Palm Sunday - Holy Week - Live in Freedom


Today is Palm Sunday. Palm Sunday commemorates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem....Matthew 21:1–9, when palm branches were placed in His path, before His arrest on Holy Thursday and His crucifixion on Good Friday. Again at the end of the Bible, people from every nation raise palm branches to honor Jesus....Revelation 7:9.

Christ’s body was given for you and me; His blood poured out for you and for me. Reflect on Jesus and His greatest gift....offering up His life so that we can live in freedom and with Him throughout eternity. Amen!
“You will show me the way of life granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” Psalm 16:11

The story of the cross and what leads up to Jesus’ death means nothing to those who are not believers. Jesus coming forth from the tomb with His scars still very much present on His body sounds like a fairy-tale to unbelievers. However, to us who are His disciples…to those of us who do believe, it rips our hearts apart when we read or hear intricate details by details of what He suffered for each of us.

Although He had faced so much rejection and knew that rejection would continue to follow until He came again…..He chose to be the Lamb Who willingly went to His slaughter. Why? Because His love for you and me was so great that He allowed Himself to suffer intense agony….far beyond what any words, pictures, or movies could ever paint for us. Just to hear a retelling of His last days, His trials, and His suffering brings me to my knees sobbing without control. Yet, it does not touch His reality.

 “Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, ‘It has come at last salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth - the one who accuses them before our God day and night. And they have defeated him by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony.’”  
How is satan defeated? By the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. Who is “their” in this reading? We are…brothers and sisters in Christ! We WILL defeat satan with our testimonies….how we live our lives….how we share His Truth with the world around us. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and through the testimonies of brothers and sisters – believers….we will overcome ALL evil in this world…We Will Overcome!

"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed." 1 Peter 2:24
Jesus did not die so we could merely live our lives waiting for eternity. He died to give us peace, joy, and freedom while we live on the beautiful Earth that God created. He took ALL of our sins by allowing Himself to bear the burden of our wrongs. In His being wounded....we have been healed. Our past is in the past. God chooses to forget when we repent and turn from our wrong; therefore, we need to do the same. Although we can't forget in the way God does, we can choose to truly forgive ourselves. He forgives AND forgets. So, do not continue to let satan place guilt on you that has long been covered by Jesus' shed blood. We can't live nor serve in the capacity that God, Jesus, and His Holy Spirit desires for us if we continually dredge up our past and  allow it to smother our todays. Rest in the peace, forgiveness, and freedom that Jesus died for. 

As we say at Highlands:

Know God
Find Freedom
Discover Purpose 
Make a Difference 

Happy and Blessed Palm Sunday and Holy Week!







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