Plea bargaining? ~ Mike MacIntosh

Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their clothes on it, and He sat on it. And many spread their clothes on the road, and others cut down leafy branches from the trees and spread them on the road. Then those who went before and those who followed cried out, saying: "Hosanna! 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!' Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" - Mark 11:7-10

What an amazing sight it must have been to see the huge crowds of people crying out to God, "Save us now!" The cries of their hearts were exactly what ours should be. Our nation should be calling out to the Lord in desperation, begging His forgiveness for our sin and our backsliding away from Him. We don't need new policies or revised laws--we need Jesus Christ! We should be crying out every day, "God, save me." Jesus is coming for His church soon. The apostle Paul said:

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words" (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

This is either comfort to you, as Paul says, or it's a wake-up call for you. We need to start living with fear, and awe, and respect of God in our lives. He is coming back, and it will be decisive and conclusive. Are you ready? So often we let our eyes watch things, and we let our minds hear things, and we let our hands handle things, and we let our heart be exposed to things that are really impure. We lack the fear of God. Recognizing who God truly is puts us in our place. And when we're in that place of reverent fear and submission to His will, we have peace. We have peace and comfort knowing that He is our God and that He is our Savior. And that's the only way that we'll ever find true peace. So cry out today to our Lord, asking Him to save us from our sins, to keep us from backsliding, and to rescue us from our sinful and prideful inclinations. He loves you so much and He wants to be your peace.