I want to tell my wife, April, happy birthday. I love you so much. Thank you for being such an understanding and patient wife and mother.

Today’s reading was Matthew 27. I am not going to write about this chapter, because it just says it all.

The Death of Jesus 45From the sixth hour until the ninth hour darkness came over all the land. 46About the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?”—which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
47When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
48Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a stick, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. 52The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
54When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
55Many women were there, watching from a distance. They had followed Jesus from Galilee to care for his needs. 56Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Thank you Jesus for doing this for all of us.

Today’s reading was Matthew 26. It is full of action and is most notably remembered for the betrayal. What stood out in my mind was the price that Judas accepted to betray Jesus. It was only 30 coins of silver. Below is what the Bible says:

Then one of the Twelve—the one called Judas Iscariot—went to the chief priests and asked, “What are you willing to give me if I hand him over to you?” So they counted out for him thirty silver coins.

Judas traded the life of Jesus for enough money to buy a field? Seriously, how crazy is this? My question to myself and everyone else is this: What are we willing to sell Jesus for? What is it in our lives that we have placed a greater value on than Him? I know that He is worth so much more than 30 coins of silver.

Have you ever noticed how when someone else laughs you laugh as well? Seriously, have you ever somewhere with friends and they started laughing so you laughed and the end result was shooting your drink out of your nose? When this happens, we share moments of laughter and happiness with our friends.

Today’s reading was Matthew 25. It is here that Jesus tells one of my favorite parables: The Parable of the Ten Talents. In case you are not familiar with it. A master leaves town and gives his servants each some money. Two of them use money and invest it and make a profit, while the other one is too afraid to do anything, so he buries it. When the master returns, he asks them about his money…He is very pleased with the two who made a profit, but is angry with the one who was too scared. He goes on to say that he will give those who took the chance more responsibility and allow them to come and share in their master’s happiness. The other one: let’s just say that he threw him out.

I keep thinking about how awesome it is when we do what God has called us to do. Occasionally, He wants us to step out in faith and not be scared. When we do this we get to share His happiness, joy, and laughter. It’s kind of like sharing a moment with your friends and then you shoot your drink out of your nose, but a whole lot better.

Growing up, especially in junior high and high school, we played a lot of pick up basketball games. It was usually spontaneous and we usually had an odd number of players. This meant that someone did not get picked or had to be a sub. This pretty much stunk, because I was/am short and horrible at basketball. (Not a good combination) Usually, I was the last pick or not picked at all. This was so hard, because in baseball and football I excelled. But basketball, that was a different story. I cannot describe how terrible it felt not to get picked.

Today’s reading (Matthew 24) totally reminded me of not being picked. Christ is speaking about how no one will know the day or the hour when He will come back. He is telling us to be prepared. Then he gives more inclination to how it is going to be. He says, “Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.” In other words, not everyone is going to get picked. How awful of a feeling would it be to be left off of this team? (I am not referring to basketball here) I could not imagine the feelings of sorrow and desperation of not being picked. How do we make sure we are on the team? Practice…Practice…Practice…

One of the worst feelings in the world is when there is a party or something planned and everyone you know is invited, but you don’t get the invite. What makes this worse is that all of those who got invited talk about how awesome it is going to be and what they are doing. Then they ask you if you think it will be fun or not. Here you are left with a dilemma: Say, “Yes, it will be awesome.” or say, “I did not get an invite.” and look like a dork.

On the other hand, you could be the one having the party and you invite all of your friends, but everyone cancels…because they have better things to do. This also, is the opposite of cool. Today’s reading was Matthew 22. In the beginning of this chapter, Jesus tells a parable about a wedding banquet. He tells us how Heaven is like a wedding banquet…everyone got invited…but people refused to come. He then goes on to explain how awesome this banquet will be and they still ignored the invite. This causes them to go and invite people who we would not think should get invited. The banquet was filled up with people…

The thing that comes to mind: Why would anyone turn down this sort of invite? Why would we think that we have better things to do, instead of hanging our with Jesus for…eternity? I am wondering how many of us, when invited to go somewhere have made up some lame excuse to say home and not go to a particular function?

Jesus has invited us all: Do we plan on keeping our reservation or canceling?

Growing up the one thing I could not stand is when my parents would say, “Because I said so.” They always said this when I tried to question their authority about something that I should not be doing. I promised myself that I would never use this when I had a child. Well, I use it all the time now without realizing it. This is so disappointing.

Today’s reading was Matthew 21. This is such an awesome chapter in which Christ makes His triumphal entry into the city, but what got my attention is when He was asked who gave Him the authority? I know that my reaction (and my dad’s) would have been one with anger. I would have probably told my son not to question my authority. But Jesus is so cool. He answered with another question: Jesus replied, “I will also ask you one question. If you answer me, I will tell you by what authority I am doing these things. John’s baptism—where did it come from? Was it from heaven, or from men?”

Of course they did not answer Him, because no matter how they answered, they would be wrong. So Christ never gave them an answer either. I guess this was His way of saying, “Because I said so.” He could have easily said I am the living God or the one True God. But I am sure they probably already realized that as well, since they were questioning things they should not have questioned.

I am writing this at a later time than I usually do today. What I read this morning really got to me. Today’s reading was Matthew 20. There is a story in this chapter of where two blind men receive sight. What is so cool is that once Jesus healed them, they received their sight and followed him. They did not go out and celebrate or something of that sort. They simply followed him.

This story made me think of all the things that have happened in my life. I am 27 years old now and for the majority of my life, I did not follow Christ. There are so many instances in which I know absolutely that He was there to get me through the situation and I even acknowledged that He did, but….I did not follow Him immediately. I see this too often in the lives of many. It usually goes something like this:

Man has problem.

Demands help/miracle from God.

Receives help/miracle.

Man forgets about it moments later and goes about business as usual.

I realize that it is not always like this, but more often than not it is. I pray that everyone, myself included, acknowledges when God does something amazing in their life and follows immediately just like the two blind me did.

My son, Ethan, is about to turn 5 in about two weeks. (Man I am getting old.) I have learned that he is the constant negotiator. He is always trying to out-smart us so that he can get something better or what he wants.

Today’s reading was Matthew 19. It is in this chapter where Jesus tells the parable of the rich young man. Every time I read this it really puts things into perspective. This guy said that he follows all of the commands, but then Jesus says to give everything he has. Wow! I know you must be wondering how this ties in to how my son asks if something is going to benefit him…Well, here it is.

Peter tells Christ that he has already given everything and now he wants to know his reward for doing this. He sounds so much like my son here. It’s like he says, “Dad if I am good, what do I get?” I know that all of you parents can relate to this. I hear it almost every day.

Christ gives probably the coolest answer ever: You will get to sit next to me on the throne of heaven. That would be so awesome. I am doing my best to be good for this reward. I wonder what I need to give up…