I am a Christian, a retired teacher, a mother and a grandmother. I love to read and I love the Lord Jesus Christ! Unless otherwise specified ,all visual illustrations are from the YOU VERSION APP of the Bible.
Changes in life are inevitable. Children grow up and move away. The temperature outside changes. Our bodies grow older and don’t respond as quickly or in the ways we would like. Change happens and we have to adjust to it.
I am so thankful that the one steady constant in my life is God. He never changes and He is always dependable. The standards of the world change, but God doesn’t. Mankind’s sins seem to get worse daily, but God’s love for us never wavers and never fails. I am so happy that in a world where things are constantly moving, changing and always in a flux of hurry, God doesn’t change. He steadfastly loves, steadfastly gives and steadfastly reminds us to turn to Him, the only constant in a world of change.
Have a blessed day as you ponder how constant and unchanging God is.
I had to research why today is special. After all, it is the day after the crucifixion of our Lord and the day before He arose. So, why is Saturday special? I used to spend the Saturday before Easter at Easter egg hunts with my children or gathering the clothes together for everyone to get them ready for Easter Sunday. However, this article opened my eyes to the truth of the Scripture. Today is a day of rest. I will let the words from the article I found speak for themselves. It is enlightening for me to know that even in the death of the Lord, God continued His plan that He established in the beginning.
And so, between Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus reminded them—and us—how to rest.
The gospels describe this time period in several ways: Jesus was “three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” All four gospels report that His resurrection took place on “the first day of the week,” which for Jews was Sunday.
There’s some dispute on this, but the majority of scholars agree that Jesus died on a Friday—”the Day of Preparation.” This means that He was not in the tomb for 72 hours, no matter how you slice it. The only full day He spent behind the stone was Saturday—the Sabbath—the day on which God commanded the people of Israel to rest, just as He had rested after His work in Genesis 2.
Here’s where it can help to take off our Western glasses and think more like the authors of the New Testament. They didn’t divide days at midnight like we do, but at sundown. And in the first century Jewish mind, part of a day counted as a whole day. So, because Jesus was buried on Friday evening and rose on Sunday morning, He was in the tomb “three days and three nights” by Jewish reckoning. By modern reckoning He was in the tomb only one full day: Saturday, the Sabbath.
Here’s that worldview gem I promised: After God incarnate had declared His work on our behalf “finished,” He honored the Sabbath once more, just as He had at the beginning of creation. In the tomb, God rested.
G. K. Chesterton writes in “The Everlasting Man” that this Sabbath Jesus spent in the earth was the last Sabbath of the old creation, which was marred by Adam’s sin.
“What [the disciples] were looking at” on Sunday morning, writes Chesterton, “was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.”
When we rest on the Sabbath, we do so not in the old creation, but in the new—not in the world marred by Adam, but in the world being renewed in Christ. We trust not in politics or princes or earthly decrees, but in Him who became, Himself, our Sabbath rest.
Today is Good Friday and we will see crosses everywhere today to commemorate the death of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But the cross is not a symbol of death; rather, it is a symbol of new life and hope for each of us who has accepted Jesus into our lives as the Son of God.
If the Roman soldiers who mocked, flogged and spat upon Him can then recognize His deity, how can we deny it?
Jesus left His heavenly home and became a man so that He could die for our sins and destroy the power of Satan once and for all. Satan’s last stronghold is death and Jesus took that away from him. Jesus holds the power over death and the grave and by accepting Him and His power, the chokehold of fear that death has in our lives is vanquished. The last enemy of mankind was destroyed on the cross!
Jesus not only paid for each of our transgressions, purifying us once and for all before the Father, but He also was beaten, wounded horribly, so that we can be healed: physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually. We are made whole because of His sacrifice!
