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Glory Seed Devotionals, 2015: Year of Promise
Walking in the Resurrected Light of Jesus…
“Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon. The sun stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple split down the middle. Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!” Then he died.” (Luke 23:44–46, CEV)
Jesus was dead! For three years his faithful followers poured their entire lives into following him. Wherever he went they went, they hung on his every word, they depended on him, they loved him, they based their entire future on him and now he was dead. As the stone was rolled in front of the tomb hiding a dead Jesus from the world their hope, joy, peace, and faith were sealed with their beloved Master. Thus began the longest, darkest, hopeless, joyless, period in their lives.
Jesus was dead and they knew it! But here’s the kicker knew it was going to happen because Jesus told them at the Last Supper, “You have already heard me say that I am going and that I will also come back to you. If you really love me, you should be glad that I am going back to the Father, because he is greater than I am. I am telling you this before I leave, so that when it does happen, you will have faith in me.” (John 14:28–29, CEV)
What happened on the day Jesus died that made the disciples lose faith and go into a deep depression causing them to forget the promise Jesus made to them just before it all happened? It is hard for us to put ourselves in their place because we have Jesus’ entire story from before he was born until the moment he was taken back to heaven and even after that. Yet who among us hasn’t experienced a shocking, painful, devastating loss at one time or another and found ourselves feeling like Peter, James, John, and the others those fateful dark days before the rock rolled away and out came Jesus holding their hope, joy, peace, and faith in his heart.
The 40 days leading up to resurrection morning known as Lent commemorate Jesus’ 40 days alone in the wilderness. I see them as enhanced days to take an honest look into our hearts and see those things we have come to depend on rather than depending on God’s Grace and symbolically give them to Jesus so he can take them to the cross with him. And then believe what we already know – that during the dark days when all seems lost we will be sustained by the presence of the Holy Spirit knowing when those days have passed we will walk in the Light of the Resurrected Jesus.
Oh, by the way. I wonder if the disciples had put everything into Jesus in the flesh rather then what he was trying to teach them about the Holy Spirit? Could it be we do the same thing when we put our trust in money, health, possessions, careers?
Believe! Anticipate! Experience! Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE, Amen!
Gary
Note: Should you want to go back and review this Glory Seed or if you’d like to subscribe so you can receive them in your email you can do so by clicking on this link: http://gloryseeds.wordpress.com/.
Scriptures marked CEV, “Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.”
Glory Seed Devotionals, 2015: Year of Promise
Walking in the Resurrected Light of Jesus…
“Around noon the sky turned dark and stayed that way until the middle of the afternoon. The sun stopped shining, and the curtain in the temple split down the middle. Jesus shouted, “Father, I put myself in your hands!” Then he died.” (Luke 23:44–46, CEV)
Jesus was dead! For three years his faithful followers poured their entire lives into following him. Wherever he went they went, they hung on his every word, they depended on him, they loved him, they based their entire future on him and now he was dead. As the stone was rolled in front of the tomb hiding a dead Jesus from the world their hope, joy, peace, and faith were sealed with their beloved Master. Thus began the longest, darkest, hopeless, joyless, period in their lives.
Jesus was dead and they knew it! But here’s the kicker knew it was going to happen because Jesus told them at the Last Supper, “You have already heard me say that I am going and that I will also come back to you. If you really love me, you should be glad that I am going back to the Father, because he is greater than I am. I am telling you this before I leave, so that when it does happen, you will have faith in me.” (John 14:28–29, CEV)
What happened on the day Jesus died that made the disciples lose faith and go into a deep depression causing them to forget the promise Jesus made to them just before it all happened? It is hard for us to put ourselves in their place because we have Jesus’ entire story from before he was born until the moment he was taken back to heaven and even after that. Yet who among us hasn’t experienced a shocking, painful, devastating loss at one time or another and found ourselves feeling like Peter, James, John, and the others those fateful dark days before the rock rolled away and out came Jesus holding their hope, joy, peace, and faith in his heart.
The 40 days leading up to resurrection morning known as Lent commemorate Jesus’ 40 days alone in the wilderness. I see them as enhanced days to take an honest look into our hearts and see those things we have come to depend on rather than depending on God’s Grace and symbolically give them to Jesus so he can take them to the cross with him. And then believe what we already know – that during the dark days when all seems lost we will be sustained by the presence of the Holy Spirit knowing when those days have passed we will walk in the Light of the Resurrected Jesus.
Oh, by the way. I wonder if the disciples had put everything into Jesus in the flesh rather then what he was trying to teach them about the Holy Spirit? Could it be we do the same thing when we put our trust in money, health, possessions, careers?
Believe! Anticipate! Experience! Be transformed!
Grace and PEACE, Amen!
Gary
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Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 LEB)
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13 LEB)
Note: Should you want to go back and review this Glory Seed or if you’d like to subscribe so you can receive them in your email you can do so by clicking on this link: http://gloryseeds.wordpress.com/.
Scriptures marked CEV, “Scripture taken from the Contemporary English Version © 1991, 1992, 1995 by American Bible Society, Used by Permission.”
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