Dreaming of Your Perfect World? Not in this life!

Dreaming of Your Perfect World? Not in this life! Re 5-1-22 Kelly Durant

A study of the life of Job, Elijah, John the Baptist    Jesus said: Matthew 21:44 “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” 

2. How many of you have sadly laughed when you have heard speakers, preachers, or read in books, that anyone with faith can speak into existence the dream reality they want! These erroneous ones claim that you can command God to give you the wealth and the material blessings you deserve! Just demand what’s yours from God! I pray the Holy Spirit protects you from such misguided ideas and theologies! Jesus had no place to lay His head and life here is not easy! 

Our reward is in heaven, so why should any of us worry so much about what we have while on earth? Everyone who has read the Bible knows well that Jesus was not rich! He exposed the rich young ruler as loving riches more than God’s will. Many parables of Jesus express that in this life we will have no security, and while building bigger barns we may die in the night! In the end we are all just unjust, undeserving servants and the perfect world we dream of is only going to be in heaven! Many people communicate with God according to their own ideas, premises, and demise of how they want the world to function around them, but this is not how God’s plans come to be a reality in our lives. This is my warning to you; life may not always be as you want it to be!

People, even believers, often forget how easily their selfish sinful human condition often influences their dreams and they live by their illusions to avoid the reality of seeing who they really are or in accepting their lot in life: It all is because of our fallen world. Throughout the Holy Scriptures it is clear, not one of us controls God, and God does not even control us if we don’t want to let Him! Did you pray for His will to be done in your life today? We pray, ‘thy will be done’, right? If so then this implies you leaving behind your plans, and your expectations and yes, your dreams as well! God provides for you and me, giving us contentment despite our surrounding conditions, as long as we worship Him and are obedient. Luke 14:33 So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. This includes what’s in our dreams in the future as well! 

3. Jesus said: Matthew 21:44 “And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.” Jesus is the stone. It is God’s plan for you and me to die to ourselves, to become like a dead seed so that you and I may blossom back to live again. You and I are just worthless rocks, but if we willingly accept getting broken and smashed open, then the beauty of the crystals (like in the Brazilian stones) inside will show for others to awe and wonder at. Those who never want to accept God’s broken-ness through Jesus will one day be broken beyond recognition and usefulness; made powder in His judgment.

I am addressing this because too many people lately have a misconception of God, that God is there to serve you and me, and in their minds God should be providing for each of us our dream world. The ultimate dream world will only happen in heaven! In the meantime this world is headed for a crash course! God has us temporarily here in this terrible place to be learning how to love Him, His Son, and others, learning obedience by the things we suffer, just as Jesus learned. Hebrews 5:8 Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;

Everyone must willingly fall on the rock (Jesus) and be broken apart and get humbled and remade and reshaped in life. Actually, just living out life’s circumstances as you wind on down the road will be enough to break you! But all the lessons and suffering will all be for nothing and wasted unless you capture the soul reshaping lessons God has in it for you. 

4. Consider this, due to our mental blocks, due to our living in our own idea of what the world should be like influenced by media and culture, and due to our resisting of God’s breakings, many of us may actually be living in a bubble or in an artificial world. Ask yourself, am I honestly being sensitive and open to God letting His mysterious plans work in me? Have you signed a blank page for Him to fill in?

Here are 3 quick case studies of God’s servants in the Bible. These are 3 people of God that suffered tremendously and it cost them but they surrendered to accepting God’s will. These great men of God had to give up different things such as their position, wealth, health, freedom, and loved ones. They were glorious and superior to other men for a season but then they suffered some severe losses. The life of Jesus is paralleled in these lessons as well. He was glorious healing the sick and raising the dead, but look how He was hated and crucified in the end! How he suffered with only a lasting handful of followers when dying! But all of these and millions live eternally in glory because of Him being faithful!

5. What does everyone know about the Book of Job? That Job had incredible riches but lost them all suddenly, that the devil wanted to tempt Him to curse God and die, but in the end due to his faithfulness God, he got returned to Him double of what he lost! Not everyone in this life gets back the things they lose!

This is a great story with a great lesson on faithfulness but remember Job did not know how it was going to end: to him in the middle of the trial it was the very end! Job lived in his own perfect world where he loved God and God loved him back, and God permitted him to be superior to others. Everyone knew God favored him because he had great riches, and a big family and a perfect world!

