Today’s Verse – Matthew 22:37-39
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. —Matthew 22:37-39 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… Some things are just not complicated to understand. However, that doesn’t mean putting them into practice is easy for me. Jesus was clear in what he said. Living for God can be boiled down to two principles: Loving God with everything I am and have. Loving others and treating them as I would like to be treated. Those principles are certainly not too hard to understand. It’s the living of them that is our challenge. So, let’s not just understand these two principles of love; let’s live them out in our daily lives: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. … Love your neighbor as yourself. My Prayer… Dear Father, the one true and living God, please accept the work of my hands, the words of my mouth, the moments of my rest, and the love of my heart as my worship to you this day. I pray that these are pleasing and refreshing to you as I seek to live out your two love commands in my life today. In the name of your Son, the LORD Jesus, I pray. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
24 Feb 2026
Let us therefore depend on the Holy Spirit to make us sensitive to sin. This will hopefully help us avoid it. Sin may have many consequences. We all sin. The believer in Christ has the benefit of His sacrifice on the cross at Calvary as a remedy for sin. May we not readily sin because of that benefit. Romans 3:21-26.
Finding Jesus’ Heart for Ministry: Touch
Without the personal touch, full healing never comes. Touch has always been important to me. As a boy with a touch of ADD – or maybe a lot more than a touch of ADD – I was never good at sitting still. (Some people believe I became a preacher because I had difficulty being still in church during a sermon.) When I was a little boy, my dad would set me on his lap, and I would be still for 5 or 10 minutes at a time. His secret? He would lightly stroke the lines on my hands. His gentle touch would calm me. I would gladly be still, sit quietly, and sometimes go to sleep feeling his loving touch on my hands. This little secret worked on both of my children, who, when restless, would hold their hands up to me and say, “Lines, daddy, lines!” Years later, nothing calms my soul quite like my wife, Donna, gently stroking my back or tousling my hair as I go to sleep. Donna’s gentle and soothing touch reaches all the way down into my soul! I feel loved. I feel safe. I feel relieved of my problems, responsibilities, and deadlines. I fall fast asleep, joyous and unburdened from the world and its pressing demands. Jesus was a toucher. He offered to let his apostles touch his wounds received during his crucifixion to validate his physical resurrection. When you read the stories of his life in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you see him touch all sorts of people – like a dead little girl to raise her from the dead, a blind man’s eyes, and the dirty, stinky feet of the apostles. He also allowed people to touch him – like a sinful woman of the city and a woman with a flow of blood who pushed through the crowd. John, the beloved disciple, speaks beautifully of Jesus’ ministry of touching and being touched with these words: We want to tell you about the One who was from the beginning. We have seen Him with our own eyes, heard Him with our own ears, and touched Him with our own hands (1 John 1:1).[THEVOICE] Jesus is our tactile Savior. He touched and was touched by the mess of our humanity. He didn’t run away. He didn’t jump up and wash his hands. He stayed. He touched. He felt. He healed. He made whole. He allowed himself to be soiled by the very dust of our existence. Once I realized that Jesus was a toucher, I was totally captured by Mark’s story of Jesus touching a man with leprosy:[TOUCHING] Jesus: It’s time we went somewhere else – the next village, maybe – so I can tell more people the good news about the kingdom of God. After all, that’s the reason I’m here. So He traveled to the next village and the one after that, throughout the region of Galilee, teaching in the synagogues and casting out unclean spirits. A leper walked right up to Jesus, dropped to his knees, and begged Him for help. Leper: If You want to, You can make me clean. Jesus was powerfully moved. He reached out and actually touched the leper. Jesus: I do want to. Be clean. And at that very moment, the disease left him; the leper was cleansed and made whole once again (Mark 1:38-42). I cannot over-emphasize the profound impact this event in Jesus’ ministry had on my heart when I heard it clearly for the first time. Jesus touched the man with leprosy BEFORE he healed him. Jesus did what he was prohibited from doing; he touched a leper. He became unclean. He willingly exposed himself to a man and his illness even though the man was shunned and feared by the crowds because of his illness. Jesus entered into the world of ostracism, brokenness, illness, isolation, and death to rescue a person and make that person fully whole again. Jesus never saw a leper. Instead, he saw a man with leprosy who needed to be loved and healed. He loved this man personally – a man who had been pushed to the brink of survival and isolated to the outskirts of humanity by religious laws. Jesus’s humanity and compassion – placing human need above the religious law – stirs something deep inside me. We see the gospel demonstrated; the truth of God’s grace told beautifully, simply, succinctly, and fully in a single touch. God came to earth in Jesus. Jesus has touched us! Jesus was born as one of us. Jesus lived as one of us. Jesus touched the worst of us and the worst that life throws at us. Jesus now brings us back to God cleansed, whole, and holy (Colossians 1:15-23). The example of Jesus beckons us to join our Lord and Savior in touching the unlovable, the marginalized, the sinful, the forgotten, the isolated, and the sick. We need to ask ourselves each morning, “Who am I going to touch with the grace of Jesus today?” [THEVOICE] For this series, unless otherwise indicated, the Bible verses will come from The Voice translation. The references are also linked to the NIV for comparison.