This will be hard for you and me.  We know.  They don’t.

Walk with me each step.  Let’s experience the joy and the agony.

We will get a fuller glimpse of the Savior if we don’t run ahead.

This is the day!  The first day of Unleavened Bread.  The day to sacrifice the Passover lamb.

Peter and John were tasked with the last of the preparations.  Jesus gave these instructions: “Go into the city, and a man carrying a jug of water will meet you.  Follow him.  Say to the owner of the house he enters, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is my guest room, where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?’ He will show you a large upper room, furnished and ready.  Make preparations for us there.” Mark 14:13-14

Jesus is preparing to leave.  He gathers His robe.  That beautiful, priceless robe that His Mother had made.  The one that is seamless, perfect, just as He is.  It envelopes Him in love and in as much earthly comfort as a Mother can give to her Son.

He leaves the house of His friends, Lazarus, Martha and Mary.  What tender good-byes they must have been. He sets His eyes toward Jerusalem and walks on.  I wonder how far down the road He walked before He looked back?  One last look, then one foot in front of another.

And so they arrive just before the Passover Feast is to begin.  “Having loved his own who were in this world, He now showed them the full extent of His love.”  John 13:1b  John, the Beloved, writes from his heart.  How did he experience Jesus’ love?  In so many ways.  John writes the following words for you and I to know the depth of love that those who walked this earth with Him experienced.

“so He got up from the meal, took off His outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around His waist.  After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash His disciples feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around Him.”  “When He had finished washing their feet, He put on His clothes and returned to His place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you? He asked them.” John 13:5 & 12

He wanted them to get it.  To understand that they were going to need each other very soon and that required humility and sacrifice.  He showed them what to do.  It had to be intimate and personal.  He needed to touch them. With His touch still lingering on their skin He commands and blesses them. “Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.” John 13:17  He speaks protection over them.

It is here that our path takes a turn.  To walk here we all must be brave of heart.

The next steps Jesus takes are laying down stones, forging a new path for His disciples to follow.  He has to tell them, it is only fair that they know.

“After he had said this, Jesus was troubled in spirit and testified, ‘I tell you the truth, one of you is going to betray me.'”  John 13:21

This was ludicrous!  Who would dare?

“Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.  As soon as Judas took the bread, Satan entered into him. ‘What you are about to do, do quickly,’ Jesus told him.” John 13:26-27

The path was set.  It wouldn’t be long now.  Satan had waited.  Satan’s conversation with Jesus in the desert was just a test.  It was a test to see if Jesus could be swayed in His malleable earthly form but Jesus was more than that.  So much more.  So betrayal was the way.  Satan had experience in betrayal.  Lots of it, all the way back to when he had betrayed the God who created him.  Judas Iscariot did as his Master said.

“And He took the bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying ‘This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of Me’.  In the same way, after the supper He took the cup saying, ‘This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.'” Luke 22:19-20

Once again, Jesus lavishes His love on His disciples.  What holy moments we now experience in our communion because of Jesus’ love for His disciples.  We partake because we need to remember.

“A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34

So many things Jesus needs for them to know.  These last moments are not just pouring wine but life into them in every way He can.  How do you end an evening like this… in song, of course.  Have you ever wondered what they sang?  Some Passover hymn probably.  Something they all knew.  Something that bound them as Jews with a rich heritage as the children of God.  How appropriate.

Their bellies were full.  Their minds were full.  It was time to take a walk.

We know where they walked.  The Garden of Gethsemane, peaceful, beautiful, fragrant and holy because Jesus’ chose it to be.  It is here that Jesus’ submits to His Father’s plan of salvation.  He, in heart-wrenching agony, asks one more time if there is another way to save those He loves now and for eternity.  There is a reckoning that sin has to be atoned.  That Passover lambs are not enough.  They will never be enough.

None of them knew that this was the end of the earthly path that they would walk together.  The betrayer would come and with a fatal kiss turn Him over to the guards of the high priest.  Jesus would be ripped from their midst in chaos and confusion.   They would all scatter in fear, running for their lives.

Jesus would be taken before the Sanhedrin.  Testimony after testimony would be given but none of them agreed.  There was no evidence to condemn Him.  Until…“Again the high priest asked Him, ‘Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed one?'”  Mark 14:61b

“I am,” said Jesus. Mark 14:62a

Jesus’ personal confession of His divinity was counted as blasphemy.  They condemned Him to death.  He was spit upon, beat with fist and stick.  Bloodied and exhausted, Jesus walked into His captors arms.  There was no other way.

