From Palms Down to Palms Up...

As we move from the celebration of Palm Sunday into our work week- the Bible reveals the details of Holy Week and the days that preceded Jesus' death, burial and resurrection... Whatever the normal devotional process is this week, let me encourage you to suspend that and to read each account of this week in parallel, by event or day starting with His triumphal entry into the city on Palm Sunday. The accounts read fast in small bites and reveal slight nuances and distinctions that are fascinating and can be very personal. It is striking to think that in a few short days, palm branches and shouts of "Hosanna!" could become "Crucify him". He would stretch out nail pierced hands and redeem us with His life and three days later rise to punctuate "it is finished" forever, for us. As we read through those accounts this week, let's start each of the few minutes with our palms up, inviting His Spirit to show us more of His Passion for us.

The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,

“Hosanna!” “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” “Blessed is the king of Israel!”

John 12:12 

God Charts The Road We Take

In years gone by, paper maps charted our travels. We could hold them, highlight them, fold them (if you could figure our map folding). In today's world, we often have a GPS or Siri guiding us, more dynamic in many ways, and yet, sometimes when I am stressed on the road, Siri just stays calm, adding to my stress because she cannot answer my questions :0 For the Lord watches over the way of  the godly... Psalm 1:6a  Eugene Peterson in The Message, expands and personalizes that meaning to God charts the road you take. Picture God as a mapmaker or the coder of our navigational devices. Both are detail jobs. The God who had us in mind before the foundation of the world (see Ephesians 1), who wove us together in our mother's womb (Psalm 139), is leaning over His desk, with His masterpiece making hands charting the roads we take each and every day and invites our interaction.

Talk to God for just a minute about the roads He's charted that have been extraordinary. Thank Him for the roads ahead that are in His personalizing, detailing, God-hand crafted map making.

As Leaders, we are asked to chart the roads for others. Do we take the same high view of that as God does for us? There are Leaders who poured that kind of charting into me, as a young Leader. Others have given the handcrafted road charting to me as I have led beside them or with them. This week, let's be aware of the road charting we do for others and invite God into the process, that we might learn from the Master Mapmaker...

A Love Prayer : )

"And this is my prayer:that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ- to the glory and praise of God." Philippians 1:9-11 (NIV)

This prayer of the Apostle Paul here really is a great call to love. As we pursue the path to walk in Christ's love: day by day, hour by hour and even moment by moment- we know that the more we grow in our application of the knowledge and insight God gives us, the more we can love others.

And, the more we love others, the more they will see Jesus in us.

It's a tall order, loving others like Jesus does. Requires our surrender to what Jesus wants for us. Requires laying down our lives for others. Requires seeing others through Jesus' eyes, not ours. And yet, the benefits are great: fruit of righteousness that comes through Christ- to the glory and praise of God.

As we grow in our awareness presence of God's deep love for us more and more in our own lives, we become vessels overflowing with it- and then others will see God's love in us. Jesus gave us a new commandment: to love one another as He loves us (John 13:34-35).

This week, let's write out and pray this prayer, almost as Paul wrote it (with a little help from the New Living Translation or The Message and some personalization from us):

God, you are the One who loves me, even beyond my understanding of how much. Help me to know and walk in that knowledge and overflow of Your love.

I pray that my love will overflow more and more, and that I will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. For I want to understand what really matters, so that I may live a pure and blameless life until the day of Christ’s return. May I always be filled with the fruit of your salvation—the righteous character produced in my life by you, Jesus,—for this will bring much glory and praise to God.