Many people live in this type of modern illusive world where they think nothing will ever go wrong but when it does, what a faith crisis and dilemma it is! It can cause a complete nervous breakdown! Isn’t God supposed to provide and protect? He always does, God wins in the end but only if we are willing to give up our idea of what He should be doing and submit to learn humility and love.

6. Job’s friends could not console him in his extreme pain! He had boils all over his body, thieves had stolen all of his thousands of camels and animals, and the worst of it was it seemed God had abandoned him! He had done no sin, but he was put to the test. What poverty and horrible circumstances! His pain was unbearable! 

Listen to this cruel statement, Job 2:9 Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” When your or my world is coming apart what happens? Instead of getting support from those closest to us, we quite often get criticism and cruelty, and as the saying goes ‘people make firewood from the fallen tree’. Jesus had compassion on the broken ones, we should too!

Isn’t that what happened to Jesus? How can you or I expect any better in our life? Prepare yourself, life is long and you and I have no clue of what sickness, or loss of home, freedom, and wealth is to come. Just praise God to know that like Job that if you are faithful you will be blessed in heaven and maybe on earth as well: Blessings will happen beyond your own imagination and dreams one day!

7. Now take into account a man that was so close to God he called fire down from heaven on Mt. Carmel! Elijah was not only a righteous man but he must have been quite strong as well because he killed 450 evil Baal worshippers in one day! The evil Baal worshippers sacrificed to false gods and Elijah wanted justice.  

I Kings 18:22 Then Elijah said to the people, “I alone am left a prophet of the Lord; but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men. 1 Kings 18:40 And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal! Do not let one of them escape!” So they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the Brook Kishon and executed them there. Never forget despite its unpopularity, we play a role in stopping evil!

After this great moment he had to escape evil queen Jezebel’s command to kill him!  I Kings 19:4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”

8.  God provided for him food by the ravens bringing it to him daily by the stream where he lived alone in the woods. Maybe in Elijah’s mind he was supposed to be the great new leader of Israel. He just proved how God is victorious so how did his world fall apart so quickly? Once again we see that God’s plans do not always happen within our ideas of expectations. God deals with all things His way 1 Kings 19: 4 But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a [a]broom tree. And he prayed that he might die, and said, “It is enough! Now, Lord, take my life, for I am no better than my fathers!”.

Reflect on what we just read here in I Kings 19:4, a prophet of God is asking God to let him die! Have you ever felt that way that you want to just die?! I know I have about a half dozen times! I have prayed like Elijah on a few occasions when I have felt like life is enough already. I have complained, “Lord, these people in this place where you have me now are horrible and do not genuinely convert, they are two-faced, I have wasted my life, time, love and effort on so many unthankful abusers, I don’t want to live and keep on doing this anymore!”

But in the end God wins me back to the right compassionate attitude! Everything is a process and conquering evil takes much time so each of us must be patient when God has us in a time out. Jezebel was killed not long afterwards and Elijah lived to do more miracles! Encouragement comes, we have to pray and just wait!

9. Now the last person we will look at who reached the bottom and was disillusioned with reality and what should have been while rotting away in a shattered world was John the Baptist. He was truly brave and countered the corrupt system, even telling Herod it was unlawful for him to have his brother’s wife. In a time when the Romans would kill you for anything, he certainly had audacity to start up what would be considered a “holiness sect” today. He had a few faithful friends and followers in the desert who preached with him about repentance and holy living (as we Salvationists preach) and they water baptized as an expression of a desire to live for God with a clean spirit. Remember John made it known that Jesus would baptize His followers with ‘spirit and fire’! 

He was God’s man for that hour but his mission was short lived. Jesus even said that he was one of the greatest! Matthew 11:11 “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”

But when John was in prison he was not living in the world he thought he should be living in! He asked himself, “Was Jesus real, was it all in vain?” Matt 11: 2 And when John had heard in prison about the works of Christ, he sent two of his disciples. 3 and said to Him, “Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?” What an absurd question! John saw the heavens open and the Holy Ghost spoke, Matthew 3:17 And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

John was human and became confused and discouraged in the loneliness and isolation. It can happen to anyone of us! John had no clue he was going to lose his head over an exotic dance as a revenge on him from Herod’s wife. An early promotion to glory in heaven was what God knew was best for him! We must all be willing to accept God’s will, and we must accept God’s will as in Romans 14:8 For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.

