You Are Like Barabbas~

Mark 15:15 “Pilate set Barabbas free and turned Jesus over for whipping and crucifixion.”

This past Sunday night the National Geographic Channel played Killing Jesus, and it was the highest rated show in their network’s history.  It is such a compelling, life-changing, life-giving story, and I am happy that over three million people saw it.  This particular production was of the highest quality, and those crucifixion scenes were particularly realistic.  It was hard to watch the thorn of crowns being placed on Christ’s head and watch Him carry His own cross.  And it always reminds me of Barabbas.

In Bible days it was a custom during the time of Passover to release a prisoner.  Seems kind of dangerous, but nonetheless, when it was time to pick the lucky fellow who would be absolved, Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor of Jerusalem who had all the decision-making authority, skipped right over the innocent Jesus and set Barabbas – a convicted murderer –  free. 

Jesus never did one thing wrong, but Barabbas? He should have paid for his crimes.  He deserved it, right?

And then I was reminded of a little conversation that God and I had last year.

“Yenisita, You are like Barabbas.”

“Say what? I have never killed anybody.”

“No, my precious girl, you haven’t. There’s a bunch of stuff you haven’t done and never will. But are you perfect? You still need forgiveness, don’t you? You still need Jesus, don’t you?”

“Yes I do – a lot – every second of every day I need Him.”

“Jesus took Barabbas’ place and yours. You are free.”

“Thank You, my Lord, I love You.”

“And I love you, Yenisita.”

When we do something wrong there’s a price to pay. But we don’t have to pay for our sins; Jesus did that already.  All we have to do is accept His gift of forgiveness.  As we gather this weekend with family and friends to celebrate what my mom used to call, “Resurrection Sunday,” let us count our blessings and remember that Jesus took Barabbas’ place and ours!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for the forgiveness we have in Jesus.  We have been set free to love this life and live it to the full. We have been set free to love others and help them understand their freedom as well. Most importantly, we have been given eternal life. In Jesus’ name, AMEN~

We Don't Even Have to Say Amen!

“I will answer them before they even call to me. While they are still talking about their needs, I will go ahead and answer their prayers!” Isaiah 65:24

Sometimes we find ourselves praying about something for an extended period of time, and we get discouraged because the answer is long in arriving.  But then there are those extra-special moments when the answer arrives by the time we say, “Amen!”

Yesterday the good Lord allowed me to be part of one of those extra-special moments.  Jorge and I were driving around town when out of the blue Jorge suggests that rather than selling this “thing” we had we should try and donate it and, “Why don’t you call so and so and see if they know someone who needs it?”

I called “so and so,” and little did I know that literally as we were on the phone talking, Pastor J. from so and so’s church was on the phone talking to someone else about how another pastor and his family who arrived from Cuba less than a week ago were in great need of the very thing Jorge and I wanted to give away.

Within a few minutes we cut out the middleman, and I spoke directly to Pastor J.  It was an incredible feeling to know that Jorge’s “out of the blue” suggestion was used by God to provide for a beautiful family who are here in America and starting a ministry of their own.  The most amazing part was that while Pastor J. was “still talking about the needs of this family,” God was already in the process of answering!

Jorge and I sat in stunned silence for a few minutes and marveled at how amazing God is.  Later that evening, Pastor J. showed up at our house to take a peek at the “thing,” and he was so grateful and went on and on about how it exceeded his expectations.  I was humbled by his appreciation and glad that God allowed me to be a part of this whole thing.  It was such a great feeling, and I am still reeling in the afterglow of blessings!!!

And as God’s children we can all be certain that when necessary, God will answer our prayers while we are still talking about our needs!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You that we don’t even have to say “Amen” for You to answer our prayers.  You have perfect timing, and it comforts us greatly to know that we will always receive the answer at the right moment!  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

***NEWS FLASH***ALERT***NEWS FLASH***ALERT***

 God does not think the way you think, and the way you work isn’t the way He works!  (Isaiah 55:8 The Message version)

I hope the verse above doesn’t catch any of us by surprise, but I bet we have all, at one time or another, felt confident that we could do a better job than God.  Certainly there are things He has allowed that we would have never let happen, or things He didn’t do that we would have hardily endorsed. 

