Holy Tuesday Family Devotional

A Sacrifice for Jesus

Matthew 26: 1-6

Jesus talked with His disciples as He had several times before. Except now, the time had almost run out. He told them He would be crucified at Passover, in only two days. While Jesus talked with His closest friends, others who thought He was a dangerous enemy, planned His death. Jesus knew His Father, the one true God, loved Him more deeply than we could ever dream. So days before His death, Jesus sat and ate with those no one else wanted to be with. He dined at Simon the Leper's house, a man who would have been the outcast of society. He watched as Mary, a woman other men wouldn't be in the same room with, washed His feet with expensive perfume, and wiped the dirt with her hair. And when the disciples said she wasted precious money that could have been used for better things, Jesus said she gave Him beautiful worship.

Together:

• What would it have been like to be in a room with Jesus days before His death?
  
• Would you have been willing to spend time with those others didn't want to be around? Why or why not?
  
• How can you worship Jesus today as the one true King?
  
• Thank God that He loves you, and invites you to worship Him.
  
• Praise Him by singing "Lord, I Lift Your Name on High."
  

"Lord, I lift your name on High. Lord, I love to sing your praises. I'm so glad your in my life. I'm so glad you came to save us. You came from heaven to earth (to show the way). From the earth to the cross (my debt to pay). From the cross to the grave, from the grave to the sky, Lord I lift your name on high."

Holy Monday Family Devotional

Jesus in the Temple

Read Matthew 21: 12-17

They had celebrated and honored Him as their King. He was the Messiah, the only Son of the one true God. Now, one day later, He entered His Father's temple. But the people inside were not worshipping the Father. Instead, they used the one true God's special house to make money and become important. They dishonored the name of God. Rather than protecting the poor and sick people God loved, they robbed them in His own house. In holy anger, Jesus rebuked and drove out all those people who had mocked the name of God through their disobedient actions. And in the same temple where they were put down, the poor, sick and helpless came to Jesus to find healing through the true life He offered. They came to Jesus to be rescued.

• What is the difference between holy anger and sinful anger?
  
• How would it have made you feel to see Jesus angry?
  
• How can you honor God by caring for the poor and sick?
  
• Thank God for the chances He gives you to serve and obey Him.
  
• Praise Him by singing verse 1 and the chorus of "Trust and Obey."
  

"When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word, What a glory He sheds on our way! While we do His good will, He abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey. Trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey."

- John H. Sammis 1887

Passion Week Family Devotional - Palm Sunday

Jesus the King

Read Zechariah 9:9 and Matthew 21:1-11

"Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord!" The praises echoed in Jesus' ears as He entered Jerusalem on a donkey. 

Each year the people of God went to the town of Jerusalem to remember how God protected them during the Passover in Egypt. They remembered how God led them through the desert to freedom. As Jesus entered the town of Jerusalem, the crowds and His disciples shouted His name with excitement. They laid their cloaks and palm branches on the ground to prepare the way for HIm. They had seen His mighty works. Many people believed He was the Messiah. In fact, the prophet Zechariah had said hundreds of years before that Israel's king would come for their salvation. Now, as they celebrated, these men, women, and children hoped Jesus would save them from Rome's harsh control. They wanted Jesus to be their King.

Jesus had come to save and rescue His people, just like Zechariah said. But His salvation would not be what the people thought they wanted. They wanted to be comfortable, to be free from all the mean things Rome did. But Jesus wanted them to be victorious, and to be free from sin forever so they could experience true life in God's presence.

Together:

• What would it have been like to see Jesus enter Jerusalem?
  
• Was Jesus the kind of Messiah many had hoped for? Why or why not?
  
• What do you think Jesus was thinking as He entered Jerusalem?
  
• Thank God for sending Jesus to be our one true King.
  
• Praise God by singing verse 1 of "I Will Sing of My Redeemer."

I will sing of my Redeemer and his wondrous love to me: on the cruel crossed He suffered, from the curse to set me free." 

Refrain:  Sing, O Sing of my Redeemer! With His blood He purchased me; on the cross He sealed my pardon, paid the debt, and made me free."  - Phillip P. Bliss, 1876

Caleb's Cast

Broken Wrist and Broken Lives

It's official. We are a boy house. Our friends from South Carolina visited today for the first time in a couple years. Within five minutes, her little girl Emma came to inform me Caleb was screaming. A couple doctors and X-rays later, he had broken his wrist. His show and tell for co-op tomorrow is his cast and X-ray pictures. He's pretty stoked. Jamie is somewhat grieving the end of Caleb's one-game baseball season. 

It's April 1st. I heaved a small sigh of relief today. March was a month of grieving, a month of anger, a month of God's rich mercy and grace. I'm seeing Him in ways I never have before. I feel His pursuit, His longing for me...I'm beginning to grasp that He misses me when my ways and thoughts become consumed with this world. I'm made for so much more. It's comforting and terrifying to know that because I am His child, He will go to great lengths to restore me to Himself. I'm processing that in ways that are silencing me. It's been a gift to serve Ashleigh, grieve with Jamie, have hard conversations with friends in our church, and to stay on our knees in prayer. I want to circle a day on the calendar when I know this new normal will sink in. Sadly, I want to circle a day when I will be in control again. But in the deepest places of my heart, I know my ways are boring. If I had it my way, I would miss knowing my Father, longing for heaven, and aching for what I was truly created for. So it's good, in a hard way.

I finished writing the Passion Week Devotionals for our church. I'll be posting them starting Sunday. Feel free to use them with your family. They were completely done by God's grace, as I've sat before Him so little over the last month. But they took me to the cross in a precious way. I'll post pictures of the cast later. He's a pretty cool kid.

Lament vs. Despair

Bill Blackstone sent me this photo today. Fun memories! If you haven't ever linked to the Paradox Uganda blog. Do it. It will turn your world inside out on a regular basis. Here is a quote from Jennifer a couple days ago...."lament and despair are polar opposites. Lament is the deepest, most costly demonstration of belief in God. Despair is the ultimate manifestation of the total denial that He exists." - Taken from Michael Card.

Today

A few people have emailed or asked me to keep blogging for a bit, as they process as well. So here I am....

Jamie and I sat down for the first time since Thursday night at dinner, and we had no purpose. There's was nothing anyone needed, and nothing to do for anyone. It was the first chance I've had to speak to him in four days, and he couldn't talk. I process through talking and writing; he does it through space. So here I am...when I should be grading the 300 papers piled on my bed.

I've been raw and angry today. I suppose it may be at God, but in that same moment, I know He calls me His beloved. However, I am certain I am angry at sin and death. I'm angry to be left in a broken world, that my children will endure heartbreak because this world is shattered. I'm angry that I long for so much more than anything can satisfy me here. And I'm hopeful. I'm free. I'm free to know I wasn't made for a world like this, or for relationships that are filled with heartache. I was made for perfection ... oneness with my Father ... wholeness of body... delight ... worship ... I spoke with someone from high school Monday night. We both talked about how we fill so empty. So out of control. What a beautiful and terrifying place to be. Beautiful because I have a chance to be filled with the Power and Spirit of God...Terrifying because I have a chance to fill that emptiness with these tangible things around me. I want the beauty.

Better go. Benjamin just ate an ant bed.