10. I get encouraged when I read these types of stories of the lives of the people of God! No person of faith has ever had life easy, and if your life is easy, and you are not suffering persecution for Christ’s sake as most have, just accept it as a blessing because may happen one day! John Wesley, the first Methodist who preached over 40,000 sermons in his lifetime came to the U. S. in Georgia for a time, but he failed to convert anyone after a few thousand sermons in America and be able to start a mission! How discouraging after being so successful in England! Only after his death did his Methodists churches really take root in Georgia and everywhere else in the USA. I am sure he dreamed to see America convert to Christ, but he suffered sadly to not see his dreams come true! I can relate to his suffering as a disillusioned dreamer who has frustratingly not seen enough people in the world follow Jesus and obey His mission of love & salvation!

The reality is the world will never be as you and I want it to be! All of us are subject to the will of God and often the evil ones in this world changes everyone’s plans! Having reviewed all this, don’t you agree that none of us should create in our minds dreams or plans for a perfect world, of a perfect Corps or church, of perfect leaders, or of a world getting better in general as it may not happen!

It is better to just not dream for anything! God will give you more than what you could ever dream of in heaven! Another reality on earth is that not all is suffering; there are happy fulfilling times as well! Many of them! 

How much obedience do you and I have, how much of our dreams are the dreams of the Lord? Are you letting God break you open so you are useful? The dreams in your mind for the future need to be laid on the altar of sacrifice! Are you willing to give up your world in God’s hands today? Every person of God, even Jesus, had to give up all, and now He and mega millions live in eternal glory! Come, forget the past and don’t worry about the future, confess your weaknesses, fears, and dreams, let God’s will be done in you!

Our reward is in heaven, so why should any of us worry so much about what we have while on earth?! Everyone who has read the Bible knows well that Jesus was not rich! He exposed the rich young ruler as loving riches more than God’s will. Many parables of Jesus express that in this life we will have no security, and while building bigger barns we may die in the night! In the end we are all just unjust, undeserving servants and the perfect world we dream of is only going to be in heaven.  KD

DEPRESSION?… If You Have It, Cheer Up! God Cures It! By Kelly Durant 4-24-22

Depression… If You Have It, Cheer Up! God Cures It!   By Kelly Durant 4-27-2014

1 Samuel 16:22-23

22 Then Saul sent to Jesse, saying, “Please let David stand before me, for he has found favor in my sight.” 23 And so it was, whenever the spirit from God was upon Saul, that David would take a harp and play it with his hand. Then Saul would become refreshed and well, and the distressing spirit would depart from him.

2. Did you know some people that have been through hard depressing times can often make their selves into some of the funniest people? Not long ago many of the comedians and actors in America were from Jewish backgrounds and entertaining was their way of getting over all the suffering they felt inside.  Laughter is a good medicine and we all need it! Here’s a joke, but one person here didn’t laugh though.

A man one day didn’t know who loved him better his wife or his dog so he decided he would find out. He thought, well if I lock them up and wait half an hour, I’ll see who missed me the most. So he put them both in the truck of his car while they were screaming and barking at him but then they both became quiet. He opened the trunk and the wife red faced came out and started screaming and hitting him saying, “Don’t you ever do that again!” And she kept of raging but the man was relieved that the dog came out all happy wagging his tail happy to see him! He concluded his dog loves him more, ha!

“Depressed people can feel sad, anxious, empty, hopeless, worried, helpless, worthless, guilty, irritable, hurt, or restless. They may lose interest in activities that once were pleasurable, experience loss of appetite or overeating, have problems concentrating, remembering details, or making decisions, and may contemplate, attempt, or commit suicide. Insomnia, excessive sleeping, fatigue, loss of energy, or aches, pains, or digestive problems may also be present” (the wiki-dictionary definition) The aged and even the young people today live more depressed, according to many research groups, than what they use to in past decades. When a person has a face that is not so happy and smiley, what should you do? You should pray for them & help them!

3. Trying times for people could be mental or physical. Pain in the physical body (20% to 40% of people suffer some type of chronic pain) or pain from a recent tragic event can cause depression.  Everyone in life will suffer a loss of a loved one, or a job loss, or suffer for a time over something but we need God and people intervening if something continues to linger or becomes chronic. 

I think all of us at some time or another are victim to hard times and been discouraged. This is normal and a part of what God wants every human to experience in order to learn to love and appreciate Christ’s suffering and have sympathy on others who suffer as well. Not all days are happy ones in our lives, but when a person seems to always be dry and down, always distant from others, always critical or down in mood, then we should ask ourselves if something deeper is happening inside and as a loving caring Christian try to help. Be careful though with some people it becomes a selfish game, they love the attention but also love their oppressive demon.

