Like a flint … determined to be worshipped.

Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. (John 12:3)

She has done a beautiful thing to me.  (Mark 14:6b)

Willing to Offer Worship in the Face of Criticism… and Determined to Receive Worship from this “Healthy Soul”

I once heard a dear friend complimented thus: “She is a healthy soul.” I thought then – and still think – that such an assessment was appropriate for this happy and secure woman.

When Mary anointed Jesus feet she was embraced by Jesus and “endorsed” as a healthy soul. He noted that her act would be recalled and praised as long as the Gospel is being preached… and we are fulfilling that prophecy here today.

Mary was a woman who understood what Jesus had done for her. She also seems to have understood (more than others?) the incredible strain of this week we call Holy had to have on Him. He was determined to carry out His mission of becoming the Sacrificial Lamb of God Who would bear the sin and death of all time. We are told that during this week He prayed in agony, sweat blood, and displayed righteous indignation at the temple. Mary worshipped Him by sparing no expense to sooth His tired feet and burdened soul. He not only received her worship, He reveled in it, promoted it as wonderful and memorable, and once again announced His determination to go to the cross.

As a funny friend of mine often quips, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Mary’s singular act of love is criticized by the very man destined to betray Jesus. In fact, the intimation is that this extravagant love for Jesus sent Judas “over the top.” His self-righteousness bore the ugliest of fruit; he substituted “social justice rhetoric” for true love of the Just One.

If we fall at Jesus’ feet in the presence of others; if we give much money to the work of the Kingdom; if we massage the burdened and weary – the “least of these, my brothers and sisters” – in Jesus’ words, we will be criticized. Wait, there’s more. We will be remembered and rewarded because “… you did it for Me.”

So, bust out the nard. Love the Savior extravagantly.

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• April Partner in Prayer @ Advocate/Bromenn: Acute Rehab A Unit  > 16 bed unit serving patients needing extensive rehabilitation from head, spine and other traumatic injuries.
• Hailey’s Bridal Shower! 3:00 p.m. April 17th at Jacob’s Well > Bring your best advice and favorite recipe to share with Hailey! (Registered at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.)

Prayer – Key for SUSA
Our opportunity is also our holy calling to pray. Candace Ferguson is leading the prayer ministry on behalf of the Basque people. She’ll share the beauty of it all with us today…

Prince of Peace? Face like a flint, heart aflame, angry, but not sinning.

And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.” - Luke 19:45-46

Gentle Jesus, meek and mild?

So, he lost his cool. Are you still on board?

Jesus asked you to follow Him. That was pretty exciting and fun duty when a wedding party was saved because He made water become wine or when He made a few fish and loaves feed thousands. (How did that happen?) And it was certainly exciting to be there when grievously ill people were healed before your eyes. And remember the thrills when He walked across the lake or calmed the storm with His words? What of the TRULY BIG DEAL when friend Lazarus died… for only four days… and (once again) His words brought Lazarus back to life?

All this led up to the big parade just a few days ago. Most of the folks there were really pumped up. His reputation had preceded Him. No public relations firm could have done a better job of promoting His arrival. The expectations and experiences all week have been so infused with emotion that every night He and His followers have headed back through the city gates to the outskirts of town to relax and rest. And He seems to always slip away and pray.

But then there was this scene today at the temple. He lost it. Shouting. Tipping over tables. Pointing fingers. Showing a side of his personality that was, frankly, shocking and kind of scary. Except, if you really know Him, you know that the thing He cares the most about in all the world is His Father’s honor.

So, really, this outburst shouldn’t be a surprise anymore than the tears he shed last night as He looked over the city. He’s an emotional guy. He cares more about the important stuff than anyone you’ve ever met. But, there’s trouble in the air. The guys in charge are out to get Him. Will it be safe to be known as one of “His?”

Come to think of it, He had promised that it was going to get rough. He even promised that He was going to be executed. So, what do you think? His reputation took a strange turn today. What about yours? He wants you to stay with him…

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• April Partner in Prayer @ Advocate/Bromenn Acute Rehab A Unit: 16 bed unit serving patients needing extensive rehabilitation from head, spine and other traumatic injuries.
• Men’s Study Group, Mondays 6:00-7:00 p.m. Gospel of John. Ask Bob V.
• Women’s Study Group, Thursdays 6:00-7:00 p.m. Starting new book. Ask Mia B.
• Wedding Shower for Justina & Dom > Today, right here @ 1:00 PM (shortly after the service) ??? Ask Candi V.
• Hailey’s Bridal Shower! > 3:00 p.m. April 17th at Jacob’s Well Bring your best advice and favorite recipe to share with Hailey! (Registered at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.)

