good friday

Opening Prayer: O most holy and loving God, we are awestruck when we fix our eyes upon the cross of Christ.  We are awestruck at the depths of your love.  We are awestruck at the extent of your holiness.  We are awestruck at the completeness of your character.  The cross, O Lord, is not just something you did, but shows us who you are.  Thank you.  Amen. (Journey to the Cross by Jim Branch)

Scripture: Matthew 27:45-54, Amos 8:9-10

Journal: What do you want to tell Jesus today?  What do you want to tell the Father?

Reflection: From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli,lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”).
     When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.”
     Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”
     And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.
     At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people.
     When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!” (Matthew 27:45-54)

In that day,” declares the Sovereign Lord,

“I will make the sun go down at noon
    and darken the earth in broad daylight.
I will turn your religious festivals into mourning
    and all your singing into weeping.
I will make all of you wear sackcloth
    and shave your heads.
I will make that time like mourning for an only son
    and the end of it like a bitter day. (Amos 8:9-10)

O Jesus, how can we possibly say "thank you" enough for what you endured for us?  It is overwhelming.  Your love for us in incomprehensible.  And, on this day, I can't help but wonder, as well, what this day was like for your mother and your Father.  How awful it must have been for Mary, to have watched your agony and not be able to do anything about it.  But how much worse it must have been for your Father, who could have intervened, but knew, for love's sake, that he must not.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Thank you, Jesus!  Thank you, Father!  Thank you, Spirit!  For by your wounds we are healed.

maundy thursday

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, help us to draw close to you this Maundy Thursday, that we may hear your words, receive your body and blood, and keep watch with you as you prepare to go to the cross.  Amen.

Scripture: John 13:1-38

Journal: Imagine yourself in this room.  What do you see and hear?  How do you feel?  What do you want to say to Jesus?  What do you think he wants to say to you?

Reflection:

today is maundy thursday

today you wash our feet

today you offer us your body as food

and your blood as drink

today you give a new command

to love each other as we have been loved by you

today you speak to us about your departing

about your dying and about your being raised to new life

today you tell us of the place you have prepared for us

and the spirit that has been given to lead us there

today you invite us to abide in your love

as a branch abides in a vine

today you pray for us

that as the father is in you

so you will be in us

and we in you.

tonight you ask us to watch with you and pray

because your time has come

o jesus, you have been such a friend and companion to us

may we be the same to you

as you journey to the cross

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Help us, Lord Jesus, to stay spiritually awake this day/night.  Help us to watch and pray.  Lord, have mercy on us.

prayer and being

Opening Prayer: O Lord, let me be like a tree, planted by streams of water.  Let me send my roots deeply down into you, so that I may bear fruit and my leaves may remain green, even in a time of drought.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 1:1-6

Journal: What would it look like to live your life like a tree planted by streams of water?  How do we get there?

Reflection: Psalms 1 and 2 are a pair, working together to put our feet on the path that goes from the nonpraying world in which we are constantly distracted and intimidated, into the praying world where we come to attention and practice adoration.  For prayer is not only a matter of saying the right sort of words to the right kind of God.  Our being is involved, the way we are. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, help me not to walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of mockers.  Help me, instead, to delight in your word and meditate on your law, that I might live my life rooted in you rather than blown about by the winds of circumstance.  Amen.

broken to be given

Opening Prayer: O Lord, help us to not lose heart when times get hard, but instead help us to cling tightly to you.  By your Spirit guard us, protect us, and renew us.  Help us to realize that these light and momentary struggles are achieving for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison.  Help us, O Lord, when things look bleak, to always keep our eyes firmly fixed on you—the unseen God—rather than on the visible circumstances around us.  In the name and power of Jesus we pray.  Amen. (Journey to the Cross by Jim Branch)

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

Journal: How is God using brokenness in your life these days?  How are you being broken?  What is the fruit of it?  How might he use it in the lives of others?

Reflection: I've been thinking a lot about the idea of brokenness for the past few weeks, and its value and necessity in the life of faith.  None of us wants it, few if any would ever invite it, but no one can deny the unseen value of brokenness when it comes to the process of transformation.  I know that personally the most broken times in my life have been the times when God has done some of his best and deepest and most lasting work within me.  Brokenness simply does something in us (and then through us) that nothing else can do.  In fact, 2 Corinthians 4:17 tells us that brokenness is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory that is beyond all comparison.

     Brokenness shatters our sense of independence.  It strips us of our need for control.  It empties us of all pride and arrogance and agenda.  And it makes us more and more like Jesus, who although he was a son, learned obedience through what he suffered. (Hebrews 5:8)  But one of the main things that brokenness does is that it makes us into people who can be humbly and fruitfully given.  We are not broken just for the sake of being broken.  We are broken to be grown and then given.  As my friend Robert once said, "We cannot be multiplied enough to be given, we can only be broken enough to be given."  So brokenness has both a purpose and an intent.  So if you are in the midst of being broken during this season where brokenness plays a prominent role, don't run away from it.  Embrace it.  God is making you into the one he dreamt you to be.  Brokenness is not the end, just a means to a glorious end.

