{"id":3405,"date":"2019-04-12T09:17:47","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T14:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/?p=3405"},"modified":"2019-04-12T09:20:08","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T14:20:08","slug":"the-crown-of-favor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/12\/the-crown-of-favor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Crown of Favor"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\" Drawing by Marla Shaw O’Neill<\/strong><\/p>\n

A crown of thorn and thistles<\/h6>\n
Placed upon my head<\/h6>\n
A lowly life and surviving is all I knew<\/h6>\n
Hungry beggar living in the streets<\/h6>\n
Unwanted, no one greets<\/h6>\n
Alone, destitute, dirty with no place to sleep<\/h6>\n
Wandering, meaningless no longer weeps<\/h6>\n
This was the way of the transgressor in the dark, filthy streets<\/h6>\n
Picking through the garbage for food, a book caught my eye<\/h6>\n
It was torn and worn and pages gone, just like me, so I took it home<\/h6>\n
Home to Vagabond Lane<\/h6>\n
I learned to read from a bag lady, she, once had been a teacher in society<\/h6>\n
Hard times came and she was left to fend for herself just like me\u2026<\/h6>\n
Down the Alley of Tears, I found a quiet place<\/h6>\n
Opened the book and stared straight into the face<\/h6>\n
Of a man who wore a Crown of thorns~<\/h6>\n
It said, they took his clothes and beat him beyond belief<\/h6>\n
Then shoved the crown into His head~<\/h6>\n
They called Him, \u201cKing of the Jews!\u201d<\/h6>\n
The crown I wore was nothing compared to the one He wore, and so,<\/h6>\n
I read on from the stained pages of the book\u2026<\/h6>\n
This man, a King, had suffered many things~ but His life had meaning~<\/h6>\n
I read on and saw that this King was kind, full of hope and did the most miraculous<\/h6>\n
Things~<\/h6>\n
He had not come to serve, but to serve~<\/h6>\n
He loved, and they killed Him for it~<\/h6>\n
Then there on the pages of this worn old book~<\/h6>\n
I looked and saw these amazing words, and I shook~<\/h6>\n
Jesus was not dead, but alive~~<\/h6>\n
Right there in the Alley of Tears, I finally understood<\/h6>\n
It\u2019s not how destitute my life had been, how broken and lost or pain within<\/h6>\n
And in my heart I took a long, hard look~<\/h6>\n
That very moment Jesus took\u2026<\/h6>\n
My crown of thorns and brought me to Him~<\/h6>\n
He took His Crown of Favor and gently placed it on my head~<\/h6>\n
And then He said, \u201cTake up your cross and follow me~<\/h6>\n
The road will be rocky, but in the end, there will be no more suffering~<\/h6>\n
In humility I stood with my new crown of Favor and walked down<\/h6>\n
The Alley of Tears to the street called, No Fear~<\/h6>\n
A man on the corner said, \u201cI see you\u2019ve met the King, you\u2019re wearing His<\/h6>\n
Crown of Favor~<\/h6>\n
You\u2019re coming home with me\u2026<\/h6>\n
You see\u2026<\/h6>\n
When you say yes to King Jesus, favor\u2019s your best friend<\/h6>\n
No longer vagabond, or transgressor~<\/h6>\n
You\u2019re royalty in the family of God~<\/h6>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

~Marla Shaw O\u2019Neill April 12, 2019<\/h6>\n
Then you will find favor with both God and people,<\/em> and you will earn a good reputation. Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding.<\/em> Seek his will in all you do,<\/em> and he will show you which path to take. Proverbs<\/strong> 3:4-6<\/em><\/h6>\n
The soldiers assigned to the governor took Jesus into the governor\u2019s palace and got the entire brigade together for some fun. They stripped him and dressed him in a red toga. They plaited a crown from branches of a thorn bush and set it on his head. They put a stick in his right hand for a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mocking reverence: \u201cBravo, King of the Jews!\u201d they said. \u201cBravo!\u201d Then they spit on him and hit him on the head with the stick. When they had had their fun, they took off the toga and put his own clothes back on him. Then they proceeded out to the crucifixion. Matthew<\/strong> 27:29-31<\/em><\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drawing by Marla Shaw O’Neill A crown of thorn and thistles Placed upon my head A lowly life and surviving is all I knew Hungry beggar living in the streets Unwanted, no one greets Alone, destitute, dirty with no place to sleep Wandering, meaningless no longer weeps This was the way of the transgressor in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8aPxH-SV","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3405"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3409,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3405\/revisions\/3409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/becourageousbebold.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}