Good Friday or "Friday of the passion and death of the Lord" is the anniversary and commemoration of the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Click here to read today's entry from the Our Daily Bread devotional. This article refers to Rembrandt's work, "Three Crosses," seen here:
Also, here are a couple of Good Friday posts from previous years:
"He Gave It Up" (2006)
Good Friday (2007)
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
2 Let Israel say:
"His love endures forever."
3 Let the house of Aaron say:
"His love endures forever."
4 Let those who fear the LORD say:
"His love endures forever."
5 In my anguish I cried to the LORD,
and he answered by setting me free.
6 The LORD is with me; I will not be afraid.
What can man do to me?
7 The LORD is with me; he is my helper.
I will look in triumph on my enemies.
8 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in man.
9 It is better to take refuge in the LORD
than to trust in princes.
10 All the nations surrounded me,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
11 They surrounded me on every side,
but in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
12 They swarmed around me like bees,
but they died out as quickly as burning thorns;
in the name of the LORD I cut them off.
13 I was pushed back and about to fall,
but the LORD helped me.
14 The LORD is my strength and my song;
he has become my salvation.
15 Shouts of joy and victory
resound in the tents of the righteous:
"The LORD's right hand has done mighty things!
16 The LORD's right hand is lifted high;
the LORD's right hand has done mighty things!"
17 I will not die but live,
and will proclaim what the LORD has done.
18 The LORD has chastened me severely,
but he has not given me over to death.
19 Open for me the gates of righteousness;
I will enter and give thanks to the LORD.
20 This is the gate of the LORD
through which the righteous may enter.
21 I will give you thanks, for you answered me;
you have become my salvation.
22 The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
23 the LORD has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes.
24 This is the day the LORD has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
25 O LORD, save us;
O LORD, grant us success.
26 Blessed is he who comes in the name of the LORD.
From the house of the LORD we bless you. [a]
27 The LORD is God,
and he has made his light shine upon us.
With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession
up [b] to the horns of the altar.
28 You are my God, and I will give you thanks;
you are my God, and I will exalt you.
29 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good;
his love endures forever.
Dear Family & Friends,
We hope that you are having a blessed Resurrection Sunday! Rejoice... Jesus is Risen!The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: 'He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.' Now I have told you." So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. - Matthew 28:5-9
Here's a good article by Josh McDowell if you'd like to read about the 3 choices that Jesus gave us to explain his identity. Was Jesus a liar, a lunatic or Lord and God? It is our conviction that He is the Son of God who came to earth as a man in order to save us from our sins and give us access to God. Feel free to read the article and see what you think... Jesus: God or Just a Good Man?
Take care and God bless!
Love,
The Olsons
Check out this verse about Daniel's commitment to humbly come before God in prayer...
Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. (Daniel 6:10)Daniel made a point a connecting with God regularly throughout each day. I don't know about you but I often struggle prioritize my prayer life. Specifically, it is difficult to commit to praying (and being thankful) as often as Daniel did. However, we now find ourselves on the eve of a holiday that reminds us and gives us the opportunity to be thankful, remembering that all we have is from the Lord! Let's not take this Thanksgiving season too lightly.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. (Psalm 118:1)
Amy and I enjoyed and were blessed by an excellent Christmas Eve service this morning at Revolution Church. Our friends Brent & Lynelle and their kids attend Revolution. Also, some of you might remember that Amy and I had lunch with a Talbot professor and his wife a couple of months ago. Brent & Lynelle introduced us to Dr. & Mrs. Johnson, who also go to church at Revolution.
Anyway, today's service and message were a good reminder to all of us that Christmas is a busy, busy time and we can be doing lots of great things, hanging out with lots of great people, planning a great Christmas celebration... but if we forget Jesus, we're missing the point! Christmas is a celebration of Christ's birth. Revolution's production provided a humorous look at what the classic nativity scene would be like / look like if we forgot to put the baby in the manger at the center.
Translations of John 1:14
- The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us (NIV)
- And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (NKJV)
- And the Word became flesh and lived among us (NRSV)
- So the Word became human and made his home among us (NLT)
When we think of “The Word,” we might usually think of God’s written Word, the Bible. However, in this verse, we can understand that “The Word” refers to Jesus. Jesus is the living, incarnate Word of God... God in the flesh, God in human form. The Greek word often translated as "dwelling" or "dwelt," can also mean "to pitch a tent" or "to tablenacle."
