Easter

  • First Friday Prayers: Good Friday

    ByLauren Christian, death, Easter, forgiveness, Grace & Truth Link Up, Jesus, love, prayer, salvation, trusting God
    6 Comments

    Happy Good Friday!  I pray this day affords you some time to meditate on the sacrifices Jesus made for you and me.  And the huge significance of the cross.

     

    “For I handed down to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,  and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,” 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 NASB

     

    If Good Friday commemorates the day Jesus died, why do we call it good?

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    It’s because of the last part of our scripture passage for today.  “…that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”  We celebrate the day Christ died because he didn’t stay in the grave.  He rose again.

     

    So why is this significant?  Because God loves us.  He is holy and cannot have any part of sin, which is a problem because we are all sinners.  The penalty for sin is death.  And not just a death in this body, but an eternity spent separated from God and all that is good.  So God sent a substitute, who had never sinned, to die in place of us all.

     

    Last week I heard a great analogy.  When we decide to trust in Jesus and his sacrifice to save us from eternal death, God sees us through rose colored glasses.  He sees us as righteous because he sees us through the blood of Jesus.  Forgiven.  Made right.  Eternally secure.  That’s why the day Jesus died was a good day.  Will you join me thanking the Father by praying these scriptures?

     

    And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

    A read through of 10 Bible Verses for Healing a Broken Heart from Lisa Blair was just what I needed this week.  Maybe you would be encouraged by this too!

    The Link Up

    1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

    2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

    3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

    Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

    We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

    MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    LAUREN SPARKS
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

     Now Let’s Link Up!

     

    You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

    Click here to enter

    If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of using the buttons below to share it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to get these essays emailed to you once a week, subscribe!  Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.

  • Another Aspect of Grace: Easter Reflections

    ByLauren Bible reading, Christian, Easter, grace, Jesus, salvation
    24 Comments

    Easter reflectionsWell, the Super Bowl for churches has arrived.  Even if you aren’t a regular church attender, you might consider going this weekend.  The buildings will be spiffy, the music top notch and the staff and volunteers ready to serve.  All of this is to make you feel welcome but, more importantly, it’s to honor our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  It’s our annual public celebration of the most important event in human history.  Thank you in advance for reading my Easter reflections.

     

    This holy day commemorates the eternal security of the believer through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.  And those are a bunch of churchy words my life group is currently studying in depth right now.  In what I hope is more “plain speak”, I will attempt to sum up what that means.

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    Reflecting on Easter’s Meaning

     

    All humans mess up (called sin).  God is perfect so he can have no part of sin.  The punishment for sin is eternal separation from God (or death).  God had a perfect Son (Jesus) who sacrificed himself in death, taking all of our sin with Him in the process.  Because He took it, we no longer have that barrier between us and God.  God allowed this substitution because He loves us.  By believing on this and giving God His rightful place as Lord of our lives (He is the creator of the universe), our sins are forgiven and we get to be with God forever – in part here, but forever in heaven after our time on earth is done.

     

    Ok, I’m reading it back and it’s not very “plain”.  It can be even harder to understand than it is to explain.  If you have questions about this part (or anything I write) I would love to talk to you in person or online.  Just comment on this post or send me a private message here.

     

    Now that the groundwork is laid, let me share what I’ve been thinking about:

     

    “For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people.  It teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age.”  Titus 2:11-12

     

    This passage struck me in a brand new way this week.  There is nothing we celebrate more than “grace” at Easter.  It is His grace that forged a way for us to be in relationship with a perfect God.  Because of grace He allowed His son to sacrifice Himself for us.  This grace offers salvation to all who will accept it.  “Oh, praise the one who paid my debt.”

     

    But God’s grace doesn’t stop there.  It saves us, but it also sanctifies us.  “It teaches us to say ‘no’ to ungodliness and worldly passions…”  Grace shows us what it looks like to “live self-controlled, upright and godly lives”.  This is why what we do matters – even though our sins are forgiven.  We cannot accept one part of grace and not the whole.  God offers His grace to us in our sin, and gives us a way out of it.  Transformation in this life and salvation in the life to come.

     

    Easter’s Invitation

     

    If you have accepted God’s gift of grace, join me this Good Friday in a time of reflection and confession over the ungodliness and worldly passions we currently wrestle with.  Then we can come before God this Easter with a full appreciation for everything His grace does for us!  If you don’t know the gift of grace today, why not?  What’s holding you back?

     

    Happy Easter!

     

    And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

     

    Prepare for something I’ve never done before on the link up.  I’m featuring two posts!  I just couldn’t decide and didn’t want to have to this time.  First, Susan of carryonmyheart.com wrote a beautiful love letter to her dog and lessons she’s learned from her in Be Nice to Tilly.  This fur mama couldn’t resist.  And Grace and Truth’s own Maree Dee gave us an older but beautiful Easter reflection of her own in Will You Let Easter Pass with Just a Glance?

     

    1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

    2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

    3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

    Grace and Truth_Meet Hosts

    We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

    MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    LAUREN SPARKS
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    TAMMY KENNINGTON – Restoring hope. Pursuing peace.
    Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram | Pinterest

    Now Let’s Link Up!

     

    You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

    Click here to enter

    Sharing is caring! If you liked this post, do me the huge honor of using the buttons below to share it to your favorite social media accounts. And if you want to get these essays emailed to you once a week, subscribe!  Lastly, my posts may contain affiliate links and I earn from qualifying purchases. If you buy anything from one of these links, I will receive a few pennies to help offset the cost of this website at no additional charge to you. Thank you in advance for your help.

     

    To find some great places where I might be sharing this post, click here.