Month: March 2024

It is Easter Sunday morning as I post this blog. I’m excited that God has allowed me to celebrate yet another time the resurrection of Jesus Christ, especially since I am attending my church today with a caregiver for the first time since the Covid epidemic.

Every Easter, my memory takes me back to the summer of 1964. I was a 21 year old Air Force staff sergeant touring the Holy Land. On one of our three evenings in Jerusalem, two buddies and I searched for and found the recently excavated Garden Tomb. It had not yet become a tourist attraction, so we were able to walk right up to it and even into it even though no one was around. As I knelt in prayer at the entrance of that empty tomb, I could hear the angel announce, “He is not here. He has risen as He said”. The realization that Jesus lives covered me like a warm blanket. I have never felt closer to Jesus before or over these past sixty years since then. I am reminded of that event every time I sing these words. “Because He lives I can face tomorrow. Because He lives all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future and life is worth the living just because He lives.”

I want to leave you with the words of another of my favorite Easter songs describing the depth of despair after Good Friday and the joyful celebration after the Resurrection. “They all walked away. There was nothing to say. They had just lost their dearest friend. All that he said, but now he was dead, so this is the way it all ends. The dreams they had dreamed were not what they seemed now that he was dead and gone. The garden, the jail, the hammer, the nail. How could a night be so long? Then came the morning! Night turned into day.  The stone was rolled away. Hope rose with the dawn. Then came the morning! Shadows vanished before the sun. Death had lost and life had won for morning had come.”

I’m posting this on Good Friday, 2024. The “good” we celebrate today are the good work of love Jesus performed on the cross in our place and the very good gift of eternal life that accompanies our faith and obedience to Him. God is good.

This year I’ve been concentrating on the feelings Jesus experienced leading up to and during his sacrifice on the cross in addition to the obviously severe physical pain involved. Both Christian and non-Christian sources agree that Jesus was stripped naked before being nailed to the cross. Although artists through the centuries have added a loin cross to restore his dignity, Jesus’ first feelings as the cross was raised putting him on display to the gathering crowd which included his mother and dearest friends were total exposure and embarrassment.

Jesus felt compassion while on the cross. He asked his heavenly Father to forgive those crucifying him because they didn’t understand what they were doing. Jesus felt compassion for the two people who loved him most, his mother and John. He asked them to console each other as mother and son during his absence. Then he showed the most compassion to the thief who believed in him. He took him to Paradise.

I can find no report of Jesus ever shouting out because of the physical pain from the torture and even crucifixion he endured, but he did cry out in anguish when he took on the sins of the world, including yours and mine, and his Heavenly Father could no longer even bear to look at him. I have said and written many times that the fire and brimstone of hell are just discomforts compared to the pain of being totally separated from God. Even  brief separation made God’s Son cry out in anguish .

Thank you Jesus for the physical, mental,emotional and spiritual pain you suffered to provide a path to eternal life for me and everyone else who believes in and follows you.

As Holy Week progresses, we see Jesus’ emotions boiling over. He cursed a fig tree because it didn’t bear fruit for him to eat even though it was out of season for figs to grow. As he entered the temple courtyard, anger boiled over as he knocked over the tables of the money changers and merchants selling doves for sacrifice.  shouting that they had turned his Father’s house into a den of thieves. No doubt they were only there because the Chief Priest and Jewish religious leaders were getting a cut of the exorbitant profits.

After hurting the Jewish religious leaders’ pocket books, the same ones who attacked him for healing people on the Sabbath, Jesus began to preach and heal people right under their noses in the temple courtyard. Jesus knew that was the last straw that would cause them to plot his death.

