This IS a World of Walls#
So many of us can't wait for Christmas, while others can't wait to get through it.
So many of us can't wait for Christmas, while others can't wait to get through it.
An already heaving Messiah weeps in Gethsemane. It is the last night before His crucifixion. You are in Gethsemane too, hidden but watching.
The Bible contains twin gardens that are notable in eternity. The first Adam 'lived' in one, and the second Adam 'died' in one.
Can you believe this - Jesus' work was not completed at His resurrection? He warmly addresses His disciples just prior to His crucifixion that they will not be abandoned, but...
(Today's SoulSnack is sequential to Wednesday's Losing sight of Jesus. It is drawn from John 21:15-19. ) Christianity is 'hard work', at times 'mighty, mighty hard work'.
John's Gospel carries fresh insights the other three gospels do not contain. This is one.
It is utter nonsense that the dead can be raised. THE battle for belief is perennial. Likewise, Jesus' apostles joined hands in and with disbelief.
That first Good Friday silenced the Father. How broken was He? The Bible does not explain.
Smelling the daisies, beholding the oaks or resting among the birds would not be for Jesus in this garden. Gethsemane is His gateway to decision.
Predictions and Old Testament prophecies echo, these are most familiar to the throng. Jesus parades before His people. A great crowd gathers for it is the Passover Feast.
God acts differently. Christians for 2000 years have known that preparation for Jesus begins in the heart. But, that first Christmas was different.
But Jesus gave no reply, and Pilate was amazed.
A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind. (Mark 14:51-52) It's dawn.
The stone across the tomb was a mere pebble to He who is the Rock of Ages.
It is finished! (John 19:30) Jesus threw His final pain-filled cry into all time at 3pm.
The righteousness of the righteous man will be credited to him, he is the man who holds a new spirit and a new heart - he is a new man...
I wanted to know so much more of this God who would pour His grace and mercy on me. You didn't deserve the wounds you have in your heart.
What price is freedom from sin? It is the 'same price' as our Lord paid. Freedom from sin is apprehended by self-crucifixion.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man.
It is in the shattering of the common-place that a disciple grows. It is in the opening of unexpected paradigms a disciple ventures to higher ground.
I remember watching events unfold on television on November 9, 1989 when the Berlin wall fell. This event reshaped the world.
That first and only Good Friday was our heavenly Dad inviting us all to no longer pen treaties with sin.
At that first Easter The Place of the Skull became the altar to sacrifice God. An improbable messiah, Jesus the Christ stood before the raging the masses.
Betrayal will always fail to explain how much it charges. Then Satan entered into Judas called Iscariot, who was of the number of the twelve.
Your eyes gaze upwards, filling with tears that refuse restraint. It is very dark, not cold, but oh so dark. It shouldn't be, it is only mid-afternoon.
An unconscionable Pilate considered only self-protection. Herod the Tetrarch sought a messianic sideshow. The Jews blindly chose murder for their long awaited Messiah.
Night goggles permit vision in darkness.
Jesus said, "Father forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.
Hollow men make hollow judgements upon others. They only measure exteriors. Such men can do nought else. Jesus was reckoned in this way, even by His kinsmen.
Mankind denies God, abuses God and even attempts to replace Him with a myriad of false gods - mere deceiving demons who are feeble pretenders to gain the worship that...
Returning the third time, Jesus said to them, 'are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. . . the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Old habits die hard. The road of return is easy. Peter was departing his call and returning to his old ways as a fisherman for fish.
The infinite depth of Jesus' righteousness is fully revealed in His cry - forgive them Father for they know not what they do As I tap away, worldwide it is reported...
An already heaving Messiah wept in Gethsemane. It was just one night prior to His crucifixion.
Is Christianity just a decoration, or is there reality back of it? ~ A. W.
Jesus didn’t die a painful and bloody death on the cross to save sinful flesh, but to become sinful flesh.
A dark Muslim stronghold will soon welcome a bold, young Christian family to serve the Lord of Eternal Life - for they have considered their life not their own.
A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country, and they forced him to carry the cross.
"Blessed are those who have not seen and have yet believed.
A second resurrection was soon to happen. A shame-filled Simon Peter fiddled in cold Galilean sand as he sat beached beside Jesus, enjoying the dawn brekkie.
Dawn spawns a new day. Dawns just do that. Without any effort they dispel darkness. With Easter Sunday's new dawn, the only bright eternal dawn arrived.
What truly happened at Calvary? He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. . .
The cross of Christ will always be an offence to the natural man. ~ anon At 3pm Jesus uttered His final pain filled cry into all time.
The transformational journey of Jesus' death and resurrection is the only, and almost always denied—message of salvation's one truth.
