Tag Archive for Easter

ThinkSingPray

2019-04-22 ThinkSingPray No comments
ThinkSingPray 

about 

Easter Season 

 

Monday –      After His resurrection…
         Hymn: Reconciled in Christ (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     The Need Is in Me
         Hymn: I Walk the Dark Emmaus Road (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – Breakfast with the Lord
         Hymn: It’s So Good to Be with You (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    The Good Shepherd
         Hymn: Good Shepherd (recording) (printed)

Friday –          Father, thank You for Your marvelous…
         Hymn: Chosen in Jesus (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Jesus Walks among Us
         Hymn: The Glorified Christ (recording) (printed)

 

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

ThinkSingPray

2019-04-15 ThinkSingPray No comments
ThinkSingPray 

about 

Easter Sunday 

 

Monday –      The Christ of Easter
         Hymn: Christ Is Alive! We Live in Him! (recording) (printed)

Tuesday –     Prepare for Easter
         Hymn: Alive in You (recording) (printed)

Wednesday – A Celebration of Life
         Hymn: A Celebration of Life (recording) (printed)

Thursday –    Risen with Christ
         Hymn: Risen from Eternal Death (recording) (printed)

Friday –          In the Light of the Cross
         Hymn: In the Light of the Cross (recording) (printed)

Saturday –     Living in a Saturday World
         Hymn: I Rejoice in Your Purpose Today (recording) (printed)

 

for more, visit
ThinkSingPray
at KenBible.com

Living in a Saturday World

2017-04-20 Devotional with Hymn 2 comments

A Reflection for the Easter Season 

I am an Easter Sunday person
living in a Saturday world.
The resurrection is still a hope for tomorrow.
Today the tombs are still full.
Today the world is still dark,
aching for the dawn.

With Jesus,
my death is still a brutal reality.
With the disciples,
I still grapple with weakness and uncertainty.
With Mary,
I deeply grieve the seeming loss of one
inexpressibly precious to me.
With Peter,
I still mourn my shameful failures.
I mourn my inconsistency.
I mourn the dimness of
my vision,
my faith,
my love.
The truth is so vast and glorious,
yet I am so small and cold.
I am a follower of Jesus Christ
yet so very unlike Him.

But today,
right now,
in the grip of all this Saturday darkness,
the debt for all my wickedness
is completely, forever paid.
Today Almighty God intimately shares with me His own Holy Spirit
every time I ask and trust.
Today I am His –
His child,
His treasure.
Today my life is hid with Christ in God.
Today my future is secure.
Today my eternal life in Him
has already begun and
will never end.

So today, throughout this long Saturday,
I will rejoice in the resurrection
as one who already sees the light peak above the horizon.
Thanks be to God!
Thanks be to You, my God,
for Your unspeakable Gift!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ Is Alive! We Live in Him!
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

from Prepare Yourself for Worship

2017-04-14 Devotional with Hymn, Prepare Yourself for Worship, Uncategorized No comments

Prepare for Easter

Father, as I celebrate this Easter season,
teach me what it means to live as
an Easter person
in this present world.

Everyone here is facing
inescapable death.
Help me live Your resurrection life among them,
glowing with
hope,
purpose, and
joyful anticipation.

Here sin seems inescapable.
Failure is considered inevitable.
Help me live as one set free from sin,
fully forgiven and
fully empowered for triumphant living.

Here, as we face the future,
we are gripped with
helplessness and
despair.
May I walk in the bright confidence of Easter.
Help me live as one whose eternal, glorious life in You
has already begun, and
will never end.

Father, may lost and hopeless people
sense the beautiful reality of Easter
in me.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Alive in You
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Foreshadowing the Resurrection

2017-04-03 Devotional with Hymn No comments

If a man dies, will he live again?
All the days of my hard service
I will wait for my renewal to come.
You will call and I will answer you;
you will long for the creature your hands have made.
(Job 14:14-15, NIV)

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him with my own eyes…
How my heart yearns within me! (Job 19:25-27, NIV)

You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand. (Psalm 16:11, NIV)

God will redeem my life from the grave;
he will surely take me to himself. (Psalm 49:15, NIV)

He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples…
He will swallow up death forever.
The Sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces.
(Isaiah 25:7-8, NIV) 

The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out
by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley;
it was full of bones…He asked me, “Son of man, can these
bones live?”…So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath
entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—
a vast army. (Ezekiel 37:1, 3, 10, NIV)

Adam and Eve turned away from God, though He had warned them that if they did, “they would surely die” (Genesis 2:17, NIV). But as He pronounced judgment on them, He also promised that the Seed of Eve would someday crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15). Life would come from death.