This kind of thinking is dangerous because it undermines trust in God.  And over the years when I have been tempted to question Him, I always read the verses that follow the one above:

        “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so the way I work surpasses the way you work, and the way I think is beyond the way you think. Just as rain and snow descend from the skies and don’t go back until they’ve watered the earth, doing their work of making things grow and blossom, producing seed for farmers and food for the hungry, so will the words that come out of my mouth not come back empty-handed. They’ll do the work I sent them to do, they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.” (Verses 9-11)

This passage teaches us that every Word from God is prosperous and filled with life to heal, save, protect, and provide for us, and that they will work hard to complete their God-given assignment.  And when they return it will never be empty-handed.  Along the way they will have inspired, encouraged, handed out generous amounts of peace, covered wounds in love, filled lives with hope, and provided a safe haven for fearful, freaked out souls who have turned their hearts toward the Heavenly Father, which has always been and will always be the goal of the Word.

I am so thankful that God’s Word is there to help me blossom and nourish me, and that He, the Mighty Lord, is the One Who does the work.  I shudder to think what would happen if I had the ability to do what I want to do whenever I want to do it.  As we approach Easter Sunday and we become a little more contemplative than usual about Jesus, let us remember that there is no greater distance than between Heaven and earth.  That’s how much higher and better are God’s ways of doing things than our own.  And that’s how far He was willing to send His Son to bridge that gap between Him and us.

PRAYER: Dear Lord,  As we pray we thank You that there is no distance between us.  You are right here next to us, and we welcome Your Word into our lives knowing that It is doing something excellent to prosper our souls.  You are so good, and we ask for forgiveness for the times we thought we knew better.  Heaven forbid! In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen! 

Heart Conditions~

Luke 8:8 “Others were planted on good ground. When they came up, they produced a hundred times as much as was planted."

Greetings,

Yeah! Good ground! That’s what we have been waiting to hear about.  No more hard, dry, gravelly, or thorn-filled soil to talk about.  And for those of us who yearn for a 100-fold return, it is important that we retain God’s beautiful Word in our hearts no matter what.

Jesus explains: “The seeds that were planted on good ground are people who also hear the Word. But they keep it in their good and honest hearts and produce what is good despite what life may bring.”

I am pleased to report that I have personally met many of you DEVO readers, and that you are the persevering, patient, enduring kind of folks who bear fruit. 

You pray until you receive the answer, you keep God’s promises close until you witness the miracles in your lives, you keep on believing the truth no matter how dark the days are.  God’s seed has made its way into your good and honest hearts and nothing – not pecking birds, a dry, arid surface, or a thorn within a million miles – is going to take it away. 

No disease, rebellious kid, ding dong spouse, financial struggle, disappointments, feelings of worthlessness, depression, loneliness, doubt, (fill in the blank), are going to scoop in and leave you fruitless.  And when you enjoy seasons of worry-free living and multiple blessings, you won’t forget Who made it possible!

In this passage Jesus teaches that there are four heart conditions – three of which produce nothing good or nothing at all, and one which produces an abundance of goodness and fruit.  I choose that one, and the way to make sure the soil is prime to receive it all is by staying connected with Christ!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, we choose You.  Even now as we pray You are nourishing and strengthening our hearts to receive and then keep Your Word in our hearts.  We all desire to produce a hundred times more than what was planted.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~ 

Enjoy Life's Pleasures, but...

Luke 8:7,14 “Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants…The seeds that were planted among thorns are people who hear the word, but as life goes on the worries, riches, and pleasures of life choke them. So they don't produce anything good.”

Riches and pleasures – that’s the second half of the equation that Jesus talked about saying that the Word of God sometimes is choked when we are too busy enjoying life.

But wait – look at what the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 5:19, “And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life – this is indeed a gift from God.”

Health, wealth, pleasure...these are gifts from God.  In and of itself, there is nothing wrong with enjoying life.  It’s when we forget to include God in our life, when we forget to thank Him for our blessings, when we get so wrapped up in having fun that we eventually forget God is the One responsible for all the good we enjoy – that’s the kind of behavior that leads to low productivity.

Actually, Jesus says that when we are consumed with riches and pleasures we don’t produce anything good, and this makes perfect sense to me.  If always having fun and the money to finance all that pleasure were enough in life, rich and famous people would never commit suicide or get in trouble for bad behavior. 

I have often heard that, “So and so had everything.  Why did he kill himself?”  I have had that reaction myself.  This proves that wealth, fame, prestige, and fun are not enough.  There has to be something more to make sense of life.      

The key is to enjoy these gifts from God but not at the expense of God.  To live life joyfully but with the awareness that God is our Father, Protector, Provider, and Source of every blessing, and to always have a prayer of thanks at the ready.

