The day Jesus entered Jerusalem

Dear Family,
This Sunday is Psalm Sunday, the day Jesus entered Jerusalem “… gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zech 9:9). As Jesus was entering Jerusalem for the last week before He was crucified, the crowd welcomed Him with great celebration, spreading their cloaks and cut branches on the road before Him. They followed Him, shouting and singing His praises. This infuriated some of the pharisees who demanded that Jesus shut the crowd up, to which Jesus answered, “I tell you,” he replied, “if they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). That was the Sunday before Good Friday, and oh how things changed on Good Friday!

I imagine that there were some, if not many, that welcomed Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday who cried out, “Crucify, crucify!” on Good Friday. This demonstrates the truly fickle nature of humanity. I don’t know if fear and intimidation of the Jewish rulers was a factor in their flip-flop. Maybe it was peer pressure that as we know doesn’t stop when you get out of high school! Maybe it was the influence of a frenzied crowd caught up in the emotion of the moment, stirred up by the Jewish leaders that caused them to go from praising Jesus to cursing Him, in less than a week! Whatever it was, it was and still is a sad commentary about mankind.

Today, it seems like there are many professing Christians who don’t know what they believe anymore. Who, as Elijah put it, constantly “waiver between two opinions.” James describes people like this as being double-minded, tossed back and forth like a wave of the sea. When things are going well in their lives, they praise God all the day long! But when life happens and things don’t go their way God is somehow to blame. My friends, let me share something with you I learned a long time ago. If we tried to define and interpret the character of God and His love for us based upon our earthly circumstances, we’d all have a different God! No, we MUST define and interpret our circumstances based upon what we know to be true about God, that He loves us and that He has our best interests in mind, always!

We’ve got to be settled on who God is and our commitment to Him no matter what happens to us. We cannot praise God one day, then curse Him the next like the fickle people of Jerusalem on that first Psalm Sunday. We must stand firm on what the Word of God says, what it teaches us and how it transforms our lives. Regarding the great issues of our day, we must seek truth from scripture and be willing to not only stand on that truth, but contend for the truth in our culture.

You know, as I think about the first Palm Sunday and Good Friday, I’m glad I wasn’t there. I don’t know what camp I would have been in. I may well have been just as fickle as many in Jerusalem on those days. What I am glad for is that the Lord revealed who He was to me and what He did for me. I am so glad that He revealed to me the truth of His love for me as was demonstrated on the cross of Christ. I am so eternally grateful that I have come to know Jesus as BOTH Savior and Lord, and one day I will be with Him forever in His eternal kingdom. Because of these truths I can be single-minded about my commitment to the Lord. Scripture calls this being “wholehearted,” so I’m striving to continually be “Whole-Harted” for the Lord! Sorry about that last part, I couldn’t resist!

I pray that you have come to the point where you are settled in your heart that the Lord IS Lord, and that you are no longer vacillating between “two opinions” about God and what He says. I pray that you have a settled peace because you know the Lord and are sold out to Him and His word. It’s good to know where you stand, especially when where you stand is on Christ the solid ROCK!

Standing On His Promises,

Glenn