Depression should be looked at as a condition that is temporary and curable. People can be made happier by doing exercises, reading books, playing dominoes and socializing. The best cure to regain a lasting happiness is to rejuvenate faith in God and to be active serving others in the community. Just giving someone a handshake can even bring a smile on your face and theirs as well! As a matter of fact, right now, get up and shake someone’s hand right beside you! Do it, it’s okay! Feel the love!

God made us with different personalities, but to some degree each person chooses how they allow their selves to feel. When you and I wake up we can either complain about our lot in life, about how there is no money, or you & I can praise God that we are alive and that you are able to walk, see, and hear, and function normally to get things done! Here is a good verse to claim… 1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it

4. Today we will investigate Saul and David, did you know that both suffered from depression? The factor is they struggled to get over it, but they both had different ways; but only God’s way works. His way up is down, down to self.  When I was a kid and I would put all the toy soldiers in lines to fight, and I would always dream I was the king commanding all the men where to go.  Humans, even children want power and dominion over their worlds. Most people have the wrong idea in life that if they could be rich, and famous, or be a king or queen, then life would be wonderful! But that is only in fairy tales! Comparing yourself with others, coveting, lusting, envying, and all of your uncontrolled sinful appetites will kill you inside and depress you! Fight your carnality and realize that being king or queen is not so great really but a big headache!

What happened to King Saul? He was murderously jealous of David and miserable!  Notice that he was Israel’s first king, he was very tall, handsome, and everyone was his servant.  He should have been the happiest man in Israel with all his wealth, power, and blessings but he was not! His biggest problem was his pride and he was not willing to obey God all the way and the result was he started living depressed and everyone around him suffered. Who wants to be near a king in a bad mood? He might just cut off your head because you looked at him when he was upset over something! 

As we read in the verses of today in I Sam 16 we see that David with his lyre harp was selected to play for Saul to comfort him in his bad moods. How many of you listen to music? Music can be a great comfort when you are down, and I suggest you listen to positive music from good and/or preferable Christian bands. But not all music is good. It depends on the purpose of the music, if its message is bad or pointless and if the writer or singer lives in debauchery, if so, then probably it will depress you even more. David consoled Saul in song because his spirit was pure being a lover of God, whereas Saul had a spirit out of tune with God. Bad humored people like to sponge on the innocent as they are not willing to do the work their selves to be pure and they want an shortcut.

5. So Saul was getting an external temporary daily fix for his depression. The bigger problem was that Saul did not choose to fix the deeper problem he had of not loving and obeying God. Many people today live on this same treadmill of masking pain and depression with outside sources. Drugs, sex, and rock and roll seem to be the most powerful stimulants people consume to overcharge their minds and spirits into numbness in order to forget their pain, mistakes, and depression. Only faith and prayer, caring friends, and hard work to change destructive habits can break these chains! 

The problem with this, living life as a partier, or as a publican as they were called in Jesus day, is that you have to keep repeating the cycle day after day to keep yourself in a continued state of distraction and that causes the mind, body and soul to deteriorate worse. The fear of publicans and sinners is the one of facing reality, of facing a dead silence of alone time with God, but the reality of our inadequacy is exactly what God wants us to face! Jesus was fun and the life of the party when with friends, but his joy was authentic showing others that they could be happier with a new life of obedience closer to God instead of by heavy stimulation. Satan wants to rob your body and soul.

John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.

Repentance is important to God for you to be happy but few people really ask for forgiveness. King Saul would never let go and repent telling God he was sorry for his pride and let God pick up his broken world and put it back together. He was too proud. Saul condemned himself to a sad life because he would not rest in God’s southing light obeying and loving Him.  There are many rich and poor unrepentant sinners of today living sad broken lives. Only by letting God take the wheel can anyone ever get on the right road! Those of you that know my personal testimony know I know this personally!

I love this case, Luke 19:8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold.” When a person is truly sorry, thy make it right with God and the ones they have wronged! Zacchaeus got over his guilt, loneliness, and depression with Jesus touch! God’s love invokes action to do something!

6.  Now let’s look at David. Saul tried to kill him for years; now that is depressing! Saul was obsessed with looking for David to kill him chasing him all over the country with his men. It was in dark caves in depressed moments when many of David’s Psalms were written. 

