What's the hardest thing you can imagine God overcoming that you face? Job? Health? Boredom? Think bigger - and he's got it - even if it's not #1 on his list. Take a few minutes with me and Matthew 28:1-10.
You've got Michael J Fox's Delorean. Where in time do you travel? I'm off to this back road toward Emmaus in Luke 24:13-32, where the resurrected messiah is pulling a practical joke - for a great reason - on a sad couple.
After you watch the video, come back for the next comment I forgot to mention: there are a couple of reasons I suspect Luke leaves the identity of Cleopas' companion a secret, but one of them is this. He want us, as readers, to put OURSELVES on the road listening to Jesus open up the Bible to us about his identity and work.
Music today: George Frederick Handel, 'Hallelujah Chorus'. Handel was almost bankrupt when he received the commission to write this piece as a fundraiser for a debtor's prison in Dublin. The music poured out of him for Messiah; he wrote the whole thing in only a little over 3 weeks, And yes, he says he had a powerful encounter with God in writing the 'Hallelujah Chorus.' https://youtu.be/J4JIHvmoN0E
Page France, 'Jesus.' This uses some slightly shocking imagery, but there's a sense of joy, amazement and yes, humor that I think is appropriate, and I think Christ himself would welcome over the delight that death itself has been conquered. Glory! https://youtu.be/CLtFGvMddXA
Page France, 'Jesus.' This uses some slightly shocking imagery, but there's a sense of joy, amazement and yes, humor that I think is appropriate, and I think Christ himself would welcome over the delight that death itself has been conquered. Glory! https://youtu.be/CLtFGvMddXA
Meditation: "If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn't rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching, but whether or not he rose from the dead." - Timothy Keller
Resurrection Sunday Sermon: 'The Curse Reversed'
Click the following links to download and print at home:
Saturday of Holy Week. Jesus is in the tomb. Not a word about this day in Scripture. Yet. . . A few minutes with 2 Peter 3:8-9, 11-12. God is typically up to quite a bit, even when we think he's forgotten all about us.
Today's Music: Caedmon's Call, 'Valleys Fill First'.
One of the very few songs I've ever heard that reference holy Saturday, Aaron Tate and Ed Cash recognize that when we're waiting for an answer that never seems to come, we're laid low - we're humiliated. There's a great book of Puritan prayers called 'THE VALLEY OF VISION.' The idea is, when we're completely exhausted of our strength, hope, or resources, we're far more likely to catch the vision of God's strength and sufficiency. If you're in that place, (and I think many of us are in this pandemic), let this day remind you that God's ways are different from our ways - they're better! (Isaiah 55:8-13)