At Christmas time we are celebrating the fact that God loves us so much that he came and "camped out" among us!
Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." - John 8:12
To our friends and family... May God bless you as you celebrate the Light of the World coming to live among us!
Merry Christmas with love,
The Olsons (Derek, Amy, Kaylin and T.J.)
John 4:4-9
4 Now he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.
7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" 8 (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
Verse 4 - We know from verse 3 that Jesus is headed from Judea to Galilee and the most direct route would be right through Samaria. However, the Jewish people of that time considered the Samaritans to be an impure, mixed-race people. In order to avoid the Samaritans entirely, the Jews would usually travel the long way around instead of going through Samaria. So since Jesus could have traveled by a different route, perhaps he "had to go through Samaria" because that was God's mission for him!
Verses 5 & 6 - Scholars and historians suggest that the town of Sychar would have had it's own well in the middle of town in addition to this well out by the road. The "sixth hour" refers to 12:00 noon, which is an unusual time for the woman to come draw water. This woman's poor reputation, which we find out more about later in this chapter, has caused her to go to a well outside of town in the heat of the day in hopes of avoiding the other women of the town.
Verses 7-9 - This situation presents many reasons why Jesus need not or should not talk with her:"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these." (Mark 12:29-31)
The expert responds well by quoting Duet. 6:5 and Lev. 19:18, " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' "
Jesus' response is "You have answered correctly. Do this and you will live."
So the answer to both questions, the question about the most important commandment and the question about eternal life, is the same! I know it's a simple realization on my part, but I'm struck by fact that these principles are not only "rules" that Jesus thinks we should follow, these are principles by which we, as believers, should live our lives.
To spend eternity with God, we must love God. We must be totally (heart, soul, mind and strength) devoted to loving our God! And loving our neighbor, those around us, will be a natural byproduct of our desire to love and know God.As we continue to thank you all for your prayers and support over the last week, we want to tell you more about what exactly you were praying for. In the midst of the health chaos with both Trevor and Kaylin (see earlier posts), we faced another very difficult and alarming scenario. Situations like this remind us that we live in a sinful, fallen world where "the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour" (1 Peter 5:8). However, we are also "convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 8:38-39). God has already won the battle and is with us always and in all circumstances. We couldn't have made it through without our faith in God and the support of family and friends. So here goes... an amazing example of God's faithfulness in our lives:
Saturday - May 6th
During the initial procedures of getting Trevor set in the NICU, a nurse got accidentally stuck with a needle after assisting the doctor with Trevor's spinal tap. As a matter of routine policy they then had to draw some of Amy's blood in order to screen both Trevor and mom's blood.
Sunday - May 7th
The on-call pediatrician that had sent Trevor to the NICU and was doing rounds on Sunday, came to visit us and let us know we needed to talk in private. She first assured us that Trevor was doing well... but then she proceeded to give us the biggest shock our lives. Initial (preliminary level) screen tests of Amy's blood had come back positive for HIV. Even though we had strong doubts about the validity of those results, as you might imagine, that's a horrible conversation to have with a doctor. However, there turned out to be many reasons why we could try to believe that the result was a false positive. First, the obvious, basic reason that came to our minds... neither Amy nor I have any high-risk lifestyle issues that can lead to HIV (multiple partners, drugs, transfusions, etc.). In Amy's pre-natal screening, she tested negative in October. Also, we found out that pregnancy (recent pregnancy in Amy's case) can cause a false positive test. Not to mention that Trevor was negative and my blood test later that evening came back negative as well. But as I wrote earlier, even though we really doubted the result, it certainly brought some scary worries to our minds (especially for Amy obviously).
As if that conversation weren't alarming enough, the doctors had a responsibility to recommend that Amy discontinue breast-feeding in order to protect Trevor. We of course wanted to do the right thing for Trevor (even if we felt the chance of Amy being positive was very small) but it was very difficult for Amy to give up taking care of feeding her new baby.Romans 8:28 - "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him"
We were told at that point that we wouldn't hear more conclusive test results until Tuesday at noon... so we're going to have to carry this enormous burden until then. Another unfortunate aspect of Sunday (as we look back) is that we weren't offered access to an expert who could really answer our questions and alleviate our concerns.
