PALM SUNDAY!

Jeremiah was excited to try out our new camera.  My phone just doesn't cut it like all the i-phones so I simply had to break down and get a.........camera.

Church yesterday was a blast.  We had our traditional palm branches, Myrtle Beach style.  I was praying that the 5 and unders would not poke eyes out and such. 

As always, this season is absolutely WOW.  The older I get, or the further I go along, the days are simply more significant to me.  I remember being a kid and thinking....when will this day, week, season BE OVER!!!  and more and more, I find myself holding each day and trying to get the fullness out of them more and more.  The season of Holy Week is pregnant with revelation, comfort, humility, humanity and Divinity.  I am baffled the more that I read all of the week activity that Jesus kicks off in this TRIUMPHAL ENTRY from Bethany on down to Jerusalem.  The songs we sang were "Hosanna, Hosanna"  (Save Us Now!).  The theme was joyful as we tried our best to somehow "recreate" the atmosphere that must have been on the street as children and adults alike spread their clothes on the road, along with branches at the Kings coronation.  Jesus on the never sat upon colt, got to hear all the cheers, and adulation, and as He rolls up to His city, He...... weeps over it. 

John MacArthur rightly breaks down the scene: "The timing of this lament may seem incongrous with the triumphal entry, but it reveals that Jesus knew the true superficiality of the peoples' hearts, and His mood was anything but giddy as He rode into the city.  The same crowd would soon cry for His death."

I made the point how often we as a church can be as superficial as the Jews at the time of the passion week.  Looking for Christ to be our Sanctified Santa Clause, the one we call like a genie in a bottle for our every whim, and desire.  But the Passion, is about so much more.  It is about Jesus coming and receiving the praise even KNOWING they would turn to howls for His own death.  That is what the Passion Week is all about.  I pray that this week, the reality of how Christ has pursued us into the bitter places in our lives will pierce our understanding so that we may begin to be transformed by His FINISHED work at the cross.  To which we walk together.....

Stuart