Holy week devotional

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Entrances are important (Palm Sunday)

Entrances are important. People spend exorbitant amounts of time planning how they will enter a room, come out onto the stage, or walk up to the plate. The music, the mood, the magic that surrounds and entrance has the power to change everything that happens after it. The tension swells. The crowd goes wild. The drop hits. Everything culminates in that one specific and perfectly planned moment - and let the party begin. Entrances are important.  This is not that.…

silence, weeping, death, sadness, Holy Saturday, the end of hope

Saturday – The world will never be the same – Pt. 1 (He is dead)

He is dead. There is nothing in this world that is as sudden AND permanent as death. Many things happen quickly. There is also an abundance of things that are permanent. But the combination of the two is especially brutal. Death packs the two punch. It kicks you in the gut, removes all hope from your heart, messes with your mind - all while seemingly sucking the life right out of your soul. It drags you down, and you do…

Holy Week, Holy Week Devos, Good Friday, the death of Jesus, it is finished

Friday – It is finished. Amen

The word “amen” is often uttered after prayers to signify that it is over. It literally means; let it be true, or truly - and is intended to be used to express that the person who spoke the prayer believes that God has heard it, and He will answer it, according to His will. For 33 years, Jesus has been living a prayer. His every word, action, teaching and healing has been an offering to God, His Father, with whom…

Holy Week Devotional, Maunday Thursday, The Last Supper, Passover Meal

Thursday – A cup

A cup. Nothing that people hadn’t seen before, but tonight it meant so much more. A single, solitary cup, sitting in the middle of the table, surrounded by bread - and perhaps some grapes and olives - waiting to be filled. It was common for them to have bread and wine with every meal, they were staples of the time and place, and tonight would be no different in THAT regard. But there, in the middle of the table sat…

Wednesday – God’s anointed

He was just spending it with friends. His last day, the day before it all changed. Like the calm before the storm, Jesus is with His people, enjoying a meal and trying not to focus on what the next few days will bring. Perhaps there is even a smile, or a moment of laughter, as for one brief second, there is respite from His reality. And then, suddenly, it was time.  Mark 14:3–9 (ESV)And while he was at Bethany in…

Tuesday – truths from trees

Mark 11:12–14 (ESV)On the following day, when they came from Bethany, he was hungry. And seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to see if he could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. And he said to it, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard it. He is yelling at a tree. He was…

Monday – Sometimes, you just have to weep

Yesterday there was a parade. Today there are tears. Yesterday there was a celebration. Today there is frustration. Yesterday he was their king. Today he is feeling the affects of being their God. The events of Monday - Wednesday of Holy Week, are not clearly defined by date or time, only that they happened - but this does not reduce their importance. In his version of the story, Luke tells us something that most of the other Gospel writers do…

Easter Sunday

I remember it like it was yesterday. The year is 2011, and the day is February 6th. My family and I have been watching together as our beloved Green Bay Packers played the Pittsburgh Steelers in a game you might have heard of called the Super Bowl. It had started off well for us, the Packers had been in the lead for the entire game, and now in the waning moments, the Steelers were attempting a comeback, in an attempt…

A very Good Friday

“The costliest of costs. The deadliest of loss, The wonder of the cross. The breath of life that stops. The hope of heaven bought The wonder of the cross. The wonder of the cross. I don’t want to move.” [playlist ids="258"] Good Friday has long been my favorite day of every year. I hope it doesn’t make me sound strange or morbid, but there is just such powerful emotion that surrounds this day. I remember as an adolescent, probably not…

Bread and wine

Every once and a while someone asks me the question - ‘What would you want for your last meal ever on earth?’ As I have never been on death row or even incarcerated for that matter, I can honestly tell you, it is a question to which I have never given too much thought. Whenever I am asked, my mind immediately goes to some of my favorite foods growing up. My step-dad makes a really mean ribeye, so I think…