Summer in the USA
There are 8-10 Basque high schoolers who are absolutely pumped about spending a month with us. Please pray for those kids… and our ability to love them as God desires.

Like A Flint: Before there was a “Wailing Wall” in Jerusalem, there was a Wailing Lord looking over Jerusalem

And when he had said these things, he went on ahead, going up to Jerusalem (Luke 19:28);
And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it (Luke 19:41)
…because you did not know the time of your visitation. (Luke 19:44b)

Quite simply, the most significant city in the world, past, present & future:

U-ru-sa-lim, city of peace.

It has been the capital of the only kingdom God ever set up on this earth.

God’s temple was built there; sacrifices were legitimately offered there.

This was the city of the prophets as well as the kings of David’s line. The Royal City.

Here occurred the death, resurrection and ascension of David’s greatest Son, Jesus of Nazareth.

The Holy Spirit descended on an upper room in a building here and the Christian church was born at Pentecost.

The first great church council was held here, helping the early church fathers to identify both sound doctrine and heresy and promote the former while opposing the latter.

Pilgrims have travelled here for 2000 years, seeking the sites immortalized in the Scriptures.

The Crusades were organized in order to regain control of this city.

No other site in Scripture receives such constant and exalted praise. It is called nearly sixty different names. The word Jerusalem appears more than six hundred times in the Old Testament.

The city has been destroyed by invaders but rebuilt on the same site. Archaeologists have discovered layer upon layer of “Jerusalems,” each with evidence of the accuracy of the biblical narratives concerning times, events, and people.

News & Announcements

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• Men’s Study Group, Mondays 6:00-7:00 p.m. Gospel of John. Ask Bob V.
• Women’s Study Group, Thursdays 6:00-7:00 p.m. Starting new book. Ask Mia B.
• Wedding Shower for Justina & Dom Sunday, April 03 at 1:00 PM (shortly after the service) at Jacob’s Well Community Church; Please RSVP to Candi Vercruysse
• Hailey’s Bridal Shower! 3:00 p.m. April 17th at Jacob’s Well; Bring your best advice and favorite recipe to share with Hailey! (Registered at Target and Bed Bath & Beyond.)

Summer in the USA
There are 8-10 Basque high schoolers who are absolutely pumped about spending a month with us. Please pray for those kids… and our ability to love them as God desires.

Like A Flint: Determined to Destroy Death

And he began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again. And he said this plainly. (Mark 8:31-32a)

Ever think that maybe your ideas make more sense than God’s? Join the ranks with Peter.

And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. But turning and seeing his disciples, he rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.” Mark 8:32b-33

To Peter (and everyone else except Jesus), the thought of this one-of-a-kind person, this healer, this hope giver, this prophet with amazing answers and insight, the thought of him being executed seemed preposterous and preventable. So, Peter probably speaks for most of us.  We simply don’t associate triumph with the death of the victor, especially when an enemy seeks his death.

As usual, Jesus sets things straight when he tells Peter that he is way off, so way off that his expressed thoughts were in keeping with the thinking of the Devil. Imagine how Peter reacted to that comparison. He thought he was loving Jesus, protecting him. Jesus made it clear that God’s view of the matter was quite the opposite of Peter’s. (And we can assume that Peter, as he sometimes did, spoke for the rest.)

Jesus often spoke of his death. I wonder how old he was when the Holy Spirit informed him that he must suffer and die at the hands of wicked men? I wonder what kind of spiritual understanding he had to have to know that this was necessary, that it was the Father’s will.

There’s something else here in this passage: Jesus is very terse with Peter. He had just explained very clearly what had to happen. His harsh reaction suggests that this journey towards suffering and death was not something he was enjoying. That he dreaded it is made clear later in the story, but that he refused to be moved from his mission to redeem a lost and dying world must be the clearest thing of all.

It’s a mystery. It’s apprehendable. It’s our story in his story.

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• Partners in Prayer for March > Same Day Services @ Eureka Hospital
• Men’s Study Group, Mondays > 6:00-7:00 p.m. Gospel of John. Ask Bob V.
• Women’s Study Group, Thursdays > 6:00-7:00 p.m. Great time to jump in as they are starting new book. Ask Mia B.
• Women’s retreat with the theme, “Who am I?” at Miracle Camp!  April 29-May 1.  Contact Sara Stickling for more details.
• Interested in learning more about Encounter Ministries, led by our own Pete Cocco? Ask Pete for details about their upcoming banquet. Always inspiring.

