Heart in Bloom

“The four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John gives us a graphic description of Christ our Savior’s suffering death of a glorious resurrection.

It is time to be especially aware of the great sacrifice made by the Holy Lamb if God. So let’s follow our Lord’s footsteps in the plan of salvation foretold by the Old Testament prophets thousands of years before the birth of Christ.

The preparation was being made for Jesus to soon become the unblemished sacrificial Lamb of God, pouring out His Holy and innocent blood for the sins of the entire world. God has forgiven us by sending His son to teach us. Every time we fail to forgive others, we reject Christ’s love and sacrifice.

Christ knew that His time was short and He needed to pray and meditate to prepare himself for the great suffering that was just ahead of Him. A number of times He went a short distance away to pray alone, but each time He returned He found His disciples asleep having to wake them up again, asking them to pray. Jesus asks you and I to pray too. He wants us to pray for ourselves and for others. He wants us to pray often.

When He returns, will He find you asleep spiritually like his disciples? Or will we be praying and doing the Will of God our Father?

Realizing what was ahead of Him, Jesus soon realized that it was His Father’s Will for Him to suffer and die, because it was the Only way to redeem mankind from sin and eternal death. Like Jesus, we must be willing to make any sacrifice necessary. It is those times when we professed to be a christian, and maybe even worshipped in church, but then turned from Christ’s teachings of love to pursue our sinful and selfish ways. We pretended to be a disciple of Christ, but our actions indicated otherwise.

Today the scriptures continue to be fulfilled including our Lord’s prophecies concerning “the End of This Age.” But are we ready for His coming? You and I don’t know when Jesus might come again. We don’t know how long we are going to live. Our life might end quickly and without warning, and when it does, we will be seeing Jesus coming in the clouds of Glory! In the books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is a journey through the scriptures we will witness the glorious resurrection of Jesus our Savior. We will hear Christ’s promises of resurrection for all who believe and trust in God’s promises.

If any man will come after me let him DENY himself and take up his cross and DAILY follow me. – Luke 9:23″

Reading this message today, that my grandmother wrote years ago it draws up emotions within me. Why? Because I was asleep spiritually and was pretending to follow Christ. I was not sourcing my worth or my actions from God. My source was the world. I wanted to be well versed on pop culture. I held pride in being liked by many people, knowing many popular songs, having “cool” dance moves, being a “yes man” so I came across as fun in the eyes of the world. I wanted to impress people with things I knew they liked. I was holding onto a version of myself that was so focused on the temporary and people.

I thought I was a “good person”, kind, that I was doing the right things. All the while I was missing a very simple point. I wasn’t following in Jesus’ footsteps. I was like the fig tree in Mark chapter 11. I had leaves, but no fruit. I appeared okay, but I was actually decaying on the inside. My spirit was decaying.

I was trying to feed myself with anything and everything, but it was not filling me. It was killing me. My food source was everything but God.

Are you filling your life with God or are you rotting on the inside? If you are rotting spiritually, please know there is hope. That is why the Bible calls it “good news.” Jesus is the way to living water. (John 4:13-15)

If we feel a quiet nudge that something isn’t right in our life, it is not, and we need to listen to that still small voice. Our flesh tries to convince us that we are doing the “right” thing when we make choices that satisfy us in the moment.

If you are lost, Jesus is the light in the darkness! (John 8:12)

Whether you know better, grew up in church, never knew God, or if you’re anywhere in between. Not sure where to start? Go to the Bible, read the gospels for yourself. Find a church that speaks scripture directly from the Bible. Call out to Jesus for help verbally. Ask him to forgive you of your sins. Repent today. The true meaning of repentance is to turn away from your sins. Turn to God, surrender, and let go of your life and give it to Him fully.

Don’t take His sacrifice for granted. He loves you and wants a personal relationship with you!