilt is to let you know that harms is being done to your character or spirit? (In this paragraph, I'm lumping conviction and discipline and guilt together in one term). Feeling pain is a healthy thing to do. If you don’t feel pain when you are supposed to, your body is not considered healthy. If you do something that’s wrong and don’t feel guilty, should that not be a sign of an unhealthy conscience?

But who, then, determines what is right and what is wrong, if even murderers and slavers think they deserve to go to heaven? In answer, here is the second half of Proverbs 16:2 “All a person's ways seem right to him, but the Lord weighs motives.” God is the perfect judge for mankind. Not just because he himself is perfect, but also because he can be consistent with his rulings without showing favoritism.

The default destination for us is not heaven. We don’t automatically go there, and then go to hell if we do something to deserve it. No, in reality our default destination is hell until we meet God's standards of perfection. Only then do we deserve to go to heaven.

So how do we know how to get God to let us in heaven? That is the perfect question!

God has graciously given us everything we need: First, he gave us a copy of his standards--that he will be judging us against--in the Bible. All of his judgments will be measured against it. Second, he gave us examples of people who were good in their own way, but who still did not meet those standards (Such as David, Abraham, Noah, Moses, etc). Finally, he gave us a substitute who was able to meet his standards perfectly. That was Jesus.

Everything Jesus did that we celebrate on Good Friday and Easter was solely to make a way for us to get into heaven. Imagine if God didn’t love people, at least not as much as he does. If that were the case, then he wouldn’t have to care about humanity’s eternity and our eternal destination. He wouldn’t have to give us the Bible to tell us how to get to him. And he certainly wouldn’t have had to send his only Son to earth to be scorned, tortured, and killed by tiny humans, as a way to punish him for humanity’s wrongdoings, all for the sole purpose of making a way to heaven where there was none before.

However, fortunately for us, God does love us enough to do all of those things.

But that still doesn't mean it was easy.

"If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me". This prayer prompts a radical thought: since Jesus was God's beloved Son, with whom he was well pleased, it must be significant that this request from him was not granted. There was no other way. It was not possible for God to accomplish his will in any other fashion or through anybody else.

When this first occurred to me, I wanted to make sure I was right. So I looked up that verse in the Matthew Henry Commentary to see what he had to say. He agreed. This is how he sums up Jesus' request:

"If God may be glorified, man saved, and the ends of his undertaking answered, without his drinking of this bitter cup, he desires to be excused, otherwise not."

-Matthew Henry's Commentary

Therefore let it sink in that there was no other way for God's will to be accomplished, and for humanity to be brought into heaven. Though making this way cost Jesus so much, God now offers it to us for free. That is why this holiday is called Good Friday. It is the celebration of the Good News that we can accept Jesus' monumental sacrifice, and be accepted into heaven. 

Jesus met God's standards, and he died for our wrongdoings. Therefore when we accept his sacrifice for us, putting our faith in him, our lives are exchanged for his. He can be our substitute, so that when God is judging our lives to determine our final destination, Jesus' death for us can clear our record, and his blameless life is seen as ours.

Right Response

We're almost done, I promise! 

Here's the challenge for today:

• Let Jesus' love for you permeate your heart. He loved you enough to do everything necessary to spend eternity with you, whatever the personal cost. This is the only challenge for today, because I want you focusing on it and only it. Whatever is happening in your life, it does not change what he has done for you. He deserves full glory for that!

Holy Week Day Four: They Are All Wrong - Except One

We'll spend today and tomorrow looking at some other Day 3 events, because there's a lot that happens in Mark on Day 3 of Jesus' Holy Week. There also is not very much mentioned between Day 3 and Day 6. Likewise, there isn't anything mentioned chronologically between Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, so we'll continue with similar themes from Day 6 on Day 7.

Day Four: They Are All Wrong - Except One
Passages:
Skim Mark 12:1-27 (for context)
Read Mark 12:28-34 (main focus)

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12%3A1-27%3B+Mark+12%3A28-34&version=NIV)

This chapter continues the debate that started with the questioning of Jesus' authority. Everybody takes a turn trying to trap him: Elders, priests, Herodians, Pharisees, Sadducees, and teachers of the law. Every man among them is trying to trap Jesus in his answers, instead of paying attention to what his answers are.

Except one.

Let's go in-depth into that main passage.