Summer in the USA
There are 8-10 Basque high schoolers who are absolutely pumped about spending a month with us. Please pray for those kids… and our ability to love them as God desires.

Like a Flint: Our Determined Deity

New Series: “Like a Flint” – drawn from Isaiah 50:7

But the Lord GOD helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame.

Perfect Inflexible Resolve

Believers in Jesus have a singular challenge which is also life’s most precious learning opportunity: respond to his invitation in Matthew 11:29 –

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

“Gentle and lowly of heart.” True. Utterly, completely true, but not exhaustive as a description of Jesus. For as gentle and lowly as he was – and he stands as the very definition of humility –  I believe he was also the toughest and most determined person who ever lived. So tough, so determined, that Paul would write this of him in Philippians 2:8:

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Humble. Obedient. Death. Cross.  Only someone of perfect inflexible resolve could resist the temptation to create an easy way out, especially since he had the power of Almighty God available to him, as he told Peter when Peter tried to prevent Jesus from being arrested (from Matthew 26):

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels?  But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?”

That’s toughness.

That’s determination.

That’s Jesus.

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• Partners in Prayer for March > Same Day Services @ Eureka Hospital
• Quick “Garden 2011” meeting right after church for all interested.
• Men’s Study Group, Mondays > 6:00-7:00 p.m. Gospel of John. Ask Bob V.
• Women’s Study Group, Thursdays > 6:00-7:00 p.m. Book of Esther. Ask Mia B.
• Women’s retreat with the theme, “Who am I?” at Miracle Camp!  April 29-May 1.  $120-$135, depending on lodging.  Contact Sara Stickling for more details.

Summer in the USA
There are 8-10 Basque high schoolers who are absolutely pumped about spending a month with us. Please pray for those kids… and our ability to love them as God desires.

The Last Dance

There’s a lot of speculation about 2012 and the end of the world.

TV shows and T-shirts proclaim an ancient Mayan prophecy. Astrologers say there are signs in the heavens pointing to apocalypse in 2012. Some say there’s a Bible code proclaiming 2012 as the end of the world. Some even nail it down tighter, declaring December 21, 2012  the Day of Days.

Two things:

1.) Please, don’t fall for any of this. Jesus tells us that “no man knows the hour or the day.” He tells us that His second coming will be unexpected, “like a thief in the night.” He also makes clear that many false claims and predictions will confuse the careless or casual observer. Don’t be fooled.

2.) Please, know that His coming is certain and every day brings His coming that much closer.

His second coming is called “our blessed hope” in Titus.

Examine that phrase, one word at a time:

“Our” – Christ returns as a bridegroom who after a long courtship finally marries the bride. His church throughout the ages is his beautiful bride. The reunion will be sweet… without end… and exclusive to bride and groom.

“Blessed” – knowing that we live under the sovereignty of a perfect and loving God gives a positive spin to an otherwise often difficult existence. God is good and kind and rich in generosity and mercy. Therefore, life is good. But we know that when Christ comes to reign forever, “good” will be supplanted by “best.”

“Hope” – we look for that day with joyful anticipation. We endure all life dishes out because we know relief is coming.

Ash Wednesday Service, March 9, 7:00 p.m.

Jesus said that He must be baptized “to fulfill all righteousness.” Now, He has moved several in our midst to follow Him in baptism.  Dr. Joe Thomas will speak and there will be imposition of ashes.  Deep water, in many ways. All the church should be here that night.

News & Announcements:

• PRAYER GATHERING THIS WEDNESDAY @ 7:00
• Partners in Prayer for March > Same Day Services @ Eureka Hospital
• Eight to Eat Signup Sheet In Foyer!
• Men’s Study Group, Mondays > 6:00-7:00 p.m. Gospel of John. Ask Bob V.
• Women’s Study Group, Thursdays > 6:00-7:00 p.m. Book of Esther. Ask Mia B.
• Women’s retreat with the theme, “Who am I?” at Miracle Camp!  April 29-May 1.  $120-$135, depending on lodging.  Contact Sara Stickling for more details.

Summer in the USA
There are 8-10 Basque high schoolers who are absolutely pumped about spending a month with us. Please pray for those kids… and our ability to love them as God desires.