. . . the fruit of the Spirit is
love
joy
peace
patience
kindness
goodness
faithfulness
gentleness
and self-control.
There is no law (Jewish Law) against such things.

"For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have EVERLASTING LIFE.

 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to SAVE THE WORLD through Him.

Whoever believes in Him is NOT CONDEMNED, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son."

. . . .

whatsoever things are true,

whatsoever things are honest,

whatsoever things are just,

whatsoever things are pure,

whatsoever things are lovely,

whatsoever things are of good report;

if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. 

Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.

living water

I am made in the image of God, not your image of God.

I had this image of Jesus riding with them that day, riding with us this day, calling forth within us a Hosana - a Hosana in the highest, and calling forth in us to wave our palm branches and to scream our cries unto the earth, knowing that God has already come to save us, but are we listening?

And God has already called us into this Holy City, in this Holy Place, and is asking us: are we listening?

Are we listening to the God of justice?

Are we listening to the God of compassion?

Are we listening to a God who cries out this day: will you save the world?

If this world was truly worth saving two thousand years ago, it is truly worth saving today?

And in our world this day, the emobdiment of Christ, the resurrected Christ, a Christ who is no longer on the cross but has been released from the tomb into each and everyone of our lives; it is that God that calls us on this day to make real on the promise of Jesus, to make real on the promise at the beginning of creation that this world is worth saving.

And that's another cool thing our Senior Pastor told us.

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"Hope is the ability to hear the melody of the future. Faith is the willingness and the courage to dance to it today."

There it is - The Place of The Skull. Golgotha. There stood the cross upon which Jesus died. My Lord. My Savior. My Redeemer. There! That's where they killed him. And not there alone!

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Jesus, the crucified.

On that day! Whoooo! On that day! Yes, on that day! Even in this day - a day God made; I shall rejoice. I will be glad in it! Yes, even this day! But not easily.

So, what really happened here? So many recorded it for us to see and hear and feel and taste and touch repeatedly. Matthew 27:32-56. Mark 15:21-38. Luke 23:26-49. John 19:16-37. These tell us the story, each from a vital perspective. Babes in the wilderness, cut down and shut out. These remind us again and again.

And not those alone!

Boys in cities, blown up; not yet bullet proof! Girls in the country, kidnapped; not yet bargain-proofed. These too. Reminders!

Behold! They crucified Christ right here. This is where it happened. He died right here. This is where we have come; I must pause to breathe!

"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
Jesus, the abandoned.

This is not a ritual for me. For some it is, and vitally so! What about you? In order for us to best recognize and realize what really happened here, it is crucial to remember how 'we' got here and why 'we' came.

We are on a journey to the lean side of the mountain where this very Jesus is delivering sustenance and strategies available to each of us, regarding how we might best comport ourselves (that is, knowing we are fully restored into the joy intended for and available to each of us, and joyfully aware we are afforded valued access enabling us to live into the fullness of life), yes, we are heading there for counsel on how we might best comport ourselves during our individual journeys through the consequential realities of this world, so that we might become enduring samples of a marvelous creation.

And not that alone!

On the way here we discovered the magnitude and magnanimity of true love (the authentic truth of love, its regenerative nature). We uncovered the value of our reciprocative love of God in consort with love of each other and love of self, particularly its restorative power!

On the way here, too, we learned to appreciate the fact that we are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong, and that when those needs are not met, we do not function as we are meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick. Love and belonging are crucial to restoration. This restorative feature is unconditional! This empowering relationship is profound!

In that knowledge, in that freedom, and with that power, we discovered our wings. We realized we are fitted to soar! But where should we fly to? What should we reach for?

BOOOOM!

'They' don't want us going anywhere! 'They' want us kept to the convenience of primal designs. 'They' stand waiting to hammer us back into squinchy holes sized to primitive intentions, and for a surety 'they' are ready to nail us to their crosses, in every effort to destroy faith and hope and love.

Who it is that dares to do any of that? And why would any of us dare allow any of them to step beyond their boundaries and into our guaranteed inheritance to steal and to kill?

Who are they?

'They' who killed Jesus!

'They,' as well, occupiers, who live with us in this 'consequential' world. Ignorance! Hatred! Jealousy! Ignominy! Envy! Gluttony! Greed! Lust! Laziness! Vain Glory! Anger! Fear! Bigotry! Shame! Guilt! Pain! Judgment! 'They' whose many predatory aliases allow them to morph and gain access into the camaraderie of our Upper Room. Hyppcrites! Betrayers! Liars beholden to soul-less creeds! And not these alone. Hardly.

'They' who killed Jesus, daring in their wickedness to claim doing so in the Name of God! Venemous vipers! The Put-Down Club! Mockers with scriptures painted on their lips and exclusionary lists tagged to their divisive flags! Their methods are no secret. Thier arrogance is beyond the pale.

So here we are! Mere humans at the Place of The Skull - Golgotha. We are here to discover what really happened on the day Jesus' blood stained these stones.

