Good morning: Was this past week a “march to victory” for you, or did it seem more like a stumble toward disaster? Maybe there was more to do than you had hours in which to do it. Did major plans fall apart at the last minute? The days dragged by because you came down with a nasty cold or flu? Did you receive bad news which is still weighing on your heart? But then look at Jesus. On Palm Sunday he was welcomed to Jerusalem by thousands of cheering crowds shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!” It looked like an unstoppable march to triumph. Yet by Friday the joyful cheers changed to hateful calls of, “Crucify him! Crucify him!” Things would only get worse. Pilate would cave in to the demands of the mob and sentence Jesus to death. The Son of God would be nailed to the cross and suffer indescribable agony before dying. Who would call that victory? Yet it was a victory, not just any triumph, but complete and total victory over the devil, humankind’s greatest enemy. By his death Jesus would “free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” (Heb. 2:15). His death would win eternal life for us. Joined to Jesus by faith, we too are on a march to victory. Trials and troubles will come, but “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us….For neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37, 39). May the living Lord bless today’s march toward glory! Yours in Christ, Pastor The choir meets tomorrow at 8 a.m. The Palm Sunday service is at 9 a.m., followed by Sunday school and adult Bible class. The children are singing in the service. The Bible class will continue our study of the Lord’s Prayer and how it serves as a model for all our other prayers as well.