The set-up: "Noticing that Jesus has given them a good answer..." (verse 28b)

This is the first thing that sets this teacher of the law apart from the others. He noticed Jesus. He did not automatically reach for a defensive or offensive stance, hiding behind his own righteousness. He saw a good answer to what might have been a tricky question (Whose wife will she be?). He also witnessed true wisdom: getting straight to the point behind the question (is there a resurrection or not?). He noticed these things, and decided to pose his own test for Jesus. Notice that I said test, not trap. That's another thing that set this teacher apart from others: His question had a different motive than those of the elders, priests, Pharisees, and other teachers. He truly wanted to hear how Jesus would answer. It was a test of Jesus' knowledge, of his wisdom, and of his character.

The test: "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" (verse 28c)

This truly is a good test for one teacher to give to another. It cuts straight to the point: What do you believe about the Law? What do you believe about God? The answer to this question reveals both of those things. If Jesus had said something like "Keep the Sabbath holy" or "Do not murder" or "Sacrifice a pure animal", an astute observer such as this could have written him off easily. This teacher was basically saying, "When you read the law, what do you see?" Does Jesus see rules, or a God to be followed?

The answer:  "The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor a yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (verses 29-31)

Here, Jesus proves that he sees the Law correctly: It all hangs on loving God and loving people. If you aren't doing that, you aren't fulfilling the Law no matter how many regulations you keep. Then the teacher agrees with Jesus, and Jesus tells him that he is not far from the kingdom of God. Both men are satisfied with the other's answer.

Right response:

We cannot go through this passage--with the goal of this Bible study being to re-dedicate our hearts to God--without addressing the Greatest Commandment.

Have you noticed how specific this commandment is? It does not simply say to love God, but it goes into all the different parts of our being, and tells us to give all of it in love to God. Do you have a heart? Give it to God. Do you have a soul? Give that too. Do you have a mind? Yeah, he wants even that. Do you have strength? Great or small, it's his.

I wonder what our answer would be if someone asked us this same question: "What is the greatest commandment in the Bible?" Some might say "The Golden Rule" or "The Great Commission" or "The Roman Road". It can be easy to get caught up in all the different directions that are given in the New Testament. I know that I have often fallen into the trap of focusing too much on whether or not I'm fulfilling one commandment or another. But even now, it all boils down to these two: Love God, and love people. There is no commandment greater than these.

So today's challenge is:

• Examine the object of your focus. What commandment in the Bible have you been treating as the most important?
• Examine the quality of your focus. Is your gaze straying to the worries of this life, or are you seeking the kingdom first? There is no renewal of faith until we fix our eyes on Jesus. And if we are truly seeking Jesus, there is no way we do not come away with renewed faith.
• This is also a good time to start evaluating if God has all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. However, we will go more in depth to giving everything to God in the study tomorrow about the Widow's Offering and Jesus' Anointing at Bethany.

Holy Week Day Five: Giving God Everything

Day Five: Giving Jesus Everything
Passages:
Mark 12:41-44 The Widow's Offering
Mark 14:1-9 Jesus Anointed at Bethany
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+12%3A41-44%2C+Mark+14%3A1-9&version=NIV

I believe that it is no accident that both of these stories are about women. Jesus was all about turning the traditions of society on its head. He cared for those who were seen as cursed. He associated with those who were seen as tainted by sin. And he exalted those who were seen as lowly.

The Poor Widow: In Jesus' day, you did not get much lower than being a poor widow. You were a woman, and you were not valuable to have around. You could not remarry and so contribute to society. Instead, you relied on others for your well-being. Some widows were wealthy enough to live on their own income and savings, but not this one. Imagine being immersed in that mindset from childhood, and then being there when Jesus says that out of all the offerings he's seen that day, he values her gift the most.

The Woman with the Perfume: By the same token, the woman with the perfume was not seen in very high esteem by the other people at the table. She was wasting her resource of income on one thing. But what others called foolish and wasteful, Jesus called beautiful. She recognized Jesus' value as being more than the value of her perfume. And in return for her sacrificial service, she receives one of my favorite blessings in the New Testament: "Wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her." (Mark 14:9)

Not only do I like the fact that Jesus saw and valued these offerings for their true worth, but I also like how well he cut through the pride of those who were promoting--flaunting--their own righteousness.