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ~2 Corinthians 4:18

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, when I am tempted to look around me, and let what I can see determine how I live my life, turn my eyes toward you and allow me to see the depths of your love and affection.  Let the things that are unseen be the things that determine who I am and what I do.  Let my hope be built on things that are eternal.  In the name of Jesus I pray.  Amen. (Journey to the Cross by Jim Branch)

torah

Opening Prayer: Saving God, you set your heart on us and made us your own.  May we listen with the ear of our hearts to the many ways your Word and your love will be present to us and formed in us this day.  We ask this through Jesus, the Word made flesh.  Amen.  (The Work of God ed. by Judith Sutera)

Scripture: Hebrews 4:12-13

Journal: Is the word of God active in your life these days?  Why or why not?  How?  How has God’s word penetrated you lately?  What was the effect?

Reflection: Torah (Law) is God’s words that hit the target of the human condition.  The noun torah comes from the verb, yarah, that means to throw something, a javelin, say, so that it hits its mark.  The word that hits its mark is torah.  In living speech, words are javelins hurled from one mind into another.  Not all words are javelins; some are only tin cans, carrying information from one place to another.  But God’s word has this aimed, intentional, personal nature.  When we are spoken to in this way, piercingly and penetratingly, we are not the same.  These words get inside us and work their meaning in us. (Answering God by Eugene Peterson)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O Lord, Thou didst strike my heart with Thy Word and I loved Thee. ~St. Augustine

help my unbelief

Opening Prayer: Lord Jesus, I am such a mess.  At my best (and at my worst) I am an odd combination of belief and unbelief.  Help me to truly believe that you are good and that you care deeply for me and the things in my life and world.  Help me to trust in you.  Amen.

Scripture: Mark 9:14-29

Journal: Where in your soul are you a messy combination of belief and unbelief?  What does it look like to have faith even in that messiness?

Reflection: God, today I resonate with the desperate cry in the Gospel, “I believe, help my unbelief.” Sometimes I think I operate my life out of more doubt than faith. And yet I want to believe… and I do believe. I’m a complex creature. At times, I can believe with my head, while my body is still locked into patterns of skepticism and doubt. Faith is not yet in my muscles, my bones, my glands. Increase faith within me, O Lord. I’m sure that for faith to grow you will put me in situations where I’ll need resources beyond myself. I submit to this process. Will this mean moving out on behalf of others, praying for them and trusting you to work in them? If so, then show me the who, what, when, and where, and I will seek to act at your bidding. Throughout I am trusting you to take me from faith to faith—from the faith I do have to the faith that I am in the process of receiving. Thank you for hearing my prayer. Amen. (Prayers from the Heart by Richard Foster)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.  Amen.

build the house

Opening Prayer: Lord God, unless you build the house, all of our labor is in vain.  Therefore, let us not go charging ahead with our own plans and our own designs, building our lives in whatever manner we see fit.  But help us to always look to you as the master builder, for you alone can build something that is eternal.  Amen.

Scripture: Psalm 127:1-3

Journal: What does it mean to let God build your house?  How will you do that?  What might he need to demolish in order to build according to his design?

Reflection: So now the house is in place, shiny and bright.  I have applause and esteem.  They congratulate me for my flexibility and leadership and enthusiasm and what I’ve done and am doing.  But this house of mine is somehow askew: it’s my house, not the Lord’s house.  “In vain do the builders build.”  And yet I know in my heart that each step was taken because it was right and seemed to be the Lord’s way.  Yes, it was, but he had something else in mind for it.

     Then another image rose spontaneously as I walked along.  It was the Lord as an artillery captain who came in front of my fine house dragging his cannon and proceeded deliberately and systematically to shoot the whole damn thing apart.  Story by story, wall by wall, brick by brick he gunned down the house that took me twenty-five years to build until only rubble was left, pieces of masonry on the ground, and I'm standing there with the debris of my life at my feet looking at the ruins.

     The strange thing was this big wide grin on the Lord’s face as he gunned it apart in high glee.  It’s as though he said to me: now watch the top story while I blow it apart.  There!  Now watch the second story: there it goes!  Isn’t that great?  Now watch the back wall: hooray!  Now the side walls, now finally the front and it’s all gone.  Isn’t that marvelous!  And he turned to me with joy and warmth and smiled on me with much encouragement. (A Traveler toward the Dawn by John Eagan)

Prayer

Closing Prayer: Build the house, O God, whatever that may mean, that we might not labor in vain.  Amen.