MONDAY 22nd. MARCH
Isaiah 50.4-9
God’s plan for our salvation
God’s plan for our salvation through Jesus was made by Him centuries before the day of crucifixion. It was revealed to the prophet, Isaiah, and so we look at part of it today. God predicts how easily Jesus would surrender Himself into the hands of the enemies who were to crucify Him. God then predicted Jesus’ prayer life. Every morning when the other disciples awoke, Jesus’ bed was empty. He was up in the hills praying and listening to His Father’s instructions (see Mark 1.35 and John 5.19-20). He trusted His Father implicitly and was always eager to obey all His instructions.
If we want to do what God wants us to do and not be rebellious, it’s so important that we, too, set aside time, preferably in the morning, so that we can listen to God and know what He wants us to do!
Many times when Jesus’ person or His life were threatened, God protected Him and He escaped so easily (see Luke 4.29-30). But when the Father wanted Him to offer Himself as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, He willingly offered Himself to be cruelly treated and mocked before He faced the cross.
This time Jesus bore all that cruelty plus the weight of punishment for all our sins because He experienced God helping Him. Even though the whole world seemed to be condemning Him, He knew God was very pleased with Him and once He had paid the costly price for us, He would be set completely free for ever.
PRAYER: Jesus, you told us to take up our cross every day. Encourage us to spend more time in prayer so that we may have the power you had to enable us to face all the things that will make life hard for us and help us to love those who are awful to us. Help us to truly die to self as you did, that your love may flow through us to set all the people free. Amen.
TUESDAY 23rd. MARCH
Psalm 22
They have pierced my hands and feet
Like the prophecies of Isaiah, Psalm 22, penned by David, is a most wonderful prophetic insight into the Passion of Jesus. It shows us once again the plan of salvation God revealed so long before it took place on the first Good Friday. David records the very words that the High Priests were to use when they looked up at Jesus on the cross. “He trusts in God, let God rescue Him” (Matthew 27.43). He goes on to give what seems like an eye witness account of all that Jesus went through.
By the time Jesus arrived at Golgotha, He was certainly poured out like water after being scourged and whipped until His back was raw, then carrying the heavy wooden cross with the crown of thorns pressing into His scull. All His strength was completely wrung out!
Then David described Him being put on the cross and the piercing of His hands and feet. He even predicted the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ clothing. However excruciating the agony and pain, it was all worth it for Jesus. He was accomplishing what God wanted Him to. The Name of Jesus has been declared to all nations. The good news of the salvation wrought for all on the cross has indeed reached all the ends of the earth (v27) as David said it would. Jesus is Lord of the whole universe!
The last verse of the Psalm, “He has done it”, is like the word Jesus spoke as He was dying (John 19.30): “it is finished”. The Greek word for this is Tetelestai, which means, it is paid, the debt is paid. As God showed David that on the cross Jesus would pay the penalty all our sins deserve, our salvation has been accomplished once and for all.
PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for fulfilling your Father’s plans for our salvation. Thank you for going through all that suffering to pay the price to clear away all sins and secure a place in heaven for me. I can’t wait to be there with you. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 24TH MARCH
Philippians 2.5-11
Your attitudes should be the same as Christ Jesus
The most humble people in the world are like Jesus. They begin with the position in which they know how great they are. Each one of us who reads these notes is very, very special and unique. God values us much more than we could ever imagine.
Once Jesus realised how important He was, He did not try to prove it by boasting and putting others down. He emptied Himself. He made Himself into a slave, a servant. Then He became a man and then became the humblest of the humble by accepting the death on the cross.
So, too, we realise how special we are in God’s eyes. We do not have to prove it to everyone else around us and make them feel small. No, we reach the full potential of being very special when we let Jesus come into our hearts and take over our lives.
Jesus fills us with His love and humility. He gives us the desire to be everyone’s servant. He enables us to die to self and to make all the people around us feel important and loved. Jesus enables us to stop living to show how good we are and to start living only for Him and for those He has given us to love.