I don’t know how long or how far Jesus’ disciples ran but when they stopped the world was different.  The straight path they had always walked with Jesus was now a twisted, thorny path before them.  Peter’s even more so.  He would do the unthinkable.  He would do just as Jesus had said.  He would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed twice.  The devastating despair, fear and grief they must have all felt!  The bread like a stone in their stomachs and the wine like vinegar.

I cannot hasten to judge.  I did not walk this path.  We only vicariously trod via verses in our Holy book.  The sadness that overwhelms me at the end of this journey today is lightened because I know what is coming.

Take heart, my friends.  Let us walk from here today doing as the Lord commands.

“A new command I give you: Love one another.  As I have loved you, so you must love one another.  By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34

Tomorrow will be a hard day but join me anyway.  We don’t have to walk it alone; let’s walk together.

Love,

Laura Lea

SaveSave

Seedlings of Faith is so many things –

It is a Spiritual Experience.

A time to connect with God and other Christ followers,

Who desire a life infused by the Savior.  

It also is a time of teaching.

A time to reflect, meditate, ingest & integrate

God’s Word and wisdom into our lives.

In the coming year, let’s share this together.  

It is a part of me

I love sharing with you.  

Grace and Peace, Laura Lea.

Love.  That is what it is all about. 

I want to live a life where this is my normal. 

On those days when things have not gone as I had planned,

which are more days than I would like to admit. 

You know, those days when the dishes sit in the sink,

your voicemail box is full,

you forget to pack your child’s lunch,

you miss the deadline for the project,

you get lunch on your favorite shirt.  Those days…

I want my first thoughts and actions to be to love – love myself

enough to forgive my shortcomings and recognize that God is in my every day. 

None of the everyday unplanned things that happen shake the kingdom of God. 

They are simply small happenings that do not need to shape me or shake me.

So today, I am thankful that God is love. 

That love covers a multitude of sins and casts out all fear. 

My sin of worry, self-doubt and stress. 

My fear of failure, unmet expectations and unworthiness. 

What is the answer?  God is love and if I believe that,

truly without a doubt,

then all that I do WILL BE done in LOVE. 

Praise be to God.

I have found that to be faithful to God I am to live fearlessly.  

Fear is not of God.  

It takes great release, some days, to loosen my grip on my life

and the lives of those with whom I dwell.

I am not a hoarder by nature but you would not know that 

if you looked at the emotional “Me”.  

I hoard my worry and stress and daily cares

like they are piles of laundry that need tending.   

God may have called me to do laundry but He has assured me

that my emotional laundry should never pile up.  

Do I believe God?  

Some days, it is just that simple.  

Other days, I need to sit at His feet and read His Word and know that He is God.  

Do what you need to do to live fearlessly.  Do not be afraid.

Praise be to God.  

Grace and Peace,

Laura Lea

2018 is the Year of Glory!

My sister declared it and I am living it.

Today I am thankful for God’s Glory,

His majesty that permeates the essence of Life.

Take a moment and read each word of the verse above.

It is astounding!

It is mind-blowing

that God created every star

that NASA has given a name or number

and more that we will never see

or even know of their existence in our Earthly lifetime.

As thankful as I am for the Hubble telescope,

I am more thankful for a God that is so personal

that He names His creations.

Amen?

I am so thankful…

Grace and Peace,

Laura Lea

Today I am thankful for Light!

I love January and the newness of a New Year.

It gives me focus and a cold snap seems to help me dig 

deeper into my prayer self. Today I have rejoiced in the Light – the brightness

of God’s Spirit living in and through me! Live Light Today – rejoice 

in the newness He brings to you each day 

because He loves you so much.

I am so thankful…

Grace and Peace,

Laura Lea

Today I am thankful

that from the moment

I open my eyes I am aware

of God’s presence in me.

The dreams, good, bad or

forgotten fade into the

recesses as thoughts of

God flood my mind.  I

admit that first cup assists

in defining my first thoughts

of the day but even before I

feel the rush of the warmth of

His love for me….I am thankful.

#thankfulthursday #seedlingsoffaith

Hope is powerful.  It can sustain

or devastate us. The power of

hope is cradled in our belief

that God is who He says He is.

He is faithful to forgive our sins.

He is faithful to love us even

when we are unlovely.  He is

faithful to walk with us when we

are feeling defeated and alone.

He is faithful to save us from our-

selves.  He is faithful to make himself

known when we seek Him with all of

our heart.  Hope is the inward residue

of a life of Faith.  Praise be to God.

thankful for resolutions. Did you make

any this year? I would love to hear them.

I made 3 that I think encompass me. My

overarching desire this year is to be lovely.

This year let us be thankful for a God who

loves us so intently and so well that when

we spend time with Him we leave more

lovely…

Grace & Peace, LL