I've Moved To a New Blog!

Hello, Friends!

I've had a wonderful time blogging these past few years. And this blog has been good to me. At this point, though, I'm afraid I've outgrown it. This blog, that is, not blogging in general.

I've created a beautiful, shiny, brand-new blog, with a little help from my favorite web designer. I even managed to export all my old posts over to the new blog--indexed and fully searchable.

Please, go on over there and check it out! And if you're a blog follower, or you have a link to my blog in your sideblog, livefeed, or RSS reader, please update your links. The new address is:

http://toeveryonethatbelieveth.blogspot.com/

While you're over there, check out some of the great new features. Tabs along the top of the page will take you to different topical areas. There's a great video that a friend and I made about Passover and the Last Supper, along with a Hagaddah booklet and instructions for holding your own Passover Seder. There's a section with essays on Holy Week, from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Morning. And there's a compendium of all my essays from my time in Jerusalem. I plan to put up many more things, including book reviews and guest posts, and maybe even a few lesson plans, as soon as I can talk someone into doing the web design for me.

From now on, all my new posts will go on my new blog, which I've called "To Everyone That Believeth," a nod to Paul's statement in his epistle to the Romans, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth." I, like Paul, believe that the gospel of Christ really is the power of God unto salvation, and that God embraces all who believe in Him and seek to do His will.

Happy Holy Week, everyone!

The Stones Cry Out: Hosanna in the Highest!

This is a powerful and poignant week in the larger Christian community. This week, Western Christians celebrate the last week of the Savior's mortal ministry, beginning with His triumphal entry, and encompassing his powerful teachings and parables of that week, the Last Supper He held with His disciples and friends, His Atonement, trials, and death, His burial, and His glorious Resurrection.

We begin with the day known as Palm Sunday, which marks Christ's triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem. It is a day of great joy. Two centuries ago, a healer and teacher known as Jesus of Nazareth rode into the city from His night residence in Bethany, in the home of Simon the Leper and his children Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, his dear friends. He rode on the back of a donkey, in the manner of the ancient kings of Israel as they went to be crowned. The symbol did not escape the notice of the people, who, having heard of His arrival, "spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strawed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!" (Matthew 21:8-9). Hosanna, they cried--literally, "Oh, save us now!" They recognized Christ as the king He was, and quoted (and sang, perhaps) a Messianic Psalm (Psalm 118) to greet Him.

The scene was enough to interest the rest of the city's inhabitants, whose numbers had swelled tremendously in anticipation of the Passover, which would be celebrated in just a few days. Newcomers wanted an explanation, and Matthew records that "all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee" (Matthew 21:10-11). The disciples were not shy about proclaiming the greatness of their Master, as Luke records, "the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen" (Luke 19:37).

All this adoration bothered the Pharisees immensely, as Luke records: "And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples" (Luke 19:39). But despite their plots against His life, and the harm He knew would come from so much publicity, the Savior refused to rebuke those who acknowledged the truth: that He who then descended the Mount of Olives was about to descend below all things, to rise above all things, that He might be in and through all things, the light of truth (Doc. & Cov. 88:6). He was and is the "light [that] shineth in darkness; and thedarkness comprehended it not" (John 1:5). And though that week did not end as the disciples then expected, by the end of it they knew even more powerfully that Christ was the Lord, "for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me" (Isaiah 49:23).

Instead, Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, and testified that He was the promised Messiah: "And he answered and said unto them...if these [disciples] should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out" (Luke 19:40).

I feel driven to echo the testimony of these disciples, and to speak for the mute stones that would cry out if I were silent. Like the disciples, I praise the Lord for the mighty works that I have seen. Like them, I cry Hosanna!--Oh, save me! My heart shouts praises to the Holy One of Israel. I praise Him for His light, which pierces the darkness of my heart. I praise Him for His healing power and mercy. I praise Him because He weeps, and because He laughs, because He smiles and sings and loves and teaches and heals me and the whole world. I praise Him because He died and because He lives. I love Him. I have given my life to His service.

Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!