10 Verses To Prepare Your Heart For Easter

/
10 Verses To Prepare Your Heart For Easter

I love Easter because of all that it means for believers. If Jesus had never risen from the dead, we would have no hope (see 1 Corinthians 15:14). Easter, or rather Resurrection Sunday, holds such promise for those who are trusting in Christ’s finished work on the cross. As with many things in life, though, it’s easy to get caught up in the small things around the Easter season and to feel like we haven’t adequately spent time pondering all that Jesus has done for us.

I discovered that I needed a list of Easter verses to help me keep my heart in the right place as this amazing holiday approaches. As I started researching the best Scriptures for Easter, I realized like never before just how many are applicable to this beautiful season!

Read More

Is Your Good the Enemy of Your Best?

/
Is Your Good the Enemy of Your Best?

As I looked over my to-do list Easter Sunday morning, I was overwhelmed. Between preparing something for our church breakfast, ensuring that the spark plugs had church-appropriate attire on, and practicing for the various special music selections, I was pretty frazzled by the time I sat down to listen to the sermon. And since I still had congregational playing at the end of the service, I still didn’t feel much like relaxing.

(For the record, I pretty much failed at my preparations anyway: my breakfast coffee cake was underbaked; D somehow made it to church in a Star Wars t-shirt instead of his tie; and I completely forgot to get the pianist hymnal out of the pulpit before the start of the service.)

As I sat there half-listening and half thinking through the rest of the song service, I felt the Holy Spirit tugging at my heart.

Read More

Why the Gospel Is Vital to Easter

/
Why the Gospel Is Vital to Easter

At first, I wasn’t sure what about that statement bothered me, but I knew immediately that something about it was incorrect.

And then it hit me.

Christianity didn’t start with Jesus’ coming to Earth around 4 BC (the date typically assigned to His birth).

No, Christianity is as old as the Earth itself, founded by God from the very beginning.

The Gospel has been woven through the pages of history, etched on mankind’s heart by a loving Heavenly Father (see Revelation 13:8; Ecclesiastes 3:11). And understanding the Gospel is pivotal to understanding the Easter season and everything it celebrates.

Read More

What a Passover Meal Taught Me About Perfection and Grace

/

For the past several years, Jon and I have tried to put together a Passover meal of sorts for the spark plugs.  Each year varies slightly, but our goal is to serve grape juice, unleavened bread, and lamb while we have the kids take turns reading various Scripture passages that pertain to Passover and the Last Supper.  

This is a great way to help everyone connect the Old Testament sacrificial system with Jesus' perfect sacrifice on the Cross.  

This year, we had many of the traditional dishes:  barbecued lamb, boiled eggs, bitter herbs with salt water, carbonated grape juice.  But while the boiled eggs turned out perfectly, the gluten-free unleavened bread I tried to make flopped royally.

Read More

Contemplating the Curtain

/
Contemplating the Curtain

What about Easter is most meaningful to you?

It’s been another tough week for us (you’d think I’d be getting used to this by now).  I’d really wanted to spend a lot of this week preparing the spark plugs for Resurrection Sunday, but between injury and illness (thankfully non-contagious this time!), it just didn’t happen.  We did get to read aloud about Jesus’ betrayal and trial in Luke, and I’ve done some thinking on my own.  As I’ve contemplated Christ’s death and resurrection in light of these hardships, my thoughts keep coming back to the tabernacle veil.

In the Old Testament, a thick curtain or veil separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the temple.  Now, when I think of my wedding veil – a light, transparent piece of netting – it doesn’t do justice to the temple veil described in the Bible.  According to this author’s description, it’s believed that the temple veil was about 4″ thick and unable to be torn by human effort.

Read More