[BACK2POST] [TOUCH] This post is part of a series focused on learning to touch the broken and impact their lives in ways similar to Jesus’ ministry to the man with leprosy (Mark 1:35-45). [BACK2POST] Images complementary of Free Bible Images and The Lumo Project. Finding Jesus’ Heart for Ministry Series: Look Prayer Purpose Touch Raised Proof About the author: Phil Ware has authored 11 years of daily devotionals, including VerseoftheDay.com, read by 500,000 people a day. He works with churches in transition with Interim Ministry Partners and for the past 21+ years, he has been editor and president of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, author of VerseoftheDay.com, God’s Holy Fire (on the Holy Spirit), and aYearwithJesus.com. Phil has also authored four books, daily devotionals on each of the four gospels.
Sawdust and Two-by-Fours
What are we overlooking in ourselves to criticize others? Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in someone else’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say, “Let me take the speck out of your eye,” when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from the other person’s eye (Matthew 7:3-5 TNIV). Firefighters at a fire station in Nagoya City, Japan, are a little embarrassed this week. Seems they’re responsible for burning down a building. Their own firehouse, as a matter of fact. Everyone was out answering multiple alarms, it seems – including the firefighter who was cooking dinner for the rest of the crew. In a hurry to answer the call of duty, he apparently forgot to turn off the stove. Ten trucks from other stations responded to put out the fire. Seiji Hori, spokesperson for the Nagoya City Fire Department, articulated the embarrassment they feel about the incident: “We are an institute that should be in a position to educate people about fire, so we are extremely sorry that such an incident happened.” He added that they might consider ordering out for dinner from now on. In fairness to those firefighters, they’re embarrassed about their mistake. They see the inconsistency. Imagine, though, that they didn’t. What would you think if the next time they went out on a call, they berated a homeowner for using a faulty space heater or burning a candle too close to the curtains or overloading an outlet? What would you say? “Physician, heal thyself?” “Practice what you preach?” You’d see the inconsistency, even if those firefighters didn’t. “Wait, didn’t you burn down your own station with your carelessness?” you might rightfully ask. And you probably wouldn’t hear anything they had to say very well, even though they might be right. A police officer who commits a crime, a doctor whose negligence harms or kills a patient, a judge who takes a bribe, a broker who steals his client’s money are people who especially should know better than to do the things they do. They don’t see the inconsistency, or more likely they see it and choose to live with it. Like those firefighters in Japan, they should be embarrassed. For whatever reason, they’re not. They continue to do things that contradict who they say they are and what they’re supposed to be doing. And when everything comes to light, they’re left with no credibility. Who trusts a hypocrite, after all? To point accusatory fingers only at others, though, is to miss the point entirely. Jesus probably knew first-hand what it was like to have sawdust in his eye. I’m fairly sure that Joseph didn’t use safety goggles. So when he wanted to address the human tendency to pass judgment on others while giving ourselves a pass, the sawdust metaphor would have been a natural one. Imagine two carpenters working. One gets a little sawdust in his eye. It hurts, his eye starts tearing, his vision is obscured. His buddy notices that speck of sawdust, points it out, and appoints himself “Official Sawdust Remover.” But, he never even mentions his own little problem: he has a whole plank hanging out of his eye. The absurdity of the situation makes the point: the carpenter with the plank needs to deal with own problem before he starts pointing out his buddy’s sawdust issues. What is it about us that wants so desperately to find the faults in each other? How many marriages have been left dead and cold by husbands and wives who carefully note every sin of their spouses and are blind to their own? How many churches have been split by self-appointed “guardians of truth” diligently searching out doctrinal specks in others without noticing how their own lack of love and grace blinds them? How many people who feel the tug of the Holy Spirit on their hearts have been pushed away from Jesus forever by fault-finding Christian Pharisees whose own sins are secret only to themselves? How many preachers have battered their churches into submission for every speck in their lives while remaining unable to acknowledge the splintered, rotting lumber of their own sins and shortcomings? It’s easier, isn’t it? That’s the reason, when we’re honest, for our tendency to prefer magnifying glasses turned on others to mirrors turned on ourselves. There’s something satisfying, gratifying, in a twisted sort of way, about discovering dirt on other people. It’s the reason people buy the