Monday - May 8th
Monday they started giving us the idea that more conclusive test results would be obtained Monday night, instead of having to wait until Tuesday. Come Monday evening we are told that "Monday night" could mean the middle of the night (early Tues. morning). Amy and I give up on waiting for results and leave the hospital about 11:30 pm to TRY to get some sleep... Trevor's nurse said she'd call as soon as they heard anything.
Tuesday - May 9th
We woke up the next morning having still not heard anything. At about 7:30 a.m., a nurse called to let us know they still didn't know anything but that Dr. Gallagher (our actual pediatrician) was going to be coming through at 8am and she wanted to see us. She'd gotten back from vacation, been brought up to speed on our situation, and was very frustrated for us and what we were going through. She found herself as the unfortunate person to bring us the news that in actuality, the more conclusive test hadn't even gotten underway yet... so we thought we were still 24 hours from getting some more answers. But is was great to have Dr. Gallagher as our advocate, finding our why the needle-stick ever happened, seeing that we got to speak with an infectious diseases expert (who really helped ease our mind and confirmed that it was very likely a false positive), getting to the bottom of why we'd been given bad info about when we'd get a result, fighting to get test results quicker, etc.James 1:2-3,12 - "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance... Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him."
Thanks to Dr. Gallagher's efforts to keep us properly cared for and informed, we were able to relax a bit, not get more angry, and just settle in to care for Trevor and wait for further results on Amy. Meanwhile, Dr. Dietz (a local infectious disease expert) came to chat with us and as I mentioned above, that was very helpful in giving us peace of mind while we waited. After reviewing our situation, he seemed convinced that we were dealing with a false positive. He also explained yet another reason why Amy may have a false positive result, she'd had a flu shot in Dec. and those can cause false-positive results. Also, he explained what to expect when the results of the two additional, more conclusive tests came back. If he hadn't done that, we'd have probably been unnecessarily worried even more when one of those tests came back with an "indeterminate" result.
Tuesday evening
Just after Trevor had officially been cleared to be released from the hospital, Dr. Dietz called Amy with the great news that the last (and most conclusive test) showed that she is definitely not HIV-positive. It was indeed a false alarm. What a ridiculously HUGE relief! So in a matter of 2 days, things went from crazy to resolved. Kaylin is feeling much better, Trevor got to come back home, and Amy is good to go! Praise the Lord!Romans 4:25 - 5:5 - "He (Jesus) was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us."
With the Easter weekend starting tomorrow, I took a few minutes to read the apostle John’s account of Christ’s death. When I did, the following verse really stood out…
“When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.” – John 19:30
I’m sure I’ve read over this verse and even studied it many times. The amazing thing about the Scriptures though is that no matter how many times we’ve read a verse, the Holy Spirit can show us something new or give us an important reminder each and every time! Reading the verse above this morning brought a couple of those important reminders for me. The following tidbits may not be news to you, but I hope they'll be helpful reminders to you and reason enough for us to pause and consider what Jesus has done for us.
First of all, Jesus’ words “It is finished” are always interesting. God wants us to be in relationship with Him but, of course, our sin separates us from Him. With Christ’s death, the penalty for our sin was paid and we gained access to God! So with Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, God’s plan for our redemption was “finished.”
“’It is finished!’ is one word in the Greek text – tetelestai. The word was a common one and was used by merchants to mean ’The price is all paid!’ Shepherds and priests used it when they found a perfect sheep, ready for sacrifice; and Christ died as the perfect Lamb of God. Servants, when their work was completed, would use this word when reporting to their masters. Christ, the obedient Servant, had finished the work the Father gave Him to do.” (Wiersbe’s Expository Outlines on the New Testament by Warren W. Weirsbe)
The part of the verse (John 19:30) that really struck me though was second part, “With that, (Jesus) bowed His head and gave up his spirit.” He gave it up! That’s definitely not a very typical description of someone dying. Listen to Christ’s words…
“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life – only to take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.” - John 10:17-18
No human method would have had the power to kill Jesus… but He obediently chose to die. He chose to die for us. He chose to die to pay the price for our sin. He chose to redeem us. He chose to save us. He loves us that much!
Of course, Jesus’ death is not the best part of the Good News. Jesus said, “I lay down my life – only to take it up again.” This Sunday we celebrate the fact that the tomb was empty, that He conquered sin and death, and that He is our risen Lord and Savior!