Jesus set a model for mankind in the bearing of much pain. There is a green hill far away that our Lord and King forcibly climbed.
It was Easter day. As two disciples walked to Emmaus from Jerusalem, their hearts burned within them, for Jesus too shared their journey.
The Easter story and post-Easter story are rich with surprising events, fulfilled prophecy and the compelling supernatural.
"The empty tomb of Christ is the cradle of the Christian church. " ~ W. R. Nicoll The resurrection is Christianity's make or break day.
At 3pm on that first Good Friday Jesus threw His final pain-filled cry into all time.
By that first Good Friday, as a chilled dawn rose upon God's Son, blind pride had already smothered justice. Jerusalem's violent streets had screamed for His innocent blood.
It is no surprise that the Roman army presided at Jesus' crucifixion. The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, "Surely this was a righteous man.
Easter feeds the soul far longer than its eggs feed the body. Annually Easter pops up to help mankind's unbelief, and feed his good ones.
NOTE TO READER: today's SoulSnack could have been penned last night, but it is nigh 200 years old.
Don't doubt the Cross, refuse to dismiss Calvary. Lay hold of the terrible Cross. Claim His victory.
If I am dead, restless, troubled, enslaved or in chains my mortal coil is hindered in its walk with Jesus. This He does not desire.
Unicorns have stolen human imaginations since the 6th century BC. A horse with a spiralling horn even variously appears in the Bible.
Recently the heavens had been so strange, so dark, so concealed and so empty.
The resurrection of Jesus the Christ nails my mind to grasp yet again at discipleship's true nature. People makes mistakes about Jesus - all the time.
'The stone across the tomb was a mere pebble to He who is The Rock of Ages'. ~ anon. Jesus resurrection was history's 'T Intersection'.
The Kingdom of Heaven and its righeousness does not come with careful observation, but arises as a yeast within believers.
Everyman's preset times and future depends entirely upon where he stands with the Lord, the judge of heaven and earth. There is no other way.
Easter looks for allies. Men and women who will count themselves as Jesus reckoned Himself.
Jesus' Father could do more contain His love to man, than Jesus could contain His devotion to His Father.
Prior to recorded time Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. God placed angelic sentinels with flaming swords at Eden's gateway to prevent mankind's return.
Betrayal will always fail to explain how much it charges. As with Judas, betrayers have first died on the inside before they die 'on the outside'.
Christ's calls are ultimate. He is no soft-serve vendor. It is not self-safety to pursue Him.
In that tomb of God's unjust dying a common napkin was left folded at Jesus' resurrection.
Before Jesus endured the nails, He had to face the military. Jesus' introduction to His death was both a mocking humiliation and a physical assault.
In the familiarity of a deep and personal closeness the Lord responds to His disciples' question - teach us to pray.
Jesus' sticky innocent blood dripped. Matted hair, sunken souls and slumped shoulders all felt it. These four devoted just stood close to Him.
One of the greatest opportunities in history was handed to him on a platter - just travel alongside its finest leader.
An improbable messiah, Jesus the Christ stood before the raging masses.
Tozer knew well the loneliness of a man who would return to Jesus what Jesus had given to him.
Young and proud and very handsome, I desired the earth and stars; I moved from place to place for pleasure- Seeking flesh and serving lust! I had the right to be conceited, I was born...
A parable for the devout and the inattentive alike: Dawn had just broken, yet the early morning cool stubbornly refused to lift.
Boxing imitates life (or death). That great scholar Iron Mike Tyson completely and unwittingly summarised death's experience well when he reflected: everybody got plans until they get hit.
Two unseen lakes rest in life's horizon. They are not twins. They are very far apart. Both lakes are forever.
It shouldn't be hard to navigate a tomb, especially if it's yours. Hmmm . . .
Jesus is dead, so proud men now make more foolish decisions. They went and made the tomb secure by putting a seal on the stone and posting the guard.
A war-torn back, a pure heart and no protection. This was Jesus' chosen lot. The only innocent person to ever draw breath hung pinned to a tree.
Fear arrived at noon. The crucifixion flicked earth's light switch off. ". . . for the sun stopped shining.
Gethsemane holds no pillows, nor any couches. Jesus knelt in Gethsemane. He was already at war. As Jesus conquered evil it crushed His troubled heart.
Before Jesus met the nails, He faced the military. Jesus' window to His crucifixion was as merciless as the hammer.
An already heaving Messiah wept in Gethsemane. It was just one night before Jesus' crucifixion. What is you were in Gethsemane too, hidden but watching.
Pontius Pilate was in a purple pickle. Presented with both lies and the Lord - he could recognize the truth.
