Palm Sunday

Today is Palm Sunday. Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey. He came in humility and peace to die for those who opposed him. Wow. 

Mark 11:7-10:

11:7 Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it.
11:8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields.
11:9 Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting, "Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
11:10 Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!"

Romans 5:8:
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Praise God for his mighty love for us. In the face of such gentle yet outrageous love, what can I do but love him in return?

Blessings and love to each of you.

-Timothy Hagen

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Updates: Keeping on the Fight

Dear friends, I pray that all is well for each of you and you have had a blessed beginning to 2022! These last three months have been challenging yet good. I have had to battle impatience and discouragement at the slow pace of recovery, while dealing with ongoing side effects of the diagnosis. I have also had to battle the peculiar feeling of being so dependent upon the intercession, love, and support of others after having long taken too much pride in my ability to work hard and be a successful student, scholar, and professional. Loved ones around me have been encouraging me that my continued fight for life and recovery is of invaluable encouragement to them and is especially important for my family.  Thus I do keep asking God for strength and healing, and I choose to keep on fighting the fight, which now is also a fight of patient endurance. Yet I do have so much to be thankful for! I was told a year ago in December that the average life expectancy for the diagnosis was 12 month...
Read more

The Miraculous among the Mundane

Dear friends, Psalm 23 has taken renewed meaning for me these days. It is a great joy to be out in the country--"he makes me lie down in green pastures." In the face of pessimistic predictions, I am doing well. My cheeks, once so hollow and gaunt, are slowly filling back in. I find reason to sing: "he restores my soul." Yet the battle does seem to last much longer than I wanted it to. I wanted a speedy, instant miracle of full recovery. This is one taking lots of prayer and patience. And yet I do see miracle after miracle. It is a strange feeling, having come close to death many times this last year. I know life is a bountiful gift of pure grace. I need not fear. The one who has spared me so many times is the one I can trust with everything: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me." It is a great joy to eat again after being NPO so many times and on ve...
Read more

In the ER again February 8, 2021

 Dear friends, Greetings from the emergency room at Hershey Medical Center. I am back here for my third time in just over two months. It has been just about one week since I came off the antibiotics and antifungals for sepsis. I came down with a fever yesterday and was advised to come into the ER.  It has been the most pleasant ER stay of the three. I was given a remote room in a far corner, which has the benefit of being much quieter! I was able to get more sleep last night than on any previous ER visit.  We are still waiting for a diagnosis on the fever. I am back on IV antibiotics as a precautionary measure. Apparently it can take 48 hours to get lab results back on blood cultures. Other lab results seem pretty good. The CT showed a new (second) thrombosis in the portal vein, but really no other changes from previous CT scans.  I may have been a bit dehydrated yesterday and had taken the kids sledding and for a walk in the winter wonderland of a wooded park the da...
Read more