That is the formula for true success.  When the seed heads our way, we water them with gratitude and stay connected to Christ.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, We thank you for blessing us with so much.  Forgive for those times when we have been too busy having fun that we have forgotten about You.  Sometimes we only come to you when there a crisis and completely ignore You when everything is going smoothly.  You are the reason we are breathing, and wealth and health come from You.  We never want to choke the life-giving seed You desire to plant in our lives by being too busy for You.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~

Choke Our Worries~

Luke 8:7 “Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants.”

Greetings, all you beautiful and blessed children of God,

Repeat after me: I am a victorious and precious child of the living God, and therefore I am blessed today wherever I go and in whatever I do!

Back to farming…

So far we have examined seed that fell onto a hardened path where it won’t grow because the ground is impenetrable.  And we have looked at the gravelly ground where the seed, for the tiniest moment, sprouted only to wither away at the first hint of trouble.  Today we look at the seed that fell among thorns.

Jesus explains: “The seeds that were planted among thorns are people who hear the word, but as life goes on the worries, riches, and pleasures of life choke them. So they don't produce anything good.”

In this scenario the seed grew, but the thorns grew right along with them and eventually choked the life-giving goodness out of them. 

We will get to riches and pleasure later, but I will say right off the bat that there is nothing wrong with enjoying both.  But let’s focus on worrying, which sometimes has a way of occupying so much of our thoughts that little by little we squeeze out God until He is entirely out of the picture.

You would think that the more we worry the more we would turn to God for help and comfort, but that’s not always the case.  Sometimes, our brains tilt toward an overload of worry to the point that we completely forget about God.

Just ask the daughter who was so consumed with caring for her elderly parent that before she knew it a month had gone by without her praying.

Talk to the businessman whose company was in serious financial difficulty, and he was so preoccupied with trying to save his business that he pushed God into a corner and forgot about Him.

And then there’s the mom whose teenager was giving her trouble. In between trying to help him graduate high school and caring for everyone else’s needs, God kept going further down on her list of priorities until He was no longer on the list.

I am pretty sure we can identify with these folks.  Isn’t it interesting that initially, both the seed and the thorns grew side by side?  But left unchecked, the thorns choked them to where nothing good was produced.  No peace, patience, faith, endurance, or wisdom anywhere. 

We must all do some weeding, and by that I mean PRAYING!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, We come to You today and take this time to connect with You.  We are grateful that as we pray, You are choking the life out of the worry that sometimes consumes us.  Refresh our souls today.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~  

A Gravelly Heart~

“A farmer went out to sow his seed...and some fell in the gravel; it sprouted, but withered because it didn’t have good roots...(Luke 8:5 Message Version).”

Lessons in farming cont…

Some of the seeds the farmer sowed fell in the gravel.  They actually sprouted only to wither

away without good roots to keep them in the ground.  Jesus explains that, “The seeds in the gravel are those who hear with enthusiasm, but the enthusiasm doesn’t go very deep. It’s only another fad, and the moment there’s trouble it’s gone.”

Interesting, people, very interesting.  Right off the bat I am reminded of a story I once heard. 

A young wife and mother was struggling in her marriage. She and her husband were united in almost everything, but she was a church-goer, and he was not.  It became a really difficult topic between them, and she was very discouraged.  She wanted her husband to come to church with her and the kids, but he was not interested. Then one Sunday she came home from church super excited about the sermon she had just heard based on this passage: “Some husbands may not obey God's word. They are indifferent to any words about God. Their wives could win these men for Christ by the way they live without saying anything.  Their husbands will be captivated by their life of holy beauty. What matters is the wife’s inner disposition (1 Peter 3:1-2).”  

The game plan sounded easy enough: Don’t preach, don’t nag, don’t pester. Rather, cultivate inner beauty. The thought of captivating her husband and winning him to Christ by focusing on herself was appealing to her as well as encouraging.

But then reality set in.  That very same afternoon, hubby made a comment that if she hadn’t gone to church, they could have set out earlier to a football game.  And now there was so much traffic…

The words that she responded with can not be shown here, but honestly, I am inclined to give this girl a break.  Nevertheless, he knew how to push her buttons, and she, at the first sign of trouble, lost all her enthusiasm for taking the high road and keeping her mouth shut.   

What went wrong?  It sounds so judgmental to say that her heart was gravelly and that’s why the seed had trouble taking root.  Truth is, we all have gravelly hearts sometimes.  We know what God says in His Word, we know what we should do, we have every intention of doing it — of loving, forgiving, serving, giving, praying…but then something happens and we give up.  The Bible says we give up because the enthusiasm doesn’t go deep enough.  The way to get enthusiastic and stay enthusiastic about God is to connect with Him daily.  It is by communicating with God via prayer that we grow strong, deep roots -- roots that are deeply embedded in supernatural faith, the kind that is enough to survive setbacks and disappointments.  

