Third Week of Advent ~ Tuesday

​We are often so convinced that what we are doing or the path we are following is right.... until we meet Jesus at the cross.

Judas was committed to his crime of betraying Jesus and we can see a determination to His decision to hand Jesus over even in how He treated the woman who poured her oil out on Jesus’ feet. He was happier with keeping the money to himself then as much as he was keeping the money from handing Jesus over in the garden... but as soon as He saw Jesus facing the cross without resistance, he realised what he was doing. Unfortunately he didn't have the knowledge of the forgiveness and grace that Jesus poured our at the cross, but be sure do have so much to learn from Judas' actions.

How often do we become almost trapped by our headfirst decision in something that we forsake consulting the one who knows best? We follow our own plan until we eventually reach that point of knowing that it wasn’t the best for us. And then we have a choice ~ do we follow what the Spirit speaks like Pilates wife or do we take position like the crowd, seeking our revenge before we soften to the kindness and grace of knowing what He’s about to pay for our sins.

- Read Matthew 27

This passage is very good in the New Living Translation

- Devotional Thought

​In this broken world, even when we relent from our stubborn pride of following the path we have deemed best for ourselves, we will still be met with resistance from the others. When Judas realised Jesus wasn’t resisting from the arrest, he went to return the money. But he is told that it’s not the problem of those who encouraged his sin. He still relents and without seeing the beauty of the cross, kills himself.

This fulfilled the prophecies but it also models how destructive to ourselves and others we can be if we take the fixing of what we did wrong into our own hands before going all the way to the cross in repentance.

When we come to fully realise the suffering along the road that Jesus took to the cross, the suffering that He did shy away from, we will come to realise that we can’t bypass what He did. The cross is our final port of call where we come to the end of our plans and come into what He says.

- Passage to focus on 

​“When Judas, who had betrayed him, realized that Jesus had been condemned to die, he was filled with remorse. So he took the thirty pieces of silver back to the leading priests and the elders. “I have sinned,” he declared, “for I have betrayed an innocent man.” “What do we care?” they retorted. “That’s your problem.” Then Judas threw the silver coins down in the Temple and went out and hanged himself. The leading priests picked up the coins. “It wouldn’t be right to put this money in the Temple treasury,” they said, “since it was payment for murder.” After some discussion they finally decided to buy the potter’s field, and they made it into a cemetery for foreigners. That is why the field is still called the Field of Blood. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah that says, “They took the thirty pieces of silver— the price at which he was valued by the people of Israel, and purchased the potter’s field, as the Lord directed.””

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭27‬:‭3‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This is a very deep, often disturbing passage. But I believe it highlights how amazing the cross is and what an incredible blessing we have to live in the knowledge of the cross!

- Image for today 

Today's image is a cross. A simple, plain cross.

But the complete opposite of simple was the cross that Jesus died on. Let us never not be amazed and shook with gratitude by what He did for us on the cross.

- Prayer 

Father God,

We know how destructive we can be when we try to fix things ourselves. When we try to mkae right what only you can redeem. We thank you for you forgiveness and unrelenting grace that pours out again and again over us. Help us to never be anything short of fully thankful for the cross.

We thank you again, and again, and again.

- Active idea

Write down all the things you need to release into the hands of Jesus. Often people talk about leaving things at the foot of the cross... but don't forget that Jesus didn't stay on the cross! The cross is only the reminder that we have been given the amazing gift of going straight to Him ~ Our reserrected King!

Thank you for joining me today! Hope to see you again soon!

Have a blessed Lent

~ X ~