Good morning all! Father, we know that You hold all the power, and nothing happens without Your say so. Open our eyes this weekend, open the world’s eyes so they would experience the power of Your love for all. That we would truly trust in Your goodness and Your mercy and see the life that You have given to all mankind to live with joy and peace. May we express the same passion that You shared two thousand years ago and glorify Your name, Amen. You ever notice, there are certain moments in life that are extremely powerful? So powerful it changes you?

Luke 23

27 And there followed him a great company of people, and of women, which also bewailed and lamented him.
And giant crowd of people followed behind Jesus as He carried His cross to Calvary, and the women which followed cried being broken-hearted.

28 But Jesus turning unto them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
But Jesus very much aware of His surroundings turns His eyes to them and calls them daughters, NO need to cry for ME but for yourselves and your children.

29 For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed [are] the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
For the days are coming when it will be said, happy are the barren, and those that have not given life nor nursed a child.

30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.
Then shall they BEGIN to say to the mountains, fall on us and the hills cover us.

31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?
For if they do this to the One full of life, what is to be done to the one without?

Bottom line

I hope we can see the power of this moment which took place over two thousand years ago. Jesus on His way to cross stops to provide comfort to the women that were crying, arguably His darkest hour…anyone else amazed at this truth? So what is the message in this moment? First, Calvary was God’s design long before any of us came along including Judas and the Romans and Jesus was fulfilling His destiny…DON’T cry for me! It’s hard, right? If you watched Mel Gibson’s the Passion it’s hard NOT to cry. The message is that we are to live by the power of the spirit which is what Jesus unlocked for us on Calvary, there is NO life outside of real faith. So why did Jesus tell them NOT to cry for Him?

[Heb 12:2 KJV] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross…For JOY He endured the cross, for our freedom from guilt and shame He endured the cross and for the power to live by faith. Think about it, if Jesus was looking for pity in that moment doesn’t come with some measure of regret? Do you think Jesus has any regrets for His daughters of Jerusalem? Does a mother or father regret having children? Do they regret caring for them? Providing for them? Instead He told them to weep for yourselves and your children, so should we have regrets? NO but we should repent, we should change how we see life and others and anything that produces a victim mentality which is NOT faith. And when these emotions rise up and overtake us we should pray that a mountain of FAITH fall on us and cover us so there’s no evidence of a life without faith, you feel me? The power of faith propelled our Lord and Savior up that HILL, that’s right the same hill and only hill that can cover US. You see for us to cry over the Cross is to miss the mark of the Cross in the first place, didn’t Paul say the only thing he would glory in is the Cross? What if on Calvary Jesus crucified pity itself? Wouldn’t that change how we view our own life? And please don’t mistake compassion with pity. So what’s the difference? Compassion is being moved to help others with no regrets, while pity deals with a sense of fairness and usually produces NO real change. And this brings us to verse 31 where Jesus is described as the green tree and everyone else was dry, one had life and the other did NOT. Why do you think scripture says without faith it’s IMPOSSIBLE to please God? That’s the dry tree…not of His spirit. But Jesus is the FINISHER of our faith…NOT us. Romans says that we are grafted into the olive tree, we were broken off because of our unbelief…NO faith, but God grafted us into the olive tree so that we might continue in His goodness. So what is His goodness? Well today I believe it us living a life without pity and regret and trusting that Jesus completed the work of creation when He said “it is FINISHED”…WE are all completed by the gift of faith Jesus gave us that day and to live by the power of faith when we say weep NOT for me just like a green tree…

Point to Ponder

Will you repent? [2Co 7:10 NIV] Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. NO regret doesn’t mean NO lesson, you choose how to move forward…faith or pity?

Let’s all live in the power of His moment, In Him Phil

Faith – Family – Friends