🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
So John was beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a tray…..Later, John’s disciples came for his body and buried it. Then they went and told Jesus what had happened. As soon as Jesus heard the news, He left in a boat to a remote area to be alone.” —Matthew 14:10-13
🌿LIVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
Jesus and John the Baptist possess similarities in their lives. They share an earthly family background and an eternal focus backdrop that reverberate throughout their ministry and message, reconfigured by two sacrificial deaths at the hands of their enemies.
In the gospels, the paradox of endings and beginnings manifest themselves when endings produce open doors, not closed ones.
The end of John the Baptist’s ministry springs forth a new beginning of Jesus’ mission. His death at the hands of an ungodly king closes the final chapter of his life, and begins a new chapter in Jesus’ work. A closing results in an opening.
Later, Jesus’s death at the hands of hostile Pharisees leads to new life for all who commit their lives to Christ. His death is not a final ending, but as we see with paradoxes, becomes a genesis for new life through His resurrection from the tomb. A closing results in an opening.
This ultimate paradox……that we can have new life breathed into our life because of Jesus’ crucifixion changes everything for us and charges us with this action: Take your endings and let Jesus turn them into new beginnings.
Endings where Jesus can transform trauma to truth:
Devastating disappointments
Discouraging defeats
Deleterious diversions
Destructive decisions
Deadened dreams
Dark days
🍃🍃🍃
You are not alone in your endings. Endings are really new openings through which Jesus carries out His Father’s will and completes His plans for us. Jesus not only walks through these openings, but He invites us to accompany Him…….
to draw us when we fear
to deepen us when we falter
to deliver us when we fail
🍃🍃🍃
You are not abandoned in your endings. Endings produce fertile ground for Jesus come into our lives. Out of death, new life. From a painful past, new life. Despite an unpredictable present, new life. No matter a fathomless future, new life.
Death——>New Life
Past——>New Life
Present——>New Life
Future——>New Life
Jesus, the Giver of life, can make something more out of your endings.
Give your endings to Jesus. In Jesus’ hands, endings are gifted beginnings, windows and doors of grace that the Real Truth is opening for you to enter and experience new life.
🍃🍃🍃
Copyright 2019