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for not being mad at us.  You accept us even when we are less than enthusiastic that You are our Father and that all Your power, glory, and protection is available to us.  When we do have those moments when the seed withers away, You are right there reminding us to shovel that gravel away and make way for new seeds.  Thank You! In Jesus’ name, AMEN!  

At All Times~

I am really good at not taking care of my plants.  I have shared before how I have a brown thumb – the antithesis of having a green one.  That’s one of the reasons I have succulents now; they barely require maintenance.  Yesterday, as I was putt-puttering around doing chores, I decided to water some older plants on my terrace, and it was sad to see how dry some of them were.  It took forever for the water to penetrate that tough upper crust of dried up soil, and that’s when my mind came back to Tuesday’s DEVO – especially the part about how some seeds land on hard ground and before they have a chance to blossom are devoured. 

All day I thought about certain seasons in my life where I stayed close to Jesus during struggles and heartache, and then I thought about one particular season where I know God desired to come in and soothe my weary soul, but I wouldn’t let Him.  It’s not so much that I flat out told Him to stay away, but more like me attending church because I was used to it, listening to the great sermons, clapping enthusiastically during the music, and then heading out the door as if nothing happened.  Hardy and nourishing seeds were thrown my way, but I was so discouraged, so sick and tired of being sick and tired, so weary in my faith, so sure that God wouldn’t answer my prayers because certain things had gone on for so long, that I just closed up.  The entrance to my heart was dry and crusty.

I regret all the spiritual nourishment I wasted, and so does my soul.  But I have learned to stop looking back and to continue looking forward to all the joy that awaits. 

Today’s DEVO is a simple reminder to keep your heart open to the Lord.  He desires to help us by providing us with comfort and guidance from scripture.  But it is up to us if we will allow it to take root.  Psalm 62:8 tells us how to do it: “Trust in Him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge." The key is to trust AT ALL TIMES - even during those times that do not make sense. If we do that, if we pour out our hearts to Him, then our hearts remain open to receive from Him. GLORY!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, Thank You for being our refuge.  Help us to pour out our hearts to You always so that there is always a fresh flow of blessings in and out.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN~   

Protect Our Hearts~

Farming cont…

Several years ago I visited Parrot Jungle, and like everyone else, I bought some parrot food and proceeded to feed the beautiful, talkative birds.  Just before I opened up my pellet-filled palm to a gorgeous red parrot with blue, green, and yellow plumage, I heard an employee say, “These parrots are harmless and fun loving…”

Next thing I knew the bird had eaten all the food and was ferociously clamped down on my knuckle. It hurt like crazy, but what was I going to do? Was I going to scream bloody murder in front of all the little children who were there?  I felt like punching the bird in the beak, but I just shook my hand vigorously slightly whispering, “Ouch! Ouch!” and it flew away.  The employee assured me that, “This has never happened before; he just really liked the food and got a little excited,” and then offered me a little bag of ice.  No need to call the paramedics as there was no bleeding. 

So I kind of know, through my painful experience, how much birds like seeds.  It’s an analogy that God uses in the Bible to describe one of the ways His life-giving Word becomes ineffectual in our lives.   

Luke 8:5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the footpath and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.”

In verse 12 Jesus explains: “The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.”

God wants us to have a rich, fertile, heart where the seeds of His Word will grow and produce a beautiful, nourishing crop – a crop that will provide every single thing we need to live a blessed life. 

But…

Sometimes our heart is more like a well-traveled footpath.  Everyone and everything has walked all over us and our heart is hardened.  Much like a trampled road, nothing can penetrate it.  The seed that does land there is quickly devoured by the enemy of our souls, and then come the consequences.  No believing, no saving, no nothing…

Birds will always go to where the seeds are; they will flock to them because it’s in their nature.  Likewise, the devil will also do his best to make sure the precious Word is devoured before it can produce any real benefits.

All these verses on the farmer were written to get our attention.  And as we continue in this series, we will end on good news. I promise!

PRAYER: Dear Lord, The most important request we have today is for You to heal our hearts.  Some of us have been through the wringer, and we need You to renew our hope and faith.  Soften our hearts to receive Your Word.  The enemy of our souls does not want us to have peace, but You do.  It starts with prayer!  Protect our hearts. In Jesus’ name we pray, AMEN~