Yesterday we had our Palm Sunday meeting at Watermark Assisted Living. This week has been a busy yet blessed week. We had the opportunity to attend a disability ministry training session with the Joni and Friends Ministry on Wednesday. It was amazing to see how similar their special needs outreach is to our Long-Term Care ministry. This Sunday, we looked at the fact the Jesus came into the world in a borrowed manger. Then He entered Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey and was buried in a borrowed tomb. Jesus never made any provision for the things of this world because it was not His home. He came from His home in Heaven and returned there, but all He did, all He gave and all He suffered was for us, so that we could have a home with Him in Heaven! Only Jesus can make the way for us to go where He went. That borrowed manger has long ago turned to saw dust, the borrowed donkey no longer is in his pasture and the borrowed tomb is empty! Our lives are only on loan from God. One day we must return them and meet Him face to face. He rode on the humble borrowed donkey so that we would not be afraid to receive Him as our King, our Lord and our Savior!
Heaven
My Life is Just a Seed
My life is just a seed that He planted in my heart By Lord Jesus who my every thought has known And He paid the price by blood to claim me as His own In the mystery of a love before the start And it has grown in days of rain and through the times of drought While busy years of youth passed in a whirl And everything was changing in my world The words of Christ stood firm against the doubt Now it’s time of autumn leaves with harvest near And He’s coming soon to gather children home Forever to the place near Heaven’s throne Where my seed will in His hand rest without fear As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.” Matthew 13;23 ESV My Life is Just a Seed By Peter Caligiuri Copyright © 2023 all rights reserved
An Unexpected Promise
Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? John 14:1-2 ESV
While the other gospels just tell us that Jesus went from the Last Supper table to the Garden of Gethsemane; John allows us to listen in on the conversation along the way. Jesus begins by letting them know that one of them will betray Him, the rest of them will run away, and Peter will even deny Him. Of course, they are shocked and start to argue with Him. (Haven’t you argued a little with God once in a while?) But in today’s passage, we see that Jesus pivots, from the bad news about the disciples’ impending failure, to the amazing news about what God has in store. Today’s verse is one you probably have heard at a graveside ceremony or to people living out their final days. And while God’s promises certainly apply in those end-of-life situations, they are also true in our everyday world. Just like the disciples, we may be facing discouragement, confusion and fear. We find ourselves in the middle of battles we didn’t start and conflicts that we don’t know how to resolve. At exactly our lowest moment Jesus comes and gives us these words; “Don’t let your heart be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in Me!”
You see, faith is not just handy for funerals or on Sunday mornings. Real faith, the Jesus kind of faith is meant for every day of our lives and can help us with whatever we are facing today. But real faith is more than just a gift. It is also a spiritual muscle that God wants us to exercise. Jesus actually commands us to get off our duffs and take control of our heart and say, “Stop all the fussing! God is still in control!” You might say you don’t have a lot of faith, but Jesus tells us we only need a mustard seed of faith to move mountains. So pick yourself up from the feeling sorry for yourself corner and to turn to God for strength. He knows what is going on and He says, “Don’t let your heart be troubled!” He has a special place prepared for us today!
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