I am re-posting something that I placed on the blog last year on the day after Good Friday. I think it is worth posting again as a reminder and especially for the Beth Moore post that follows. I hope you are able to have a "holy" Holy Week. It is hard when so much of the faith is fading from our culture's landscape. May Jesus be central to our lives not just this week but each and every day. Fight the good fight, girls!
Love,
Laura
See below:
April 22, 2011
Dear Ladies,
I
don’t know about you, but I have become very aware that Holy Week is
getting more and more squeezed from our culture. Even yesterday on Good
Friday, everything was as usual in the world around me. All weekend
long, so many will treat these few days as a regular weekend with some
candy and a nice dinner on Sunday. We will share our Easter meal with
loved ones who never gave Jesus a thought over the past few days,
including Easter. This should break our hearts.
Last
night I was at a Good Friday service where the pastor shared a story of
walking by a neighborhood church in PA one day during Holy Week. The
church had erected a cross on the property with a purple drape over it.
Nailed to the cross was a scripture from Lamentations that deeply moved
him.
“Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?
Look around and see.
Is any suffering like my suffering
that was inflicted on me,
that the LORD brought on me
in the day of his fierce anger? -Lamentations 1:12
I
pray that not one of us will pass by and not stop to absorb what we are
commemorating over these few days. Tomorrow we will celebrate the most
important day of our faith. I hope you have a joyous time with your
family and friends. In the meantime, I am passing on a post Beth Moore
put on her blog for Good Friday. It is long, but well worth reading—a
mini Bible lesson with excellent application to our lives
today—especially if you are in a season of pain and difficulty. The
prayer at the end is powerful and worth praying this weekend.
Love to all-
Laura
From Beth Moore “Living Proof” blog:
Posted: 22 Apr 2011
God
Himself authored annual remembrances. He taught His people from the
early pages of Scripture to set aside specific days to deliberately
recall His mighty acts. He warned them passionately never to forget what
He had done in their behalf and to fear the prospect so vividly that
their memories would be sharpened ever again like the blade of a
warrior’s sword. For most of us who have been raised in the church and
know the hymns and songs of this season by heart, we make the choice to
set our hearts and minds once again on the saving, death-defeating acts
of Jesus Christ. We ask God to do through His Spirit what only He can
do:
Our
faithful Abba Father, cause the looming shadow of the Cross to fall
afresh on us again. Let us remember with horror how dark our lives would
be without the Christ. Roll the heavy stone of our slumbering
familiarity away from the empty tomb and wake us up with a shout.
And He hears our prayer.
I
awakened this morning to an empty house, my man away for the better
part of the day and, early on, I felt the Spirit begin to answer the
petition I’d made yesterday. Lord, help me to remember. Move me once
again with the power of the Cross.
God reminded me of a portion in the 27th
chapter of Acts when the Apostle Paul and 275 others were aboard a ship
in a terrible storm that had raged for many days. We know that, of his
cohorts, at least Luke was with him, the ink of his pen filled with
brine. Read Acts 27:33-36 for yourself.
Just
before dawn Paul urged them all to eat. “For the last fourteen days,”
he said, “you have been in constant suspense and have gone without
food—you haven’t eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You
need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his
head.” After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in
front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. They were all
encouraged and ate some food themselves.
Look at that last portion once more:
He took some bread and gave thanks to God…Then he broke it.
Read words from the page of the gospel written earlier by the very same man who penned the Book of Acts:
When
the hour came, Jesus and His apostles reclined at the table. And He
said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you
before I suffer. For I tell you, I will not eat it again until it finds
fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”
After taking the cup, He gave thanks and said, “Take this and divide it
among you. For I tell you I will not drink again from the fruit of the
vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
And
He took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying,
“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.” Luke
22:14-19
Took bread. Gave thanks, Broke it.
Same words. Same order.
Back to Acts 27.
In the New International Commentary on the New Testament, F. F. Bruce writes…
There
is a cluster of words and phrases here – “took bread,” “gave thanks,”
“broke it” – which are familiar in a eucharistic setting. This supports
the view of many commentators that the meal here described [in Acts 27]
was a eucharistic meal. Probably it was so in a limited sense: all
shared the food, but to the majority it was an ordinary meal, while for
those who ate with eucharistic intention (Paul and his
fellow-Christians) it was a valid eucharist: “the bread which we break,
is it not our participation in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians
10:16)
To the majority it was an ordinary meal.
To
the majority of people on Planet Earth today, this is an ordinary day.
Malls will keep humming, Facebook will keep friending, Twitter will
keep tweeting, planes will keep flying, tellers will keep telling,
businesses will keep selling.
But
for those of us who “eat” of this day with Eucharistic intention, and
think deliberate thoughts toward a crucified Christ, ours is a valid
feast of remembrance.
While others eat this day away like it’s any other day, we savor its bittersweet taste and call it sacred.
Maybe
you have long been in a storm with no sun in sight. Right there in all
the tossing, surrounded even by those who may ignore Him or mock Him,
draw from the Body and the Blood. Let today, even in your pain, be
sacred to you and any brokenness, your living sacrifice, and may the
heavens open wide with the thundering power of the Cross and drench you
with the rain of your long-awaited deliverance.
Do this in remembrance of Me.
Because of the Cross of Christ, Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.
The
Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to
His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen. 2 Timothy
4:18
This
is a prayer I wrote this morning. For me, reading the prayers of others
sometimes reminds me of something I, too, want to ask of my Father. We
are all His children. We who are in Christ are each invited to “the
Throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need.” I am in need. You are in need. If
any of this speaks to the place you are right now, you are welcome to
come right here with me and kneel as one who believes and we’ll bring
these petitions to our faithful God together.
My Dearest Abba and my Savior and Redeemer, Jesus,
Cause
me to be moved and mindful of this death and resurrection season – Of
this, the most important annual celebration we commemorate as Your
church. Cause me to be awake and aware in You, Lord. I am so grateful
for the sacrifice of this One spotless Lamb of God. For just a moment, I
try to imagine myself on that same road of suffering with that same
cross on my flesh-torn back, pierced, hung, and exposed on that same
tree and I shudder. My sins outweigh my frame, Lord. I am unable to
bear them. Thank You, Jesus, for not only bearing the pain but for
enduring the shame. You are the single reason I am not weighed down in
the suffocating mire of shame every single day of my life. I earned it. I
deserved it. I am so grateful, Abba Father, for Your willingness to
will and to witness that soul-saving, Hell-defeating act rendered by
Your one and only Son. I praise You, faithful, merciful God, and ask to
be moved this weekend with meditation, reflection, fresh wonder and
renewed victory.
Please
pursue each member of my family and me for the full work and benefit of
Your Cross and Your resurrection. Please do not yield to our
resistance. Appear unmistakably in every place we run. Walk through
every door we slam. No addiction need hold us, no affliction need bind
us, no suffering need smother us, no defeat need hover over us, no
foolish act need define us and death need not haunt us. In the quake of
the Cross, hopelessness slipped through the trembling cracks of earth
and fell with an everlasting sentence into the bottomless abyss. Graves
broke open and the bonds of the guilty fell from their wrists with a
breath-taking thud. Because of this day that we, Your church,
commemorate, we are free.
We are grateful.
We are aware.
In the saving Name of Jesus Christ,
Amen.
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