Month: March 2018
The Via Dolorosa ~ Holy Week
The Via Dolorosa
Our Daily Bread
The Via Dolorosa
March 30, 2018
Read: Hebrews 10:1–10
Bible in a Year: Judges 9–10; Luke 5:17–39
We have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.—Hebrews 10:10
During Holy Week, we remember the final days before Jesus’s crucifixion. The road Jesus traveled to the cross through the streets of Jerusalem is known today as the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows.
But the writer of Hebrews viewed the path Jesus took as more than just a path of sorrows. The way of suffering that Jesus willingly walked to Golgotha made a “new and living way” into the presence of God for us (Hebrews 10:20).
For centuries the Jewish people had sought to come into God’s presence through animal sacrifices and by seeking to keep the law. But the law was “only a shadow of the good things that are coming,” for “it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins” (vv. 1, 4).
Jesus’s journey down the Via Dolorosa led to His death and resurrection. Because of His sacrifice, we can be made holy when we trust in Him for the forgiveness of our sins. Even though we aren’t able to keep the law perfectly, we can draw near to God without fear, fully confident that we are welcomed and loved (vv. 10, 22).
Christ’s way of sorrow opened for us a new and living way to God. —Amy Peterson
Jesus, thank You for walking the way of sorrow and making a way for us to be reconciled to God.
Christ’s sacrifice was what God desired and what our sin required.
INSIGHT: In Romans 3:9-23 Paul describes how we are all sinners. Because of our sins we deserve God’s wrath (1:18). But God showed us how much He loved us by giving His Son to be the “sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood” (3:25). We are all “justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus” (v. 24). Even though we still sin, we are justified, reconciled, and sanctified. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, who dwells within us, we can live holy lives. K. T. Sim
He Is Risen / Holy Week / Day 8: Surprised!
He Is Risen | Day 8: Surprised!
Our Daily Bread Ministries
Day 8
Surprised!
By: David McCasland
Today’s Reading: Luke 24:13–35
Suddenly, their eyes were opened, and they recognized him.
LUKE 24:31
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610), an Italian artist, was known for his fiery temperament and unconventional technique. He used ordinary working people as models for his saints and was able to make viewers of his paintings feel they were a part of the scene. The Supper at Emmaus shows an innkeeper standing while Jesus and two of His followers are seated at a table when they recognize Him as the risen Lord (Luke 24:31). One disciple is pushing himself to a standing position while the other’s arms are outstretched and his hands open in astonishment.
Luke, who records these events in his gospel, tells us that the two men immediately returned to Jerusalem where they found the eleven disciples and others assembled together and saying, “ ‘The Lord has really risen! He appeared to Peter.’ Then [they] told their story of how Jesus had appeared to them as they were walking along the road, and how they had recognized him as he was breaking the bread” (vv. 33–35).
Oswald Chambers said, “Jesus rarely comes where we expect Him; He appears where we least expect Him, and always in the most illogical connections. The only way a worker can keep true to God is by being ready for the Lord’s surprise visits.”
Whatever road we are on today, may we be ready for Jesus to make Himself known to us in new and surprising ways.
To find the Lord Jesus Christ we must be willing to seek Him.
Basin Of Love ~ Holy Week
Basin of Love
Our Daily Bread
Basin of Love
March 29, 2018
Read: John 13:1–17
Bible in a Year: Judges 7–8; Luke 5:1–16
After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet.—John 13:5
One day in physics class many years ago, our teacher asked us to tell him—without turning around—what color the back wall of the classroom was. None of us could answer, for we hadn’t noticed.
Sometimes we miss or overlook the “stuff” of life simply because we can’t take it all in. And sometimes we don’t see what’s been there all along.
It was like that for me as I recently read again the account of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. The story is a familiar one, for it is often read during Passion Week. That our Savior and King would stoop to cleanse the feet of His disciples awes us. In Jesus’s day, even Jewish servants were spared this task because it was seen as beneath them. But what I hadn’t noticed before was that Jesus, who was both man and God, washed the feet of Judas. Even though He knew Judas would betray Him, as we see in John 13:11, Jesus still humbled Himself and washed Judas’s feet.
