Get ready to start a journey…a journey through the pages of the Bible and the pages of your life.
Saturday was silent. The One who promised them life was dead. The One who spoke of saving others could not even save himself. How would he prepare those promised heavenly mansions when his body lay in a cold, dark tomb?
We call it Good Friday. But “good” hardly describes what was happening, especially as Jesus’ mother stood at the foot of the cross.
Thursday was the last day Jesus would spend with his disciples before the cross. It was the day of Passover, the time when Israel remembered God’s faithfulness in delivering them from slavery in Egypt.
On the Wednesday before the cross, Jesus told his disciples that he was going to be crucified. The religious leaders made plans to seize and kill him. And it was on Wednesday that Judas met with the High Priest and bargained for the sum of thirty silver pieces to betray Jesus. However, one encounter with Jesus stands out as an extravagant act of worship.
Luke Griffo on the beauty the male and female in God’s creation, dealing with the hard question about sexuality, and how parents can speak to their children about LGBTQ issues.
The Tuesday before the cross was a busy day for Jesus. Three groups of people came to him with questions. Their queries aimed to trap Jesus in a contradiction or statement they could use against him. Jesus’ popularity was getting out of hand, and the religious leaders planned to put a stop to it.
After what we now call the Triumphal Entry, Jesus spent Sunday evening in Bethany, a small town just outside of Jerusalem. On Monday morning, he returned to Jerusalem and went straight to the temple.
There was no shortage of “Messiahs” in the days of Jesus. In Acts 5, a prominent Jewish leader named Gamaliel noted two Jewish leaders whose large followings had “scattered” after the self-proclaimed “Messiahs” were killed.
What does your relationship with God depend on? Things that you do? Things that you don’t do? Can you lose your relationship with God? Can you have a relationship with God and then do something that causes God to kick you out of his family?
What if God was not on your side? What if he didn’t have your back? What if he decided to take his eyes off you and look the other way? What if God said, “You are on your own!”
All these stories have names. And we all could add to the list of tragedies we see around us. The question is: How does God work all these things out for good? Does he…can he work all these things out for good?
What do you do when you can’t pray? When the words won’t come. When your soul is exhausted. The great missionary J. Hudson Taylor came to that point. When anxiety filled his heart, he said, “I can’t read. I can’t think. I can’t pray. But I can trust.” We can all trust and know that the Holy Spirit is praying for us at a level we cannot comprehend.