Livestream

READ

Luke 15:11-32

REFLECT How does Jesus describe His relationship with the Father? Jesus came not just to save us from sin and death, but also to save us a relationship with the Father. He came to be with us so that we might be set free to live eternally with Him and the Father.

Activity

Think about a time when you hugged someone you hadn't seen in a long time. Throughout the pandemic, many of us have grieved the loss of physical touch, and long for the day when we can embrace those we love, just as the father did when the son returned.

Pray

Jesus, I want to be in the relationship you have with the Father. I want to know Him and be known by Him. I recognize that your agonizing death was necessary for me to have this relationship. As I walk through this week, I ask that you walk me deeper into the love the Father has for you-and for me.

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

The Prodigal God: Recovering the Heart of the Christian Faith by Tim Keller

READ

Luke 7:36-50; Romans 5:1-11

REFLECT Why does Jesus value the woman's tears? Why did the religious people of the day refuse to see the value of her tears-or even her value as a person? Jesus uses a parable to clarify some two very important spiritual truths:

  1. Embracing our need for Jesus' grace and forgiveness is the only path toward being embraced by Him as our Savior.
  2. Once we have been embraced by Him as our Savior, we are filled with great joy and thanksgiving.

Activity

Light a candle or put some oils on a cloth and take in the aroma. Imagine yourself there in the room with Jesus, Martha, and the others as you smell the fragrance.

Pray

Jesus, I need your grace. I am without hope without your atonement for my sins. I am the same as this woman: my sin makes me unworthy of your love. But, because of your great love for me, I am filled with hope, joy, and love. Jesus, I love you. By your grace, give me a heart to worship you with tears of gratitude.

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

40 Days of Grace by Paul Tripp

READ

John 13:1-20; Hebrews 1:3-4; Revelation 1:5-6

REFLECT Based upon these passages, what words would you use to describe Jesus? (Notice the depth and diversity of who Jesus is!)

Jesus lived his love. Tangibly. Humbly. Radically. The King lived as a Servant. The Lord became the Lamb. The Life chose to enter Death. The One to Whom we will all bend our knees one day, bent His knee to serve.

Activity

Choose one or both activities:

  • Wash your own feet and imagine what it must have felt like for the disciples when Jesus washed their feet.
  • Take communion in your home and think about being there with Jesus and the disciples as you do; thank God for His body broken and His blood poured out for you.

Pray

Jesus, thank you for living your love. Thank you for not only showing me the way of love, but giving your love to me in so many ways. You not only washed the disciples' feet, you walked toward the cross, toward the suffering, and toward death to offer me life, by grace and with love. As I continue to pursue you during Holy Week, may you show me how sacrificially you pursued me.

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

Following Jesus, the Servant King by Jonathan Lunde

READ

Isaiah 53; Mark 14:32-42

REFLECT Take a few moments to imagine and empathize with what Jesus experienced in the Garden. What feelings does this stir within you?

Jesus' physical suffering was nothing short of brutal. His emotional suffering was even worse. Take a few moments to consider the strength and courage found in Jesus' choice to willingly enter into this suffering on your behalf.

Activity

Choose one or both subjects to journal about today:

  • What must it have felt like for Jesus in the Garden, to be alone and crying out to God to remove the cup from Him? Recall a time in your own life when you felt alone and burdened; did you cry out to God to remove it? How did you see God respond in your life?
  • How do you think it felt to be Jesus and find the disciples asleep in the Garden? How do you think the disciples felt when Jesus awoke them (embarrassed, ashamed, remorseful, etc.)? Have you ever opened up to someone and they didn't respond the way you hoped? Likewise, has anyone ever trusted you with a prayer request and you forgot to pray for them?

Pray

Jesus, I need your strength and courage. I need the gift of faith, given by your grace. There are places in my heart that I want to avoid. But you do not choose to avoid those places. Prepare my heart to meet you there as I prepare for Good Friday.

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering by Tim Keller

READ

Mark 15:1-41; John 1:1-18

REFLECT How does the glory of God shine through the darkness and death of the hours on the cross?

Jesus enters the darkness, death, and the grave. It was His path toward offering us a path to light and life. Darkness, death, and the grave are empty places. They are lonely places. They are terrifying places. He entered those places to rescue you from being trapped by the emptiness, loneliness, and terror. Invite him there.

Activity

Choose one or both activities:

  • Find time during the day to sit in total silence. Try even putting in ear plugs and closing your eyes. Remember how Jesus suffered God turning His face away, for you.
  • Find a piece of wood and hammer a nail into it. Imagine that the wood is the cross, and your sin is the nail that kept Jesus in place on the cross.

Pray

OPTION: Listen to the Life Reframed Podcast, "GRAVES", which is available on the Fellowship website and on Apple Podcasts. The dialogue will prepare you for our Good Friday and Easter Sunday services. In response to this podcast, pray the following:

Jesus, I invite you into the "graves" in my heart, to the places that still struggle to find joy and life with you. Teach me to grieve all the "deaths" that have occurred throughout my life. I want to meet you in all the empty, lonely, terrifying places where you offer hope through your resurrected life.

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

The Cross of Christ by John Stott

READ

Mark 15:42-47

REFLECT How did the disciples deal with the end of the world as they knew it? The Savior was dead. They had nowhere safe to go-nowhere else to turn. They had promised him they would never leave him. Now, he had left them. Permanently. They could not go back. They could not go forward. What did they feel? What did they do?

"On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews" (John 20:19a). A few days earlier they had entered Jerusalem triumphantly. Now they cowered in fear. It was into this place of fear that Jesus would soon appear. But they don't know this on the day after Jesus' crucifixion. They just know the fearof wondering, "Are we next?"

Activity

Choose one or both activities:

  • Put a rock in the freezer (either on Friday night or Saturday morning), then hold it after it has been in the freezer for several hours. Feel how cold it is, just like the tomb they laid Jesus in when He died.
  • If you can, take a day (or even just an hour) of true rest-no screens, no work, no chores-and just be silent before God, waiting for Sunday.

Pray

Jesus, there are days when I feel alone, afraid, and abandoned. I know in my mind that this is not true. You are with me, you are my strength and courage, and you will never leave me. But there are just days when I am not strong enough on my own to believe these things. I cower, like the disciples, afraid of what's next-and wondering what just happened.

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter by Tim Keller

READ

Matthew 28:1-10; Isaiah 6:1-8

REFLECT Imagine the "fear and great joy" of discovering the empty tomb. Reflect on moments when you have felt both "fear and great joy" in your relationship with the risen Savior.

Awe is an essential part of true worship. To come into the Presence of the glory, power, and majesty of God is to come face to face with how unholy and unworthy we are. The Resurrection is one of those moments. As you celebrate Easter 2021, set your mind on the glory, power, and majesty revealed when God became man, died to pay the penalty of our sins, and rose from the grave to change your eternal destiny.

Activity

Respond physically to the victory of Jesus - jump, dance, raise your hands, kneel down before Him, run down your street (just as the women at the tomb ran back to tell the disciples).

Pray

Jesus, I am in awe of Who you are and what you have accomplished on my behalf. I am more aware of my frailty, my sinfulness, and my unworthiness of your life and love. But, I am also more aware of your grace, your forgivness, and your worthiness. My heart responds, "Here am I, send me!"

SONGS FOR REFLECTION AND WORSHIP

Further Reading

The Cross of Christ by John Stott