Jesus was upright, a man of righteousness. Jesus' crown of thorns was ample visible testimony to the truth that pain attempted to rule Him.
As Jesus gasped His final pained breath on the Cross, the Father tore the temple's dividing curtain downwards.
Faith is no man's jailer. Faith has been betrayed. It has been exchanged for knowledge. Abundant Christian knowledge is spuriously advertised from pulpits.
Three centuries ago the firebrand pulpiteer Jonathon Edwards melted pride and chastened souls with his timeless sermon - Sinners in the Hands of an angry God.
Sung by the luminaries of the entertainment industry for nearly a century is the 1924 Isham Jones penned, and ever-popular song 'It had to be you'.
Jesus has called His believers to faithfulness while promising them fire. We must go through many hardships to enter the Kingdom of God.
The heaven's contain a perfect heart shaped hole. It is where God's love tore the skies apart above Calvary.
I have long reflected upon a small and innocent man sold out by both His treasurer in an ancient garden, and His impulsive boy-like devotee on a cold eastern night...
The world is not fit for Jesus, but His heart still fits this world.
Once upon a time (about three centuries ago really) the firebrand pulpiteer Jonathon Edwards melted pride and chastened souls with his timeless sermon - Sinners in the hands of an...
A second resurrection was soon to happen. Jesus said to them, ‘Come and have breakfast.
Jesus had returned to life, His old habit was living. Jesus' disciples had returned to work, their old habit was fishing. Fishing for food had replaced fishing for men.
In the death-filled vacuum of Jesus' absence, quickly His disciples returned to their previous occupations.
The tomb is empty. Crime-filled pain shreds Mary Magdalene's soul while she hunts for her Lord.
Upon a sinister mount my guilt was removed; undeservedly I gained redemption from my sins. This was the purpose of that first Easter, forgiveness - where there was none.
At 3pm Jesus uttered His final pain filled cry into all time.
Have you ever heard the bellow of blood? Blood screams for satisfaction, it flows for vengeance and demands justice. Yet the bellow of Christ's blood is love NOT retribution.
Returning the third time, Jesus said to them, 'are you still sleeping and resting? Enough. . . the son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Before Jesus' Cross bound body was anointed by torture, His spirit and soul tore from the anguish within; He sought Heaven from Gethsemane.
Your eyes gaze upwards, filling with tears that refuse to be restrained. It is very dark, not cold, but oh so dark. It shouldn't be, it is only mid-afternoon.
Soul Snack 242/14 . . . Inhospitable places to humans are the richest soils of eternity.
Soul Snack 118/14 . . . My image is darkness and my presence is fear. This is what I want; it is always true of me.
Soul Snack 75/14 . . . A frosty Friday dawned upon God's Son; it would prove again that betrayal will suppress justice.
Soul Snack 74/14 . . . Easter is still beaten-up by a world that rejects Jesus. The energy expelled today is equal to the Jews yesterday who bellowed .
Soul Snack 73/14 . . . Three crosses on one hill equals Easter. Easter is the time of life reckoning.
Soul Snack 72/14 . . . Easter leaves death behind. Death will remain forever dissatisfied. Death's headstone is chiseled . . . "I WIN" ~ Jesus.
Soul Snack 69/14 . . . Drenched under the tear laden eyes of heaven, Jesus forgave the malevolently ignorant.
Soul Snack 68/14 . . . A midnight painted Calvary on that first Easter afternoon saw righteousness fenced by robbers. Jesus' life was being stolen.
Soul Snack 67/14 . . . With head-bowed the young man shuffled onto the stage.
Soul Snack 175/10 . . . The Death of God I envisage a judgmental, seated circle of white togas, dusty and sandalled feet, under balding grey heads.
Soul Snack 125/10 . . . The Manic Cross Ragged words were hurled from the cross, they were abandoned into an atmosphere seeping with both resentment and redemption.
Soul Snack 43/10 . . . The Risen Life - C By my early teenage years I had learned the artful skill of 'swapping'.
Soul Snack 9/149 . . . Calvary's claims! A blessing of untold proportions is to have the consciousness of sin.
Soul Snack 9/120 . . . A tiredness alert! Heaven's conquering will mightily crushes the already weary Jesus as He enters Gethsemane.
Soul Snack 9/103 . . . Stealing Jesus! A crime filled canopy shrouds Mary's soul and shadows her spirit.
Soul Snack 9/50 . . . The Boomerang Truth Summoning all the reserves that only a coward could muster, Peter utters his third Denial.
Soul Snack 53/11 . . . A Foolish Fox! Jesus' reputation had preceded Him, it had even penetrated into Herod's palace.