As all bow at the Name of Jesus, so God will honour all who humbly die to self and live for Him and others.
PRAYER: Father, give me the same attitude that Jesus had. Show me how special I am and how important I am to you. Then let me get on with the business of being everyone’s slave, dying to self and making others important and loved, through Jesus our most wonderful Servant and Lord and Saviour. Amen.
THURSDAY 25th MARCH
Luke 19.28-40
An exciting day
What tremendous excitement was in the air as Jesus rode triumphantly through the gates of Jerusalem into the holy city. Why was there so much excitement? Why all that fuss? The answer is simple. Everyone recognised that Jesus was the Messiah. This was the day the Jewish people had been looking forward to for a long time. To them it was the fulfilment of God’s promise to them to send them a Saviour.
The way Jesus was to accomplish salvation was completely different from what we expect of a Messiah. Instead of using an army and force, He used the extraordinary power of His love.
On Palm Sunday we are given a palm leaf made into a cross to remind us of the source of Jesus’ power. It was the cross. Jesus fought the devil and won. He paid the penalty all our sins deserve. He set us free from the consequence of our sin - death. He brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus.
This is cause for tremendous joy. Nothing can stop us from praising God for all Jesus has done for us. As the Bible says, even if we could be stopped, the very stones would proclaim God’s glory.
PRAYER: Jesus, we appreciate so much the wonderful way you saved us on the cross. We want to join with the crowds outside Jerusalem and praise your wonderful Name and praise you as our fantastic Saviour. Amen.
FRIDAY 26TH MARCH
John 12.20-32
The cross of Jesus breaks the barrier down and draws all men to God
The average person finds it hard to believe in God. This seems extraordinary as we were all made by God to be His beloved friends for ever. Why is it so hard to believe?
The devil, whom Jesus calls the Prince of this world, has built a barrier between us and God. It was quite easy for him to build because the fabric of the wall is our own selfishness. Jesus came specifically to break down this barrier for each one of us. On the cross Jesus took all our selfishness and sin into his own heart. It crushed Him. He died bearing the pain caused by all our selfishness and sin. Although we deserved to be punished for being selfish, Jesus took all the punishment for us and He died in our place. As He died and rose again, Satan’s power over us was completely broken down and so was the barrier between us and God.
Jesus is the grain of wheat which fell into the ground and died. Although His body stopped functioning, He didn’t really die. It turned into a new body, like a seed turns into a plant. There is tremendous power in Jesus’ new body. This power breaks down our selfishness. It is the power of His love. As we receive Jesus into our hearts, the desire to put ourselves first is replaced by the desire to love God more than anything else and to please Him and everyone else more than ourselves. When Jesus died, He gave us the power to die to ourselves.
This is why the cross is so important and why Jesus was glorified by agreeing to embrace it for us. He is glorified because we go through the broken down barrier into the loving arms of God to be His for ever.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for willingly going to the cross to defeat Satan and break down the barrier between God and me. Please give me the faith and power to die to self and live only for you and the people around me. Amen.
SATURDAY 27TH.. MARCH
Luke 23.1-49
The power of forgiveness
Because we are not perfect, each of us finds ourselves being hurt by people, often the people who are close to us. At the same time we end up hurting others ourselves. We need a painkiller to get rid of all these hurts. Jesus has given it to us. It’s a free prescription. It’s called “forgiveness”. Every hurt we inflict on others hurts God very much. All these hurts were put together and felt by Jesus on the cross! God could have pushed us away for causing Him so much pain. We did not deserve His love anymore. But God’s love for us was so much stronger than all that pain we gave Him. It is called ‘amazing grace’!
Jesus echoed all the sentiments towards us in His Father’s heart, together with His amazing grace and love for us, when He called out, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing”. Immediately He said these words, we were set free. God had completely forgiven us for all the hurt we had caused Him. His promise was fulfilled, “I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31.34; Hebrews 8.12).
As we are forgiven by God, so He gives us the power to forgive others, to “love everyone as He loves us” (John 13.34). Because of His love and forgiveness we are all assured, with the penitent thief, a place with Him in heaven.
PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for your amazing grace, and the power of forgiveness. As you forgive me, give me the power to forgive all who hurt me. Make my love for others stronger than the pain of being hurt by others, through Jesus who loved me so much when I was hurting Him. Amen.
SUNDAY 28TH.MARCH
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
WE CELEBRATE THE PASSION OF OUR .LORD JESUS CHRIST
Holy week begins with Jesus Victorious entry in to Jerusalem. Jesus came into the city on a donkey. When He did this he was proclaiming to the whole world that He was the promised Messiah. The special saviour King God had promised to send to His people to set them free. The Old Testament was full of prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. One of them in Zechariah 9:9 says:
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion. Shout Daughter of Jerusalem
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation,
Gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.
The significance of the donkey is that it was used only for peaceful purposes while horses were used in warfare. When everyone saw Jesus on a donkey they knew he was the Saviour King. This made them very excited and they gave him an enthusiastic welcome.
Within a few days all their hopes seemed to be dashed to pieces. Instead of overthrowing the Roman rule with physical force, Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, tortured and put to death on the cross. Those who cheered Jesus and cried out ‘Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’, waving Palm branches, on Palm Sunday were soon to cry out ‘ Crucify Him, Crucify Him,’ on Good Friday.
What they didn’t realise was that in all His Suffering, pain and humiliation, Jesus was accomplishing the greatest saving act in the history of the world. He was paying the penalty our sins deserve. He died in our place so that we may never die but enjoy life with Him for evermore in heaven. He was setting us all free.
Today, as we grasp the palm leaves that have be folded into the shapes of crosses, lets put all our faith and trust in Jesus and accept the free gift of salvation he payed for during the first Holy Week. Let’s be ever so grateful and thank and praise Him with much enthusiasm. We can show our enthusiasm for what Jesus has done for us by attending the special services in Holy Week.
MONDAY 22nd. MARCH
Isaiah 50.4-9
God’s plan for our salvation
God’s plan for our salvation through Jesus was made by Him centuries before the day of crucifixion. It was revealed to the prophet, Isaiah, and so we look at part of it today. God predicts how easily Jesus would surrender Himself into the hands of the enemies who were to crucify Him. God then predicted Jesus’ prayer life. Every morning when the other disciples awoke, Jesus’ bed was empty. He was up in the hills praying and listening to His Father’s instructions (see Mark 1.35 and John 5.19-20). He trusted His Father implicitly and was always eager to obey all His instructions.
If we want to do what God wants us to do and not be rebellious, it’s so important that we, too, set aside time, preferably in the morning, so that we can listen to God and know what He wants us to do!
Many times when Jesus’ person or His life were threatened, God protected Him and He escaped so easily (see Luke 4.29-30). But when the Father wanted Him to offer Himself as the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world, He willingly offered Himself to be cruelly treated and mocked before He faced the cross.
This time Jesus bore all that cruelty plus the weight of punishment for all our sins because He experienced God helping Him. Even though the whole world seemed to be condemning Him, He knew God was very pleased with Him and once He had paid the costly price for us, He would be set completely free for ever.
PRAYER: Jesus, you told us to take up our cross every day. Encourage us to spend more time in prayer so that we may have the power you had to enable us to face all the things that will make life hard for us and help us to love those who are awful to us. Help us to truly die to self as you did, that your love may flow through us to set all the people free. Amen.
TUESDAY 23rd. MARCH
Psalm 22
They have pierced my hands and feet
Like the prophecies of Isaiah, Psalm 22, penned by David, is a most wonderful prophetic insight into the Passion of Jesus. It shows us once again the plan of salvation God revealed so long before it took place on the first Good Friday. David records the very words that the High Priests were to use when they looked up at Jesus on the cross. “He trusts in God, let God rescue Him” (Matthew 27.43). He goes on to give what seems like an eye witness account of all that Jesus went through.
By the time Jesus arrived at Golgotha, He was certainly poured out like water after being scourged and whipped until His back was raw, then carrying the heavy wooden cross with the crown of thorns pressing into His scull. All His strength was completely wrung out!