Then Jesus’ emotions turned to the love he had for the twelve disciples he had chosen to continue his work on earth. Although he was saddened by Judas’ betrayal,  Jesus lovingly tried to prepare the eleven for what was about to happen to him. He told them his body would be broken like the bread he broke and passed to them and his red blood would flow from his body like the wine he passed to them. Then he told them that as often as they eat bread and drink wine, they should remember his sacrifice for them. After the Passover meal, Jesus showed his love for them by washing their feet like a servant. After that, the eleven followed Jesus  to the Mount of Olives for prayer.

It was there that another, unusual emotion bubbled up in Jesus – fear. The one who slept soundly in the boat in the storm while the disciples feared for their lives was now facing the most painful tortures and death man could devise. As Jesus prayed, his sweat dripped off of him like drops of blood. He prayed what I call the real Lord’s Prayer, “Father, take this cup from me, but never the less your Will be done.” It was then that Judas lead the high priest’s guards to arrest Jesus.

I’m posting this before Palm Sunday. It is the day each year that we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey colt to the welcoming cheers of the crowds.

Have you ever wished you could look into the future and see what was coming up in the days ahead? I’m sure Jesus wished he didn’t have that ability as he entered Jerusalem that day. He knew that in less than a week many of those same voices that welcomed him to Jerusalem shouting, “Hosanna!” would be shouting, “Crucify him!” Jesus knew that in just a few days, one of his twelve closest friends would betray him for thirty pieces of silver and do it with a kiss on the cheek. He knew that one of his three dearest disciples was going to deny he even knew Jesus three times, while the rest of them scattered and deserted him. He knew the excruciating sacrifice he was sent to become for you and for me was just a few days away. No, I’m glad I am shielded from the future until my future becomes eternity in God’s presence.

We shudder just thinking about the physical pain Jesus suffered in our place. The beating, the lashes, the nails piercing his hands and feet, not to mention the crown of thorns piercing his head; just the thought of all of it boggles our mind and touches our heart. This year I am concentrating on the mental and emotional pain he experienced as well.

As I’ve gotten older, I notice many jokes on my Facebook time line about St. Peter at the pearly gates. i sometimes think my friends are preparing me for that encounter. Most of those posts are very humorous, but I ran across one last week that made an important point and I want to share it with you.       St. Peter: Name please.  Matt: Matthew Alan Jones.   St. Peter: Hi Matt. You need 100 points to get into heaven. Tell me about  your life. Matt: I was married to the same woman for fifty years and I never cheated  on her even in my heart. St. Peter: That’s worth two points. Matt: Only two points??? I also attended church every Sunday and gave my ten percent tithe regularly. St. Peter: That’s worth another two points. Matt: Just two points??? I also established a food pantry for the poor at my church and worked there every Saturday. St. Peter: That’s another point. Matt: At this rate it is only by God’s mercy and grace that i’ll get into heaven!   St. Peter: Bingo! 100 points! Go right in!

(Ephesians 2:8-9 NLT) “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done so none of us can boast about it.”

About one hour after I posted my prayer request blog post, I received a phone call from Pastor Carlton at my church. He said, “We talked it over and if you have no objections, we would like to pay your utility bills that are due.” It took me less than a second to find no objections. This is an example of how faith and prayer work in the life of a Christian believer. When I wrote that blog asking for your prayers instead of your money, I had faith God would find a way to provide. His message will continue to be free for you to read and apply to your daily life until God calls me home to be with Him.

It is our faith that releases the power of our prayers. I’m reminded of an old story about a rural community that was suffering greatly because of a long drought. Word went throughout the community that everyone was invited to the town square to pray for rain. After nearly two hours of prayers from all of the pastors in the area, there wasn’t even a small cloud to be seen. As they were getting ready to break up the meeting and go home, a young boy pulled up on his bike. He was wearing water proof boots and carrying an umbrella. He knelt in prayer and when he opened the umbrella it began to rain. He was the only one who wasn’t soaked to their skin. He was the only one who was so certain God would answer prayer that he came prepared to receive it.

When we ask God for something, are we in faith eagerly expecting His answer? If not, He may withhold it until our faith increases our expectation.