Love poured out in a basin of water—love that He shared even with the one who would betray Him. As we ponder the events of this week leading up to the celebration of Jesus’s resurrection, may we too be given the gift of humility so that we can extend Jesus’s love to our friends and any enemies. —Amy Boucher Pye
Lord Jesus Christ, fill my heart with love that I might roll up my sleeves and wash the feet of others for Your glory.
Because of love, Jesus humbled Himself and washed His disciples’ feet.
He Is Risen / Holy Week / Day 7: He Understands and Cares
He Is Risen | Day 7: He Understands and Cares
Our Daily Bread Ministries
Your devotional reading: Day 7
He Understands and Cares
By: David McCasland
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 53:1–8
It was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down.
ISAIAH 53:4
When asked if he thought that ignorance and apathy were problems in modern society, a man joked, “I don’t know and I don’t care.”
I suppose many discouraged people feel that way about the world today and the people in it. But when it comes to the perplexities and concerns of our lives, Jesus fully understands, and He deeply cares. Isaiah 53, an Old Testament prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus, gives us a glimpse of what He went through for us. “He was oppressed and treated harshly . . . . He was led like a lamb to the slaughter” (v. 7). “He was struck down for the rebellion of my people” (v. 8). “It was the Lord’s good plan to crush him and cause him grief. Yet when his life is made an offering for sin, he will have many descendants. He will enjoy a long life, and the Lord’s good plan will prosper in his hands” (v. 10).
On the cross Jesus willingly bore our sin and guilt. No one ever suffered more than our Lord did for us. He knew what it would cost to save us from our sins and, in love, He willingly paid it (vv. 4–6).
Because of Jesus’s resurrection from the dead, He is alive and present with us today. Whatever situation we face, Jesus understands and cares. And He will carry us through.
He isn’t here! He is risen! —Luke 24:6
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Look and Be Quiet / Holy Week
Our Daily Bread
Look and Be Quiet
March 28, 2018
Read: Luke 23:44–49
Bible in a Year: Judges 4–6; Luke 4:31–44
Look around and see. Is any suffering like my suffering . . . ?—Lamentations 1:12
In the song “Look at Him,” Mexican composer Rubén Sotelo describes Jesus at the cross. He invites us to look at Jesus and be quiet, because there is really nothing to say before the type of love Jesus demonstrated at the cross. By faith we can imagine the scene described in the Gospels. We can imagine the cross and the blood, the nails, and the pain.
When Jesus breathed His last, those who “had gathered to witness this sight . . . beat their breasts and went away” (Luke 23:48). Others “stood at a distance, watching these things” (v. 49). They looked and were quiet. Only one spoke, a centurion, who said, “Surely this was a righteous man” (v. 47).
Songs and poems have been written to describe this great love. Many years before, Jeremiah wrote about Jerusalem’s pain after its devastation. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?” (Lamentations 1:12). He was asking people to look and see; he thought there was no greater suffering than Jerusalem’s. However, has there been any suffering like Jesus’s suffering?
All of us are passing by the road of the cross. Will we look and see His love? This Easter, when words and poems are not enough to express our gratitude and describe God’s love, let us take a moment to ponder Jesus’s death; and in the quietness of our hearts, may we whisper to Him our deepest devotion. —Keila Ochoa
Dear Jesus, as I look at Your cross, I have no words to express my gratitude for Your perfect sacrifice. But I thank You for Your love.
Look at the cross and worship.
INSIGHT: Can you imagine being personally responsible for the crucifixion of Jesus? Luke tells us the Roman centurion saw something that led him to conclude that he had just overseen the execution of an innocent man (Luke 23:47). Matthew adds that as the officer and his soldiers felt the earth shake violently under their feet they became terrified at the thought that they had just executed “the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).
In their world, Caesar was known as the son of God. But these Roman soldiers suddenly realized the emperor they answered to was nothing like Jesus. Entrusted with all power and authority in heaven and on earth, His death revealed the loving heart of His Father.
Imagine being the centurion reading what the apostle Paul later wrote to followers of Jesus in Rome. By this time, Jesus’s death was being proclaimed as good news to everyone (Romans 1:15-17). Paul described Jesus’s suffering and death as evidence of the God who continues to groan with us in our wrongs against Him, one another, and ourselves (Romans 8).
