Make your choice?

The last painting Dave did just before he died was called the 'Narrow Gate'. It was going to be a trilogy but he only did this one. The three were going to show the choice we all have to make. To die to ourselves and live for Jesus so having Him as number one in our lives. To have all the pleasures and delights of this world for ourselves and not consider our eternal future. Or not make any decision, 'I'll be alright'. Dave was very much alive, larger than life in fact, and realising he was dying was an enormous shock.  But his heart was very much to remind people there is only one way the Narrow Gate and the broad road leads to destruction and that road is crowded. Matthew 7:13-14 

In the light of all that is going on in the world at this time I have been asking myself why do I think I can go through all my life with no serious persecution. Jesus did say the world would hate us. 'Just remember, when the unbelieving world hates you, they first hated me.' John 15:18 We have seen an enemy in the last few weeks that is very real and wants to indiscriminately destroy people. But as we saw at the Cross, the enemy thought he had finished Jesus off and all His followers with Him, but within three days the whole situation had turned around when Jesus rose from the dead. Then 50 days later all His followers who were terrified, were filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit and there were over 3,000 little 'Jesuses' running around, adding to that number every day, Acts 2:47.

The world was in chaos when Jesus was crucified. It was the same for the disciples as well as for the religious leaders who didn't understand what was going on. There was a lot of insecurity, feelings were running high, and then Jesus appeared. Even more uncertainty, this has never happened before. So the disciples decided to just isolate themselves, in fear, or go back to the old job, something familiar. 'We could Pray; pray; pray'.

The room shook and the Holy Spirit came just as Jesus had told them 'And I will send you the Divine Encourager from the very presence of My Father. He will come to you, the Spirit of Truth, emanating from the Father, and He will speak to you about Me. 27 And you will tell everyone the truth about Me, for you have walked with Me from the start.' John 15:26,27 TPT.

Today is the most amazing opportunity to focus our time and effort and energy on developing a really loving, close and intimate relationship with Jesus, pray, pray, pray. Know exactly who we are in Christ and all that He has paid to give us. Listen and be led by the Holy Spirit moment by moment, every moment is to used not wasted.

So let us make sure we have chosen the narrow way and no amount of persecution or temptation or desperation will draw us away from the Highway Jesus paid for us to journey on.

The First Good Friday

It is impossible adequately to describe the horror of that day. Events had moved quickly from the arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane to the trials and Peter's denial of his Lord, from the trumped-up charges, to the near-acquittal, to the mocking, the scourging, and then to the handing over of an innocent man to the howling religious mob whipped to a frenzy by the chief priests. Horror enough you may say, but now, Jesus whose beard had been yanked out, whose back had been laid open to the bone all over, whose flesh must have been hanging from Him like so much raw meat, was forced to carry His cross to the final place of execution.

This stumbling, agonising and breath-sapping procession was through streets (Via Dolorosa) thronged with a crowd which just a few short days ago was heralding Him as their king, but was now raucously deriding Him. He had been sentenced to death and was therefore regarded as a dead man already. He was fair game for all the horrors which could be inflicted on a condemned man on the public road to His death.
       

Was He kicked, pushed from side to side of the street, jeered, spat upon, and reviled? Perhaps rubbish and sewage was thrown over Him.... perhaps we shall never know, but human nature today allows us to think that the final footsteps of His life were more horrific than we might care to consider.

Whatever happened, Jesus could carry His cross no longer. The Roman executioners pressed Simon from Cyrene in North Africa into carrying it the remainder of the way. Finally, at the place called Golgotha - the place of the skull - Skull Hill, Jesus was flung to the cross and nailed there. The common practice was to use spikes through the forearms so that as the victim hung upright, He would not tear the spike through His hand and free His arm. 

Spikes were driven through His feet - probably His ankles, rupturing tendons, ligaments, muscles and joints - you see nobody cared anymore, Jesus was just another condemned non-entity, a joke, He would be dead in a few hours anyway. And then they hoisted the cross up ............ do you think they carefully put it in the ground so as not to jar the body more than necessary!? I don't think so.................

You saved others, but you can't save yourself ................ Get yourself and us down from here ......... Perhaps Elijah will come and get Him, let's wait and see ............ What's that He said? ......... Why is the sky getting dark, it’s hardly past lunch-time? It's pitch black!! .......... Why is the ground shaking? ..........Who are those people? ..........What's happening?!!!!!!

Questions: Dare you answer them truthfully?

·                     What would you have done?

·                     What stand would you have taken in this final unfolding of horror?

·                     Do you jeer at injustice now?

·                     Who is Jesus to you?

·                     What claim does the Son of God have on your life?

See how to receive all that Jesus died to give you, He loves you more than you have ever been loved before. For the eternal value of all our lives, this Friday is the best ever. Check this new life out at 'Joy for Life'

http://www.joyforlife.org/index.php/living-with-jesus-01/