The Rich Givers: These people threw in large amounts of money to the treasury in order to boast. They were showing off how much money they gave, and how much they had in the first place. And yet when Jesus saw them, he said "Your offering is not as valuable to me." The literal worth of their gift was less than that of the Widow's. There was absolutely no self-promotion in her action. She was doing everything she could to love God with the resources she had.

The Scoffers: I'm not a fan of people who look at an offering to God and say "What a waste!" Apparently, neither is Jesus. After he tells them to leave the woman alone, he tries to give them a taste of her perspective. They were taking him for granted. Can you imagine his hurt when they proved that they loved money more than him? During his last week of life on earth?

Right Response
God expects everything from us. It is not the amount that he is concerned with, it is the percentage. Do you have two copper coins? Put them both in the basket. Do you have the most expensive perfume in the most beautiful jar? Pour out it all.
No amount is "good enough" until every last bit is given.

There's another part of the sentence "the poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me" that I want to touch on briefly. Doing good, like giving to the poor, only has value if it is done as an offering to Jesus. We never use righteous acts to earn favor or salvation. God cannot be bribed, and we cannot be perfect! We cannot even be good. Such acts are only done to earn favor with people. If we are being good for the sake of being good, it's no good! We're doing it out of order:
First, we love God.

Then we love our neighbors.

The first recipient is more important--more valuable than the next. If we "waste" all our love on God, it's no waste at all. If we have some left over, it overflows naturally to our neighbors.
And as we pour out that love to those two sources, the love we receive back for ourselves has the same ranking for it's value: God's love for us is more important than people's.

This point is very close to what I said on Tuesday (Day 3): Do not try to do the work of God without him!
Instead, wait to be properly equipped before setting out on the job. 

And not only do we need to be properly equipped, but we need to have the right heart behind the actions. It's a heart we get from God, because we've given our hearts to God. A beautiful exchange!

Here's my challenge for you for today:

• Evaluate what God's value is to you. Are you taking him for granted? Has he not earned the obedience, love, respect, and physical resources he expects from you?
• Evaluate your priorities. Are you giving God the first and the best? Are you saving some for yourself, in an effort to maintain control? Are you trying to keep alive a "safety net"?
• Evaluate your motives. Is your righteousness a matter of showing off? Are you settling for giving 50% because it is technically more than what other people are giving?
• Pray, and ask God what it is that he wants you to give him, that you've been reluctant to bring up to this point. Then hand it over already!

It's amazing how simple, and how hard a lot of things are in God's kingdom. Giving everything to God is one of them. Does it need ceremony? No. Does it need a big speech? Uh uh. Is it a complicated process that requires days of fasting followed by the most articulate prayer ever uttered? Of course not. It is so simple, and yet it can feel huge. It can feel big enough to require speeches and ceremonies and special prayers.

It feels that big because you can't do it on your own. No offering is complete without the Holy Spirit being poured out on top.

(Unbelievable! That picture is perfectly represented by the drink offering in the law! At Passover and other festivals, each sacrifice consists of a burnt offering, a grain offering, and a drink offering. Perhaps it can be seen as this: an atonement offering for sin, a thanksgiving offering for blessings, and a fellowship offering for communion. Or it's an offering of all the different kinds of resources God blesses us with: from the herd, from the field, and from the vineyard. That's pretty cool, if not relevant. I did not see that coming!). 

Basically, a sacrifice (or any other gift!) is not just for meeting certain demands, but also to give thanks, and to enjoy fellowship. And what better fellowship do we have with the Father than through the pouring out of his Holy Spirit and through the sacrifice of his Son? That is why we need all three to be involved when we give things to God or do things for him. So keep that in mind as you evaluate yourself today, and as you prepare your heart to receive God's great gift to you tomorrow (Good Friday).

Holy Week Day One: Welcome the King!

Introduction to Holy Week Bible Study

As preparation for Easter, it has been a dream of mine to write a devotional Bible study for each day of Holy Week, beginning with Palm Sunday. It carries us through Mark chapters 11 through 16, and follows Jesus' final steps leading up to his death, day by day. 

I want to make it a journey of our hearts as well, clearing the way to let his sacrifice on Good Friday and his resurrection on Easter to make the best impact. I do not want to be deadened to this story just because I have heard it and read it so many times in the past. I want the observance of this holiday to renew and re-ignite a passionate love for God in my heart. Even more so, I wish to experience--as if it were the first time--the unfathomable love that God has for me.

