JESUS AND A DONKEY

One of my favorite fulfillments of prophecy is the one about Jesus riding on a donkey (Matthew 21:1-11). Have you ever stopped to really think about that?

Usually if a pastor teaches about this story he (or she) will say, “Oh, wasn’t Jesus so humble? He was the Messiah and he road into Jerusalem on an ugly, ungraceful donkey. It’s such a great example of humility for us!”

But actually, for all we know, maybe Jesus really wanted to ride a great white stallion into Jerusalem. The reason he trotted in on a donkey is not necessarily that he wanted to show us humility (everyone, whether Christian or Muslim or Buddhist or Atheist, knows that humility is a great quality), rather, the reason Jesus road into Jerusalem on a donkey and not on a great stallion was simply because prophecy from the Old Testament said he would (Zechariah 9:9).

There are many things that Jesus did that may have seemed weird at the time; a few being: speaking in parables, being crucified as the Passover lamb, and remaining in the grave for three days.  We now know and understand them as the fulfillment of prophecy.

If you really get down to it, if he had not fulfilled just one of these prophecies, if he hadn’t  ridden on the donkey into Jerusalem, for example, then we could actually say: “He wasn’t the Messiah.” Because if Jesus really had God’s spirit he would have KNOWN he had to fulfill these things. Thankfully, he DID fulfill them, and we can trust that God’s spirit was on him.

It’s cool to think about how God really does have a plan and a purpose; he does stick to his word and doesn’t change his mind, even down to the last donkey. It is with his word that we can prepare and trust that his prophesied kingdom (seen in New Testament prophecies) will be completed. It is an amazing God we serve! Amen? ~

WATER OF LIFE

Imagine an IV you can plug into your arm that will allow you to live forever. The Bible promises water that leads to eternal life, here are a few places it is mentioned:

“My People have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” (Jeremiah 2:13)

“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water (from the well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” (John 4:13-14)

“He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the water of life.’” (Revelation 21:6)

“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” (Revelation 22:1)

Jesus gives water, God gives water, and the water flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb. We have a few clues of what that water actually is:

If we look in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy 32:1-2, it says: “Listen, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants.” The teachings and words of God are likened unto rain or dew.

Absence of God’s word is referred to as a famine in Amos 8:11: “’The days are coming,’ declares the Sovereign LORD, ‘when I will send a famine through the land – not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.’” What is a famine caused by? Usually a drought, right?

Conclusion: The water we must drink to obtain eternal life is God’s word which encompasses the words of Jesus. So the question you should be asking yourself is: Am I drinking the RIGHT spiritual water? ~

SPIRITUAL TATTOO

Getting a tattoo is a pretty big decision for many people. It’s something that you are writing on your body permanently (well, now days there is removal, but it’s costly and often leaves scarring). But what about writing something on your heart?

God promised to do this in the New Covenant (Jeremiah 31:31-33, Hebrews 8:7-13). It says: “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people.” Many Christians have no idea what the New Covenant is, or even the Old Covenant for that matter.

Hebrews 8:7 says: “For if there had been nothing wrong with that first covenant, no place would have been sought for another.” And we see that God DID find fault with the first (old) covenant and Jesus was the mediator of a New Covenant. The definition of mediator, among many similar ones, is “to be in a middle or intermediate position.”

We see that Jesus is just that; the old covenant ends when he arrives here (because he is the fulfillment of it), and in Matthew 26:27-29 he starts or establishes the new one through new promises. Jesus says, “I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it anew with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

What is it we always are praying in the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6, “Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” right? We are praying for that time when God’s Kingdom in the spiritual realm comes to earth and, essentially, when we can "drink the cup anew" with Jesus in his Father’s kingdom. That is the moment when the New Covenant is finally complete.

A covenant is a promise or a contract; it has a starting point and an ending point. We can see this from many examples in the Old Testament: Covenants between Adam and God, Noah and God, Abraham and God, and Moses and God. In all of these situations God promised something conditionally. It was always “If you keep this covenant…” The same applies for the New Covenant we have through Jesus. There are conditions we must keep, but also promises and blessings we will receive if we keep those conditions.

Part of the New Covenant is what was earlier stated: writing the law “on their hearts.” God’s word is the law…specifically the NEW promises we have through Jesus. We need to know these promises, so that when they are fulfilled, we will be ready. And hopefully, like a tattoo, they will be written on our hearts and minds for that very reason. ~

FINDING THE NARROW GATE

Matthew 7:13-14 about the narrow and wide gates has always been a convicting passage for me. It says: “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

When we look at the time of Jesus’ first coming we see that Jesus really was that narrow gate. John 10:1-18 talks about this, in verse 7 it says: “Therefore Jesus said again, ‘I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep.’” In contrast we see in Matthew 23:13-14 that the Pharisees and teachers of the law are the wide gate. It says they “shut the kingdom of heaven in men’s faces.”

When Jesus, who had God’s spirit, came to the earth, he exposed all the words, ideals and orthodoxies of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and all other denominations of the Jews at that time, as garbage.

In 1 John 4:1 it says: “Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” So, according to what John says here, we must test what people are saying and doing to know if they are truly from God. This, in turn, will save us from being deceived and will guide us through the narrow gate where we want to go.

How do we test a person’s words and actions? We test them according to the Bible. That is the only tool we have. But, we must test using the Bible accurately. In Matthew 4 Jesus is tempted by Satan. Satan tempts Jesus using the words of God (just like Satan tempted Adam and Eve in the garden by twisting God’s words), but Jesus is able to overcome Satan by using God’s words accurately to fight back.

It’s not easy testing if we don’t know or understand God’s words well enough. We must be always seeking and testing and growing in knowledge and understanding of the Bible so that we can find and go through the narrow gate which Jesus Christ promised us. ~