ALL acts Have Consequences!

This is a fundamental nature of our Universe.

All living creatures known abide in this fundamental reality: all acts (all: every single one - good, bad, and indifferent) have consequences intended and/or unintended regardless of the nature of its actor. This is an inescapable condition of revealed existence.

Why then did they kill Jesus? Was it something he said? Was it something he did? Was it the non-traditional way he lived? Was it his thoughts - the transformative power of his beliefs? Was it the company he kept - the passion of their hopes and dreams? Do you know?

For what reason did they condemn my Lord and Savior? What vexed them so? Did they not know the true stories of Abraham and Joseph and Moses and Samuel and David and Job and Elijah and Isaiah and Hosea and Habakuk and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and the many women they would not name? What scriptures did they read that it moved them to incite a mob to such violence? What God do they serve?

Why did they publicly scourge and beat Jesus with a leather-thonged whip before crucifying him? Here it is - that whip: tiny pieces of iron and bone chips fastened to the ends of each leather thong. These ripped his flesh for the pleasure of that mob.

Why did they mock him and strike him on his head with a staff and spit on him?

Why did they strip him naked and shove a prickly crown of thorns upon his head and served him their deathly mixture and drove nails through his wrists and ankles and hung him on wood he was too weak to fetch and inscribed on it, INRI, while soldiers placed bets for his clothes?

Was it because he fed the hungry, healed the sick and raised the dead? Was it because he rejected the provocative belief of those who preferred to think that a man's wounds were a result of some secret sin? Was it because his love was devoid of conditions? Was it because he mixed and mingled without pride or prejudice with those of every stripe and kind? For what cause did they kill Jesus? Not for God! My God is not a murderer. God is Sovereign. Omniscient. Omnipresent. All-Powerful. Whoever claims otherwise is a liar - a voice of evil or ignorance. So, why did "they" kill Jesus? And why did God not intervene?

Behold! What happened there has consequences: physical consequences, psychological consequences, spiritual consequences, intellectual consequences, sociological consequences, everlasting consequences. It ain't over till its over!

Behold the depth of depravity. Behold who organized and arranged it! It is no secret what heppened there - except to closed eyes, closed minds, closed hearts, and souls so wounded of shame these keep themselves from the ultimate throes of the case. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, all recorded what happened there. Now we see it. Plainly. What about you?

I hear lashes. I feel mockery. I see betrayals. I smell blood. Upon the tongue there is dust. The inflicted pain is real. The inflicted suffering is real. These lashes, like claps of riddling bullets rippling through vulnerable flesh, ring out around our world. They echo through the ether. They mock pain. False kisses - betrayal - souls cheapened by filthy lucre sickening the very hearts and minds of the hands that hold it - bomerang endlessly in its own dysfunction: fear! Blood is everywhere. And upon the tongue there is dust! Heavy with lies. Too muscular for the lightness of truth. Too burnt for the sweetness of authentic love. The inflicted pain is real. The inflicted suffering is real. Too numb, too reflexive, so afraid, they lash out at the shadows of their anguish continually.

Man of sorrows; what a way! This rock upon which I stand is teeming with miracles. I see beyond the false claims - liars - using 'God' to outsource responsibility for the consequences of their actions.

Nay! It won't wash. Not here.

We see! Behold. Beyond it my joy. My inspiration. My strength. A transformed life. Perhaps, I see differently. Nevertheless, I see what happened there? Who-ah. I wiitness something much more than often told, much more than heard clearly through the babble. I see what we see, what truly happened there. Indeed! And there is more! So much more, It is all too wonderful not to tell, and yet so awesome I hardly know how best to tell any of it. So many vital lessons learned.

He is not dead! Yes, I know we've heard this, and yes, we've been told this, and yes, some of us believe this. What then is really and truly being revealed on this blood-stained spot? Is it a miracle? Is it a miracle that requires time to mature? Is the birth of that miracle this: he is not dead? Many on this journey reporting, sharing, looked then looked again. They listened. They are still listening. They heard. They are still hearing, They saw. They are still seeing. If He is NOT DEAD, what is happening here? Who-ah!

What do you see?

"I am the door. If anyone enters through Me, that one will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.   The thief does not come, except to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly." Jesus, Son of Man, Prince of Glory, Redeemer.

Who made the mountains? Who made the trees? Who made the rivers flow to the sea? Who sends the rain when the earth is dry? Who made the flowers to bloom in the spring? Who made the song for the robins to sing? Who hung the moon in the starry sky? Yes, all that and way much more! Need I say more? Omniscient. Omnipresent. All Powerful Creator. Can do all things. Don't crucify offsprings!

What do you make of it all?
How do you reconcile disparate claims?
Do these resolutions enhance the ongoing quality of living? How so?

strong - brave - capable - valued - gifted - possessed of joy, hope, peace and love - treasured - entrusted - loved - courageous

May our light shine on sprinkled seeds along The Journey.

"Live Your Life - Live it well. You are worth it."