Freedom Fighters

HOLY WEEK
We stand on the threshold of what many Christians call Holy Week. I urge you to take time to read about the week; you can read Mark 11 through Mark 16 to get the big picture. It starts on a high note. It falls to the lowest of all notes before rising to the highest note of all--the Resurrection.

I ask you to think this weekend and next about the impact of this Holy Week on our lives. Consider your personal pursuit of freedom and what that pursuit would look like without the events of Holy Week. More than how it affects each of us, however, we need to focus on Jesus and what the week was like for Him.

His week went from affirmation to confrontation to desertion to condemnation to death and then life. That all happened in seven days! This one who is Jesus Christ, God's only Son, experienced more in a week than we'll know in a lifetime. He didn't have to live through any of it; He chose to endure the week for people like you and me. He accepted everything that came His way for people who desperately wanted freedom from the bondage of sin.

Reflection on Jesus' life during Holy Week is part of the reason Christians observe days like Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Resurrection Day. You can't really enter into His life and suffering and death if you don't take time to reflect and review what that week was like. This is a good week to take time to think. Turn your mind off automatic and think each day about what went on in Jesus life. Participate in as many special services as you can during the week.

How would you have responded on Palm Sunday? What would you have thought when He cleaned out the temple? Had you been in the upper room with the disciples on Thursday evening, would you have questioned your loyalty to Jesus like the disciples did? Where would you have been on Good Friday, standing at the cross with John or hiding with Peter? Would you have believed the account of the empty tomb?

Holy Week offers us a time to look at Jesus and to look into our own walk with Jesus. The six chapters of Mark that I've suggested you read won't take you a long time. You might even want to read all the gospel accounts of Holy Week. Use this week to grow in your walk with Jesus. Let the events of the week remind you what it cost Jesus to buy your freedom. - Pastor John Strain is Pastor of First Baptist of Toms River and weekend Freedom Fighter contributor.

Today's Scripture: Deuteronomy 25-27; Mark 14:27-53

Today's Quote: The heart of Christianity is the bible, the heart of the bible is the cross and the heart of the cross is the very heart of God. Inscribed upon the cross we see in shining letters. "God is love". The Lamb who died upon the tree has bought mercy from above. Anonymous