Month: April 2026

“The Lord inhabits the praises of His people.”

Psalm 22:3 (KJV)

One day someone appeared to Joshua, calling himself the commander of the army of the Lord. He bowed in reverence before the Heavenly visitor, who proceeded to give Joshua detailed instructions to follow, that would lead to the fall of Jericho. 

Those instructions involved marching around the city after positioning the priests to carry the ark of the covenant, with the military forces at the front and back of the line. They were told to march around Jericho once a day for six days in silence, but on the seventh day, to march around the city seven times and then blow trumpets and rams’ horns, along with loud shouts of praise to God.

Joshua led the people to follow the instructions and afterward, the ground shook and rumbled, then opened up and the walls of Jericho collapsed straight down into the earth. The city was in the hands of the Israelites and they won the victory, not by their might, but by obedience, in marching, praying, blowing trumpets, shofars and shouting loud praises to God. 

As strange as this story sounds, the excavations done in the 1950’s support the biblical narrative of the Jericho walls. Archaeologists found evidence of walls that collapsed straight down into the earth, instead of falling outward. Both the story and the remains of Jericho date back to around 1400 B.C.

The theme drawn from the Bible story of Jericho has always been that obedience and worship are the pathways to victory and of defeating our spiritual enemies, but there’s also a message about the variety of ways that God receives our worship. 

The Jericho march involved a prescribed number of days and times to march, having trumpets and rams horns prepared to blow at a precise moment, and the order to first march in silence for six days. All the while they carried the golden ark of the covenant, a relic and artifact representing God’s holy presence. On the seventh day, they erupted in loud shouts of praise, as the Heavenly visitor instructed Joshua and the people to do.

The Jericho march followed a definite ritual, and yet it shows us that worship is not limited to one form, but expressed in different ways. God cannot be put in a box, because he accepts all kinds of prayers, whether they are written or spontaneous, repetitive or spoken once, in silent, meditative reverence or accompanied by instruments of music and loud shouts of praise.

There’s no whisper too silent, and no shout of praise too loud, to please God when it comes from a sincere heart. Most people tend to abide by the type of worship of the particular custom they grew up with. Different customs use different expressions of worship, but whatever style we worship in, God always looks at the heart. Even Jesus pointed out that a person may do everything that seems proper, yet their heart could be far away from Him. (Matthew 15:8) 

Thank God for reading our hearts.

I have a friend whose priest recently corrected her for saying “Amen” too quietly whenever she receives communion. She felt reprimanded for speaking softly.

The other side of that situation is a Pentecostal church, whose congregation is so loud with shouts of “Amen” and “Hallelujah” that visitors frequently complain of it being too noisy for a church service.

To all those complaints, I would just say that God is not deaf, and He’s not nervous either.  He accepts praise and worship that comes from a sincere heart, and at any decibel level. The Psalmist wrote that the Lord “inhabits” the praises of His people. When we worship God, He draws near to us, and the walls of doubt and fear  seem to collapse. Whether our hearts lead us to worship in silence or with shouts of praise, all forms of praise bring God closer to us because He inhabits praise.

The story of Joshua reminds us that there is a time to be still and quiet before God, and a time to shout or sing loud praises to Him. Sincere believers will adjust to worship however their heart leads them to, and no one knows the heart of a person, but God. We can express love and praise to God in any form or decibel level and His Spirit responds by being in our midst.

Lord, We praise and thank you for the many ways to express our love for you, and that you look at the heart of every person. With that we say, Hallelujah and Amen.

“From that time on, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer greatly from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.”

Matthew 16:21 (NAB)

Today is the exact day that Jesus was crucified was April 3rd, 33 A.D. Historians, archeologists and astronomists have calculated the date based on historical and astronomical events, so today is a special day to be alive and to have the privilege of reflecting on His death.

When I was visiting the Nursing home two days ago, one of the Jewish residents asked me, “What is good about Good Friday.” I immediately thought of this meditation and so I replied, “Friday is good because Sunday is coming.” Without belief in the resurrection, our faith would be left with a void. 

Jesus described everything that would take place, being handed over to the chief priests to suffer and die, but that He would rise again on the third day. It doesn’t get much clearer than that. They listened and heard, but could not comprehend what Jesus was telling them.

Peter surely didn’t understand it, when he drew a sword at Jesus’ arrest, ready to put up a fight. Thomas never anticipated a resurrection, declaring that he would believe it when he feels the nailed prints in his hands. The disciples scoffed at the words of Mary Magdalene, who saw the empty tomb and the risen Jesus. On the road to Emmaus, the disciples didn’t know it was Jesus speaking to them until He broke the bread, and then their eyes were opened. 