Then David described Him being put on the cross and the piercing of His hands and feet. He even predicted the soldiers casting lots for Jesus’ clothing. However excruciating the agony and pain, it was all worth it for Jesus. He was accomplishing what God wanted Him to. The Name of Jesus has been declared to all nations. The good news of the salvation wrought for all on the cross has indeed reached all the ends of the earth (v27) as David said it would. Jesus is Lord of the whole universe!
The last verse of the Psalm, “He has done it”, is like the word Jesus spoke as He was dying (John 19.30): “it is finished”. The Greek word for this is Tetelestai, which means, it is paid, the debt is paid. As God showed David that on the cross Jesus would pay the penalty all our sins deserve, our salvation has been accomplished once and for all.
PRAYER: Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for fulfilling your Father’s plans for our salvation. Thank you for going through all that suffering to pay the price to clear away all sins and secure a place in heaven for me. I can’t wait to be there with you. Amen.
WEDNESDAY 24TH MARCH
Philippians 2.5-11
Your attitudes should be the same as Christ Jesus
The most humble people in the world are like Jesus. They begin with the position in which they know how great they are. Each one of us who reads these notes is very, very special and unique. God values us much more than we could ever imagine.
Once Jesus realised how important He was, He did not try to prove it by boasting and putting others down. He emptied Himself. He made Himself into a slave, a servant. Then He became a man and then became the humblest of the humble by accepting the death on the cross.
So, too, we realise how special we are in God’s eyes. We do not have to prove it to everyone else around us and make them feel small. No, we reach the full potential of being very special when we let Jesus come into our hearts and take over our lives.
Jesus fills us with His love and humility. He gives us the desire to be everyone’s servant. He enables us to die to self and to make all the people around us feel important and loved. Jesus enables us to stop living to show how good we are and to start living only for Him and for those He has given us to love.
As all bow at the Name of Jesus, so God will honour all who humbly die to self and live for Him and others.
PRAYER: Father, give me the same attitude that Jesus had. Show me how special I am and how important I am to you. Then let me get on with the business of being everyone’s slave, dying to self and making others important and loved, through Jesus our most wonderful Servant and Lord and Saviour. Amen.
THURSDAY 25th MARCH
Luke 19.28-40
An exciting day
What tremendous excitement was in the air as Jesus rode triumphantly through the gates of Jerusalem into the holy city. Why was there so much excitement? Why all that fuss? The answer is simple. Everyone recognised that Jesus was the Messiah. This was the day the Jewish people had been looking forward to for a long time. To them it was the fulfilment of God’s promise to them to send them a Saviour.
The way Jesus was to accomplish salvation was completely different from what we expect of a Messiah. Instead of using an army and force, He used the extraordinary power of His love.
On Palm Sunday we are given a palm leaf made into a cross to remind us of the source of Jesus’ power. It was the cross. Jesus fought the devil and won. He paid the penalty all our sins deserve. He set us free from the consequence of our sin - death. He brought us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of Jesus.
This is cause for tremendous joy. Nothing can stop us from praising God for all Jesus has done for us. As the Bible says, even if we could be stopped, the very stones would proclaim God’s glory.
PRAYER: Jesus, we appreciate so much the wonderful way you saved us on the cross. We want to join with the crowds outside Jerusalem and praise your wonderful Name and praise you as our fantastic Saviour. Amen.
FRIDAY 26TH MARCH
John 12.20-32
The cross of Jesus breaks the barrier down and draws all men to God
The average person finds it hard to believe in God. This seems extraordinary as we were all made by God to be His beloved friends for ever. Why is it so hard to believe?
The devil, whom Jesus calls the Prince of this world, has built a barrier between us and God. It was quite easy for him to build because the fabric of the wall is our own selfishness. Jesus came specifically to break down this barrier for each one of us. On the cross Jesus took all our selfishness and sin into his own heart. It crushed Him. He died bearing the pain caused by all our selfishness and sin. Although we deserved to be punished for being selfish, Jesus took all the punishment for us and He died in our place. As He died and rose again, Satan’s power over us was completely broken down and so was the barrier between us and God.
