Encouragement

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Since our move to Southwest Texas a year and a half ago I have enjoyed the nature here. We have several birds on our property and daily I have the opportunity to listen to a mocking bird outside my kitchen window.

When it starts its morning ritual I can’t stop from giggling. I don’t know if you have ever heard what folks call around here a Texas Mocking Bird, but I find their conversation most amusing. I don’t know what they are saying, but I can tell you this: that they are thrilled and convinced that nothing will ever ruin their day. They have perfected the ability to mimic other birds and sounds they have heard around them. Since we have a large variety of different bird species here, they have a large opportunity for their vocabulary to grow. Unlike most birds, there is nothing predictable in what they will say.

On the day that Jesus road a colt through Jerusalem, the crowd was declaring” Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” Some of the Pharisee’s in the crowd said to Jesus “Rebuke your disciples!”

Jesus replied, “I tell you, if they keep quiet the stones will cry out!” (Luke 19:40)

I have to honestly say at times when that mockingbird get’s to chatting outside my bedroom window in the dark hours of the morning I am not always giggling. I wish he would silence himself for just a little while longer. Not only is his chatter unpredictable but VERY loud.

When I read this passage regarding Jesus, I can’t help but think about the mocking bird here. Jesus is entering the city and crowds are crying out loudly proclaiming Him for who He is. They threw their cloaks on the ground in front of him. It was an earthly coronation of a sort, but the participant knew His job here on earth was almost complete.

There was no way to silence the crowd from their Hosanna’s and Glory to God! As I have mentioned, for all I know that bird that can seem a bit annoying early in the morning may be simply singing His praise to God as well. And why shouldn’t He? Better yet, “Why shouldn’t we?”

You see, this world filled with Pharisees is still trying to silence God’s people from declaring, “Hosanna, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord!” They have kicked prayer out of school and we are no longer allowed to mention Jesus in many public arenas. That is unconstitutional, however, we the church have not contested.

American has stripped it’s court room walls from displaying the “Ten Commandments.” If preachers simply speak God’s Word in rebuke to sin, it will soon be called a hate crime. The day is coming my friends! And when that day should ever come, the day when our praise is silenced, I tell you this dear brothers and sisters, should they ever succeed, the rocks will then cry out in utter worship to their Creator!

But let me also say, as long as I have breath in my lungs, His praise will be on my lips! For I will not be silenced! Should they mock me, persecute me, offend me, beat me, or kill me, I will declare “Glory to God in the Highest!”

Let the birds sing, let the trees clap their hands (Isaiah 55:12) Let the earth continue to groan for His return… But Oh Lord, may I never hear a rock cry out to You, because I have chosen to be silenced!

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