As I share this Bible study with you, I pray you also share in that experience. As we re-dedicate our lives to Jesus, placing him in first place in our hearts and making him our greatest focus this week, I pray that God responds to each of you in a personal way.

So get out your Bibles, and let's get started!

Day One: Palm Sunday

Bible Passage: Mark 11:1-10

(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A1-10&version=NIV)

The words that this passage makes me think of are Obedience and Worship:

Obedience: Imagine this day as a disciple of Jesus. You are travelling to Jerusalem like a normal Hebrew approaching Passover. You have walked most of the way there already. Yet as you approach, Jesus suddenly decides he wants a ride. So he asks you to get one, in a way that makes you look like you are stealing it. You are supposed to walk up to a random (yet somehow very specific) donkey's colt, and untie it like you own it. When you are confronted about your behavior, your instructions about your reply are not "Ask for permission to borrow this donkey so that Jesus can fulfill a prophecy". It is simply "The Lord needs it, and will send it back shortly." And, somehow, it works.

Jesus was not borrowing a donkey from a person. He was borrowing it from his Father, who had placed it in the care of a steward until it was needed. However, his disciples would not have known that. Yet they obeyed Jesus' instructions to the letter and without hesitation. Wow!

Because of their obedience, Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey's colt, fulfilling the words of Zechariah 9:9

"Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!

Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you,

righteous and victorious,

lowly and riding on a donkey,

on a colt, the foal of a donkey."

God was weaving such a bigger story than the disciples could hope to see. They were simply gathering the final piece to the puzzle that God had been assembling for hundreds of years.

Worship: Hosanna! Save!

"Lord, Save us!

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 on us.

With boughs in hand, join the festal procession

up to the horns of the alter."

~Psalm 118:25-27

Yet again, we find humans unknowingly playing along to a script that God had written hundreds of years earlier. They used worship to welcome their King into his city, and their High Priest into his temple. Most people jump straight ahead to just a few days later when the crowds of Jerusalem shout a different message. But I don't want to cheapen this moment; this day. 

I can imagine it so well: The press of the crowd. The unified, deafening noise punctuated by individual shouts of praise. The smell of freshly-cut green leaves being broken open as the donkey steps on them. The feeling that this moment is significant. This Man is something more. Something important is happening, and it is a good thing!

Such an overwhelming feeling longs to be expressed. Sometimes words are not enough, but we still have a burning desire to try.

Right Response:

As was stated in the introduction, one of our goals this week is to put God in his rightful place in our hearts again. That is what worship is! We praise him for who he his, for what he has done, and for what he will do.

Another way to put God in his rightful place is through obedience. When we obey God, it is an acknowledgement of his authority over us. 

What better way is there to start this week than with Worship and Obedience? 

I saw a church sign that read "Lent is Spring Training for Christians". I think that is a pretty accurate description of what I'm trying to do here. I want to use Holy Week as a way to take some time to prepare my heart to follow Jesus this year.

This is what I encourage you to do today:

• Welcome Jesus into your heart with worship. Just like Jesus was welcomed into Jerusalem with worship, you can welcome him into your heart as well. One of the best ways to defeat the temptations and desires of our sinful nature is to glorify God. The sinful nature wants nothing to do with that! Worship is a powerful heart opener. So set aside some time today to meet privately with God and give him glory in your life. Whether that means making music, listening to music, writing music, or just saying out loud how much he means to you and how deserving he is. Your soul knows how to glorify its Creator it your own personal way. It does not matter what is going on in your life right now, God is still worthy of your worship. He does not have to earn it, because he already has. So give him the glory he deserves, as a way to welcome him into your heart this week and for the coming year.
•  As far as obedience goes, there is not much preparatory work to that. When God tells you to do something, you do it. But you can reflect on our story today, and use it as a reminder that God needs to be obeyed even when we don't know what on earth he's doing.

Holy Week Day Two: Clear the Temple!

Day Two: Clearing the Temple
Bible Passage: Mark 11:11, 15-19
(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+11%3A11%2C+15-19&version=NIV)

If you think about it, this passage is scary. We see a zealous anger in Jesus that does not match up with the perfect, smiley, Sunday-school version that we like to box him up in. It lets us know that even though God's wrath has been set aside from us, he can still be jealous if we set up something else in his place.

