Resurrection Sunday is among the most joyous celebrations in the life of the church. On this day, we celebrate that Christ has risen from the dead and in so doing he has defeated sin, death, and Hell forever. In rising from the grave, Jesus confirmed that he was indeed the Messiah, the king of creation, and the Savior of the world. Our greatest hope in life and death is that Christ is risen, and we will one day rise with him. We will celebrate Easter with a Worship Service at 10 am on Sunday, April 20.
Holy Week – Tuesday
Holy Tuesday is the last Tuesday prior to Easter Sunday; it is the third day of Holy Week after Palm Sunday and Holy Monday. Similar to Holy Monday, those that do observe Holy Tuesday, typically mark it with readings of particular passages of Scripture and the singing of relevant hymns. [Read more…]
A Different Kind of Holy Week
This Lent has been like no other.
On Ash Wednesday, we began with a plan for prayer and fasting, but less than three weeks into Lent, life turned upside down because of COVID-19 and the precautions we were asked to take in order to prevent its spread. As life’s normal rhythms were interrupted, so were our Lenten plans. And we entered a Lenten desert we did not expect to experience. [Read more…]
The Meaning of Easter
Christians around the world will soon be celebrating Easter.
Whether it’s circled in marker on our wall calendars or programmed in our phones, many of us are anticipating Easter weekend next week. Often our traditions emphasize either resurrection rejoicing or cross-centered sorrow at the expense of the other. Which is the right posture? [Read more…]
Introducing Lent
The season of Lent is an invitation to meet Jesus in our suffering. It drives us toward the love of God and reminds us that Jesus shares in our sufferings and we get to share in His—all for the purpose of becoming more like Him.
Almighty God, whose blessed Son was led by the Spirit to be tempted by Satan; come quickly to help us who are assaulted by many temptations; and, as you know the weaknesses of each of us, let each one find you mighty to save; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
— A Lenten Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer
Lenten reflections
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When I was a kid Lent was so simple, we never celebrated it. Actually, I used it as an occasion to torture the Catholics and other high church weirdos in my school. Every year they gave up sweets and got a break on Sundays, honestly it seemed simple and rather silly. Seriously, didn’t Jesus give up so much more when He was in the wilderness for 40 days and nights being tempted by our enemy yet not succumbing? Years later I meant the love of my life and as I pursued her I found out something rather odd, she observed Lent. This sweet Baptist women followed a fast that many people in her church merely dismiss as sophistry. I will not say that I picked up the practice for the most holy of reasons (young men will do anything to impress a women, and I am not exempt from this fact), but as I did I decided to begin researching the history of this season and this is what I came across:
The traditional purpose of Lent is the preparation of the believer, through prayer, penitence, alms-giving and self-denial, for the annual commemoration of the Death and Resurrection of Christ (Easter).
In our house we yearly practice this fast as a reflective and prayerful act to prepare our heart, soul/mind, and body for Easter. We concluded the fast with a Seder [meal] (pictured above) to reflect on three (3) important Seders:
- Israel’s original Seder conducted in Egypt as they prepared to experiences the mighty deliverance of God (Exodus)
- Our Messiah’s Seder which He shared with His disciples just prior to His execution and sacrifice nearly 2000 years ago
- Our Seder which is conducted in our home as is we ourselves are actually a part of the original experience and to continually remember the willing sacrifice of our Savior, that released us from slavery to sin into the Freedom to follow and worship Him.
So this year we participated in the Daniel Fast. While searching on what to give up for Lent a friend of ours, Angie Lomas mentioned that she was thinking of doing this fast along with a program called Couch to 5k or C25k (this is the actual program). Immediately, I latched on to the idea and told Heather who has also seen the same post. The Daniel fast basically whittles you down to a few things to eat (depending on where you look and how literal you take His fast from scripture.
But Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king’s food, or with the wine that he drank. Therefore he asked the chief of the eunuchs to allow him not to defile himself. And God gave Daniel favor and compassion in the sight of the chief of the eunuchs, and the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, “I fear my lord the king, who assigned your food and your drink; for why should he see that you were in worse condition than the youths who are of your own age? So you would endanger my head with the king.” Then Daniel said to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had assigned over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, “Test your servants for ten days; let us be given vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat the king’s food be observed by you, and deal with your servants according to what you see.” So he listened to them in this matter, and tested them for ten days. At the end of ten days it was seen that they were better in appearance and fatter in flesh than all the youths who ate the king’s food. So the steward took away their food and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables. Daniel 1:8-16, ESV
The fast was challenging on so many fronts but we endured and made it. We were praying for many things and God gave us clarity on some and left us in the dark on the others. A few of the things were:
- Next steps after my residency at Concord has ended (it has almost been a year already and we have to begin thinking in that direction)
- Clarity in my calling (i.e. what type of church)
- Many personal things
- Complete the C25K program
In the end the Father is always faithful to us and this time once again brought about some frank discussion and drew us closer together. Additionally, it was a great teaching point for my children to see another spiritual discipline exhibited by their parents. The reason I wanted to write this is to simply reflect on the goodness and gracious of our Father and the sustaining power of His Spirit in the Christian’s life. We are not super saints at all, we are just beggars trying to show other beggars where the bread is. Next time you should join us on the journey, I promise you wont regret it.