David was for the most part obedient and happy but a few times in his life he did some horrible things that cost him some dark days and punishment. On one occasion he lamented for months over the sin of adultery and God forgave him but let his son die as a punishment. Many unpleasant things that happen in life have a reason and God wants us to learn from them to be humble and be broken and be remade in His image. 

Here is another bad moment for David.  He was trying to find a city to hide in and fear got the best of him as he thought King Achish there was going to kill him.. I Samuel 21: 12 Now David took these words to heart, and was very much afraid of Achish the king of Gath. 13 So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down on his beard. 14 Then Achish said to his servants, “Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? 15 Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?”

7. What this event with David proves is that any one of us when in a very dangerous and frightening situation might go crazy! Others may even see you as crazy when you are under extreme duress but what we learn later is that David got past this. David’s terrible dark moments were temporary because he sought God to be his comfort and salvation. The beautiful Psalms are a proof of the love he had for God and how much he trusted in Him to save him in all situations! They comfort all of us! Psalm 62:2 He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Over time stuff (or life) happens! We all have fears! Any person can lose everything overnight! The question is, are you and I working with God or against Him in all of life’s situations?  On another note, research proves that depression can be genetic and run in families, that some depression can be solved by prescription meds for control, or that some depression happens from our brains aging and not having the chemicals and bubbliness of a child anymore.

But with all this said, I am making a point that much of depression is determined by whether or not you are at peace with God or not! You may fear or be in bad circumstances, but God will take it away! Faith and trust in His Word is the answer.

8. It is amazing how some people, even ones with great physical limitations and handicaps can find ways to be happy, useful, and normal. However, it is sad that many so called normal people with many resources and opportunities available from God and in their community seem to live life frustrated and down. It all has to do with the vision and faith you have: to be used by God all the way being happy and fulfilled, or to just get by in life by doing things, “your way”.

There were two hobos talking in a back alley of a big city in the cold one night (they should have gone to the Salvation Army shelter, ha!) and the one said to the other, “I don’t care what anyone says, I did life my way! I did it my way!” The other thinks a minute and then says, “Well, if I could do it all over, I would prefer to do it Frank Sinatra’s way!” Ha! Well, the right answer is we want to do it Jesus’ way! No matter the conditions, Jesus comforts and provides and life abundant comes from him.

Some people older in life get depressed because they feel like no one really cares about them. They conclude that when they leave this world it will not matter and their life would have been without any significance. This sobering feeling provokes some older people (some young too) to be appreciative and become active in the lives of their families. Also, anyone can leave a footprint of being useful in a volunteer group in their community. All counselors advise helping others as a way to get out of depression! That is God’s formula, ‘to love God and others’ staying busy for Him!

9. As people we may suffer for a time due to our own created circumstances, from being disobedient to God, or just by being a victim of earth’s imperfect conditions.  But as Christians we are consoled, Psalm 30:5 For His anger is but for a moment, His favor is for life; Weeping may endure for a night, But joy comes in the morning.

Every person who reads the Bible, whether they have read it in its entirety or not, know they must read the Psalms for comfort of spirit. Millions of people for millennia have been comforted by the Psalms! David got his own spirit comforted by God and he was able to comfort others, in song, in poem, and in words. His comfort came even after months of depression, even after years of escaping death from King Saul’s army living in dark caves in the mountains of Israel.

Never allow yourself to be like Saul, a proud unrepentant angry jealous persecutor of the righteous. He never got his heart right with God, he just kept on making more and more mistakes until one day he lost a major battle and that depressed him so much he fell on his sword and took his own life! Live and die in victory, not depressed in shame!

10. Today is the day to ask Jesus in your life.  I will confess I have had moments down and depressed too! No one escapes the trials and pains that this life offers, but how you react to these tribulations is what makes all the difference in the world! Listen to praise music, start singing and shouting, reading God’s word and praying, and start looking for the humor and funny things in life’s awkward situations!

Take control and fight your own demons that lie to you about the past, present, and future!  Start reading the Bible (reading the Psalms in particular) and get out of the house and start doing nice and helpful things for others! Repent of your mistakes and make a plan of restitution to right the wrongs you’ve done! 

