Archive for the 'Easter' Category

It Can Be Your Story as Well

Published on April 24, 2011 in Easter and Recommended Reading. 0 Comments

Tim Keller in his book, King’s Cross, on the Gospel of Mark:

. . . Mark has given us the story of Jesus and declared that this is actually the world’s true story as well: Jesus, the King, created all things in love.  He has the power and the beauty to see his vision for the world through to its glorious end, to undo everything we have been able to do to harm it. To accomplish that, he had to come and die for it. Three days later, he rose again; and one day will come back again to usher in a renewed creation.

The gospel is the ultimate story that shows victory coming out of defeat, strength coming out of weakness, life coming out of death, rescue from abandonment. And because it is a true story, it gives us hope because we know life is really like that.

It can be your story as well. God made you to love him supremely, but he lost you. He returned to get you back, but it took the cross to do it. He absorbed your darkness so that one day you can finally and dazzingly become your true self and take your seat at his eternal feast.  (King’s Cross, page 230).

I plan on watching this on Easter

Published on April 24, 2011 in Easter. 0 Comments

Cal Thomas: Especially At Easter, It’s Easy to Mock Jesus Christ But Don’t You Dare Mock Other Faiths

Published on April 23, 2011 in Easter and Holy Week. 0 Comments

Cal Thomas:

Mocking Jesus of Nazareth is nothing new. Whether it is today’s Lady Gaga or a “Hunky Jesus” contest in San Francisco, Jesus has been the subject of ridicule by those who do not know Him.

Even on the day we call Good Friday, the day he hung on a cross for the sins of others (not His own, for He had none), He was ridiculed. “Come down from the cross and then we’ll believe,” some shouted. They wouldn’t have believed if He had, because they refused to believe all the other miracles He performed before their eyes.

Lady Gaga’s latest attempt at blasphemy . . .

Read the rest here.

In the nursing home, every day is Saturday

Published on April 23, 2011 in Easter. 3 Comments

Theologically speaking, we all know that today, the Saturday between the Cross and the Resurrection, is the longest day of the year.*

And, it pictures where we are in life.  While we have a certain and fixed hope, we still wait for the return of Christ.

Nowhere is this felt more keenly than in the nursing home.  I went to two different nursing homes today.  The first lady I prayed with is near the end.  This will most likely be her final Saturday before Easter.  I read to her both the account of the crucifixion and the resurrection from Matthew’s Gospel.

But, my final visit was to a dear lady in our church who is still thinking clearly, and so wrestling with waiting in a nursing home.  She tried to be positive; she told me they had a blessed Good Friday service and that the preaching was her favorite part.

She then confessed to me that she has been reading the Catholic devotional aloud to the Catholics.  She said, “Pastor, they don’t have anyone who is up to reading right now, so I read it to them.” I gave her absolution for this (in a Protestant sort of way) and told her it is okay.

Still, this dear sister is very tired of being in the nursing home.  I said to her, “It’s so much like waiting for Christmas when you’re young.  It seems as though it will never get here.  But, very soon, the resurrection will be here, and the dead in Christ will rise, and so we can be comforted with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).”

Is there someone who won’t be able to get out for Easter this year that you could encourage?  Even tomorrow, it’s still Saturday in the nursing home.

*Repeated from 2010.

The Birther Question Deserves Our Attention This Weekend

Published on April 22, 2011 in Christology, Easter and Holy Week. 1 Comment

Donald Trump has recently made a point of asking to see documentation for the President’s place of birth. While I don’t have people on the ground in Hawaii, I’m not personally persuaded this questions needs any attention.  I’m not planning on reading up on the Obama-Birther discussion Saturday morning.

But, there is another “birther question” that is one that ought to concern us all: Is Jesus the Son of God?

Scripture, in many different ways tell us that Jesus is the Son of God: “The Word became flesh (John 1:14)”, “that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit (Matthew 1:20). . .”

My friend Dr. Lamonte King, Jr. reminded me earlier today that Paul begins Romans by reminding his audience that “Jesus was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4).”

If there was any question about Jesus’s Messianic qualification, if there were any Donald Trump types floating about Jerusalem in the days leading up to the Cross, the question of Jesus’ identity was solved once and for all when God made declaration of the identity of His Son in the resurrection.

What will you look like after the resurrection?

Published on April 18, 2011 in Easter. 1 Comment

If you have truly believed the Gospel, then you can look forward to the resurrection.  Those who have died in Christ will rise in Christ (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).

So, what will our resurrected bodies look like?

The best way to consider what our resurrected bodies will be like  is to consider what Jesus’ resurrected body was like.  To that end, Pastor Steve Dewitt points out 15 characteristics of Jesus’ resurrected body:

Fifteen Characteristics of Jesus’ Resurrected Body (and ours as well)

He looked like a normal human

He didn’t look like a toad or elephant or an angel. He looked human. So much so that on the road to Emmaus, the two disciples were mystified that he didn’t know the local news. His body shape and appearance were distinctly human.

