03/19/2024
This coming Sunday being Palm Sunday makes today’s lesson all the more pertinent. There are three Sunday's when people attend church who don't typically come, and this is one of them. This is not a time to judge them, or look down our noses on them in pious condemnation of their faith, but to rejoice in their presence there with us, and embrace them. This is the time to open our hearts to them, and to smell the aroma of their religion and God as they are drawn back to the Church to seek, believe, and worship. May they fill the church pews, and the scent of their devotion waft over us on these holy days. They are the temple just as we, who might come to church every Sunday, are the temple… beware lest we destroy God’s Temple and destroy ourselves.
“Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are that temple.”
1 Corinthians 3:16-17 ISV
Devoting ourselves to our Lord is not simply the flower of our faith; it is the stem and root which sustains our religious belief. As I mentioned earlier, this coming Sunday is Palm Sunday and many people will attend church on this morning who don't typically grace its pews. Although I am more than glad they come to church, I would also like for them to understand that they are missing a greater blessing of their faith by not feeding themselves each Sunday, and indeed daily, with the devotion their souls are found to be starving for. The Lord is much more than a crutch when we are injured... He is a staff to lean on when we are tired, a horn to blow when we are happy, and our confidant when the world bears down on us... He is our joy, our comforter, our healer, and our friend when none can be found. Isn't a relationship like this worth our devotion? Do you feel welcome in His house?
"The spirit of devotion is not merely the aroma of religion, but the stalk and stem on which religion grows." E.M. Bounds
When we are sitting in church this weekend, and next Sunday on Easter morning, let’s concentrate on what we are really doing there; let’s contemplate what we are celebrating on these days, and the price that was paid to restore us to God... pure, and sin free. God may be our casual acquaintance now but He wants to be so much more than that, and for this to happen it will require something of us as well… our dedication and belief.
Soon we will be hearing the most wonderful love story ever told, and as we do let’s remember that it isn't fiction, but an event that really happened, and not by accident. Jesus went to the cross and defeated sin and death for us! Do you really appreciate the enormity of this? It's easy to separate ourselves from church, and call on Him as the occasion requires, but that is selling Him short and we are missing out on the greatest relationship we could possibly experience. God loves us; He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten son for us!
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”
John 3:16-17 ESV
On this morning long ago, Jesus entered Jerusalem on His way to what He knew was His crucifixion. He did this because of you and me. The odor of that experience would have been of incense, and fresh cut palm branches, but it would soon be replaced by the pungent odor of sweat, blood, and bile before finally, with the stone rolled back, becoming the sweet wafting smell of frankincense and myrrh.
“When the Sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him.”
Mark 16:1 ESV
This Sunday when the aroma of religion is strong in the church and in our nostrils, let’s breathe in deep and let God's presence fill us. Let the Rose of Sharon, the Lilly of the Valley, lead us to a renewing of our faith and devotion. Let’s let the incense of Christ's ultimate victory permeate our clothing and our soul... Then whether we come to church every Sunday, or are here today for the first time in a while, let’s dedicate ourselves anew to Him.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for placing the temple within us, just as you have placed the seed of faith in us. Thank you Lord for drawing us to the Church, and to you, through your son Jesus Christ. Open our senses, and circumcise our hearts so that we can experience you every day, and not just on Sunday, or the high holy days of faith. Let our hands feel the wounds of Christ, our nostrils smell the sweet aroma of our religion and faith, and our eyes behold the radiance of you glory. Help us Holy Father to experience you, and Jesus, in more profound ways each day. Whether we pray without ceasing, only when we need you, or three times a year in Church, hear our prayers, and lead us into a deeper and more fulfilling relationship with you. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who was, and is, and is to come. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you whose temple has been in us always, even before our eyes were open to it, our hands and prayers could feel it, our noses came to smell its sweet scent, and our ears have heard you say that you love us. Hear our prayers today, and draw us all the closer to you through them. We praise you Abba according to our faith, and we all pray that you help us in our unbelief so that we can praise you more, and lift you up higher and higher as we give you all the glory for it. Wash us clean of our sin in the blood of Jesus, dress us in fine garments, and anoint us in sweet smelling oil as we prepare to come before you. Call us your children, and teach us that none of us are any less pure, but that all are loved equally by you. Show us that faith the size of a mustard seed is still faith, and that the scent of a saint who goes to Sunday services without fail is just as sweet as the scent of a first time seeker who has just found you. We pray today for the souls of the lost so that they might believe, and join us in eternity… not a lesser eternity, but the one eternity of your presence. Thank you for the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and His blood that washes us all equally clean, and whose resurrection has defeated death for each who believes in Him. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Jesus the Lamb of God abides in us, and we in Him.
Rich Forbes
“And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!””
Mark 9; 23-24 ESV
“They brought the donkey and the colt and put on them their cloaks, and he sat on them. Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” And when he entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred up, saying, “Who is this?” And the crowds said, “This is the prophet Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee.”
Matthew 21:7-11 ESV
Rich Forbes