If you're not currently a part of the "She Reads Truth" community: become one. Especially if you're a "she," but even if you're a "he."
It's an online community that sends free daily devotionals - written by a group of normal, everyday women - to your inbox and then provides a forum to share comments and questions with the other subscribers. The daily devotionals have been really powerful for me over the past few months, especially today:
It's an online community that sends free daily devotionals - written by a group of normal, everyday women - to your inbox and then provides a forum to share comments and questions with the other subscribers. The daily devotionals have been really powerful for me over the past few months, especially today:
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She Reads Truth: Saturday, March 30, 2013:
Text: John 19:38-42, Romans 6:5-11
If ever there was a day to skip over. To rush past. As if the day before hadn’t been crushing enough, as if all of creation hadn’t cried out in angst as the One who knew no sin became the propitiation for all of us. On this day, it seems like all of heaven would just want to go back to bed. It’s darkest before the dawn and other cliches don’t bring any comfort. There isn’t a bowl of ice cream big enough or a nap refreshing enough or blanket warm enough that can ease the empty ache of knowing that Jesus died with the whole weight of OUR sin because of His great love for us.
In Luke 19, Jesus told the Pharisees that if His disciples kept quiet, the rocks would cry out in praise of Him. Did creation groan so softly on this pregnant pause of a day? Did the Father long to reach out through that stony tomb and grab His Son and make everything right? Why the wait before the rescue?
In the stillness and the silence of the day after Jesus died, it feels right for us to swallow whole our own need and longing to be resurrected in Him. There are stages to grief, right? According to our human coping mechanisms – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance? Yet no amount of those tactics would do any good in the wait between the cross and the rescue our Father had planned, nor will they do any good for us today as we grieve our own sin. Just like in our spiritual death and resurrection, our human terms and tactics affect no change. We can’t deny our depravity and need for grace, there is no right to be angry about it as we are absolutely the accused. No bargaining with our earthly treasures will gain us heavenly reward and no matter how sullen or depressed we find ourselves over our spiritual state, acceptance will not come.
We need Jesus. We need His resurrection power. And often, we need to sit in the reality of our spiritual deadness apart from Him to walk in the newness of life that we find in Jesus. Take heart sisters – death truly aches, but if we are united with Christ – we know what comes next.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5, ESV)
Text: John 19:38-42, Romans 6:5-11
If ever there was a day to skip over. To rush past. As if the day before hadn’t been crushing enough, as if all of creation hadn’t cried out in angst as the One who knew no sin became the propitiation for all of us. On this day, it seems like all of heaven would just want to go back to bed. It’s darkest before the dawn and other cliches don’t bring any comfort. There isn’t a bowl of ice cream big enough or a nap refreshing enough or blanket warm enough that can ease the empty ache of knowing that Jesus died with the whole weight of OUR sin because of His great love for us.
In Luke 19, Jesus told the Pharisees that if His disciples kept quiet, the rocks would cry out in praise of Him. Did creation groan so softly on this pregnant pause of a day? Did the Father long to reach out through that stony tomb and grab His Son and make everything right? Why the wait before the rescue?
In the stillness and the silence of the day after Jesus died, it feels right for us to swallow whole our own need and longing to be resurrected in Him. There are stages to grief, right? According to our human coping mechanisms – Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance? Yet no amount of those tactics would do any good in the wait between the cross and the rescue our Father had planned, nor will they do any good for us today as we grieve our own sin. Just like in our spiritual death and resurrection, our human terms and tactics affect no change. We can’t deny our depravity and need for grace, there is no right to be angry about it as we are absolutely the accused. No bargaining with our earthly treasures will gain us heavenly reward and no matter how sullen or depressed we find ourselves over our spiritual state, acceptance will not come.
We need Jesus. We need His resurrection power. And often, we need to sit in the reality of our spiritual deadness apart from Him to walk in the newness of life that we find in Jesus. Take heart sisters – death truly aches, but if we are united with Christ – we know what comes next.
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. (Romans 6:5, ESV)
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That gets right to the heart of it, doesn't it?
It's so easy for us to want to skip over the heaviness of this day and count it as just one of our many preparations for Easter. After all, Sunday IS coming. But in doing that, we miss the crushing and painful reality of the crucifixion of Jesus. And I don't think that's something that we're meant to miss. Mary and the Disciples didn't have the luxury of skipping to Sunday; they didn't know that the resurrection was coming and that hope would be restored. They saw their beloved son, mentor, and friend in agony and then in death before them...and their only option was to deal with it.
You know, it takes courage to really enter into the darkness and the pain of life and to just be real with our human emotions. I hate to be a Debbie Downer here - but sometimes it's healthy to allow ourselves to hurt, to grieve, and to just scream out to God about how much all of "this" {whatever your "this" is} really sucks.
In our hopelessness, may we always rediscover our need for a Savior.
It's so easy for us to want to skip over the heaviness of this day and count it as just one of our many preparations for Easter. After all, Sunday IS coming. But in doing that, we miss the crushing and painful reality of the crucifixion of Jesus. And I don't think that's something that we're meant to miss. Mary and the Disciples didn't have the luxury of skipping to Sunday; they didn't know that the resurrection was coming and that hope would be restored. They saw their beloved son, mentor, and friend in agony and then in death before them...and their only option was to deal with it.
You know, it takes courage to really enter into the darkness and the pain of life and to just be real with our human emotions. I hate to be a Debbie Downer here - but sometimes it's healthy to allow ourselves to hurt, to grieve, and to just scream out to God about how much all of "this" {whatever your "this" is} really sucks.
In our hopelessness, may we always rediscover our need for a Savior.