Can we see ourselves kneeling with this Roman officer in grateful worship? Mart DeHaan
He Is Risen Series / Holy Week / Day 6: Forsaken for Our Sake
He Is Risen | Day 6: Forsaken for Our Sake
Your devotional reading: Day 6
Day 6
Forsaken for Our Sake
By: Amy Peterson
Today’s Reading: Matthew 26:36–46
God has said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.”
HEBREWS 13:5
Does having a friend nearby make pain more bearable? Researchers at the University of Virginia conducted a fascinating study to answer that question. They wanted to see how the brain reacted to the prospect of pain, and whether it behaved differently if a person faced the threat of pain alone, holding a stranger’s hand, or holding the hand of a close friend.
Researchers ran the test on dozens of pairs, and found consistent results. When a person was alone or holding a stranger’s hand while anticipating a shock, the regions of the brain that process danger lit up. But when holding the hand of a trusted person, the brain relaxed. The comfort of a friend’s presence made the pain seem more bearable.
Jesus needed comfort as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane. He knew what He was about to face: betrayal, arrest, and death. He asked His closest friends to stay and pray with Him, telling them that His soul was “crushed with grief” (Matthew 26:38). But Peter, James, and John kept falling asleep.
Jesus faced the agony of the garden without the comfort of a hand to hold. But because He bore that pain, we can be confident that God will never leave or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). Jesus suffered so that we will never have to experience separation from the love of God (Romans 8:39). His companionship makes anything we endure more bearable.
Because of God’s love, we are never truly alone.
Passion – Even So Come (Live) Kristian Stanfill ~ Holy Week
Passion – Even So Come (Live) ft. Kristian Stanfill – YouTube
Lyrics
All of creation
All of the earth
Make straight a highway
A path for the Lord
Jesus is coming soon
Call back the sinner
Wake up the saint
Let every nation shout of Your fame
Jesus is coming soon
Like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be a Church ready for You
Every heart longing for our King
We sing “even so come”
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come
There will be justice, all will be new
Your name forever, faithful and true
Jesus is coming soon
Oh, like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be a Church ready for You
Every heart longing for our King
We sing “even so come”
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come
So we wait
We wait for You
God, we wait
You’re coming soon
So we wait
We wait for You
God, we wait
You’re coming soon
Like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be at Church, ready for You
Every heart longing for our King, we sing
Like a bride waiting for her groom
We’ll be at Church, we’ll be ready for You
Every heart longing for our King, we sing “even so come”
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come
Even so come
Lord Jesus, come
Songwriters: Jess Cates / Christopher Tomlin / Jason Ingram
Even So Come (Radio Version/Live) lyrics © Walt Disney Music Company, Essential Music Publishing, Capitol Christian Music Group
He Is Risen Series / Holy Week / Day 5: Two Portraits
He Is Risen | Day 5: Two Portraits
Our Daily Bread Ministries
Your devotional reading: Day 5
Day 5
Two Portraits
By: Tim Gustafson
Today’s Reading: John 16:19–24
You have sorrow now, but I will see you again; then you will rejoice, and no one can rob you of that joy.
JOHN 16:22
Clutching two framed photographs, the proud grandmother showed them to friends in the church foyer. The first picture was of her daughter back in her homeland of Burundi. The second was of her grandson, born recently to that daughter. But the daughter wasn’t holding her newborn. She had died giving birth to him.
A friend approached and looked at the pictures. Reflexively, she reached up and held that dear grandmother’s face in her hands. All she could say through her own tears was, “I know. I know.”
And she did know. Two months earlier she had buried a son.
There’s something special about the comfort of others who have experienced our pain. They know. Just before Jesus’s arrest, He warned His disciples, “You will weep and mourn . . . but the world will rejoice.” Yet in the next breath He comforted them: “You will grieve, but your grief will suddenly turn to wonderful joy” (John 16:20). In mere hours, the disciples would be devastated by Jesus’s arrest and crucifixion. But their crushing grief soon turned to a joy they could not have imagined when they saw Him alive again.
Isaiah prophesied of the Messiah, “It was our weaknesses he carried; . . . our sorrows that weighed him down” (Isaiah 53:4). We have a Savior who doesn’t merely know about our pain; He lived it. He knows. He cares. One day our grief will be turned into joy.
When we put our cares into His hands, He puts His peace into our hearts.
He Is Risen Series / Holy Week / Days 1, 2, 3 And 4
Even Steven 