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Posts Tagged ‘Maundy THursday’

One Hour

Posted in Biblical, Devotional, tagged , , , , , , on March 29, 2018| 1 Comment »

One hour. 60 minutes. One 24th of a day. We cherish it when it comes to sleep time. We become anxious if we have to wait that long. And often we waste it on things like TV, social media…even worry as we pace the bedroom floor in the moonlight.

Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? Matthew 6:26

Jesus asked the question. How do we answer? If worrying doesn’t consume your time, substitute another phrase – by being proud,  by being angry, by being revengeful, unforgiving, caught up in a video game, vegged out on Netflix…yep, I am stepping on my toes, too.

Yes, we all need down time, but during that time can we spare an hour of talking, reading and listening time with our Lord?

Tonight, Jesus will face his fate with blood sweat and tears. He will kneel face down in the dirt among the scraggly olive trees and cry out to His Father. And His disciples? Snoozing. He’d asked them to stay awake and pray for one hour.

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter (Matthew 24:6).

They didn’t, and when the soldiers came, they fled. They didn’t have the strength to stand and stay because they hadn’t been bolstered by God-time.

Are we any different?

Will you carve out an hour today, or tomorrow on Good Friday, to reflect (and thankfully praise God) over what Jesus did for you?

 

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Tears – No Words

Posted in Christian, Life Experiences, tagged , , , , , , on March 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »

thumbnail[2]It happens every year.  I can’t get through Holy Week without crying. My mourning clutches my chest.

As a church secretary, typing out the Passion Narrative chokes me up.

Maundy Thursday when the congregation goes quiet, the nave darkens, and the priests strip the altar of all adornment, then wash the bare wood, symbolizing the  preparing  for Christ’s death and burial, the teardrops cascade down my cheeks and my throat closes.  When the tabernacle is left wide open and the body and blood of the reserved sacrament is not present…yet, my lips quiver.

I hear my Lord whisper, “Will you not stay awake one hour?”I see His agony in the garden as He accepts the Father’s will. I feel His heart break when Judas kisses him,when Peter denies Him,  and the crowds yell to crucify Him. I hear his lasts gasps of breath on the cross asking God to forgive me. The idea unnerves me and humbles me. He did it all for me. He did it all for you, too.

You can read about the gruesomeness of his torturous death. You can see the films about it. But at one moment during Holy Week, I hope you go beyond viewing to feeling it in your soul. I hope you remember the old spiritual, “Were You There?” and answer as I do.

Through shimmering eyes I gulp my response – “Yes, every year.”

I’ve read the book, and I know how the story ends. But the point is, it never does. Jesus died for those that day watching at Calvary. He also died for me, for you and for the generations to come. His sacrifice is eternal.

Were you there? Are you there? Your Savior loves you enough to be there, hanging in torture. He will continue to love you enough to go into Hell, defeat death and rise again in glory before ascending into Heaven and preparing a place for you.. One day, He will love you enough to return and bring you home.

Have a blessed Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Resurrection Sunday…every year until Our Lord comes again. Maranatha.

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