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Good Friday Anniversary
By Sandra Ostapowich Happy Anniversary! Who has a wedding during Holy Week?? On Good Friday?? That’s just insane, right? This day is all about Jesus, it’s sacrilegious to do anything but contemplate Christ’s death for us that day. Well, it’s an arranged marriage for one thing. The groom’s Father set it all up a while back. Way back even before there was a when (Eph. 1:4-10). See, the LORD wasn’t surprised when Adam and Woman fell into sin. Jesus becoming Man and dying on the cross for our sins wasn’t a Plan B to mop up the mess we’d made of everything. No, it was the plan all along. Twisted?…
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Blessed Easter!
He is risen! He is risen indeed, Alleluia! Have a blessed Easter. Go to church. Celebrate the love our dear Lord has for us and the wonderful news that our Lord conquered the grave. He is risen. He is risen indeed, Alleluia. Photo Credit to Jim Forest. Creative Commons License.
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Easter Vigil
By Amanda Markel You may have noticed that some churches have a service on Holy Saturday evening. For some people, this may or may not come as a surprise. It is not uncommon for churches to have a Saturday evening service weekly, which usually serves as an opportunity for members who cannot make it to the regular Sunday morning service to still receive Christ’s gifts, and be in fellowship with the congregation. But whether or not your church regularly worships on Saturday evening, the Holy Saturday service, the Great Vigil of Easter, is different. First, what it’s not. It’s not supposed to be a regular Saturday worship service. It shouldn’t…
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For Good Friday
By Sandra Ostapowich “I couldn’t believe how gory it was.” That’s what my boss told me after going to see The Passion of the Christ when it first came out in the theater. “I knew the story of Jesus and what was going to happen, but I had never imagined it could be that violent.” And this from a snarky atheist. I used to be able to watch violent movies, shoot-em-ups and creepy murder mysteries without batting an eye. I’d go through Holy Week and piously imagine the betrayal, trumped-up charges, beatings, flogging, public humiliation and crucifixion and how horrible it must’ve been. But, in my mind, it was sanitized.…
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Maundy Thursday
When I was growing up I thought Maundy Thursday was people pronouncing Monday Thursday slightly strangely and I couldn’t really understand why they were combining the two days. I didn’t know what it was about, really, and while I knew that it was some pre-Easter holiday (I’m cringing, too, here, sorry!) I didn’t really think that anything terribly important was happening or commemorated on this day. Oh, I was wrong. I was so wrong. Sometimes it’s frankly embarrassing looking back at the sure certainty of childhood and the things we’ve (OK, I) misunderstood. Maundy isn’t a mispronunciation of the beginning of the week. Nor is it some unimportant place holder…
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When “Training Up” Ends and Moving Out Begins: Parenting College Aged Children
By Pam Thompson Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6 ESV It is difficult to discern whether this Proverb is a command, or a comfort. But, for most parents, it is our prayer — our plea. Our children grow up and move out. We spend years worrying about and sweating the small stuff. We agonize over preschool choices and screen time limits. But, we have also spent much time in prayer and teaching of our children. We teach them the prayers of our faith. We read to them from the Bible. We teach them…
