Christ is Risen

Posted on April 20, 2025 by jimtheyouthguy

28 Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you.” So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!” And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.” Matthew 28:1-10 ESV

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Silent Saturday

Posted on April 19, 2025 by jimtheyouthguy

Silent Saturday was a new term for me this year. In a sense, I have practiced it for years. I just didn’t know it had a name.

The Saturday between Good Friday and Easter has always been a somber, introspective time for me. I observe a strict fast from sundown Friday until we get home from the Easter morning services. I also read the story of redemption from the Bible, beginning in Genesis and ending with the crucifixion. For the most part, we try to stay quietly at home. We still take care of chores and errands, but we try to restrict busyness.

My reading this year:

  • Early Morning: Gen 1-3; 6-9:17; 12-15; 21-22; Ex 1-3; 11-13:16; 1Sam 16; 22-23:7
  • Mid Morning: Is 11; 61; John 1:1-42; Mat 1:18-3:22; Luke 1-3:22
  • Afternoon: John 11-17; Mat 21-27; John 19-19
  • Evening: Is 52:13-53:12; 55-56:8; 57:14-59; Psalm 22

As we complete the Way of the Cross, it is important to remember the horror, anguish, darkness and silence that preceded the breaking of the New Dawn.

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Stations of the Cross

Posted on April 18, 2025 by jimtheyouthguy

Sometimes we are in too much of a hurry to get to a destination. There’s no doubt that we’re going to have a great time when we get there, but there can be so much joy in the journey as well! I can think of so many times and places as we traveled with the kids we had the grandest adventures in unexpected places. Some of the greatest stories were unexpected discoveries or crazy “misadventures”.

I think this is especially true of most Evangelical church traditions. We are all about Easter (and rightly so!), but, we miss so much of the richness in the story of GOD’s love, grace and redemption when we don’t spend some time dwelling on the stories and symbolic meaning of Passover, The Lord’s Supper and the Crucifixion!

For many years, on or near Good Friday, I would lead our church in something I called “The Living Stations of the Cross”. I started with the youth group for a few years and then opened it up to the whole church. Initially I did it “church-wide”on Wednesday night since we had Wednesday programming already and many were already in attendance, but later I moved it back to Fridays where it belongs. Below is a link to the participant guide for the service I used to do.

One of my sons is now doing The Living Stations of the Cross. We will get to join as participants this year. It will be my first time to follow the Way of the Cross rather than lead it!

The Stations of the Cross is traditionally 14 points from Pilate’s condemnation to Jesus being laid in the tomb. The traditional form includes extra-biblical stories from church history. I adapted my 9 stations from the “Scriptural Stations of the Cross”, combining some points (combined The Garden/Betrayal and Sanhedrin/Denial) and omitting 3.

Stations-of-the-Cross-2009-participant.docDownload
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Humbling Prayer

Posted on March 27, 2025 by jimtheyouthguy

I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes. 2 Sam 6:21&22 NIV

When David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem (2Samuel 6:12-22), he “danced before the LORD with all his might.” As the Ark was coming into the city, Michal (his wife, daughter of Saul) saw him “leaping and dancing before the LORD”. She reproached him and David replied, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes…”

I belong to a weekly gathering that meets virtually to pray. Specifically we pray for evangelism and church planting work in a small African nation. Currently we are praying for 1000 villages that have no evangelical presence over a 60 day period which equates to approximately 17 villages per day. When we meet, we pray for that weeks’ villages taking turns each praying for one day’s names as we go around the “room”. The difficulty is in pronunciation. The villages are primarily tribal names. The names are transliterated by a french speaking native without any phonetic cues. The odds of us even coming close to the actual pronunciation of any of the villages is maybe 3 in a thousand!

As we stumbled and bumbled through the names on the list, it was difficult. We sounded foolish, like a little child making up words as he pretends to read aloud. It was far from dignified prayer!
What a gift!!!
It is a wonderful reminder of so many things – our GOD dependence, the work of the Holy Spirit (expressing the groaning of our heart when we don’t have the words), apart from Him we can do nothing, and the faithful, patient, understanding love of GOD…

When we are “humiliated in [our] own eyes”, we loose all forms of pretense, entitlement and self-importance. We can come to our “Daddy” in Heaven just as we are – little children, totally dependent on His grace, mercy and love.

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