Every crossroads of life is an invitation to let go of the past and embrace the future. But, unfortunately, every time we hold on to the past, we imprison the present and delay the future. 

Every decision is our declaration of the relationship we are willing to pursue. There are only two forces in life, light and darkness, God or the devil. Our decisions reveal who we have voted to rule our lives. 

Every decision is a display of the working of the heart. Therefore, the believer must regularly check his heart to be sure they are still in the faith and not actively or otherwise working for the devil.

Whilst it is not advisable to wait till the dying minute to decide to follow Christ, no man should presume to let a moment go. It is our choice where or how we live our future. We can make it with God or with the devil.

One thief made it to heaven with Jesus, and the other made it to hell with the devil—both outcomes of their choices when they came in contact with Jesus.

For three years plus, Jesus devoted Himself to the disciples. Men who got the seat primarily so they could be with Him. He took time to teach, provide, lead, shield, care, defend, inspire, secure, and give them a sense of purpose. They were illiterate folk who held no real promise until they hobnobbed with Jesus. They got to taste and handle the power of the world to come. They learnt many lessons and even got to handle the keys to the Kingdom. 

They should be eternally grateful, and their allegiance should be top-notch, right? So their place in history was forever, sure? Ideally, yes, but the men buckled in the face of pressure. Peter, the “chief of staff” even promised to stay glued no matter what, only to find they could not last the night. 

It only took a rough couple of days, and grown men scurried away like chickens. Then, fearful that they do not fall into a similar fate to their Master, they made a rendezvous with their feet, hoping for better stead.

Jesus needed His people, but the indignation of the religious leaders was too much fire for them to stick around. 

The leaders had preoccupied themselves with the desire to nail Jesus. Even though his message was good news to mankind, the religious leaders, saw Him as BAD business—someone who made nonsense of their essence.

Pontius Pilate, the self-serving coward acting tough 5th Roman governor of Judea. His appointment was by Emperor Tiberias, and he ruled for ten years. He needed to belong, had to please the people, and would convict an innocent man so that he would be friends with headquarters. 

He knew the drill but was hungry for acceptance. He got the warning, and his wife sent him a word, but he was far too drunk with his self-seeking power-hungry desire. 

What is, has been and will forever be. Put another way; there is nothing new under the sun.

The elders of the council had gotten desperate. They needed to be rid of the man Jesus. He made nonsense of their ideologies, and to make matters worse, the people loved Him. Why won't they? He solved their problem and charged nothing in return. The Sanhedrin never did anything without laying a further burden on the people. They envied the man. He effortlessly got the job done so effortlessly. 

Then came the Passover weekend. Twas a good time to nail their sworn enemy. The only problem was they needed evidence, and they had none. Hence t they resorted to bribing folk to bear false witness. 

Like in Hadjia's clime, they found willing vessels amongst the crowd. Every witness came with a bogus claim. “He claimed to be God; He said he would bring down the temple that took forty-six years to build and reconstruct in three days. He healed on the Sabbath,  would not pay taxes and engineered his followers to do the same.” The claims were many, but the bearers needed to be more consistent—another problem for elders who needed to be rid of their enemy in a few hours. Time for them was of the essence. Their activities had to be concluded before the Sabbath.

The elders of the council had gotten desperate. They needed to be rid of the man Jesus. He made nonsense of their ideologies, and to make matters worse, the people loved Him. Why won't they? He solved their problem and charged nothing in return. The Sanhedrin never did anything without laying a further burden on the people. They envied the man. He got the job done so effortlessly. 

Then came the Passover weekend. Twas a good time to nail their sworn enemy. The only problem was they needed evidence, and they had done. Hence their resort to bribing folk to bear false witness. 

Like in Hadjia's clime, they found willing vessels amongst the crowd. Every witness came with a bogus claim. He claimed to be God; He said he would bring down the temple that took forty-six years to build and reconstruct in three days. He healed on the Sabbath,  would not pay taxes and engineered his followers to do the same. The claims were many, but the bearers needed to be more consistent—another problem for elders who needed to be rid of their enemy in a few hours. Time for them was of the essence. Their activities had to be concluded before the Sabbath.