Jesus is the grain of wheat which fell into the ground and died. Although His body stopped functioning, He didn’t really die. It turned into a new body, like a seed turns into a plant. There is tremendous power in Jesus’ new body. This power breaks down our selfishness. It is the power of His love. As we receive Jesus into our hearts, the desire to put ourselves first is replaced by the desire to love God more than anything else and to please Him and everyone else more than ourselves. When Jesus died, He gave us the power to die to ourselves.
This is why the cross is so important and why Jesus was glorified by agreeing to embrace it for us. He is glorified because we go through the broken down barrier into the loving arms of God to be His for ever.
PRAYER: Jesus, thank you for willingly going to the cross to defeat Satan and break down the barrier between God and me. Please give me the faith and power to die to self and live only for you and the people around me. Amen.
SATURDAY 27TH.. MARCH
Luke 23.1-49
The power of forgiveness
Because we are not perfect, each of us finds ourselves being hurt by people, often the people who are close to us. At the same time we end up hurting others ourselves. We need a painkiller to get rid of all these hurts. Jesus has given it to us. It’s a free prescription. It’s called “forgiveness”. Every hurt we inflict on others hurts God very much. All these hurts were put together and felt by Jesus on the cross! God could have pushed us away for causing Him so much pain. We did not deserve His love anymore. But God’s love for us was so much stronger than all that pain we gave Him. It is called ‘amazing grace’!
Jesus echoed all the sentiments towards us in His Father’s heart, together with His amazing grace and love for us, when He called out, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing”. Immediately He said these words, we were set free. God had completely forgiven us for all the hurt we had caused Him. His promise was fulfilled, “I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more” (Jeremiah 31.34; Hebrews 8.12).
As we are forgiven by God, so He gives us the power to forgive others, to “love everyone as He loves us” (John 13.34). Because of His love and forgiveness we are all assured, with the penitent thief, a place with Him in heaven.
PRAYER: Father, thank you so much for your amazing grace, and the power of forgiveness. As you forgive me, give me the power to forgive all who hurt me. Make my love for others stronger than the pain of being hurt by others, through Jesus who loved me so much when I was hurting Him. Amen.
SUNDAY 28TH.MARCH
THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE
WE CELEBRATE THE PASSION OF OUR .LORD JESUS CHRIST
Holy week begins with Jesus Victorious entry in to Jerusalem. Jesus came into the city on a donkey. When He did this he was proclaiming to the whole world that He was the promised Messiah. The special saviour King God had promised to send to His people to set them free. The Old Testament was full of prophecies of the coming of the Messiah. One of them in Zechariah 9:9 says:
Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion. Shout Daughter of Jerusalem
See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation,
Gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt the foal of a donkey.
The significance of the donkey is that it was used only for peaceful purposes while horses were used in warfare. When everyone saw Jesus on a donkey they knew he was the Saviour King. This made them very excited and they gave him an enthusiastic welcome.
Within a few days all their hopes seemed to be dashed to pieces. Instead of overthrowing the Roman rule with physical force, Jesus allowed himself to be arrested, tortured and put to death on the cross. Those who cheered Jesus and cried out ‘Hosanna to the Son of David, Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’, waving Palm branches, on Palm Sunday were soon to cry out ‘ Crucify Him, Crucify Him,’ on Good Friday.
What they didn’t realise was that in all His Suffering, pain and humiliation, Jesus was accomplishing the greatest saving act in the history of the world. He was paying the penalty our sins deserve. He died in our place so that we may never die but enjoy life with Him for evermore in heaven. He was setting us all free.
Today, as we grasp the palm leaves that have be folded into the shapes of crosses, lets put all our faith and trust in Jesus and accept the free gift of salvation he payed for during the first Holy Week. Let’s be ever so grateful and thank and praise Him with much enthusiasm. We can show our enthusiasm for what Jesus has done for us by attending the special services in Holy Week.