Happy Lord’s Day!
I know, I don’t usually send an email out on Sundays, but I have a few things I needed to tell you. : )
I do have a devotion below, though, so be sure you scroll down and check it out.
First, I wanted to thank you all for your support on my new release, Just a Cowboy’s Secret Baby. It has a pretty orange best-seller tag on Amazon, and, I’d have to check with Jay to be sure, but I think it was one of our top releases ever on Say with Jay as well.
You guys are just the very best and you make my heart smile with your sweet encouragement and kindness to me.
I also wanted to let you know that my book, Cowboy Taking a Chance, is now available on Bookfunnel! It is totally FREE and I’d love for you to grab your copy below!
Also, the first book in the Pink Pistol Sisterhood has released! I have never read anything by Karen Whitemeyer that I didn’t love, and she is one of my family’s favorite authors. (Pie has asked me why my books can’t be more like Karen’s. She said there’s so much more action in Karen’s books. And I asked her what kind of action. She said, “Well at least one person gets shot or is in a fist fight, sometimes both, in every book.” )
Okay, so there might be more shooting and fist fighting in my books from now on. After all, I want my kid to like them.
I’m kidding, but I really am serious about Karen and her books. Check out In Her Sights below.
Two more things. First, I mentioned Elsa in my last newsletter, and I’m sorry to say Elsa didn’t make it. I wish I had a better update, but I lost her just before noon yesterday.
It was pretty windy here and our lights were out for a while. The wind actually blew the small coop where we keep our chicks completely over and demolished it. It was just Pie and me on the farm, and, like Pie pointed out, if it would have happened at night, we would have lost every one of them.
As it was, Pie just happened to be walking toward the barn and watched the coop go over. (She said it was very graceful.) In her words, “I freaked out for a couple seconds, then I realized that I needed to do something or they were all going to die.”
Now, if you’ve never caught chicks, it’s pretty hard. They’re fast and they zig and zag all over the place, plus what was left of the little coop was wobbly and the chicks wanted to hide under it.
So, Pie pulled out her phone and called me. I was upstairs working on Just a Cowboy’s Fairy Tale. Pie doesn’t call me just to chat, so I answered and she said, “Mom, the wind just blew the chick coop over.”
I said, “I’ll be right down” and hung up. I flew outside, having just enough time to think that I had lost my calf that morning and now my chicks were probably all dead. Chicks are extremely delicate – if you’re not careful, you lost them pretty fast.
Anyway, I could see the coop was in shambles, Pie was kneeling, holding the one large piece that was left off the ground so it didn’t crush the chicks under it and there were chicks running everywhere. Which was actually a good thing, since if they’re running everywhere, they weren’t dead yet.
Pie and I caught as many of them as we could find, putting them in a tub that happened to be sitting nearby. We didn’t try to put the coop back together.
Now, please don’t say anything to Julia. She’s in PA and she doesn’t know we took one of her horse’s stalls, set it up with shavings, the heat lamp, food and water and put the chicks we managed to save in there. : )
As far as Pie and I can figured, we only lost one for sure. One chick has a broken leg and an abrasion under its wing. It probably isn’t going to make it, but we’re doing our best for it. One is limping, but using both legs.
That’s a lot better outcome than I thought we were going to have when I was running out. God had perfect timing, and Pie did some great problem solving after her two second freak out. : )
I was thinking about the Last Supper, but I actually wanted to start at the end of the Crucifixion and work backward, if possible.
Thinking about Jesus hanging on the cross. Everyone has forsaken him. His friends have left, one denying him, one betraying him, and now he’s been declared a criminal. Someone who is so bad, such a danger to society, his imagined crimes considered worthy of the ultimate punishment: death. He’s been beaten to the point where he couldn’t even carry his own cross and he’s just minutes away from dying.
He’s surrounded on both sides by thieves – that’s who’s with him in his final minutes. Thieves. How alone He must have felt. How depressed. Ashamed.
And yet, when the thief turns to him and asks for mercy…
You know. Jesus had twelve disciples. Wouldn’t this have been a time for one of them to step in and say, “Hey, the Master has a lot on his plate right now, let me help you with that” ?
But no one was there to help, and Jesus handled the thief himself.
Backing up a little – on the way to the crucifixion. Romans typically had the criminals carry their own crosses to the place where they were to be crucified. Jesus had been beaten and whipped and he was so weak, he couldn’t carry his cross. You’d have thought one of his friends would step up. You know, the men who had sat at his feet, seen his miracles and known him for years.
But no. The Bible records that as they led him away to be crucified, they compelled a Simon of Cyrene who was standing nearby to carry his cross. Where were his disciples? Apparently not standing nearby, right?