I have always been open and honest in this blog about the trials and concerns I face in my life as a Christian. God has brought me through a lot these past 81 years and  now I’m facing another big mountain. Since I have been back home, my health has improved physically, mentally and spiritually. I need to stay here as long as possible. The VA and Catholic Charities have certainly done their part to help do that, but my mortgage and the skyrocketing costs of utilities have become more than my Social Security check can handle. I have asked my church’s financial pastor to find help for me through the church or other faith based organizations. Until then, I will struggle to keep all of my utilities on.

This is not a request for money!!! There is a reason there are no ads or links to other websites here. God’s message, like His plan of salvation through Jesus Christ, is a free gift that we could never afford. God provided this website free for me and I intend to keep it free to you, my readers.

It is a request for your prayers. Simply pray that Jim Anderson receives the resources needed to continue blogging God’s message from home. Thank you for the love and encouragement you have given me these last seven years. Even though I have never met most of you personally, you can be sure you are always in my thoughts and prayers.

Have you ever heard the audible voice of God? If not, don’t feel alone. In my nearly 81 years of life and my nearly 69 years as a Christian, I have never heard God speak audibly and I have only met three people who have. In the first chapter of John, Jesus is called “the Word” before He took on human form and the name Yeshua (Jesus). God does speak to us through Jesus’ life, ministry, death and resurrection as described in the Gospel accounts and those words in red found in Matthew, Mark, Luke , John and Revelation carry the weight of God’s direct communication with us through His Son.

Another way God communicates with us and the one I’m most familiar with, is the prompting of the Holy Spirit that He has placed in us. It is often called God’s still small voice or whisper, but most of the time it is more of a feeling that urges our action. When a Christian says, “Something told me to…” that “something” is usually the Holy Spirit prompting action.

I very recently lost a good friend and sister in Christ Jesus, Cheryl Jones. My loss is heaven’s gain. She is one of the three people I mentioned above who heard God’s voice and a few years ago she also shared with me an experience that she had that illustrates how the Holy Spirit guides us. Late one Sunday morning, she was on her way to a bird fair. She said it was like her car had a mind of its own and turned off at the expressway  exit nearest my church, which she often attended.  She arrived just as the noon service started. After the service, she was almost to the exit in the back of the church when “something told her” to turn around. She saw a young woman kneeling alone in prayer in front of her seat.  My friend walked back to where she was kneeling and asked if there was something she could pray with her about. With a surprised look on her face, the young woman told her, “I was just praying that God would send an older woman to explain this problem I’m facing and pray with me about it.” They talked and prayed together and my friend told me they left the church together walking on air and had  exchanged phone numbers.

Obey God’s message and you just might be the answer to someone’s prayer.

Over my nearly 70 years of life as a child of God through Jesus Christ, I’ve learned a lot about living the Christian life. Some from experiences – good and bad; some directly from God’s word or from the Holy Spirit He placed in my heart. I want to share what I’ve learned with you.

The Christian life here on Earth is easiest when you take it one day at a time. Satan loves to dredge up our past sins and mistakes that we have already laid at God’s feet. He also loves to put fear in our heart with what might lie  ahead tomorrow. Put guilt and fear aside and concentrate on what God has for you to do today.

God gives us two ways to counter the stress of daily life – prayer and laughter. My wife and I prayed together and laughed together every day of our long marriage. It helped to ease the stress that would have taken its toll on our bodies and our marriage.

Most of what we experience in our life on Earth is temporary, both good and bad. Even the body that houses our spirit and God’s Holy Spirit will become useless at the end of our life here. Therefore, it is important that we concentrate on those things that are permanent: God, God’s love for you and me, God’s promises in His word, Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins and His promise of eternal life which He demonstrated when he stepped out of that tomb in Jerusalem and ascended back to heaven to prepare a place for us.

Are these the only things I’ve learned? Of course not! But I believe they are the most important.