Another thing that sticks out to me is the fact that this outbreak was intentional. It was not spontaneous. Jesus had seen the temple on the previous day when he entered Jerusalem (verse 11), and he looked around at everything. Yet he waited until the next day to come back and give them a piece of his mind.

It is sobering to realize that God is so passionate about his meeting place with people. Yet I realize that it is not the place that is important to him, but the people who use it. Can you imagine going to the temple of Jesus' day--the only place to experience God's presence--hoping to pray and meet with him privately, and then enter to the noise of a marketplace? You walk into the sanctuary, and try to concentrate, but all you can do is hear bleating, cooing, mooing, and bartering? It would spoil the whole experience! Imagine how God felt, having each and every personal meeting--that is so precious to him--be interrupted that way! No wonder he broke out in a rage!

Right Response
"Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies."
~1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Our hearts are now the place where God meets with us. Which means that the same passion that drove Jesus to turn over tables, drives God to jealousy toward anything that comes between him and us in our hearts. Yet in my experience, it is much harder to keep a heart clean and orderly than is a physical building!

That is why we need to let Jesus do what he did in Jerusalem: look around our hearts--his new Temple--for anything out of order, and drive it away with his authority and zeal.

This can be one of those Kingdom principles that is "easier said than done". But Jesus is willing to do it. And we are not the enemy he is driving out. Instead, he will bring in his light and banish all darkness from every corner of our soul. So letting him in should not be a scary prospect. Just be prepared: if we have set up anything in God's place, it will be hard to let go of it, but it is also necessary.

You know who Jesus is. You know that he wants the best for you. He is not selfish in demanding the highest place in our hearts. He has bought that place at a very high price. And we already gave it to him when we invited him to be the Lord of our hearts. We just get distracted sometimes. And we may not even know it. That is why it is so important to be deliberate about giving him free reign to do some rearranging in our hearts every once in a while.

Here is what I challenge you to do today:

• Let Jesus look around his temple. Humble yourself absolutely to his scrutiny. Don't just assume that you are alright as you are, and don't assume that you know everything that is coming between you and him. It can be easy to fall into that trap. But make sure that any conviction you feel is from the Holy Spirit. He knows his temple better than you do.

          "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me." "Search me, God, and know my heart; test              me and know my anxious thoughts." ~Psalm 139:1, 23

• Let Jesus clear his temple. Take anything he points out in his scrutiny, and make sure he knows that he is more important to you. Also make sure that your flesh knows it too. Hard as it is, you know you cannot fully realize Jesus' sacrifice until he is your main focus again. In order to realize his love for us, we need to love him. And in order to love him, we need to know how much he loves us. Neither of those things can happen until the Holy Spirit has free reign once again in our hearts. The benefits far outweigh the temporary discomfort. So focus on Him and what he is giving you, not on what you are giving him.

When you have done this, your heart will truly be a house of prayer!

Holy Week Day Three: Jesus' Authority

Day Three: Jesus' Authority
Passage: Mark 11:12-13, 20-33
(https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=mark+11%3A12-13%2C+20-33&version=NIV)

There's two parts to this day: the Questioning of Jesus' Authority and Finding the Withered Fig Tree.

Jesus' Authority Questioned
I love this part of the story of Jesus. I love watching him dodge every trap people set for him, and respond perfectly to every question. Jesus knew that the priests and teachers of the law would not believe the truth about him. He knew who they truly were, and therefore he knew their motives. Yet by the same token, they refused to see who he was, and so would never know what motivated him and gave him his authority.

Jesus' authority was absolute, because he'd been given the authority of God (Matthew 28:18).
As God, he was (and is):

• In direct command of all of Creation. That is where his miracles came from. They stemmed from his absolute right to correct what was broken in the world.
• The source of the Law. That is where his teachings came from. He was telling people the heart behind the words, and the motives behind the requirements.
• The embodiment of Love. That is where his lifestyle came from. His love perfectly fulfilled the Law, and was his greatest motivation for submitting himself to the cross. He loved God perfectly, he loved people perfectly, and he loved his enemies perfectly.