Count your blessings and there will be no time left for complaints! Ask God to take away your pride and realize that God forgives your weaknesses, fear, and craziness. In the end, God loves you and wants you happy! Psalm 40:2 He also brought me up out of a horrible pit, Out of the miry clay, And set my feet upon a rock, And established my steps. Psalm 144:15 Happy are the people who are in such a state; Happy are the people whose God is the Lord! Amen! Prayer… 

 

Holy Week: Our Remembrance Experience Day by Day

HOLY WEEK: Wednesday What a contrast that on the same day a woman cleans Jesus with a perfume that is worth a year in wages, in the meantime one of his own disciples plots to betray Him!? This is often what we as CHRISTIANS experience! Some people esteem you so much they will give you everything they own, while others would rather see you either subjected to the hypocrite authorities or DEAD! We must conclude that a possible 1 in every 12 in the Church is a Judas and they DO NOT CARE, nor have love for God, others, the mission, or your life! Which on are you? One who GIVES ALL, or one who despises Jesus, His mission, and God’s statutes. KD

 

 HOLY WEEK: Thursday   Communion, a sacrament or practice for believers

In the last supper Jesus commends us to symbolically partake of His blood and flesh; the wine and bread. Before, some followers left Him thinking He wanted us drinking blood, which elites do today to get high from the adrenochrome, but this is an abomination. (Genesis 9:4

But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.) Many cultures & Secret Societies still consume flesh for power, but now all witchcraft spells are useless, only Jesus’ flesh (symbolic in bread) can bring one strength, unity, and healing. Remember, Jesus’s blood represents atonement (the spiritual), and His broken body represents our healing (the physical) so all is covered! No more rituals needed ever again, bloodletting or human sacrifices!   

 

HOLY WEEK: GOOD FRIDAY or TERRIBLE FRIDAY?

It was GOOD for all humanity that Jesus died to be the ultimate and final atoning sacrifice that God gave us, but how TERRIBLE was this process! We scream in pain with one smashed finger, we cannot fathom the EXCRUCIATING PAIN that JESUS suffered!  Satan and his demons inflicted this on Him and this is one reason I HATE Satan and his demons today because they make suffer the innocent, they hate Jesus’ followers, they love violence, torture, suffering, mockery and destruction. But Jesus proved that after even a TERRIBLE death, there exists a new reality, RESURRECTION! We can never THANK JESUS ENOUGH for this day in history, we can only give HIM all our lives, devotion, praise, and love!  KD 

 

DARK DAYS: The followers of Jesus had them!

The disciples felt lost as their mission, purpose and leader was gone & murdered. Haven’t we felt that way at some time, lost and alone? But “Up from the grave He arose!” Jesus is alive! But despite His Spirit in us we often forget that; we often allow the pains of this world to push us into a dark hole, & we forget His words that “He is with us always, even to the end of the world” Matt 28:20. Despair, suffering, & sadness fade when Jesus shows up! Connect to Jesus daily and see the darkness disappear!

  

RESURRECTION SUNDAY: It takes faith to believe that the resurrection is real, but it is more real than time itself! All the world’s religions, all the government powers, have nothing to offer anyone compared to Jesus’ power, and they lose their authority since they have no power over death, nor do they have fulfilled prophecies concerning anything that makes them have any value. All people just live, die, and then get forgotten unless they belong to Jesus.

Jesus raised Himself up with God’s power as He claimed, and He will raise us up to be with Him one day on His return! What a unique power! He has the keys to the life or death over souls, and He changed the laws of our physics and time. 

 

 

 

 

Palm Sunday: Holiness Recognized But Then Betrayed!

Palm Sunday: Holiness Recognized But Then Betrayed   4-10-22.  Kelly Durant

John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.

2. How many of you know what today signifies? It is Palm Sunday, a day of praise! Do you know why we call it that? We read it in the Bible reading, the people were putting down palm branches for Jesus like people rolling out the red carpet today! 

Jesus was returning to Jerusalem: He was the Prince of Peace going into the City of Peace, but that city has had little peace throughout time after His crucifixion! Everyone knows from history the Romans totally destroyed Jerusalem in 70 AD to stop the Jewish rebellion, and more war has been there than almost anywhere else on earth! Only now for the past almost 70 years have the Jews had Jerusalem back and there has been a little more peace. But did you know all their neighbors over this period of time have fired over 10,000 mortars into Israel?! The point of this irony is only in heaven will peace exist from the Prince of Peace!

