Choosing a lamb for Passover should have been a matter of the heart. True worshippers with a strong faith wouldn’t settle for less as they chose a lamb without spot or blemish. Their lamb, chosen to be slain, the blood a reminder how God saved them and brought them out of bondage. A reminder to the Israelites of their struggle against slavery and their deliverance out of Egypt. The Jews were to keep the passover as a perpetual feast.
And then came Jesus. The Lamb of God without spot or blemish. (I Peter 1:16) The one that God sent to ransom and redeem us from our bondage with His own precious blood. The Jews had to go and choose a lamb. Our Lamb, Jesus, came to seek us. (Luke 19:10). John saw him and proclaimed, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus Christ became our Passover Lamb and was sacrificed. (I Cor. 5:7)
Let us be reminded of the high price that our precious Savior paid to rescue us from the slavery to sin. Let us rejoice and praise our Lamb! He is worthy!
Revelation 5 – Then I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. 2 And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” 3 And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, 4 and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. 5 And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”
6 And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, with seven horns and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. 7 And he went and took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. 8 And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song, saying,
“Worthy are you to take the scroll
and to open its seals,
for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
from every tribe and language and people and nation,
10 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
and they shall reign on the earth.”
11 Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, 12 saying with a loud voice,
“Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,
to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might
and honor and glory and blessing!”
13 And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying,
“To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb
be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!”
14 And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” and the elders fell down and worshiped.
I told them about the temple and the veil and how human hands couldn’t have torn it. I told them about words He spoke from the cross. I explained how crucifixion works and how Jesus died before there was an opportunity to receive the final blow leading to death. I told them this and reminded them over and over and over that the motivation for such a terrible thing was Love. A love like the world had never seen before. A love like no other. A love for each of them. A love so strong that Jesus took their place. He took my place. He took on the sin of the world.
Zaccheus’ innate curiosity led Him to encounter Jesus. You too have been given a personality with certain traits and God will use those to lead you to encounter Jesus.
As we sat on the balcony overlooking the fancy pool, a team of landscapers was already hard at work. They had been tasked with trimming the palm trees. The fancy pool of the fancy resort had dozens of them. There was a climber who sawed, like he used a literal saw, no plucking or pinching, those branches had to be cut away. There was a gatherer and a cleaner-upper; the jobs were many and I marveled at how there was a lot of work going into the palm tree trimming. Heavy duty work, the very thing vacations are not made of. They were focused and deliberate in their task, beads of sweat rolling down their faces. I grew tired just watching them.
to be a dynamic follower of Christ can mean a death sentence. During their brief conversation, his heart was so overwhelmed with love for his people and their spiritual condition, he honestly and tearfully asked my friend, “Is anyone praying for us?” My friend came back to the table with tears streaming down her face and said, “We have to pray for him.” So we did. When we began our local Bible study in Fall of 2019, we adopted his country as our international prayer focus. We prayed for him and his people each week. 
Two weeks later, our friend was in Birmingham with his daughter. Her surgery went extremely well and our friends spent their recovery time with a lifelong ministry partner who lives in a small Alabama town. Our study was so excited about the possibility of our East Asian friend and his daughter visiting, but try as we might, logistics were not in our favor. The small town was about an hour and a half from our study and he wasn’t sure he could get transportation; his daughter’s follow up appointments were on the same days our study was to meet. So we prayed. Within a couple of days, his daughter’s follow up appointments were changed and his host “happened” to have a free day on our study day and was able to drive him there. Only God. 
Sentences constructed together to make a page and those pages made a story. The day an old house in Paris covered in vines came alive to me was a day that changed my life. Perhaps deep in the recesses of my mind that emergency appendectomy (it would be 17 plus years before I heard that word or knew what it was) and that smallest of girls helped to persuade me into a medical profession. Perhaps not, but one thing is certain, I always have and do love a public library. I could list the reasons and they include but are not limited to:
Quenching the Spirit. We’re instructed in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 to not quench the Spirit. If we are seeking to be a part of God’s kingdom coming here on earth and His will being done in society around us we must be aware to nurture His Spirit within us, to listen to it and obey it and not to quench it. Quenching the Spirit in our metaphor is very much like cutting off the water supply valve to your whole house. You leave yourself unprepared and empty of the very thing you need the most.
Bible tells us she made a basket, coated it to seal it like a small ark, placed her beautiful son into that basket… and then she placed that basket among the reeds along the riverbank of the Nile.
“Poor little thing. He’s one of the Hebrew babies!”
Listen to my prayer, O God,
The Jokester continued, “Well don’t be coming home pregnant.” Now they both were laughing, and honestly so was I. I giggled to myself at their banter. I smiled at their lighthearted friendship knowing there was no offense given and none taken.
Priceless 