No one made Jesus go to the cross. As he said, He could have called legions of angels to save Him. But He chose to go to Calvary, to die on that wooden stake of torture so that we could be saved. Jesus was obedient to His Father, even unto death. He trusted that God would do just as He said and He would be raised from the dead. Death is coming for each of us…it’s an inevitable fact of life. It is our choice to die knowing that we will live again with Jesus or to face eternity separated from our Creator. Jesus obeyed the Father because He knew and trusted Him. Can we do any less?
This is my devotional today on Maundy Thursday on the YouVersion Bible App. The New Covenant was established with the blood of Jesus, His sacrifice on the cross. May today be a remembrance day of His great love for each of us.
I haven’t moved any physical mountains lately, but I have seen mountains in my life fall. They are the mountains that keep me wondering what life is all about and why all the pain and suffering and all of the medical tests with no answers. They are the mountains that help me to know that God is alive and working in my life because He is actively involved in all the circumstances. He didn’t put the mountains in my life, but He will help me move them. Faith moves mountains…Jesus said it and I believe it!
I generally avoid crowded places because, as an introvert, I am uncomfortable around a lot of people whom I don’t know well. But I am looking forward to being in the crowd that surrounds Jesus in Heaven. He is not a stranger to me since I have come to know about Him in His Word. I am truly looking forward to the day when I will see Him face to face and be able to give Him the praise and honor due His Name.
People in today’s world seem to be hung up on diversity and accepting others from all over the world. God already does that because everyone is welcome to come to Heaven. You just have to get the passport that allows you to enter. What passport? The one that says your name is written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. How do you get that to happen? You accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, be baptized and live for Him. May I suggest that if you are seeking salvation that you read the Book of John? It is like a biography of Jesus and the reason He came to earth to be our Savior, how He suffered and died so that we can live forever with Him. He provides the stamp on our passport that says we can be a citizen of Heaven for eternity.
God provides the way to be saved, but it is up to us to accept the free gift that He offers. If you want to be part of the crowd in Heaven, you have to open the gift.
Finally, once you have chosen to follow the path of Christ, to declare that He is your Lord and Savior, you have to follow Him daily. What that looks like for you is different than what it looks like for me. We each have our own cross to bear as we follow Jesus. For some, it may mean rejection from other family members. For others, it may mean a life of sacrifice on the mission field. For still others, it may mean giving up your old lifestyle to accept a new life in Christ. Whatever it means, it will be worth it when we see Jesus!
God lifts me up daily to face whatever pressures or challenges try to thwart me in my journey towards Him. He puts me on solid ground, but even more, He reaches out His own hand and steadies me there. I have to continue to walk along, to travel on life’s road. But there is no fear or falling back into the mud of sin and shame because God is holding on to me, keeping me beside Him. This is a beautiful word picture of God’s strength, my weakness, His ability to save and keep and my dependence on Him.
Remember that God is the absolute source of all hope! I needed this today and hope that it ministers to someone else out there.
Answered prayer: my brother got a job after being unemployed for six months.
Prayer request: our daughter has a melanoma on the back of her right shoulder and is having surgery on Thursday.
Praise report: All of my heart tests came back normal with no irregularities.
Prayer request: I have to meet with a vascular specialist because my veins in my legs are leaking and causing some issues. Also, I have an MRI on my brain Tuesday. The doctors are still looking for the reason why I get light-headed and faint.
That’s it for today. Anything I can pray for you for? I will be glad to agree with you and lift you before His throne.
When Samuel was choosing a new king for Israel, the tall and handsome young men seemed to be the obvious choices. But God was adamant that He was looking for someone whose heart was right with Him, not someone who looked good on the outside. God still seeks those whose heart is steadfastly turned to the Lord. All the beauty products and latest fashions cannot change who we are on the inside. God already knows our hearts and wants them surrendered to Him. The outside is a façade, a deceiving look at who we really are. The heart represents who we really are, the secrets we hide from others but can never hide from God.
May our hearts stay ever pure before the Lord, steadfastly seeking His will and His good pleasure and not our own.
Vickie's Book Nook and Meditation Corner 