Easter People Devotionals: 22

For an explanation of this series, click here. To see a collection of all the Devotionals in the series so far, click here.

Day 22:

Jesus Paid It All | Elvina M. Hall

 1865

I hear the Savior say,
“Thy strength indeed is small;
Child of weakness, watch and pray,
Find in Me thine all in all.”

Refrain:
Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

For nothing good have I
Whereby Thy grace to claim;
I’ll wash my garments white
In the blood of Calv’ry’s Lamb.

And now complete in Him,
My robe, His righteousness,
Close sheltered ’neath His side,
I am divinely blest.

Lord, now indeed I find
Thy pow’r, and Thine alone,
Can change the leper’s spots
And melt the heart of stone.

When from my dying bed
My ransomed soul shall rise,
“Jesus died my soul to save,”
Shall rend the vaulted skies.

And when before the throne
I stand in Him complete,
I’ll lay my trophies down,
All down at Jesus’ feet.

Oh praise the one who paid my debt
and raised my life up from the dead.
Oh praise the one who paid my debt
and raised my life up from the dead.

Jesus paid it all,
All to Him I owe;
Sin had left a crimson stain,
He washed it white as snow.

Easter People Devotionals: 21

For an explanation of this series, click here. To see a collection of all the Devotionals in the series so far, click here.

Day 21:
Man Of Sorrows, Writers: Matt Crocker , Brooke Ligertwood

Verse 1
F Bb F
Man of sorrows, Lamb of God
Bb F C
By His own betrayed
Dm Bb Dm
The sin of man and wrath of God
Bb C F
Has been on Jesus laid

Verse 2
Silent as He stood accused
Beaten, mocked, and scorned
Bowing to the Father's will
he took a crown of thorns

Chorus
Dm Bb F C
Oh, that rugged cross, my salvation
Dm Bb C
Where Your love poured out over me
Bb F C Dm
Now my soul cries out hallelujah
Bb C F
Praise and honor unto Thee

Verse 3
Sent of heaven, God's own Son
To purchase and redeem
And reconcile the very ones
Who nailed Him to that tree

Bridge
Dm Bb
Now my debt is paid
F C
It is paid in full
Dm Bb
By the precious blood
F C
That my Jesus spilled
Dm Bb
Now the curse of sin
F C
Has no hold on me
D Bb
Whom the Son sets free
F C
Oh is free indeed

Verse 4
See the stone is rolled away
Behold the empty tomb
Hallelujah, God be praised
He's risen from the grave

Easter People Devotionals: 20

For an explanation of this series, click here. To see a collection of all the Devotionals in the series so far, click here.

Day 20:

oldie but a goodie . . . 

" I Am The Resurrection"
by Undercover | from the album God Rules

I am the resurrection and the life,
He who believes in me will never die,
I am the resurrection and the life,
He who believes in me will live a new life.

I have come to bring you truth,
I have come to bring you life,
If you believe... (I do)
Then you shall live.

I am the resurrection and the life,
He who believes in me will never die.

People walked after living in a bed,
Jesus raised the people from the dead,
Hey, if you believe... (I do)
Then you shall live.

I am the resurrection and the life,
He who believes in me will never die.

Jesus said he was the only way,
And he stands here, calling you today,
And if you believe... (I do)
Then you shall live.

I am the resurrection and the life,
He who believes in me will never die,
I am the resurrection and the life,
He who believes in me will live a new life,
He who believes in me will live a new life.

Sabbath Sunday: Happy Easter!

Today, our little family will be celebrating Easter at church, singing some resurrection songs together, and eating our annual Chocolate Peanut Butter Sees Easter Eggs. How are you celebrating Easter, Lobsters?

He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen.
-Matthew 28:6

but the angel said, “Don’t be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, [Or Jesus the Nazarene.] who was crucified. He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Look, this is where they laid his body.
-Mark 16:6

He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you
-Luke 24:6 

Christ is Risen! He is Risen INDEED!

Cooking with Zoe: A Good Meal

"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love.

This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you." 

