TheNarrowRoadPursued

The voice that bids the storms be stilled
The hand whose scars remain
The eyes that see from heaven’s gate
The heart that bears no stain
Has once for all His life-blood shed,
And claimed His rightful throne.
The power that called Him from the grave
Makes all who will, His own.
In life, in death, in victory
His is a solitary art.
No other than the God made man
Eternal life imparts.
Oh Father take what you have given,
All that I am or ere will be
And make of me a gift of love
To Him whose life has ransomed me.

©2010 Roberta Franklin, LaBarge, WY

Thanks Mom!

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=fireworks&iid=7915505″ src=”0/9/f/b/Spring_Festival_Celebration_5c7d.jpg?adImageId=11964558&imageId=7915505″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]If the opportunity fell to you to make the Fourth of July a more intensely celebrated holiday, what would you do?  Would you order in bigger fireworks?  Would you make it mandatory that every city hosted a massive free BBQ? Would you hand out red, white and blue facepaint?  How would you make the national celebration of freedom more meaningful?

This is the day the Church has set aside for generations for the remembrance of Jesus’ last meal with his disciples.  The manner in which the gathering of the saints is conducted changes from generation to generation, but the main point remains.

Jesus celebrated a “Fourth of July” kind of meal with his disciples, just a few hours before his death.  It was a meal that recalled the slavery of the people who were descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  It recalled the hopelessness of their estate and their powerlessness.  These people were a related people but were not a nation.

But God called them out.  He gave them a meal of promise, a “pre-celebration” of what only God could do. God mandated the meal be observed perpetually by the generations to come as a remembrance of their salvation and a declaration that the God of Israel reigns.  It was THE meal of meals and Jesus intensified it.

Most Christians are aware of the great promise of deliverance in the words, “This is my body…this is my blood.”  Few, however, remember how Jesus humbled himself and washed his disciples feet.  Even fewer recall Jesus’ “new command” given the same night he was to be betrayed.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. John 13.3, NASB

It doesn’t get any more intense that this.  What a command, that Jesus’ followers are to love each other with the same kind of love that went to the cross, entered the grave and calls others to follow into eternity.  It is extreme, it is intense.  It is impossible and Jesus knew it, that is why he promised his own Spirit to indwell those who would seek to obey him.  To love others with Jesus’ kind of love, requires Jesus’ kind of power.

I wonder what the disciples who shared that meal with Jesus were thinking.  To take a ancient and revered national holiday and transform it into a personal challenge must have been overwhelming.  It is two thousand years later and I still feel the sting of the command.

How about you?

[picapp align=”left” wrap=”true” link=”term=conflict&iid=270127″ src=”0266/106507bc-9af4-427a-9899-0db22b4a29bd.jpg?adImageId=11588863&imageId=270127″ width=”234″ height=”234″ /]Whether we like it or not conflict is part of our daily lives.  There are a few who thrive on disagreements, there are some always looking for “a good fight” but for most of us conflict is something we would rather avoid. 

One of the greatest conflicts ever experienced is often completely overlooked.  The cross of Jesus Christ casts so significant a shadow even observant Christians miss the horrific battles waged prior to the passion narrative.

Consider just a few of the events in John 8.  The religious leaders of the day were somehow able to produce a woman who was “caught” in sexual intercourse with a married man.  The desire was to pit Jesus against the Law given by God to the Jews.  In later conversation, the religious leaders delivered a “below the belt” shot by asking Jesus to produce his father.  Not one of the gospels explains Joseph’s disappearance.  Did Joseph die? Did he abandon his family?  The reader can only wonder.  The fact remains, all four gospel accounts agree, Joseph was a surrogate father and as such would be considered as illegitimate as Jesus. Jesus was then questioned as to whether or not he was suicidal, then all but outright called a bastard, then clearly called a demon possessed, low-life half-breed.

All this and more before he was arrested.  I know beyond doubt that I would not have stood firm.  I would have quit, or being God in the flesh, angrily reduced my adversaries to piles of cinder.  Such was not done, for the Savior, convinced of his purpose and fully submissive to the authority of the Father endured for the sake of the shame of bearing the crushing weight of my sin, and yours.

My friends at Main Street will consider these things as we bring Convinced: A Destination Reached, to a close and focus our attentions on Resurrection Day.