Month: April 2021

They all walked away, nothing to say

They’d just lost their dearest friend

All that He said, now He was dead

So this was the way it would end

The dreams they had dreamed were not what they’d seemed

Now that He was dead and gone

The garden, the jail, the hammer, the nail

How could a night be so long?

Then came the morning

Night turned into day

The stone was rolled away

Hope rose with the dawn

Then came the morning

Shadows vanished before the sun

Death had lost and life had won

For morning had come

The angel, the star, the kings from afar

The wedding, the water, the wine

Now it was done, they’d taken her Son

Wasted before His time

She knew it was true, she’d watched Him die too

She’d heard them call Him just a man

But deep in her heart she knew from the start

Somehow her Son would live again

Then came the morning

Night turned into day

The stone was rolled away

Hope rose with the dawn

Then came the morning

Shadows vanished before the sun

Death had lost and life had won

For morning had come

I love to watch each new day dawn. On the farm in Missouri I would sit on the front porch as the sky began to lighten, knowing that it was already shining on my family on the east coast. The shadows would flee as the sun came over the horizon until it finally rose above the trees across the pasture.

Light will always banish the darkness, even on a cloudy day. With every sunrise I am reminded of God’s faithful presence, every day. I may not see Him or even sense His presence but I KNOW that He is with me every moment of every day, Just as I know the sun is shining in the sky above the clouds.

This song written by Chris Christian, Gloria Gaither, and William Gaither is Easter to me.

HE IS RISEN !

The next day, the one after Preparation Day, the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate. “Sir,” they said, “we remember that while he was still alive that deceiver said, ‘After three days I will rise again.’ So give the order for the tomb to be made secure until the third day. Otherwise, his disciples may come and steal the body and tell the people that he has been raised from the dead. This last deception will be worse than the first.”

“Take a guard,” Pilate answered. “Go, make the tomb as secure as you know how.” So they went and made the tomb secure by putting seal on the stone and posting the guard.

Matthew 27:62-66

What a Sabbath day that must have been for the disciples of Jesus.

Shock and dismay over the execution of the one they had followed for three years.

Fear over what the future held for them.

Did they dare to go to the temple to worship?

Or did they remain in sequestered in that upper room, waiting for a knock on the door from the authorities, seeking to arrest all of them?

Even though Jesus had told them that He would be killed, they were not prepared.

It was the darkest of days for them – BUT – Sunday was coming!

It was now about the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land until the ninth hour, for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.

The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, “Surely this was a righteous man.” When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.

Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea and he was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.

The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home nd prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.

Luke 23:44-56

Oh, the pain of this day for those who loved the Lord.

Even though He had told them what was coming, they didn’t understand even when they saw the cross and heard the sound of the nails being pounded into his body.

The one who called Lazarus from the tomb was now himself – being laid lifeless in a tomb.

They were in shock, unable to penetrate the darkness of grief which enveloped them.

But the story wasn’t over . . . .

When the hour came, Jesus and his apostles reclined at the table. And he said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”

After taking the cup, he gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it among you. For I tell you I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”

And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you. But the hand of him who is going to betray me is with mine on the table. The Son of Man will go as it has been decreed, but woe to that man who betrays him.” They began to question among themselves which of them it might be who would do this.

Luke 22:14-23

When I come to the Communion table and hear those words from my Lord:

This is my body given for you.

This is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Do this in remembrance of me.

I think of Oswald Chambers teaching that God wants us as broken bread and poured-out wine.

The following is from My Utmost For His Highest, the reading for September 30th:

We make calls out of our own spiritual consecration, but when we get right with God He brushes all these aside, and rivets us with a pain that is terrific to one thing we never dreamed of, and for one radiant flashing moment we see what He is after, and we say – “Here am I, send me.”

This call has nothing to do with personal sanctification, but with being made broken bread and poured-out wine. God can never make us wine if we object to the fingers He uses to crush us with. If God would only use His own fingers, and make me broken bread and poured-out wine in a special way! But when He uses someone whom we dislike, or some set of circumstances to which we said we would never submit, and makes those the crushers, we object. We must never choose the scene of our own martyrdom. If ever we are going to be made into wine, we will have to be crushed; you cannot drink grapes. Grapes become wine only when they have been squeezed.

