Looking for some inspiration I sat down with my Bible and an Easter egg.
What a fantastic combination!
It was fantastic until my caramel cream egg filling dropped on the page I was reading!
 Don’t worry.
I managed to clean it up…

I figured that something I should read was some of the stories leading up the accounts where Jesus was crucified. Figured it kind of fits really.
I mean, here we are a few days out from Easter…

You read that in the days leading up to Jesus death, there was a lot going on!
This was the time when Lazarus was raised from the dead. It was also when the famous story of Mary pouring perfume over Jesus and drying him with her hair happened.

And then you have a group of people really unhappy!
They don’t like Jesus.
They don’t like the fact he performs miracles that improve peoples lives. They ignore the fact that everything he seems to do benefits everyone else and not himself.

They said things like:
“Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.” John 11:47-48
...the chief priests made plans to kill Lazarus as well, for on account of him many of the Jews were going over to Jesus and believing in him. John 12:10-11

So what was the deal here?
One word...Jealousy!
They were Jealous. And it clouded their judgment so much that were willing to kill people over it.
It didn’t matter what good had happened.
If the ‘good’ wasn’t benefiting them directly then they didn’t want it.

Jealousy is so powerful that it will take you and I places we will regret.
No one is immune from it, but we can all control it.
For me this has reminded me to watch myself, my motivations and my reactions. I don’t want to respond to things out of some jealous motive.

These stories remind that it doesn’t matter how much I think I know about God...jealousy will derail me.

Something to think about...