He was the same gender as his pre-resurrection self

He wasn’t resurrected a woman, but a man. We rightly assume this to be the case for all of us. There is no marriage in the future kingdom but there is sexuality and gender. We retain that as it is part of God’s good creation.

He looked like his pre-resurrection self

When he appeared to the disciples in the locked upper room, nobody said, Who is this guy? They all knew who he was. They didn’t need to see the scars. It was the guy who hadn’t seen him that required that.

He was “touchable”

The famous disciple Thomas said, unless I touch his scars, I will not believe. Jesus appeared to him and he invited him to touch him. Mary clung to him on Easter morning. He says to them, see I am not a ghost. A ghost does not have flesh and bones as I have (Luke 24:39).

He ate

He ate in the upper room, he broke bread with Emmaus road disciples, and he ate fish by the sea of Galilee with the disciples. All of this after his resurrection.

Read the rest here.

One way to prepare for Holy Week

Published on March 31, 2011 in Easter. 0 Comments

Good Friday and Easter are only a few weeks away.  Perhaps, you have already been meditating and preparing.  If not, I would offer one approach:

  1. Read the Gospel of Mark as many times as possible.  It’s the briefest of the 4 Gospel accounts and it moves so quickly that if you prayerfully consider the content you will be amazed at what you see of the Savior.
  2. Order and read Tim Keller’s recent book, King’s Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus.  Keller’s book is a reflection on the Gospel of Mark and will be a wonderful supplement for time in the Gospel of Mark.
  3. Journal brief thoughts (a sentence or two is enough) each time you read and prayerfully study.

In Christ Alone

Published on April 4, 2010 in Easter. 0 Comments

HT: Kevin DeYoung

In the nursing home, every day is Saturday

Published on April 3, 2010 in Easter. 1 Comment

Theologically speaking, we all know that today, the Saturday between the Cross and the Resurrection, is the longest day of the year.

And, it pictures where we are in life.  While we have a certain and fixed hope, we still wait for the return of Christ.

Nowhere is this felt more keenly than in the nursing home.  I went to two different nursing homes today.  The first lady I prayed with is near the end.  This will most likely be her final Saturday before Easter.  I read to her both the account of the crucifixion and the resurrection from Matthew’s Gospel.

But, my final visit was to a dear lady in our church who is still thinking clearly, and so wrestling with waiting in a nursing home.  She tried to be positive; she told me they had a blessed Good Friday service and that the preaching was her favorite part.

She then confessed to me that she has been reading the Catholic devotional aloud to the Catholics.  She said, “Pastor, they don’t have anyone who is up to reading right now, so I read it to them.” I gave her absolution for this (in a Protestant sort of way) and told her it is okay.

Still, this dear sister is very tired of being in the nursing home.  I said to her, “It’s so much like waiting for Christmas when you’re young.  It seems as though it will never get here.  But, very soon, the resurrection will be here, and the dead in Christ will rise, and so we can be comforted with these words (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18).”

Is there someone who won’t be able to get out for Easter this year that you could encourage?  Even tomorrow, it’s still Saturday in the nursing home.

Amy Scott Looking Forward

Published on April 3, 2010 in Easter. 0 Comments

There are illustrations here for men and women alike.  This is a helpful and hopeful reflection for the day between Friday and Resurrection Day.

My husband likes to tell the story about when he was growing up, all the kids were playing G.I. Joe. He wanted a G.I. Joe action figure, so he was excited to open the package that looked just about the right size. It was Fighting Yank.

His mom was real good with money. But for a ten-year-old, Fighting Yank at a G.I. Joe action party is kinda like a firecracker without the boom. Buying generic is fine for things like toilet paper and toothpaste but not action figures.

I’m just saying there is no let-down in the morning when I use Ultra-Brite to brush my teeth instead of Colgate Super White. But if I was ten, I don’t know, Fighting Yank? You can tell he’s got no juice just by his name. Fighters are named Rambo, Butch, and stuff like Harley.

I think Greg was cool before his time, because he says that it didn’t bother him. I wonder, though, about the frequency a 42-year-old guy brings it up, though. I’ve heard this story at least ten times, not including any sermon illustrations, which don’t count obviously.

Now maybe Greg has no residual need of therapy, but man, I’m still holding in the pain of my own let down about 15 years ago. I think I already told this story at least eight times, but I’m sure nobody remembers. One of my best friends doesn’t even read my blog. She’s like, “What for?”

So Greg and I were dating (in our ignorance, of course, since we hadn’t been enlightened that this was of the devil), and I was waiting for a ring and a date. Like every second of every moment . . .

Here for the rest