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Petition for Prayers

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Hi there - today is my 400th post and I am wrestling a bit... so I'm asking for your prayers. I started this blog o ver a year ago, convinced it was something God wanted me to do.  It was way out of my comfort zone, and certainly not something I’d have done 10 years before, but  I had hoped that i n some way, it might help people get closer to Him. I knew that once I had finally given my life to God, EVERYTHING in my life changed, and  I desperately wanted people to experience the same JOY and PEACE I have felt since making that decision.   As they say, “I was like a poor beggar telling others where they could find food”. For months, the posts flowed easily and I would feel the Holy Spirit's inspiration…the words on the page practically writing themselves.  However, I'm not sure that is still the case.  Sometimes I feel as if I am struggling to hear His voice, and I honestly don't want to be writing MY thoughts - I want to be sharing HIS. So, I'm going to t...
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The Journey to the Cross (Day 8 - OPTION #2)

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" He is Risen! -  He is Risen, Indeed!"... The cries of Easter. Regardless of your faith - Historians all agree - THE TOMB WAS EMPTY! Now, some say the disciples came in the middle of the night - did something to the guards (or sneaked up while they were sleeping), broke the Roman seal on the tomb, rolled away the rock that blocked the entrance, and stole the body of Jesus... But there is another option.  Option #2, the Biblical account - the one which says that when the women went to the tomb to anoint Jesus' body and prepare it for death (because rules had forbidden them to do so on the Sabbath), they found the guards gone, the stone rolled away from the tomb, and the tomb empty! And the women saw two men who "gleamed like lightning" who said, "why do you look for the living among the dead?  He is not here; he has risen!  Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ' The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners,...
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The Journey to the Cross (Day 7 - DARKNESS and FEAR)

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Imagine having spent the last three years of your life following around a man you believed was the Messiah.  A man who, just as Moses did with Pharaoh, would deliver your people once again from the oppressive rule of the government - in this case, the Romans... Imagine seeing this deliverer, this Messiah, bloodied and beaten, stripped, and nailed to a cross... Imagine watching him DIE.  No angels to save him.  No miraculous "bursting forth with righteous anger" to do what you thought he would do. No.   His death was the death of a criminal.  A traitor. Imagine knowing the lengths the religious leaders of the day were willing to go to stop what they believed was an insurrection and blasphemy against the teachings of Moses... Imagine your fear - knowing everyone had seen you WITH Jesus.  Following Him.  Being one of his disciples? What do you feel? Frightened?  Betrayed?  Foolish?   Despondent  Hunted?  John 20;19 says "On t...
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The Journey to the Cross (Day 6 - AMAZING GRACE)

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The dictionary defines g race as "Unmerited divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration or sanctification. A virtue coming from God.  Approval.  Favor." And today, as I think about the crucifixion of Jesus - the word GRACE is certainly one that comes to mind. Of course I think about God's grace for the human race - offering an innocent sacrifice, a Paschal lamb as it were - without stain of sin, to pay the ultimate price for the sake of humanity - but there is more. Think about Peter, Jesus' friend and apostle, who - just as Jesus had predicted, denied knowing Jesus three times - out of fear for his own safety and life.  Peter, who then - after hearing the cock crow, remembered Jesus' prediction and then wept bitterly.  Peter, who - after Jesus was crucified, returned to Galilee.  When he and is friend John were fishing - they saw a man on the shore who said, "'Throw your net on the right side of the boat and you will find some.' When th...
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The Journey to the Cross (Day 5 - THE LAST SUPPER)

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  All throughout Jerusalem, Jewish pilgrims had gathered to celebrate the Passover - that time where the final plague was delivered to the Egyptians before Pharaoh let the Israelites go. God had heard the cries of his people as they toiled for 400 years under the harsh rule of the Egyptians.  He called Moses (a man who had once lived in the home and under the protection of Pharaoh himself) to be the Israelites deliverer. Nine different times, God sent plagues upon the Egyptians - blood, frogs, lice, wild animals, pestilence, boils, fiery hail, locusts and darkness - but still Pharaoh would NOT relent and let the people go.  So, God sent a final plague - one in which the first born of every household, of every animal - would be killed.   However, before he sent the plague he told Moses that in the homes of the Israelites - they should slaughter a lamb, then use its blood to cover the doorframe of their houses.  God told Moses that as the angel of death would...
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The Journey to the Cross (Day 4 - THE LADDER)

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In the city of Jerusalem stands a church called  The Church of the Holy Sepulcher.   It has been proposed as the place of both the death and resurrection of Jesus, and it has been a place for pilgrimages since the 4th century. Considered holy, the site is cared for by no less than six denominations including Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Roman Catholic, Coptic, Ethiopian and Syriac Orthodox.  As such, it has been carefully parsed out into sections.  And sadly, arguments and violent clashes are not uncommon. Jim visited the church once on a trip with Northridge and told me about "The Immovable Ladder".  Apparently the ladder is a " bizzare outcome of religious stubbornness pushed to extremes. " For " Sometime in the first half of the 18th century, someone placed a ladder up against the wall of the church. No one is sure who he was, or more importantly, to which sect he belonged.  The ladder remains there to this day.  No one dares touch it, l...
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The Journey to the Cross (Day 3 - ONLY JESUS)

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Today’s Holy Week post has me thinking about the 12 disciples. ONLY JESUS Can you name Jesus' 12 disciples?  If you've been watching The Chosen or reading your Bible regularly, you might be able to.  However - there are some, who - at least for me, are a bit in the shadows. Sure I know Simon/Peter, and his brother Andrew .  And then there was James and John, the sons of Thunder (or Zebedee to be exact).  There was Matthew, and Thomas, and Judas Iscariot.  And there was Simon the Zealot, and another James...but...but...a nd here is where my mind isn't as good at remembering.   So I Googled it. There was also Philip - a Jewish man from Bethsaida who apparently was the one to tell Nathaniel (another lesser known disciple) that "The One" Moses and the prophets had foretold in the Old Testament, was here.  Following Jesus' death Philip became a missionary in Greece and for his outspoken faith proclaiming Jesus as the Son of God - Philip was stoned and...
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