All of the people on the first Palm Sunday recognized Jesus as honorable and supernatural, and they exalted Him as holy and worthy of the highest praise, and they laid down palm branches. Some also laid down their coats for his colt to walk on too! I am sure the Jews and Romans were fuming with anger because after all they never got such honored treatment! But they weren’t holy either, nor the Son of God! People only honored them out of fear of death! What a contrast of how Jesus was honored so much but yet He was to suffer a horrible betrayal and death just a few days later! 

3. Today in history, the entire Christian world re-honors Jesus because He was at the peak of His acceptance and honor on Palm Sunday. Most of the city came out to honor Him, and they made a lot of noise! It was like a riot and out of control mob! They shouted, Matthew 21:9 “And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest”. People were convicted burning inside that He was the Holy One and this exposed their need to honor Him for who He was (is)! How should you and I react to Jesus? We should explode in praise to Him! We should bow and lay down all for Him!

The believers and followers had heard what was announced about Him, the multitude got the message that he was the Savior, the chosen one son of David, or the Messiah; the wise ones quoted the scripture that was to prove He was the Messiah.

Zechariah 9:9  Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.  

4. It is clear the Jerusalemites knew He was the Messiah fulfilling prophecy yelling that He is King of Israel. But even despite that, within the week our Lord was sadly crucified. Palm Sunday exemplifies the fickle populous in general: one week a person may recognize who Jesus is and honor Him, but a few days later they turn their backs on Him and His followers and desire destruction because subverters, mockers, doubters, and evil people persuaded them to. 

This betrayal repeats itself over and over today: when people fear losing admiration and control like the Jewish religious leaders did, then they will always react by evil human nature throwing God’s anointed under the bus! How many congregations have been destroyed by people who didn’t get the leader or members to submit?! Judas, it is speculated betrayed Jesus not desiring His death, but to provoke Him to use His power to dominate the Romans. Jesus was (is) never about earthly power, yet some churches and people have always tried to make His mission into that! 

PALM SUNDAY: Sadly, you and I will always deal with people who think only they are the righteous ones, but often they are seriously lacking in recognizing Jesus’ mercy towards them. These are accusers, not loving as Jesus, but they spew hate to others over politics, religion, or your worship of Jesus as the Savior. Don’t be a hypocrite driven by impulse, manipulated by emotions following these fickle crowds. Hypocrisy is praising Jesus one week, but on the next undoing it all by agreeing to let Him be crucified, not defending & exalting Him as Lord or Lords. 

Haven’t we all been guilty of turning our backs on Jesus sometime or another? Or maybe we have failed to love God or others as we should! And yet Jesus knowing our unfaithfulness still agreed to die for our sins anyway! It was not just the Jews, or the Romans, or the betrayal of Judas that put Him to death; it was you and me for our sins! Never forget how much you (me) have been forgiven of! You, because of your past, present, and future sins, are just as responsible for Jesus death as the ones who put Him to death! That recognition of the salvation of your soul will make you praise and thank Him eternally!

5. How many of you practice lent? How many of you follow the tradition of abstaining from meat this week? That is not a bad tradition but I would like to ask you to apply it in a different way this time. Instead of giving up eating meat a day or two, try giving up one of your flaws and, then fight to give it up for the rest of your life! If your temptation is to get angry fast, to be impatient, to yell bad words, or you fail to love God and others like Jesus, then now is the time to give up your own character flaws and abstain from your way of being so you be more like Jesus! Lent is prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, so try the following…

If you are the jealous type, give it up!

If you enjoy talking about the bad in others (gossip), give it up!

If you are indulgent, and you buy yourself things you don’t need, give it up!

If you are lazy and don’t do very many things for others, change, and give it up!

If you complain a lot or have a negative spirit about your life or your responsibilities, then give it up and start praising God as you are supposed to!

 

Make yourself change and be positive by making new habits and reading God’s word every day and then seeking ways to serve others!  Do it especially this coming weekend if you want to be closer to God in this special time! Giving up a food is not much of a sacrifice at all!  Changing your character to be more like Jesus, now that is a real sacrifice! But that requires hard work and discipline so tell another your faults so they support you and hold you accountable!  The scripture says in James 5:16 “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much”.  

 

Stop and seriously recognize where your sins are and ask God to help you! No one has confessed anything to me lately and I don’t expect that, that is between you and God. To feel the exciting presence of the Lord in your life, like the loud praising that went on in Jerusalem, you must obey scripture and crucify your flesh praise and honor Jesus to be more like Him! If you do this, then you will be honoring Him this day and forever more as you should be! 

