Urgent Prayer Request

Hello friends:

Back on November 2nd I wrote a post entitled "Silence Is Not Always Golden."  (http://jackafarris.blogspot.com/2011/11/silence-is-not-always-golden.html)  

In it I mentioned a brother and friend in Christ Obadiah.  Well he is having some major issues right now.  I would like to ask you to be praying for him.  Pray that God give him the guidance, support, and courage that he needs to get through this time.  Also, please pray for his family that they may know the peace that God gives during this tumultuous time.  Lastly, please pray that doctors can figure out what is causing the problems.  

Thanks for praying!

The Resurrection & Ascension of Christ.

Sir Isaac Watts is a talented writer.  Now some of you may be thinking that my grammar is a bit off.  I used the present tense for a man who has been dead for quite some time.  However, while his body died here on earth he is alive and well with Christ!  As are all those who have put their faith in Jesus before us!  He has written many a hymn that is still used in worship in congregations to this day.  He wrote so many hymns that there are more than enough to sing a different hymn of his every day of the year and not run out.  However, he is probably best known for classics such as Joy to the World and When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.  However, there is another hymn that I would like to turn your attention to today.  It is one that I believe is worthy of more attention than it receives.  It speaks to the triumph of Jesus over death.  Even more it ends with praising Him as the King of Life!  I guess the only other thing I have to say is...HE IS RISEN!!!

The Resurrection and Ascension of Christ by Sir Isaac Watts

    Hosannah to the Prince of light,

      That clothed himself in clay,

    Entered the iron gates of death,

      And tore the bars away.

    Death is no more the king of dread,

      Since our Immanuel rose;

    He took the tyrant’s sting away,

      And spoiled our hellish foes.

    See how the Conqueror mounts aloft,

      And to his Father flies,

    With scars of honor in his flesh

      And triumph in his eyes.

    There our exalted Savior reigns,

      And scatters blessings down;

    Our Jesus fills the middle seat

      Of the celestial throne.

    [Raise your devotion, mortal tongues,

      To reach his blest abode;

    Sweet be the accents of your songs

      To our incarnate God.

    Bright angels, strike your loudest strings,

      Your sweetest voices raise

    Let heav’n and all created things

      Sound our Immanuel’s praise.]

Holy Saturday

This is a day of waiting.  This is day that the disciples awoke to a changed world.  He was dead.  They had to be thinking things like, "I must still be dreaming...It was only a few days ago that the people were praising Him...What are we to do...I feel so helpless...He brought others back to life, but could he truly bring Himself back?"

This is a day to remember the sacrifice.  It is a day to remember that there is nothing that we can do to bring Christ back.  We are truly helpless without Him.  It is a time to remember that with Him anything is possible...even victory over death!

Easter Saturday by Elizabeth Rooney

A curiously empty day, 

As if the world's life

Had gone underground.

The April sun

Warming dry grass

Makes pale spring promises

But nothing comes to pass.

Anger Relaxes into despair

As we remember our helplessness, 

Remember him hanging there.

We have purchased the spices

But they must wait for tomorrow.

We shall keep today

For emptiness and sorrow.

A Very Confusing Day

Good Friday is genuinely a confusing time emotionally.  Imagine though for the moment that this was not the same kind of confusion Jesus' followers knew.  They knew grief, anger, and for Peter self hatred probably.  This was because they did not realize the possibility of what would happen on Sunday.  They only knew that He was very much dead.  The picture to the right is another station for prayer from the prayer garden Canaan in the Desert.  It is a carving of His followers preparing His body for burial.  For what they thought was the end.

However, for us it is confusing because we know both rejoicing and great sorrow.  Rejoicing because we now know that through Christ's death and Resurrection that He has put an end to the reign of sin and death.  Sorrow because it is our sin that put Him there.  The poem below tries to capture this confusing emotional state.  I believe that it projects a balance that we must have this day.  For without both tears of grief and joy it truly would not be Good Friday!

Good Friday by Anonymous

O heart, be lifted up; O heart be gay,

Because the Light was lifted up today–

Was lifted on the Rood, but did not die,

To shine eternally for such as I.

O heart, rejoice with all your humble might

That God did kindle in the world this Light

Which stretching on the Cross could not prevent

From shining with continuous intent.

Why weep, O heart, this day? Why grieve you so?

If all the glory of the Light had lost its glow

Would the sun shine or earth put on her best—

Her flower-entangled and embroidered vest?

Look up, O heart; and then, O heart, kneel down

In humble adoration: give no crown

Nor golden diadem to your fair Lord,

But offer love and beauty by your word…

The everlasting fire of love, O heart,

Has blazed in you and it will not depart.

Wherefore, O heart, exult and praises sing:

Lift up your voice and make the echoes ring…

O heart, rise up: O heart be lifted high.

Rejoice; for Light was slain today, yet did not die.

Maundy Thursday

Say what!?  If you don't come from a high church or liturgical background you are probably thinking what in the world is Maundy Thursday?  It is the day that traditionally the church remembers the Last Supper and His time with His disciples on the Mount of Olives before His arrest during Holy Week.  This was the last time that He sat and taught His disciples.  This was the time that He used to prepare Himself for the cross.  So I would ask you to spend Thursday, as Jesus did, preparing for the cross which comes Friday.  I leave you with two poems to meditate on.

A Psalm for Maundy Thursday by Joseph Bayly

Tonight 

Lord Jesus Christ

You sat at supper

with your friends.

It was a simple meal

that final one

of lamb

unleavened bread

and wine.

Afterward

You went out to die.

How many other meals you shared

beside the lake

fried fish and toasted bread

at Simon's banquet hall a feast

at Lazarus' home in Bethany

the meal that Martha cooked

on mountain slope

where you fed the hungry crowd

at close of tiring day.

Please sit with us tonight

at our small meal

of soup  and rolls and tea.

Then go with us

to feast of bread and wine

that you provide

because afterward

you went out to die.

A Ballad of Trees and the Master  by Sidney Lanier

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.

Into the woods my Master came,

Forspent with love and shame.

But the olives they were not blind to him,

The little grey leaves were kind to him:

The thorn trees had a mind to him

When into the woods he came.

Out of the woods my Master went,
And he was well content.

Out of the woods my Master came,

Content with death and shame.

When death and shame would woo him last,

From under the trees they drew him last;

'Twas on a tree they slew him last

When out of the woods he came.