This evening (actually a few weeks ago, I began this post back in the day)Maiya wanted me to read a few stories to her out of her Kid's Bible and one of the stories we read came from Matthew 21 regarding the Triumphal Entry. With last Sunday being Palm Sunday I had been sent a few articles on the prophecy implications of this passage and act of Christ, which I find very amazing and encouraging and mind-boggling all at the same time.

But something else struck me as pretty crazy as I read it to Maiya tonight. Not only did this fulfill the prophecy from the OT, but read the words of Jesus and the response of the disciples:

Jesus: Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me.

Matthew: The disciples went and did as Jesus had instructed them.

I fully realize that by this point in the game the disciples had pretty much seen it all (opening the mouth of a fish and finding a four-drachma coin for the tax, to name one). But don't you think they still scratch their head a little on this one?

Nevertheless, they obeyed, and this is the cool thing. This is how it works in following Jesus:

Saul gets converted and Ananias is told "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying..." and Ananias went, in spite of Saul's reputation for destroying Christians. (Acts 9)

Naaman has leprosy, goes to see the King of Israel, and "Elisha sends a messenger to say to him, 'Go, wash yourself seven times in the Jordan, and your flesh will be restored, and you will be cleansed.'" To which Naaman replies, "Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?" He could have but that wasn't the point. In the end, we know the story, Naaman washes and is cleansed, praising God! (2 Kings 5)

Jesus was at his "home" in Capernaum teaching, which drew a crowd, leaving no room. "Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. Since they could not get him to Jesus...they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, 'Son, your sins are forgiven.'" (Mark 2) Can you picture this scene? How would this go over today? How do we describe these actions? Pure faith and trust in the Power of God!

Though Kingdom life is often not as linear and rational as we would like in the worldly terms we seek and operate under, it makes sense once we trust His calling on our heart and choose to follow Him. The question, as always, is how do we extrapolate these abstract principles and theories from the Word and put them into daily practice?