His Eyes Meet Yours…

Jesus looks down from the cross…

Scans the crowd…

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His body racked with pain and drenched with blood.

His eyes meet yours…

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What does His gaze say to YOU?

Die with Christ…so that you may LIVE with HIM.

(We know the end of this story don’t we, and we rejoice in the knowing!)

“Yet it was our infirmities that he bore, our sufferings that he endured, while we thought of him as stricken, as one smitten by God and afflicted, but he was pierced for our offenses, crushed for our sins, upon him was the chastisement that makes us whole, by his stripes we were healed.” Is 53:4-5

Peace Be With You…May I Wash Your Feet?…

“When the Lord of the world comes and undertakes the slave’s task of foot-washing…

which is an illustration of the way He washes our feet all through our lives…

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We have a totally different picture.

God does not want to trample on us, but kneels down before us so as to exult us.

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The mystery of the greatness of God is seen precisely in the fact that He can be so small…

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Only when power is changed from the inside, and we accept Jesus and his way of life, whose self is there in there in the action of the foot-washing,

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Only then can the world be healed and the people be able to live at peace with one another.” (Pope Benedict XVI)

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“If I therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash another’s feet.  I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.” John 13:14-15

Questions…

It’s not that God doesn’t answer our questions..

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It’s more..

Do we have the COURAGE to ask the questions that need to be asked?…

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And the HUMILITY to accept the answers?

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“Probe me, God, know my heart; try me, know my concerns.  See if my way is crooked then lead me in the ancient paths.” Ps 139:23-24

“I Will Make You a Light”….

Jesus is the LIGHT of the world…

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Those who live in His LIGHT…share in His LIGHT…become His LIGHT…

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Do we bring His LIGHT wherever we go?

Do we bring His LIGHT into the darkness about us…

To lead others home?

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“It is too little, he says, for you to be my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and restore the survivors of Israel; I will make you a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” Is 49:6

Lay Down Your Cloak….

Palms waving…”Hosanna, Hosanna in the highest.”

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Cloaks laid down to honor the King.

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The King up on a lowly donkey entering Jerusalem to do His Father’s will…

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Ascending upwards to His throne…

His throne up on the Cross.

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Will we too in gratitude and humility lay down the cloaks of our lives?….

                      And follow Him who chooses the Cross as His throne?

“Rejoice heartily, O daughter Jerusalem! See, your king shall come to you; a just savior is he, Meek and riding on an ass, on a colt, the foal of an ass.” Zech 9:9

“I Will Draw All”…

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“Look at this cross,

So much bigger than the man whose body will be stretched to fit it.

So much bigger than the height of the man who will be lifted up above the earth on it and who,

being lifted up, will draw all peoples to himself.

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Christ receives it with joy because he knows that this is the dead weight that must have crushed humankind had he not lifted it from their backs.

This is the dead wood which at his touch is transformed to a living tree.

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 At His touch, the hewn tree takes root again, and the roots thrust down into the earth, and the tree breaks into flower.”

Caryll Houselander (+1954) British poet and spiritual teacher

“And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” John 12:32

When We Forget…

When we forget to worship….

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we forget who we are.

When we lose sight of God…

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we lose sight of what we are.

His Image and His likeness.

(this is what I am listening to today : )

Take Me into the Beautiful by Cloverton

“Then God said: “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Gen 1:26a

Your Name is Safe…

There was a study done a few years ago when professionals asked children ages 4 – 8 years old , “What is love”? The answers given from the “mouths of babes” were insightful and inspirational. One of my favorites…

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“When someone loves you the way they say your name is different. You just know your name is safe in their mouth.” Billy age 4

Scripture tells us that there is power in the name of Jesus…”that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Phil 2:10-11

Names are important. Your name is important as well.

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Have you heard the Lord speak YOUR name in the depths of your heart?

For our heart has ears to hear the Lord call our name.

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And there is peace, and love and affirmation when the Lord calls us by name.

In the chaos of your day….in the busy-ness of life…in the din of the everyday…

Make time to sit still and listen and with the ears of your heart hear the Lord speak YOUR name. And rest in the wisdom that “YOUR name is safe in His mouth”.

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“The gatekeeper opens it (the gate) for him (the shepherd), and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by  name and leads them out.  When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.  But they will not follow a stranger, they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.” John 10:3-5

Sifting Sugar…

Have you ever had one of those weeks when you felt like you were a human experiment tested to see how much could possibly be thrown at you, how much would stick like velcro and you could keep walking?

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Yes, it was one of those weeks…and so in the random way “fromtheheartofj” thinks…

I thought about making frosting.

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When you make  homemade frosting it’s very important to sift the powdered sugar.

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Why?

If not you will end up with hard bits of sugar in your frosting making it gritty…

And who likes gritty frosting?

So it is in the journey of the heart.

Often God has to sift us…shaking us out of our comfort zones or out of our hiding places.

He sees all the hard bits of potential sweetness within us.

So ever so gently he sifts us…

And then when added to all the other sweet souls in this body of Christ we blend together smoothly.

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We become the icing on the cake…God’s crowning glory of sweetness.

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(can you read into this some serious sugar cravings? Ahhhh…Lent is half over!)

“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed that your own faith may not fail; and once you have turned back, you must strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32

Sunshine…

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When I met Christ I felt like I had swallowed sunshine.” (E. Stanley Jones, +1973, Christian missionary)

“Rise up in splendor! Your light has come, the glory of the Lord shines uon you.  See, darkness covers the earth, and thick clouds cover the peoples; But upon you the Lord shines, and over you appears His glory….Then you shall be radiant at what you see, your heart shall throb and overflow.” Is 60:1-2,5a