publications in the grocery store checkout line, and it’s the reason other people can look down on them for it. And it’s the reason hypocrisy still lives in the church. That’s what Jesus called it, of course: Hypocrisy. I know, it’s kind of an ugly word. It’s pretending, play-acting, and the only way to eliminate hypocrisy is to end the show and take off the mask, make-up, and costume that we’ve used to camouflage our sins and pretend to be something we’re not. It’s to admit that we’re only playing at being perfect, and that we’re no better than the people at whom we’ve delighted in pointing fingers. There are times, of course, when letting something someone has done go by unchallenged can have deadly consequences. Sometimes love demands that we speak up and speak out, that we take someone aside and call him on something we’ve seen. But when those times come, they should not cause me joy. And if those times seem to come often, then maybe I should ask why I feel compelled to judge others so often. “In the same way you judge others, and with the measure you use,” Jesus says, “it will be measured to you” (Matthew 7:2). The truest measure of my attitude toward others is whether or not I would want God to judge me by
He Entered Your World
God drew near to us in Jesus, so why would we not come to him with our challenges, troubles, and trials? I once waded into the Jordan River. On a trip to Israel, my family and I stopped to see the traditional spot of Jesus’ baptism. It’s a charming place. Sycamores cast their shadows. Birds chirp. The water invites. So I accepted the invitation and waded in to be baptized. No one wanted to join me, so I immersed myself. I declared my belief in Christ and sank so low in the water I could touch the river bottom. When I did, I felt a stick and pulled it out. Well, what do you know-a baptism memento! Some people get certificates or Bibles; I like my stick. It’s about as thick as your wrist, long as your forearm, and smooth as a baby’s behind. I keep it on my office credenza so I can show it to fear-filled people. When they chronicle their anxieties about the economy or concern about their kids, I hand them the stick. I tell them how God muddied his feet in our world of diapers, death, digestion, and disease. How John told him to stay on the riverbank, but Jesus wouldn’t listen. How he came to earth for this very purpose, to become one of us. “Why, he might have touched this very stick,” I like to say. As they smile, I ask, “Since he came this far to reach us, can’t we take our fears to him?” For our high priest [Jesus] is able to understand our weaknesses. When he lived on earth he was tempted in every way that we are, but he did not sin. Let us, then, feel very sure that we can come before God’s throne where there is grace. There we can receive mercy and grace to help us when we need it (Hebrews 4:15-16 NCV). Does this miracle matter? It does if you are bedridden. It does if you battle disease. It does if chronic pain is a part of your life. The One who hears your prayers understands your pain. He never shrugs or scoffs or dismisses physical struggle. He had a human body. Does this miracle matter? If you ever wonder if God understands you, it does. If you ever wonder if God listens, it does. If you ever wonder if the Uncreated Creator can, in a million years, comprehend the life of a truck driver, housewife, or immigrant, then ponder long and hard the promise of the incarnation. God says: I understand you and I always will. Are you troubled in spirit? He was, too (John 12:27). Are you so anxious that you could die? He was, too (Matthew 26:38). Are you overwhelmed with grief? He was, too (John 11:35). Have you ever prayed with loud cries and tears? He did, too (Hebrews 5:7). Some have pointed to the sinlessness of Jesus as evidence that he cannot fully understand us. After all, if he never sinned, they reason, how could he understand the full force of sin? Simple, he felt it more than we do. We give in! He never did. We surrender. He never did. He stood before the tsunami and never wavered. In that manner, he understands it more than anyone who ever lived. And then, in his grandest deed, he volunteered to feel the consequence of sin. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV). The greatest pain of the cross was the pain of sin. Jesus didn’t deserve to feel the shame, but he felt it. He didn’t deserve the humiliation, but he experienced it. He had never sinned, yet was treated like a sinner. He became sin. All the guilt, remorse, and embarrassment – Jesus understands it. Does this miracle matter? To the hypocrite, it does. To the person who can’t remember last night’s party, it does. To the cheater, slanderer, gossip, or scoundrel who comes to God with a contrite spirit, it matters. It matters because they need to know: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are-yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need (Hebrews 4:15-16 NIV). Because Jesus is human, he understands you. Because he is divine he can help you. But he does neither if you don’t go to him. He didn’t remain aloof; why would we? He didn’t keep his distance; why would we keep ours? Let this be the day you draw near to him. He entered your world so that you could enter his. © January 31, 2017 by Max Lucado. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Special thanks for the use of images related to Jesus’ ministry from The Lumo Project and Free Bible Images. About the author: Max is the best selling author of many many Christian books, a sought out speaker, and loving husband, father, and grandfather. Max is in real life what you see in his book — someone who loves Jesus and loves the same kind of people that Jesus loves!
