Are you a trend setter or a trend follower.? Let's face it we all like to be cool. I do not care if you are in Middle School or live in an assisted living facility, we all buy into trends and fads. For some it may be hair style, for others it may be the way they dress. Then there are those that follow the crowd in almost every aspect of their life. They are true trend followers. This week starts Passion week or Holy week. At the beginning of this Passion week, Jesus is the trend. He is the popular one to follow. People are shouting at the top of there lungs, "Hosanna, Hosanna in the Highest". They are laying their cloaks at his feet and they are praising the anointed one. They are witnessing the inaugural parade of King. His entourage (the twelve Disciples) is absolutely loving the attention. They are beginning to foresee wealth and power. They can absolutely taste the popularity.
But this King is like no other King that they have ever seen or ushered in. This King is going to have a short run in popularity. The other day one of my girls was talking to the other and said to her sister, "that outfit is so last week". I just had to laugh and wonder where she had heard that. But you know the sad reality is this is exactly what happened to Jesus. People loved him and followed him but they placed conditions on their love for him. The funny thing is that when he rode into town on a donkey (which kings do not ride) he was bringing an "unconditional love" with him. This love would be displayed in less than a week, not by him taking a seat on a throne but rather being hung to a cross. I guess the question is do we treat Jesus the same way that people then treated him? Do we love him with conditions? Do we treat him as a trend?

Matthew 16:13-20
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
Who do you say I am? What would someone say if you asked them that question? Would they be able to tell you who you were and what your life is all about? When people hang out with you do they get a sense of who you are? Jesus poses that question to his Disciples. They had been with him for quite sometime when he says to them, who do people say I am? They respond from observation that they had witnessed first hand. They had seen miracles, been taught lessons in the form of parables and had watched love seething from Jesus' pores. Jesus taught the Disciples more than religion or a law, he taught them how to love like a homesick father. But when he says to them, "who do you say I am?", only one could answer the question . Only one could identify him as the Savior. The rest may have doubted, some may have been confused and others may have just not known. How would he have responded to that question? The truth is that everyday we do answer that question. The way we conduct ourselves, the things that we do for the lest of these and our attitudes tell people everyday who we say Jesus is. I saw a shirt the other day that gave me a clue of who we say that Jesus is. The shirt said,"God I pray that you would save me from your followers". The reason that this bothers me is because I think so often the our lives do not show the world who Jesus really is. This week we will look at how we can answer Jesus question with our life and not only our mouths.

Cleaning House

Have you ever received a phone call from your spouse to let you know that unexpected company is on the way? At this point you go into a frantic state, you begin cleaning as fast as you possible can. You are putting stuff in drawers, hiding stuff under the beds and your closet becomes a coffin for all items laying around. The laundry basket is filled within two minutes of the plethora of laundry that is covering the floor. You find things that you have not seen in months. By the time the company arrives it seems as if you have a live in maid. But your prayer is God please do not let them open the hall closet or I am going to have to call 911 because of one being buried by an avalanche of miscellaneous items. This week we will cover the scripture where Jesus comes into the temple and cleans it of its corruption. Jesus was angered by the injustice that he saw. He was was upset that people where using the temple to promote there agenda with no thought of God. You know forever people have asked questions about this Scripture and the anger that Jesus exhibited. I have even had people asked me if Jesus was angry then did he not sin as he drove those out with whips. But you know there is nothing wrong with righteous anger. Some of the very people that have asked this question have gotten angry about the cruelty that animals endure. Some have fought for fair wages and human rights. You see we are all created with a righteous anger that helps us to defend our faith and shows how passionate we are about things. If we were all that passionate about our faith in Jesus Christ then we would have more people coming to Christ.
Another thing that I have gleaned from this Scripture is that maybe it speaks to our Temple. I mean does Jesus not compare our body to a Temple. Maybe rather than look at the anger that Jesus exhibited, maybe we should ask the question, "what is it in our bodies that are causing corruption to the body of Christ?" This passage of Scripture serves as a reminder that maybe we need to do some Spring Cleaning. Not the kind of cleaning where we shove it in a drawer or fill our closets but the kind of cleaning that says we remove it totally from our temple (body). In doing this we create a Spirit that promotes Jesus in everything that we do. What do you need to get rid of or to severe from your temple. This week we will examine how to do some spring cleaning just in time for Easter.

Pick up what?

This week in our scripture from John 8, Jesus gives the Disciples a command. To us this command would have not seemed so weird but to them it would have been absolutely ludicrous. He tells them to shoulder their cross and carry it daily. The cross to them was not something that was tattooed on the arm of a professional basketball player or worn around the neck of a stylish debutant. It was an instrument of pain, suffering and death. It was the Romans choice of execution because it was slow. painful and utterly humiliating. The cross was not glorified it was despised. To pick up a cross would be like saying pick up your lethal injection or electric chair. The questions to the Disciples is what does this mean? I think that today when we think about this command, we figure that it means that pain and suffering must take place in our life. The truth is that for some people that may be the case. In some cases we will lose our life for the one that died on the cross. But the truth of this statement may be more in the shoulder daily part of the sentence than the focus being on the cross. This verse calls that everyday we submit to the will of Christ. It means that we put aside our selfish agendas. It means that we put others first. It means that we must bear others burden and engage in their suffering. the reason that we are remind to do it daily is because it does not take much for us to walk away from our first love.

The other part of this verse is that we can return to the cross daily and remember what Christ did for us. It is at the Cross that Jesus died for us. It is here that we can leave our guilt and sin. To turn to Jesus means that we can not do it on our own. This instrument of death has really become a instrument of hope. The other observation of the cross is that it is empty. It no longer holds our Savior. The punishment was carried from the cross and was buried. When Christ arose from the death our sin was gone. God wants us to remember daily that he loved us so much that he sent his son. Join us this week as we look at how shouldering your cross will help you to have not only a closer walk with Christ but will allow you to view an instrument of death as an instrument of hope and encouragement