~John 15:9, 12

I remember. 
I was a little girl, legs bare under my Sunday dress after ripping off tights that made my skin itch, running bare foot along rows of black leather cushions on fold out chairs linked by metal hooks on either side. Chasing or being chased by my friends, maybe Joy, maybe Jennifer, Allison or Melissa, we giggled and squealed up and down those ailes. From the rings on the back of chairs, underneath the seats, strewn hither and thither on the carpet, I would collect those little plastic cups, gather them up into heaping stacks. I would bring them home and stash them in the window seat in my room. Running my finger around that small little rim, round and round. I collected and collected a mountain of cups, always looking for an opportunity to put them to another use, not willing to believe they were just trash, certain they were treasures worth being repurposed. 
Abide in my love. 

I remember.
A dark gym, music blaring over a stereo, people milling about, catching up, laughing, hands patting on backs. Band members breaking down equipment, congregants folding up chairs, children running around underfoot. Between trips from the rows of chairs dwindling down to the stacked chairs building up, I would dodge to the table with the left over bread and wine. Such good, fresh, bread. Over and over, I snatch just one more bite.
Abide in my love.

I remember.
I was one nervous WASP amongst many brown, Sri Lankan catholics. I knew full well that to take participate, one needed to be catholic, which I never have been. So in attempts to juggle multiple layers of cultural sensitivity, I sat still and quiet, trying not to look too awkward, as my host family rose and proceeded forward. But my host mother turned around to me with a reprimanding smile, "We are all one. Come. Break bread with us."
Abide in my love. 

I remember.
Just barely. So much a daze from the whirl of a day all in white. Eyes locked on my groom, a crowd of people seated behind us, as our pastor says, "take, drink, eat." We begin, our first taste of food and drink as one, in the food and drink that binds.
Abide in my love.

I remember.
Eyes free to roam around that theater, as heads were bowed in contemplation. There is the one who bore his soul to us this week, there is the one who asked us to a meal, there is the one we knew before he was born, the one whose hand I grasped, the one I do not know, the one who makes me laugh, the one who makes me think, the one that is hard to love, the one whose music makes me smile. "His body. Broken for you." One by one they approach, our eyes lock, I am filled with love for them, I praise God for them.
Abide in my love. 

I remember.
He took. He thanked. He broke. He gave. He said, "This is My body, which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me." (Matthew 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24)
Abide in my love. 

I remember.
That night He would be betrayed. "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me." A new passing over. The sign and seal of the sacrificial lamb is that we share together in His death, that we love one another, that we are united in the covenant that is the promise of His and our coming new life.
Abide in my love. 

But I did not realize. I did not remember.

He did not drink with them. He poured out the drink, to be divided among them. He did not drink. "I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes" (Luke 22:17-20).

We remember, that we might bear the fruit of the vine, the fruit of love, the cup that he will drink when he comes again in glory. We abide in Him, He abides in us. We are growing for a feast, a sweetest drink. This communion, this life together, this love.

I remember. 
He is the vine, we are the branches. (John 15) Abide in Him, together.
Abide in His love.

--
Dear Lobsters, on this Good Friday, the remembrance of the first communion meal, would you share with me some of your significant experiences with communion?

Challenge: Nothing but the blood?

This Lent, I've been reading Surprised by Hope by N. T. Wright. It is all about the resurrection. And it's helping me appreciate how liturgy can shape your spiritual identity and even health. Per this book's suggestion, I'm hoping to celebrate Easter not just on Easter Sunday. The idea is to extend the joy of the risen Christ beyond one day, in the same way that we've spent weeks preparing to remember His death through Lent. One way I am hoping to celebrate is to sing music as a family that celebrates the resurrection. I expected to be inundated with options due to the centrality of the risen Christ in Christian identity: 

". . . if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain." 1 Corinthians 15:17

And yet, it was surprisingly difficult to find any mention of the resurrection. As I combed through my collection, I would turn to a song that I expected to be perfect Easter music, and find no mention of Christ rising from the dead, instead, I found nothing but the blood. Lots of talk about His blood, death, and the cross, or about Christ's second coming. But there was this gap that leapt over the resurrection. Here are just a few examples of songs, which I love, that seemed Easter-y, but are missing this resurrection piece to give you a sense of what I mean:

Nothing but the blood of Jesus. That title makes the point for me.