Today’s Verse – Ephesians 2:4-5
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in our transgressions — it is by grace you have been saved. —Ephesians 2:4-5 Thoughts on Today’s Verse… God is rich in mercy and generous with grace! Isn’t that wonderful for us? I don’t know about you, but I sure know I have failures, shortcomings, sins, and transgressions. Without God’s mercy, I would be lost in my sins (Romans 3:23-25). Without his grace, I would be cut off from the life God longs for me to have (Romans 5:6-11). God is rich in mercy and generous with grace! He acted on our behalf when he sent Jesus to show us his love (1 John 4:9-10). Now, because of his rich mercy and generous grace, we are dead to that old sinful self, and our lives are now tied to Jesus’ glorious future (Colossians 2:12, 3:1-4). “God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ”! My Prayer… Father of all grace and mercy, thank you. Thank you for being who you are – the Father of mercy and the God of all grace (1 Peter 3:13, 5:10)! Thank you for extending your grace when we did not deserve it. Thank you for giving mercy when we most needed it. Thank you for blessing us with life when we thought our lives were doomed and hopeless. May we be rich in mercy. May we be people of grace. We desire to be wealthy in these ways, like you, more than being rich in earthly riches that are destined to perish (Matthew 6:19-20). Help us, O LORD, to be more like you, to be rich in mercy. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
The Best Day Ever
What does it take for it to be a great day for you? Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise–the fruit of lips that confess his name. (Hebrews 13:15) A couple of weeks ago, my son came home from school and proclaimed that it was “the best day ever.” Well, my wife and I were excited. I started imagining what had made his day the best ever. Maybe he’d been commended for his good work by his teacher. Maybe he’d been elected kindergarten class president. Maybe he had been judged too brilliant for kindergarten and had been promoted on to first grade. Maybe a major-league scout had noticed his pitching arm and wanted to sign him to a developmental contract. OK, I didn’t really think all that. (Well, maybe the first one!) But naturally I concluded that something extraordinary must have happened to make this day go down in history forever as The Best Day Ever. I mean, this kid has had a pretty good life. He’s had a lot of great days. I sat up on the proverbial edge of my seat waiting to hear what made this one stand out. What I’m doing right now is creating what writers call “dramatic tension.” The idea is to get you on the edge of your seat with me, or at least get you to scoot forward a little. And if you’re there, maybe even a little frustrated that I haven’t yet told you what made that day two weeks ago The Best Day Ever, then you’re ready for an observation: Most of us are pretty hard to impress. How many times have you answered the question, “How was your day?” with the declaration that it was The Best Day Ever? Once, maybe twice, tops? Rarely, if it all, do we end a day giddy with excitement over the good things that happened. We’re much more likely to end the day wrestling with the answers to problems. Regretting bad decisions. Trying to put bad experiences out of our minds. And if we happen to have had a good day, we don’t want it to be over. We feel pretty sure that tomorrow won’t be nearly as good. That’s why, I suppose, I was surprised by what made Josh’s day the Best Ever. Ready to get off the edge of your seat? Bre prepared – you might feel a little letdown. “Bobby let me go first in line.” That’s it. That does it. Just like that – Best Day Ever. Well, I feigned enthusiasm for his benefit. I said “Wow” and talked about how cool it was. But I confess I didn’t get it. Getting to go first in line boosts a day to Best Ever status? Not in my book. In my book, Best Ever has to involve winning a lottery or the Braves winning the Series or something of that magnitude. We’re hard to impress. We miss the little things that should make us glad because we’re so focused on the big things. We think that joy is a jackpot that comes with lights, bells, and sirens. And so very often while we’re waiting for the jackpot, joy slips right by in other guises. We fail to appreciate our families. We don’t take satisfaction in a job well done. We forget to be thankful for our wives and husbands because we spend so much time thinking about how we’d like them to be different. We don’t notice how blessed we are because we’re too busy noticing how many more blessings the folks across the hall or down the street have. I friend of mine believes that gratitude is the cardinal virtue of believers, the one characteristic that Christians cannot be without. Once you notice how often the biblical writers emphasize the importance of being thankful, it’s hard to argue with him. “Through Jesus … let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise.” Continually? Oh, come on. We can be thankful sometimes. Most of us can muster up a few hours of thankfulness per week. But continually? Is that really possible? It’s all in what you choose to focus on, isn’t it? A kindergartner can have the Best Day Ever if he chooses to see being first in line as a great blessing. Surely a believer in Jesus – for whom Christ died and is now interceding with the Father, in