Blessings to you, loved ones.  I pray this finds you safe and will, trusting that God is still in control.  Here’s what’s happening in our virtual version of BBT this week.

I caught up with Edith on Thursday.  She’s doing well and still getting some work.  I also spoke with Cindy and they are doing well.  Keep the Potts in your prayers as they have added another member to their household.  Priscilla is doing much better but Kimi is really struggling with her health.

Last week, we added the call-in line to our service.  I really enjoyed getting to hear some of your voices and I hope you were also blessed.  I hope more of you will join us tomorrow.  We had a few visitors from the Dallas Christian Fellowship of the Blind, which normally meets in our building on the 4th Saturday of the month.  The more the merrier!  We have an opportunity to reach beyond our usual attendees to people who don’t usually get the chance to come.  if you know anyone else who would like to join us.  Feel free to share the number.  If you need it, contact me directly, here on the web site, or on our Facebook page and we will gladly share it.  We’re just not posting it publicly to avoid trolls.

We will keep a similar format to what we did last week except that Priscilla will host the prayer requests and share as the Lord directs her.  I will have a message and then we will leave the line open as before if people want to socialize.

Here are some tips for making the call go more smoothly.  At the beginning and end of the call, all lines will be open, but it is still best to keep your line muted unless you want to talk.  this reduces background noise and interference for others on the line.  *6 mutes or unmutes your line, or just use the function on your phone or headset.  If you want to watch on Facebook while on the call, turn your device volume down to prevent the delayed echo from feeding back to the call.  Speakerphones can also cause the problem with echo, so keep them muted unless speaking.

This Sunday is Palm Sunday, when many churches commemorate Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem on a donkey as people waived palm branches and hailed Him as the coming king.  But things would change radically in just a few days.  While He was there, John tells us that some Greeks who had come for the feast wanted to see Him.  They went to Philip, perhaps because he had a Greek name, and Jesus was informed.  We’re not told whether they got to see Him, but I have always thought Jesus’s response was rather strange.  It didn’t really seem to be even connected to the request.  You can read the account in John 12:20-26.

But the acknowledgement of His visitors is there, as well as a reminder of what he came to do.  Jesus had a lot of people “following” Him at that point, but many of them were there without a real understanding of who they were following or what truly following Him would mean.  Even His disciples did not yet understand that he was there to die; that the glory he spoke of would come at a cost no one else could bear.

To follow Jesus is to do what He says, go where He goes, and do what He does.  Jesus’s path to glory was through the cross, and on multiple occasions He made it clear that anyone wishing to follow Him would also be required to take up that cross.  If we are true followers of Jesus, we must die to ourselves and this world.  Then we will truly live.

I hope you can join us tomorrow.

Love y’all!