Lord I lift your name on High. He dies for our sins, and ascends "to the sky"

My Jesus, I love thee And perhaps this is one example that makes my point most clearly. Verse one: I love you because you're my Savior. Verse two: I love you because you died for me. Verse three: I love you even when I suffer. Verse four: I'll love you in heaven. 

The cross, the death, the blood are all crucial components to the story, of course. And songs about these pieces are good to sing in church. Part of the point of Easter was that there had to be death in order for there to be life. And yes, I love Jesus for alot of good reasons, but what about "I love you because your resurrection is what gives me hope for my resurrection?" Paul tells us, up there in 1 Corinthians that this whole resurrection bit is pretty key. 

But since so many songs seem to keep jumping over this piece, it got me wondering. Is it easier to swallow the idea of a savior who came and laid down his life out of love for us than a Lord who rose from the grave? 

On the one side, He is humbled low, we can coo and aww at his cute baby-ness in the manger, we can even gasp and shed tears over the utter weakness of being subjected to humiliating crucifixion. I wonder if that part allows a sweet pity in us. Perhaps it is a pity that can inspire affection, appreciation, maybe enough guilt to get us to make some sacrifices for other people. But what if He really did rise from the dead? 

If He could conquer death, frankly, to me, He goes from cute, sweet, weepy, weak little baby Jesus to terrifying God that can not be stopped, even by death itself, like a monster in a movie that you keep shooting at but just keeps coming at you. I can secretly consider myself above the Jesus on the cross (though that is hard to admit and I didn't realize it until now), but once He rises from the grave, as NO ONE else has ever done before, then I have to take a knee, bow, cower before a mind boggling power. 

Perhaps even more uncomfortable than that is that if He rose from the dead and got right back to work as the first born of the new creation (He didn't spend the next 40 days until Pentecost just sitting around singing praise songs to His awesome self, waiting until He could get away again), and I choose to accept His gift of life in me, to become a co-heir of the Kingdom, that means I have to get to work too. I can't just accept His sacrificial love, I have to then allow all things in my life to be transformed into action, into love, into behavior that makes a contribution to the Kingdom of God. That's that "losing my life" He mentioned (Matthew 16:25), and it is hard. 

So Easter ceases to be a day to say, "Oh, well wasn't that nice" and instead a day to remember it is time to get to work, with both great gravity and great hope. It becomes an opportunity to look not just to the cross, but to the empty tomb. To turn to a man, mistaken for a gardener, and break into a sprint and shout from the roof tops that hope is here. Lent is my season of pruning, and Easter becomes a season [not just a day] of growth. A season of bursting forth from buds, sloughing off encasings, and stretching, reaching out towards the sun to radiate with beauty. It is hard and it is good. 

Seems to me that what makes the hard possible is precisely Christ's resurrection. In the sense that this act brought new life into our world, life that is capable of more; and in the sense that as we look to His rising, as we meditate on Easter Sunday, and all that it means, we have such great hope. Hope shifts paradigms.  Hope empowers. 

So in these last few days of Lent, can you help me out? Can you help me finish strong? I find music such an effective way to meditate on truth that needs to sink in deep. I need these songs that speak to the resurrection to be equipped to celebrate and live in an Easter season. So I need your help to find some good ones. So far, between my own searching and the help of a few friends and family, I have managed to find the songs listed (and lyrics linked to) below. 

Crown Him

In Christ Alone

Mighty to Save

Christ the Lord is Risen Today
Before the Thrown of God Above

O Glorious Day [thanks for this tip, Mom!]

Christ is Risen [thanks Thomas-Steele (nice to meet you by the way) and Mom!]

You’re Beautiful [thanks, Emily!]

Up From the Grave He Arose [thanks, Grammy!]

Will you accept this challenge to seek out the risen Christ? It's harder than you would think! Can you help me add some good songs to this list the explicitly celebrate His rising from the dead on Easter morning? Share this with a friend or your worship leader, see if they can help me out too. Ready, set, GO!