whom the Holy Spirit lives – has reason to celebrate each day. Surely, even in sadness, pain, and disappointment, we can see clearly enough to be truly grateful for all that God has done, is doing, and will do for us. You don’t have to fake a chirpy voice or a syrupy smile. You don’t have to close your eyes to the hard realities of life. God can handle our pain and anger and grief, wants us to pour it out to him. But don’t forget to be thankful for what God has already done. Don’t forget to praise him for his faithfulness to you in the past. Remember the grace he has shown you, the forgiveness he continually offers. Remember the victories he has enabled you to win. Thank him for the times when his will has overruled yours because his wisdom outweighed yours. Keep gratitude as your default setting by cultivating the habit of praise. That’s what it is, habit: habitually seeing the kindness and grace and love of God where others cannot. Make sure your prayers are loaded with thankfulness. Develop the habit of praising God in your conversations. Train your spirit to feel God’s breath in the kiss of your spouse, hear his voice in the kind words of a friend, see his fingerprints in a brand-new snowfall, sense his protective presence in a long journey. Even in dark valleys, when you can’t see him or hear him or feel him, you know he’s there, right? Thank him for being with you even when your senses are
Come with Me!
Is there any way to step off the treadmill a minute? The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest” (Mark 6:30-31 NIV). Let me ask you to read those two verses again before reading any farther. In fact, you have my permission to read those verses and disregard the rest of this article. Pay special attention to the last sentence. Read it out loud. Apparently, you chose to continue reading. Since you did, let me ask: Did you see the invitation from the Son of God? “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Would getting away by yourself with Jesus appeal to you? Would you accept the invitation if you didn’t have so much to get done today? Here’s how Eugene Peterson writes it: Jesus said, “Come off by yourselves; let’s take a break and get a little rest.” For there was constant coming and going. They didn’t even have time to eat. (Mark 6:31 MSG). “There was constant coming and going.” Sound like your family? Get up early. Get ready for work. Get the kids ready for school. Kiss your husband good-by as he rushes out the door. Get the kids to school. Rush to work. Work hard all day. Call your husband and ask him to pick up the kids so you can go to the gym. Rush through your workout. Pick up dinner on the way home. Feed the kids. Help them with homework. Get them to bed. Plop down on the sofa with your husband while half watching the late news. You both share some of what you did during the day. You kiss each other good night. Just before you drift off to sleep you pray, “Lord, I’m so tired. Please let me get a good night’s sleep.” The next thing you hear is the alarm reminding you that it’s time to start it all over again. Maybe your situation is different. You wake up in the morning to a quiet house. There is no one there but you. You are alone. You are almost always alone. Alone. But busy. You have things to do. You have bills to pay. You have phone calls to make. You have several errands to run. You have a boss to please. You find yourself rushed and weary and worn-out at the end of every day. As you lay down you pray, “Lord, thank you for helping me get through the day and to accomplish everything on my list.” Then, you ask yourself, “Did I eat dinner?” It’s just the two of you. But, you are considering expanding your family. So, you’re both working hard to get ahead and stay ahead, and build the nest egg. In the process of making it all happen you find that you are feeling pressure to do more and spending fewer and fewer evenings at home together. When you put your head on your pillow you pray a silent prayer, “Lord, protect our marriage. Please don’t let us drift apart.” Take a deep breath and read those words again. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Take another deep breath. Read those words again. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Breath again. Close your eyes and say the words. “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Take another deep breath. Don’t allow guilt to spoil the moment. Sure you are busy. We all are. Maybe you are too busy to eat, or to rest, or to be quiet, or to spend much time alone with the Lord. That’s why Jesus said what He did to His disciples, and to us. He knew we are prone to get overcommitted and stressed-out. Take another deep breath and read those words again: “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” Feel that? That’s what it feels like to take just a moment to answer the call to be alone with the Lord, just for a moment. There’s a good chance that you have other things to do, so take another deep breath and take these words with you as you go through your day: “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with you as you go through your day with Jesus. About the author: Tom Norvell is the author of “A Norvell Note” — Thoughts and reflections on God, life, people, and living as a follower of Jesus. He has ministered with followers of Jesus for four decades and loves Jesus, his family, and those seeking Jesus, passionately.