Simon Peter, the reed, renamed 'the rock', was the feisty one amongst the disciples. His zeal put him in front of activities in the group. Whilst the master did not appoint anyone to any unique position, Peter stationed himself as the number one among the disciples. He had an opinion about almost everything. 

Peter was sure of his loyalty to Christ even if others denied Him. It did not take long before he learned it was not about self-will. It was all of grace. The man who boasted about staying true to the Master no matter what confronted them found himself failing at the slightest provocation, even before a servant girl, a grown man swearing before a servant.

Mary was young, maybe teenage when the angel came visiting. She became the custodian of Gods heart from that encounter. Heaven trusted her womb to carry the Saviour of the whole world. She was given the brief and her response till date leaves me in awe.

And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Luke 1:28-35)

She pretty much said to the angel, ‘consider it done.’ Please tell me what kind of a wiring will make young Mary have such depth? Let’s just say that the angel already acknowledged that she was full of grace. And faith is by grace.

Do you sometimes wonder how destiny makes his house calls? Have you ever imagined that you were on his list?

Let us meet Simon of Cyrene. He was one of those we would term "waka pass" (one who makes a cameo appearance) characters in a role play. He got a one-liner mention in the History of life, but wait, that is all needed for destiny to come calling. The account was reported in three of the four gospels; his feature is easy to pass unless you are probing.

The sun was sitting in all its strength on Friday afternoon, but a few hours before the ceremonies would kick off. That many were hurrying to the city, and human traffic was at its peak was part of the drama. But, despite the hustle and bustle, an event was playing out, and no one could claim not to notice. It was the 'prophet', the thorn in the flesh of the Temple's elders, bearing a cross. He was making his way to the place of the skull. There was noise and chatter alright, some mocking and jeering, others basking in the euphoria of the moment. Jesus' sympathizers were confused and sorrowful; he was bloodied, weary and worn. The creator of the world was being dragged by his creation, punished for the sins he did not commit and declared worthy of death by those who should be pleading for mercy. As far as the people knew, he was an impostor and needed to be rid of. They were doing just fine before he came to make strange claims and introduced unacceptable doctrine. Worse still, he had the crowd's interest and even got many to subscribe to his teachings. The temples were thinning out because congregants found the new sensation, and the priests and elders were miffed. They were losing face to the new itinerant preacher, which was hardly suitable for their exalted positions.

Imagine the custodians of the book of the law could not discern that what they read daily was living among them. He had compelling presentations, and hearts were shifting by the droves. There was no denying the power that came with his speeches, and his followers could not be dissuaded. How does one person come on the scene and make nonsense of their essence? 

Why fight who came to help you? Did you not know you needed a Savior? Why preach a message you do not believe in and cannot defend? Did you need to rubbish the person who claimed to know just because you don't? Questions I would love to ask the Pharisees and elders of the Temple if we get to see them. We may have already met. The ones in the days of Jesus may have since been long gone, but their descendants remain and have no problems carrying on the tradition.

Judas, the son of Iscariot, was the only southerner amongst Jesus' disciples. To have made it to one of the twelve, we can deduce that he had innate attributes that qualified him for the Master's pick. Like the other eleven, his brief was first to be with Jesus and then to make disciples of men. They were together with the master day and night, save when they were sent to the city on a mission trip. 

True, there was Peter, James and John, men we can call the first three, but there was Judas, the treasurer. Considering that money was an essential part of their ministry, being trusted to take charge of the purse reveals volumes. We were not told that Judas had any prior experience (Mathew was a tax collector) with keeping funds, but neither did the others know their new mission. We would be safe if we concluded that with the Master's training, they would get the necessary skills. The analogy would be fine if the bible were not careful to note that Judas was a thief who now and again helped himself with the contents of the coffers. Why, then, would the Master put him in charge? We may never know the answer to the question, but we can rest in the fact that God's ways are higher than man's.

How can a man spend three years hearing the many messages on life and heart matters and be unregenerated? So Judas was not only calculating, but he was also evil.