 

6. And if you see nothing wrong with yourself, then you really do have a problem! Palm Sunday is about you recognizing the holiness of Jesus contrasting against our lack of holiness. If you act upon God’s spirit, and what you learn from the Holy Scriptures, then you must purge yourself of any big or little disturbance that is not right in your life. For many of us it is pride, a lack of submission, and a lack of love.

There are a lot of people in churches today that sin in very different ways, of course people always think their own sins are no big deal, but all sin is wrong, but not recognizing your own sin provokes others to stumble. Just ask your closest Christian family members what to change or ask your Major/pastor (I am going to get myself in trouble on this one!), or your best friend what are my faults?

Listen, pray and make a plan to change a bad habit or attitude this coming week. I am sure the Lord will be very pleased with that type of honoring and lent sacrifice crucifying your own flesh, denying being human in your actions. Jesus denied Himself in a huge way when He died on the cross for us!   Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:31 “I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.” You and I must not only rejoice and praise Christ like they did on Palm Sunday but die daily as well. It’s time to renovate and to grow to be more like Jesus!

7. For this week coming up let’s revisit the Jewish holiday that was happening when Jesus was being tried and crucified. It was The Passover. What was that all about? It was a celebration to remember when the Israelites were freed from being slaves in the land of Egypt, and on this date the final death plague was happening and the Lord commanded everyone to put lamb’s blood over their door entrances. Why, so the angel of death would “Passover” or “protect” that home, and not kill their firstborn son.

So imagine, the Jews were rejoicing the day before the Passover with the blood of a lamb that they would be saved from the plague of death. How coincidental with Jesus atonement! But recall each one had to obey to gain God’s life protection! Palm Sunday is about being obedient to Jesus and honoring Him as honor is due! 

The Lord since the beginning has been preparing the Jews, and everyone, with symbolisms. Let’s look up some useful verses. I John 1: 7 “7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” Here have confirmed that it is only by Jesus blood that we have forgiveness of sins to be reconciled with God so it is His blood that takes away guilt and punishment and frees the obedient from the curse of death and sets them up for their journey into the promised land of heaven!

8. Let’s learn more about the blood.  (See Ex 12:3, 5). The blood had to be shed from a lamb, without blemish, this represents the blood of Jesus, which is the Lamb of God without blemish. And during His trail remember how Jesus was found to be innocent by Herod, Pilot, and everyone! That is amazing how he was innocent yet condemned anyway?! And the reality is we are the guilty ones! 

(Ex 12:7) Here we see the blood had to be struck on the door, just as when Jesus blood goes on the door of our hearts, it does not go on or wear off easy, and it usually goes on with emotion. Jesus’ blood does not get applied to be un-noticed, it is put on thick to be noticed for protection from death! If He really is there, if His blood has saved us, then all will see Him alive in our lives!

We understand that if the blood is not present, the Lord will execute judgment, and that judgment is death! In other words, those who do not apply the blood of Jesus today in their lives will suffer a second death (a bodily one, then a spiritual one). Not just death in this flesh but also an eternal death, and eternal separation from God! But those with Him have eternal life in heaven where all is peace!

9. Heb 9:22 And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. Remission is God forgiving us for our sins, we would all be guilty and condemned without Jesus’ blood.

The Israelites, after putting blood on the door were commanded to stay inside and feast on the meat. That is symbolic too that we must take in Jesus’ body into ours in so that symbolically His DNA becomes ours so we become pure love as He is. Can people say of you, wow, he or she just like Jesus made of pure love?

John 6:54 “Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day”. From this we conclude that without Jesus being deep inside us we will not have eternal life. Rev.12: 11 “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death”. Jesus did not get honored on Palm Sunday and then pour out His blood for us to not respond; he bought our salvation with a huge sacrifice and we owe Him everything forever! And He gives us everything as well!

10. And now Jesus sits of the right hand of God getting praise forever! As we reflect on how He was praised, and then on His suffering this weekend, recall that He did it all for his love for You! Yes, you!  Any time you are tempted with your weaknesses, don’t crucify Jesus afresh by sinning. Remember Jesus’ cruel death, and what it cost Him to redeem you and me with God! That’ll make you praise! 

Give up your hidden rebellion and sins and give your life anew to Jesus for Him to use for God’s glory!  Let’s honor and praise Jesus as the angels and Israelites did on that historic day!

Praising Him means not just a “hosanna” but obeying and loving Him totally! Can people say of you; how amazing that (your name) is like Jesus, made of pure love?  Prayer …