Easter Is Already Here!
What do you mean, Easter comes more than once per year? As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who was one of Jesus’ followers, went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long linen cloth. He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance as he left. (Matthew 27:57-60) I was traveling with Max Lucado to help finalize some research for a book that became his Six Hours One Friday. We stood on the stone pavement outside Pilate’s judgment hall and walked the short distance to Calvary. Then we went to the place where Jesus’ body was hastily entombed that fateful Friday afternoon. The tomb has been so hacked and broken up for souvenirs over centuries that nothing substantial remains of the rock-hewn tomb itself. What is there – a slab on which the body is said to have lain – is enshrined and remote from view. Then our guide, Joseph Shulam, directed us to an unadorned tomb no more than fifty yards away. It has all the features described in the biblical record. We stooped low to enter it, and the burial chamber – hewn out of solid rock – was dark, oppressive, and stale. The place was likely intended to hold a small family of four or five people. Two shafts had been bored into the rock wall to hold corpses, and two or three other bodies could have been placed in the chamber itself. Max and I decided to wriggle our way into the two receptacles. An eerie, mystical feeling came over me. Was our “imitation” of death some sort of mocking provocation to its power? Then the thought came to me that Jesus has defeated death. Within a stone’s throw of where we were, he had met death, broken its power, and proved that he was its master. “Thank you, God,” I whispered, “that you would not let death hold him.” Then someone in our little group began to sing: “Up from the grave he arose!” A tomb had become a place of joy. And we left that dark place with a humble sense of confidence. Its threatening presence behind us, we were grateful for Easter. Your finery from last year’s Easter Sunday has long been in the closet. The colored eggs haven’t made their appearance in nearly a year. The candy for this year hasn’t been purchased. It’s just another week with just another Sunday two days past. Easter, Jesus’ resurrection Sunday, is a month away and just barely a blip on our scheduling radar and the hard cold of winter still whistles at our door. Why talk of Easter now? What does it matter that we speak of resurrection so early in the year? Shouldn’t we hold off for awhile before we talk of Easter? Oh, I hope not! When you or someone you care about gets the tragic news that her baby has Downs Syndrome, his son was killed in a car wreck, or her Dad has Alzheimer’s Disease, what single truth gives hope? What is the definitive answer to paralysis, leukemia, senility, fatal accidents, incurable diseases, and death? You know the answer: The bodily resurrection of Jesus is the sure promise of our own victory over death. Jesus’ resurrection promises us God’s new world in which death doesn’t have the last word. And we need that perspective all year round. About the author: Rubel Shelly preached for decades and served as a professor of medical ethics, Bible, and philosophy at multiple universities. He was a former president of Rochester College and Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Lipscomb University. He was the author of more than 30 books and hundreds of inspirational articles. His commitment to a non-sectarian presentation of the gospel touched countless lives.
Daily Prayer for February 23
After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” Revelation 7:9-10, NIV Lord God, we turn to you, praying that your kingdom may come. May your Jerusalem really come on earth, with all those blessed ones who are allowed to gather around Jesus Christ through forgiveness of sins and the resurrection. Come with your light into our time so that sins may be forgiven and people may find salvation. Remember those in great distress. Come with your help to those struggling with sin or death, for help can come from you alone. Nothing can help us except your fatherly love in Jesus Christ. Praised be your name! Amen. Recent articles on Plough A Day in the Life of a Military Mennonite in Ukraine William Fleeson In the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, I made the rounds with a pacifist army chaplain. Read now What the Prophets Knew About Meals Swapan Samanta The ancient wisdom of five religious traditions anticipated the gross inequities of modern economics – and offers a way out. Read now Temptations in the Wilderness Christopher Snook On the first Sunday of Lent, we remember how the devil tempted Christ, and how Christ foiled him. Read now Unwelcome Pruning Norann Voll Lenten lessons from a crop of grapes ruined by Australian wildfires. Read now Bake and Pray Kendall Vanderslice Discover the messy beauty of rolling up your sleeves and making bread – recipe included! Read now