Backing up farther, as he was being accused, there was no one to defend him. All the crowds who had listened to him preach, everyone he had healed, all who had seen his miracles…where were they? None of the people who Jesus had helped showed up to give him a defense.
As we continue going back, the cock is crowing and one of Jesus’s most outspoken disciples has just denied knowing him or being associated with him for the third time.
Before that, everyone fled.
Before that, in the Garden of Gethsemane, he asked his friends to pray with him. They didn’t seem too excited about praying for him and actually fell asleep.
Going back before that to the last supper, John records that Jesus gives his disciples a new commandment – to love others as I have loved you.
That was just after he had taken water and a towel and washed his disciples’ feet. ALL of his disciples’ feet. He washed Peter’s feet. He washed Judas’s feet. He washed the feet of people whom he KNEW were going to forsake him, not pray for him, not defend him, betray him, deny him, and not support him in his hour of need. And, remember, right after he did that, knowing what was to come, he gave them a “new” commandment – to love others as he loved.
Wow.
Do you have friends who have not been loyal? This is a tough one for me, because loyalty is something that I am, and it’s something that I look for in others, and, honestly, I almost demand it from my friends. I admire it, crave it and show it.
So, yeah. I definitely know people who have not been loyal.
Do you have people whom you used to be friends with, maybe good friends, whom you don’t speak to anymore? Maybe family?
Jesus’s command is to love as he loved. Can you imagine going to that person who used to be your friend, but you had a falling out, and now you don’t talk to them, imagine going to them and…we don’t really have a custom to wash feet, but go to them and offer to take out their trash. Empty their bedpan. Clean their toilet. Pick the lice out of their hair. Empty their ashtray.
I think for most of us – for me – even talking to them would tax our good will. I can’t imagine putting myself in a servant’s position and showing love to my “enemies” by doing whatever lowly jobs they had for me. But that’s exactly how Jesus showed his love. And he did it knowing exactly what they would be doing – or not doing – in just a few short hours.
Now, I have two more things I wanted to point out.
The first is that after the crucifixion, after he’d been abandoned, betrayed and denied, when no one had stuck up for him or even stayed with him, what did Jesus do when he saw his disciples again?
Did he give them a hard time for their lack? Did he berate them for their disloyalty, hold grudges (Jessie!!!) or refuse to talk to them until they apologized and assured him it wouldn’t happen again?
You all know. Of course he didn’t. He walked with them by the way and didn’t even tell him who he was. But he wasn’t yelling at them because they said their hearts stirred in their breasts and they were warmed.
Then, of course, he met Peter by the shore of the lake. Peter at least needs a good dressing down, right?
Nope. Jesus held a fish fry and invited Peter to come eat – he cooked for/served Peter and the others. He forgave – easily and completely – and went right back to being a servant.
Now, of course, we can learn from this to love as Jesus loved, be a servant, to forgive easily and completely, no matter what people do to us. All good lessons and all things I need to work on.
But the thing that really strikes me about this is…the disciples were common men – fishermen, for the most part. Not professionals, not great speakers and not well-educated. And they had made a pretty big mistake – come on – they had abandoned the Son of GOD! They’d allowed him to be crucified alone. Denied him, left him, doubted him.
And yet, look at what God’s great love and forgiveness and example did to them. They are the eleven souls responsible for spreading Christianity to millions of people around the world throughout history. Except for possibly one, they all died martyrs’ deaths for Christ. They boldly faced lions, boiling oil, torture and crucifixion for the name of Jesus.
They were just ordinary men. But they became extraordinary because of the love and forgiveness and example of just one man.
Now, of course, knowing Jesus will change people.
But, Jesus commands us to love as he loved, forgive as he forgave, serve as he served and I wonder…is there a man in my life – a woman, a child – an ordinary person, who could possibly become an extraordinary person because of the love and forgiveness – Jesus’s love and forgiveness – that I lavish upon them. Lavish as Jesus did – without reserve, without qualifications, without feeling the need to lecture or get apologies or see a life change – I just love. Serve. Forgive. And repeat. With joy. With a good attitude. Letting that person know that no matter what they do to me, I will love them, forgive them, support them and be there for them – as much as I am able – no matter what they do, how they treat me, how they hurt me. Just like Jesus did with his disciples.
Wouldn’t that change someone’s life?
Jesus changed eleven lives simply by practicing what he preached.
Can I do the same? Can you?
Thanks so much for spending time with me on this Palm Sunday! Have a blessed week.
Hugs and love,
Jessie 🌷