Those who don’t understand why Jesus suffered on Good Friday, may ask what is good about Good Friday? It was a dark and sorrowful day, but it was good because Sunday is coming.

Faith does not rely on the senses, and yet we are all sensual beings. The bible defines faith as the assurance of things not seen, yet when it came to the resurrection of Jesus, the disciples needed to see, hear, touch and feel in order to believe it. 

Even after Jesus described His suffering and rising on the third day, they seemed to forget all that He said. I often wonder if they forgot because they were so traumatized after witnessing the torture that took place on Friday. 

If they had really remembered what Jesus said to them, they would have camped out at His tomb, waiting for Him to rise on Sunday morning. Instead, they forgot His words, panicked and then scattered, but their reaction was just as the prophet foretold, “Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered.” (Zechariah 13:7)

We have all experienced a dark day in our lives, like that Friday. Our hopes were crushed and sorrow overwhelmed us for some reason. On Fridays like that, we can forget what God ever said and feel like our faith is sealed away in a tomb. It’s why we were meant to rely on God’s promises and not our feelings. His words are always true, even when we don’t feel it. If we sum up all that Jesus said to us in one sentence, it would sound something like, 

“I love you, keep trusting in Me, I have good plans for you and will give you eternal life.”

Good Friday was not what most would call “Good”, but Friday is not the end of the story either. 

Our hope is in Sunday. There will be a final Sunday that comes one day, with a bodily resurrection of all who have died having faith in Christ, to rise and live eternally with Him. 

On that day, everyone will be healed and completely whole. We will see every loved one we ever lost and learn how God was loving us through all the Fridays of our lives. Whatever Friday is like for us today, it really is good, because Sunday is coming. 

Lord, whatever Friday brings, our hope is in you because we know that Sunday is coming. Amen

Happy Easter ✝️

“Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” He took along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to feel sorrow and distress. Then he said to them, “My soul is sorrowful even to death. Remain here and keep watch with me.”

Matthew 26:36-38 (NAB)

The garden is where we see the pure humanity of Jesus in raw form. Emotional pain reveals what we value most, from a human perspective. In the garden, Jesus was overwhelmed with emotional pain and desperately sought the support of His closest friends, but they were unavailable since they could barely stay awake.

The word Gethsemane, in Hebrew means, olive press. An olive press crushes the olives, to squeeze the oil out of them. In the garden, Jesus had everything squeezed out of Him, as He was crushed mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

There are times when we may  experience a Gethsemane in our own lives, either through some type of sorrow, affliction or a tragedy that we have no control over. It makes us feel emotionally crushed or squeezed, and Jesus knows exactly what it’s like to be squeezed like olives in a press. 

We cannot control the events that cause it, but there is always some insight to gain through our pain. Pain leads us to finding purpose, and purpose brings inner peace. 

My Gethsemane experience occurred when my adult son, Jon, suffered a traumatic brain injury from a motorcycle accident in 2023. His life came to a crushing halt, by being physically and mentally disabled, living in a Nursing Facility ever since. 

He’s made some progress since his accident, but the entire event was a Gethsemane experience for both of us. For Jon and me, it was time spent in the olive press, only in different ways. Our time in the olive press produces a mysterious healing balm. I’ve found comfort through opportunities to bond with people who’ve suffered with a similar situation. If Jon is ever able to talk about it, he will have a good story to tell.

The oil produced in our garden has a twofold effect. It’s a healing balm that soothes the wounds in our soul, but it also drips onto others that we meet, who share a similar tragedy. 

At the Nursing home, I met the parents of a young man about my son’s age, who has been there just as long as Jon has. It seems that God brought us together, since we both had in common, adult sons in their early forties, who nearly died and sustained serious brain injuries. Both our sons have made some progress in their recovery, but still require long term care. We share a special bond as parents, having been in the mutual olive press, through similar circumstances.

Meeting Martha and Ray, Andy’s parents, gave me peace in knowing that God is so fully invested in our lives, that He would intentionally connect

us with others who share a similar tragedy. Jesus can empathize with every kind of pain known to man, and He will find a way to let us know that He feels our pain, by sending specific people to us in our Gethsemane.

One healing effect of the oil that is pressed out of us, is the peace of knowing that God loves our children more than we do. It helps me to accept the tragedy, trust God for further healing, and know that this is only a chapter in our lives, not the whole book. 

The garden of Gethsemane gives us a personal realization that God is love, and because He loves us, He not only sacrificed His Son for us, but shares a small taste of His suffering with us, along with the hope of resurrection. 