Once we realize who Jesus is, we know exactly where his authority comes from. And as the supreme commander of Creation, he was also able to perform this interesting miracle--one that brought death instead of life:

Finding the Withered Fig Tree
On day 2, Jesus curses a fig tree. Then on day 3, the fig tree is found to be withered from the roots. Its very life was sucked dry when God's sustenance was removed.

When I read this story, my first thought is "How unfair! It wasn't the tree's fault that it wasn't the season for bearing figs." And yet, in the light of knowing Jesus' authority, I can see something interesting. The fig tree had been created by God and sustained by him for one purpose: so it could bear fruit to feed the hungry. Jesus' curse was justified by the fact that the tree had failed its purpose. It did not deserve to live any longer.

I also think the miracle itself is interesting. God had been sustaining the life of that tree for years. Yet as soon as Jesus spoke against it, removing its source of life, it died. There was no hope of revival, because even the roots were withered.

If you compare this story with our lives, it's sad to think that Jesus may approach one of his trees to find fruit, and yet only find leaves. If we look at it that way, this story is also a warning. Jesus will look for fruit, and it may not be when we are prepared to give it to him. If that is the case, what was the point of living? Bearing fruit was the only function of that fig tree, and it is also what God expects of us in this life.

So how do we make sure that our fruit is always in season when he comes looking for it?
"On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month."
~Revelation 22:2

The life of the fig tree came from God, and in the same way, so did its fruit. Our source of life is the same.
"I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
~John 15:5

The way a tree bears fruit is by finding and remaining in a source of life. For most, the source of life is a combination of sun, water, and oxygen. For us, it is a combination of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We must be connected in order to stay alive, and we must remain connected in order to produce life.

But what fruit are we to bear? There's three answers I have:

1. The Fruit of the Spirit. "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." (Galatians 5:22) When the Holy Spirit is invited to remain in us, with nothing getting in his way or holding him back, this is the fruit that is naturally produced in our lives.
2. The Gifts of the Spirit. "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, to another a message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he distributes them to each one, just as he determines." (1 Corinthians 12:7‭-‬11) "But if an unbeliever or an inquirer comes in while everyone is prophesying... they will fall down and worship God, exclaiming, “God is really among you!”( 1 Corinthians 14:24‭-‬25). Fruit is evidence of having a healthy relationship with the source of life. If you are connected to the Spirit, the evidence will be there, and it will be a witness of God's greatness to the world.
3. Finding the Lost. "The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives." (Proverbs 11:30) The harvest that God longs for the most is the harvest of souls. He wants his banquet hall to be full to bursting! And he has given us the great privilege, and also the great responsibility, to be used by him in reaching this goal.

I know you likely knew all this already. But let me remind you again that we are here to renew our walk with God, which sometimes means being reminded of the basics of our faith: God wants a relationship with people, and he wants to use people to reach people.

Right Response

This is what I challenge you to do today:

• Acknowledge Jesus' authority in your life. Acknowledge the source of that authority. Do not question what Jesus is or isn't allowed to do. Just rest in the fact that whatever he does, it will be for your good. He wants what is best for you, and so will always act in that interest.
• Examine your life for fruit. Are you seeing the fruit of the Spirit being shown in your heart and in your actions? Are you seeing yourself being used by the Spirit to impact those around you?
• Assure your connection to the Tree of Life, whose fruit is never out of season. If you see fruit missing, ask God why. His perspective is better than ours. He is the gardener who is tending you, so he will know why you aren't producing fruit correctly. Make sure you heed the instructions that Jesus gave his disciples before his Ascension: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about." (Acts 1:4) Do not try to do what God has called you to workout him! It just won't work.

Important note: trees grow slowly! Don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to those around you. If a tree is planted a couple years before another, of course it is going to show more fruit at first (and will continue to if they persist in their walk with God correctly). Focus on what God has for you. He knows what he's doing, he knows where you are, and he knows when you will be ready. I want you to speak to him and find out if he is convicting you, or if you are under attack by guilt. If your conviction comes from looking at your own life ("I don't see what God wants to see in my life, according to God's Word"), you are being convicted by God through his Spirit and his Word. But if you're conviction is coming from looking at someone else's life ("I don't see in my life what I see in theirs"), you are being attached by guilt and need to fix your eyes on God, so that you can see your life through his eyes. There is a difference between guilt and conviction, and the only way to know what you are feeling for sure is to ask.