I wonder what kind of finger and thumb God has been using to squeeze you, and you have been like a marble and escaped? You are not ripe yet, and if God had squeezed you, the wine would have been remarkably bitter. To be a sacramental personality means that the elements of the natural life are presenced by God as they are broken providentially in His service. We have to be adjusted into God before we can be broken bread in His hands. Keep right with God and let Him do what He likes, and you will find that He is producing the kind of bread and wine that will benefit His other children.

Do you sometimes feel like the sheaf of wheat under the flail – being beaten until the grain falls out?

Or maybe you are the grape being crushed until the juice flows.

Take heart God is preparing you for service in His kingdom!

Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. “But not during the Feast,” they said, “or the people may riot.”

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.

Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly.

“Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could, She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. I tell you the truth, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.

Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over.

Mark 14:1-11

The room grew still

As she made her way to Jesus

She stumbled through the tears

That make her blind

She felt such pain

Some spoke in anger

Heard folks whisper

There’s no place for her kind

Still on she came

Through the shame that flushed her face

Until at last she knelt before his feet

And though she spoke no words

Everything she said was heard

As she poured her love for the Master

Form her box of alabaster

And I’ve come to pour

My praise on Him like oil

From Mary’s Alabaster Box

Don’t be angry if I wash His feet with my tears

And I dry them with my hair

You weren’t there the night He found me

You did not feel what I felt

When He wrapped His loving arms around me

And you don’t know the cost

Of the oil in my Alabaster Box

I can’t forget the way life used to be

I was a prisoner to the sin that had me bound

And I spent my days

Poured my life without measure

Into a little treasure box

I thought I found

Until the day when Jesus came to me

And healed my soul with the wonder of His touch

So now I’m giving back to Him

All the praise He’s worthy of

I’ve been forgiven and that’s why

I love Him so much

And I’ve come to pour

My praise on Him like oil

From Mary’s Alabaster Box

Don’t be angry if I wash His feet with my tears

And I dry them with my hair

You weren’t there the night He found me

You did not feel what I felt

When He wrapped His loving arms around me

And you don’t know the cost

Of the oil in my Alabaster Box

Written by Janice Sjostran

Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.”

Mark 12:41-44

Sometimes the person with the least to give

is the person who gives the most.

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ” ‘ My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’ ? But you have made it a den of robbers.’ “

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

When evening came, they went out of the city.

Mark 11:15-19

The temple was a place of worship and the court of the Gentiles was the only area where the non-Jews could gather for prayer and to worship. The Jewish authorities had allowed this area to become a market place with all the noise and the smells. Can you imagine trying to worship in these conditions?

The religious leaders were already unhappy with the influence Jesus was gaining over the people with his teaching and his miracles. This confrontation made them angry. He was threatening their way of life.

Jesus does not allow for “business as usual.”

Jesus calls for change.

The world tells you that you must look out for your own interests.

Jesus tells you to put others first.

The world tells you to get all you can.

Jesus tells you to give all you can.

The world tells you to get your enemy before he can get you.

Jesus tells you to love your enemy and do good to them that curse you.

As your journey through this Holy Week consider your faith walk, ask the Lord to show you what needs cleaning up.

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘ Why are you doing this?’ tell him, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’ “

They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,

“Hosanna!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Blessed is the coming kingdom of our Father David!”.

“Hosanna in the highest!”

Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

Mark 11:1-11

Rejoice greatly, O Daughter of Zion!

Shout, Daughter of Jerusalem!

See, your king comes to you, righteous and having salvation,

gentle and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

Zechariah 9:9

Jesus enters Jerusalem knowing his destiny. He was willing to suffer and die for you and me.

On that first day of the week he heard shouts of praise as they welcomed him to the city.

But he knew those shouts of praise would turn to cries of condemnation before the week was over.

What about you?

Are you praising the Lord today?

Or do you have harsh words for him?

We are in difficult times.

But we can still trust that God is in control and if we trust Him He will bring us through.

Keep looking up!