Remembering that Jesus told us to “let the children come to Him”, there’s a mystery of wisdom hidden in His words. He is saying to all parents, that it’s always best to entrust our children to Jesus, at whatever age they are. In the infinite wisdom of God, He uses every dire situation to draw our children closer to Him. 

Whether we are parents or not, strength comes through times of adversity, and adversity might occasionally become a personal Gethsemane. Any way we look at it, God loves members of our family more than we do, and His oil of healing gives us the strength to meet every challenge in the garden, as we learn to trust in His love. 

Jesus’ friends failed to stay awake with Him, yet His strength came from knowing that His Father loved Him, and that love enabled Him to move forward and face the cross. God didn’t remove the cup of suffering from Jesus, but Jesus knew that His Father would bring good out of the evil that was happening. Even if the cup is not removed from us, we can know that a good God brings good out of evil, to those who love Him. (Romans 8:28)

Someone once said that your pain can be either your prison or your platform. Our platform is used to share our faith with others, by touching and networking lives who share a common trial. Every type of loss becomes a lesson, that reaps inner growth. When we are pressed like olives, our oil of healing is poured out on others. 

Jesus didn’t ask much of Peter, James and John. He only asked them to “remain here and keep watch with Me.” We have a gift of empathy that we can always offer to someone. It’s the gift of keeping watch for them while they are going through an olive press. We do it by just being there and upholding them in prayer. 

When we thrive in unity, as God intended, empathy and comfort are gifts we give to those who are going through a Gethsemane. In this life, we see through a veil, but the Lord assures us that one day the veil will be removed and we will see everything clearly.

Lord, bring your healing balm to all who are pressed or grieving today. Strengthen us by your love, so we can empathize and comfort others who are also suffering. Amen

“Say to the master of the house, ‘The Teacher says, “Where is my guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’

Then he will show you a large upper room furnished and ready. Make the preparations for us there.”

Mark 14:14-15 (NAB)

Jesus celebrated the Passover each year with His disciples, using one of the upper rooms inside a large home in Jerusalem. He knew that it would be the last Passover celebration with His disciples, so He sent a message to the master of that house, asking where His guest room is, so that they could prepare it for the Passover.

The master, or owner of that large home in Jerusalem, most likely routinely rented out the 2nd and 3rd floor rooms for special occasions. I attached pictures, showing the upper room in Jerusalem, which historians agree to be the one that Jesus used.

The upper room is where Jesus washed His disciples’ feet, shared Passover meals with them every year for three years, and is also where 120 of them gathered and were filled with the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. 

Life changing, supernatural events occurred in that same upper room. One of the most marvelous events was when Jesus entered that room in His resurrected body, and walked through the walls, instead of through the door.  (John 20:19)

Every person is the master of their own spiritual home, deciding to whom and to what they will give their space to. Whatever fills our minds most, whatever desires we yield to the most, and whoever or whatever we pay the most honor to, are the ones in our guest room. 

Jesus is asking for the place of honor in our guest room. Once we quiet the outside noises of the day, and silence the angry and confusing voices all around us, we might hear a soft, gentle voice asking us, 

“Where is My guest room?”

Mary was the first human person who welcomed Jesus into her guest room, which was  her womb. For us, the guest room is not a physical place in our body, but a spiritual one, within our hearts.

If an honored guest or a favorite celebrity came to stay in our home, we would prepare the guest room by cleaning it, putting fresh linens on the bed, and stocking the pantry full of food, so that our guest could dine in excellence. Entertaining a guest is more than giving them a room, but the time spent with our guest. We would not greet them, and leave them with a list of chores, as we run off. 

I can easily slip into a mode of treating Jesus more like a servant than a guest. Servants are those whose job is to please us, but an honored guest is someone we seek to please. Some days I’m handing Jesus a laundry list of prayer requests, then hurrying off to run errands and finish other obligations.

It’s an honor and a joy to have His presence in our guest room, even if nothing got done on our list of prayer requests. It’s about loving Jesus for who He is, and not for what He does for us, because that’s exactly how He loves us.  He wants us to keep asking, seeking and knocking on His door, but to remember that He is also knocking on our door, waiting to be invited in as our guest and dine with us. (Revelation 3:20)

Keeping Jesus as the honored guest and dining with us every day, leads to conversation that consists of speaking and listening. It’s the kind of prayer that deepens our relationship with Him. Maybe that’s what Jesus meant by dining with us.

The guest room in Jerusalem is the place where so many life transforming moments happened during the three years that the disciples spent with Jesus. I can imagine Jesus saying to us, during our hectic daily schedules, 

“I hear you and everything will be okay, just give me my guest room and come dine with Me.”

Lord, today as we invite you into the upper room of our hearts, we thank you for the honor of your Presence, as we dine with you each day. Amen