The Donkey Got It

In light of Holy Week and with the passing of Palm Sunday, my attention was turned from the traditional view of the “Triumphant Entry” to view it from the standpoint of the donkey.  Let me start by saying that the entry in Luke 19 is not triumphant by any stretch…for it should be titled the “Meek and Humble Entry”.  For Jesus didn’t come on regal horse back but on a lowly donkey.  If you want to see the Triumphant Entry that is still yet to come you need to look at Revelation 19:11-16.  Where Jesus comes in glory riding on a white horse followed by the armies in heaven on white horses…now that is triumphant!

However, you can not have the latter entry without the former.  It would be unjust to have judgement without first having a way of redemption.  The sole purpose for Jesus’ coming the first time was to redeem and to set the captives free…unfortunately only two fully understood this that day.  For the crowds wanted to set Jesus up as king, to overthrow the Romans and restore peace and order…but you can’t have the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that Revelation 19 describes until there has been a chance to be redeemed by the suffering servant.  For “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us”.

As  I mentioned before, only two got it: Jesus and the Donkey, and for that we need to look at this story in light of Exodus 13.

“But every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb;

and if you will not redeem it; 

then you shall break its neck.” --Exodus 13:13a

The donkey understood, unlike the other animals, that it needed to be redeemed. The anthem of the donkey was redemption or death, and it knew better than all the others its need for a redeemer!  The very reason, I believe, Jesus chose the colt was because it parallels with our need for a redeemer…you and I can chant the same anthem: Redemption or Death!

“Go into the village opposite you, 

where as you enter you will find a colt tied,

on which no one has ever sat.

Loose it and bring it here.

And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you loosing?’ 

thus you shall say to him,

‘Because  the Lord has need of it.’ ” --Luke 19:30-31

The four parallels in these two verses can resinate with everyone of us (the first two show our state before Jesus and the later two show what Jesus does with ones life).  The first thing we notice is that the colt was tied.  Just like the cold was in bondage so too we are born into bondage as a slave to sin. The second is no one ever sat on it, indicating a lack of brokenness in their life.  Jesus has no need for a prideful “self made man” but is always interested in a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart.   Thirdly, we see what happens after redemption…there is freedom as He looses it setting the captives free.  This is when we find ourselves at the opening of His empty tomb…freed from our guilt and shame and sin that so easily ensnares us!  Lastly, Because the Lord has need of it…we are saved to serve.  It is only after we freed from bondage of sin, broken of ourselves, living our newfound freedom in Christ, that we can truly serve as have been created and called to do.

There is one thing that I didn’t mention, and that is…Jesus didn’t go after the donkey himself, but chose to use his disciples and to give them a part in the redemption of this donkey.  He is still using those who are the redeemed to go out into the world and seek out those who are needing a redeemer…Jesus…the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the World!

A "New" Old Word

The new year is upon us and like most evangelicals, we look for God to speak to us personally in a fresh new way.  We love to have a "new" word from the Lord, direction and vision, something that will bring about purpose and fulfillment...and boy do I have a word for you! Seriously, I don't have any new revelation, but I do have something that I feel that Lord was pressing upon my heart before the year even started...but is very much for this year.

I think we all want to live a life that matters and to have a reason to get up in the morning...other than just to go to work.  We know that we have been created for something more and search and search for it, but I can't think of anything more precious, more valuable, more rewarding than a life lived for Christ.  Nothing beats a life of holiness! Nothing compares to a life that is ordered by Jesus. 

So that brings me to the verse that the Holy Spirit was ministering to me about before the holidays:

He has shown you, O man, what is good; 

and what the Lord requires of you but to do justly, 

to love mercy, 

and to walk humbly with your God?  --Micah 6:8

I am encouraged that God is not revealing something new...this not a "new word for 2015", but rather it is His heart. He is the same yesterday, today and forever...the first and the last...and what He desires of you and I is made really clear! What He has for us is good or His desires for us are of pleasant things. After all, He is the loving father that wants to give good gifts to His children and to refine us more and more into His image.  That day by day we resemble Him more and more.

So, as all loving Fathers do, He has requirements for His children.  He expects those of us that bear His name to act like Him...to accurately represent Him to those around us.  As heirs we are to operate in His authority. We as His children have  been brought into the family business of reconciliation and restoration...and that can only be done through forgiveness!

This starts with you and I living justly or living lives of righteousness.  To be holy as He is holy...to be set apart, and this starts with us being obedient to I John 1:9

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins 

and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We are far from perfect and full of sin. The first thing here comes with us agreeing with God on His terms about our sin.  Not making excuses, not ignoring it, not calling it by another name...but simply agreeing with Him that we are wrong.  To repent, in the Biblical sense, to think about our thinking again...to reconsider what or why we did what we did.  After that we just need to accept His grace and forgiveness and allow Him to do that cleansing work by the Holy Spirit.  Because of what Jesus already did for you and I on the cross, God already views us as righteous...not because we did anything.  There is nothing more freeing than accepting His forgiveness and then allowing Him to clean house!

Forgiveness is a pleasant and good thing that He desires of us. Both to accept it for ourselves and to give it freely to others.  He has shown us and desires us to be a people that love mercy!  We are to be someone who seeks reconciliation and restoration of people and that can only be done through forgiveness.  What would it look like if all the people who profess Jesus as Lord...loved to forgive?  We have seen this modeled to us by what Jesus did us on the cross.  It is because our sin separated us from being in a relationship with Him (because a holy and sinless God cannot be in relationship with unholy and sinful people).  It was Him who called us back to Him at the cross, back into a relationship...it was there that we accepted His offer of forgiveness.  Because He did this for me, I am compelled and expected to do this for others.

Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, 

put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering; 

bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, 

if anyone has a complaint against another; 

even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.  --Colossians 3:12-13

In the cases of helping those with deep spiritual wounds, I have found that the lack of freedom and spiritual healing, they are experiencing, comes from  harboring bitterness due to unforgiveness.  This poison not only will affect you but those that come in contact with you.  Now, you might be saying that you can't forgive because of the tremendous hurt and pain that was done to you, and that is true.  However, it is amazing when we can't do it in our own strength, Jesus is able to forgive them.  He invites us to give Him our heavy burden of unforgiveness and bitterness and to allow Him to "replace the years the locus have eaten".  He is the Great Physician who came to bring deep spiritual healing...if you'll let Him.  The heart of the Father is that His children be free to forgive and generous with their forgiveness.  Bitterness and unforgiveness allow the enemy to gain strong holds in our lives...making us captives.  Jesus came to set the captives free!  Freely you have received, so freely give!

This lifestyle is not something I chose in bits and pieces but accept the whole thing.  The term "walk humbly" can be said "bent over".  Not "bend over" because that would imply that you chose to be in that position and you can choose to not be in that position.  However, "bent over" implies that it was done to you with your acceptance.  I watched a documentary on Russia's Toughest Prisons and when they move a prisoner from one place to another He is bent over in a "submissive posture".  There is not pride in that posture, and it makes it difficult to run out ahead.  The prisoner simply has to accept it and follow his leader.  Now, don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying that we are prisoners or that we are forced into submission, but in order to walk with God we need to let Him lead.  We need to accept a posture of humility before Him...because we know ourselves and what we have done, as well as what He has done for us.  We accept His way of doing things because it is a far better and healthier way.  We need to be someone who accepts and desire forgiveness, reconciliation and restoration.

What would this new year look like with this old word implemented in your life? 

Being Present

I love when you read a passage in scripture and you see it in a different light; when the Holy Spirit uses scripture to illuminate scripture simply to entourage you.  Recently when I was serving a week as a counselor at a Royal Family Kids summer camp I experienced this. It was not only what I needed for the week, but what some of the other counselors needed as I shared this simple truth and mindset. As I have said in other posts on this same subject, Joy is not an emotion but rather simply a state of mind. My circumstances around me might be depressing or frustrating or overwhelming...yet I can remain joyful. I'm definately not happy by what is happening to me or around me, but my choice to be joyful is separate from everything else that is going on...could you imagine if joy worked like happiness!

As I was sitting on a pouch swing outside my cabin, reading through the Book of Acts, the morning the campers arrive. I was encouraged by reading and meditating on Acts 3:19...

Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, 

so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.

It is in those times of being in His presence that we are refreshed and renewed. It in that place that we experience what David had experienced in Psalms 16:11...

In your presence is fullness of Joy;

at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

I have always viewed the joy in God's presence as being something that would happen when I showed up, not because I brought it...but more like the light coming on when the refrigerator door is opened. We know that the light is there but its not on until engaged. That my friend could not be farther from the truth! No the presence of the Lord is joy and it is always that way with or without me being there...because God is Joy. When you and I enter into His presence we are entering into joy that has been going on from before eternity and will continue far beyond it! That is the same joy that you and I have the privilege of choosing to experience, and we are encouraged to boldly enter into His throne room of grace and receive the pleasures He has in hand for us!

However, looking back at the first part of Acts 3:19...REPENT! We are saved and washed in the blood of Jesus and we as His children have access to our Heavenly Father, but our sin, guilt and shame keep us from entering into His presence. The enemy lies to us and uses our weakness and sin to keep us from experiencing the Joy of Lord as well as all of the other blessing He has for us, his children. That is why it is so important for us as followers of Jesus to constantly be going to the cross, repenting and leaving our sin, guilt and shame that that we may daily receive refreshing and renewing as His mercies are new every morning.

Another area that we need to repent from, that is not sin in and of itself...is busyness. We can be busy for all the right reasons and robbed of being in fellowship and communion with on the very one that has saved us. I know that serving in the ministry can do this very same thing. I then wonder why I'm overwhelmed and stressed out and burdened...it is because I have a lesser thing keep me out of God's presence. Therefore, we need to repent from anything that would separate us from tapping into His joy and blessing and strength for our daily lives.

One of the things the enemy knows he can rob from us by keeping us out of God's presence is the strength that His joy brings to face the trials and testing that come our way. The enemy wants nothing more than see God's children, who are more than conquerers in Christ Jesus, walking as weak and powerless christians. That is why Nehemiah could say that "the Joy of the Lord is your strength".So for myself that week, I made a conscience effort to stay present in the His presence. No matter how tired or overwhelmed, happy or frustrated...I was not going to allow anything to keep me from experiencing the joy in my Father's presence and tapping into the strength I needed that can only come from His joy. 

Lastly, if this is not you then be converted to Jesus. Let him be your joy and your strength. Let him forgive you of your sins and blot them out...that is why he died for you on the cross and rose three days later concurring death! Let him by his Holy Spirit escort you into his presence to experience true joy and peace and be strengthened today.