During Noah’s time, our sin had become so bad that God destroyed our entire race with a flood, saving only Noah’s family. But when it was over, God promised, “Never again will I destroy all living creatures” (Genesis 8:21, NIV). In the struggle with sin, life would win.

Joseph faced imminent death, slavery, injustice, and prison, but emerged as prime minister of Egypt. Moses lifted up the bronze serpent in the wilderness, and whoever looked upon it was saved from death. The three Hebrew children were thrown into a fiery furnace but emerged unscathed. Elijah raised the widow’s son. When Ezekiel spoke God’s Word, an entire valley of dry bones came to life.

All these were glimpses, foretastes, anticipations of God’s greatest miracle: death itself would die and would be removed from all creation forever. God’s own Son would conquer it. He would endure a horrible death, then rise again, and in His train He would bring an entirely new race of holy, redeemed, glorified children of God.

Easter is a time to celebrate! Thanks be to God!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Didn’t He Rise!
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

A Celebration of Life

2016-03-13 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Read the book of Ecclesiastes. It paints a thoughtful and poignant picture of life that inevitably ends in death. If everyone dies, if after all, death has the final word, what is the point?

Meaningless! Meaningless!…
Utterly meaningless!
I have seen all the things that are done under the sun;
all of them are meaningless,
a chasing after the wind.
(Ecclesiastes 1:2, 14, NIV) 

All our lofty virtues – wisdom, nobility, hope, love – are reduced to naïve self-deception. They are intended for a broader reality that simply doesn’t exist. Embrace the shallow and the temporary, for they are the only things that are real.

The resurrection of Jesus from the dead changes all that. It transforms the entire context and meaning of life on this earth. God’s life conquers death. Life and love, light and joy, blessing and beauty are eternal. Goodness makes sense. Self-sacrifice is not only noble but logical. It is turning loose of something good in order to grasp something greater.

As we accept a personal relationship of trust with our almighty, loving God, He shares His life with us. His Spirit becomes one with our spirit. We share His being, and though this body dies, His life, and His life in us, goes on forever. In fact, He guarantees us a new and more wonderful body, one designed for an eternity in His immediate presence.

Easter is the pivotal point of all human existence. As we simply trust our Creator, we become eternal, glorious creatures, sharing His life forever. The tyranny of death is shattered.

He will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
he will swallow up death forever.
(Isaiah 25:7-8, NIV)

Celebrate! Celebrate Easter every day as it deserves to be celebrated: with praise, thanksgiving, joy, love, and lavish self-giving.

Listen and sing:
Hymn: A Celebration of Life
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Risen with Christ

2015-03-22 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,
the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For since death came through a man,
the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man.
For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
(1 Corinthians 15:20-22, NIV)

In Jesus Christ we are
risen from eternal death,
risen from slavery to sin,
risen from darkness and futility.

In Jesus Christ we are
risen to eternal life,
risen to be like Christ,
risen to completeness in Him.

In Jesus Christ we are
seated at the right hand of God,
kept by His sovereign love,
robed in every spiritual blessing.

Praise be to Him forever and ever!

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Risen from Eternal Death
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

The Christ of Easter

2015-03-10 Devotional with Hymn No comments

from A Christ-centered Year

By his power God raised the Lord from the dead, and he will raise us also.
(1 Corinthians 6:14, NIV)

During Easter, Jesus is the Life of the Father,
overcoming death and sin forever.

Consider the power of His Life in your life.
He became a helpless infant,
so He doesn’t recoil at your weakness.

He wrapped Himself in shame, rejection, and homelessness,
so He isn’t offended by your lowliness.

He poured Himself out in teaching and healing,
so He warmly embraces you in your ignorance and need.

He begged forgiveness for His torturers.
so He will not abandon you in your sin.

He silently accepted all the abuse His enemies could dish out,
so He will not be frightened away by anything you might do.

The Life that spoke all life into existence
could not be defeated by death—
not in Christ and
not in you.
This Life took the worst that evil could give and
emerged the Conqueror.

You have absolutely nothing to fear.
Not now.
Not ever.
The unconquerable Life is now your life. 

“Your life is now hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3, NIV)

“Death has been swallowed up in victory.” (1 Corinthians 15:54, NIV)

Listen and sing:
Hymn: Christ Is Alive! We Live in Him!
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Emmaus Road

2014-04-20 Devotional with Hymn No comments

Now that same day two…were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast. 

“Jesus of Nazareth…was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.” (Luke 24:13-17, 19-21, NIV)

Like these two disciples,
we are often distressed at God’s actions.
We don’t understand what He is doing…
or what He is not doing.

Why?
Because we don’t understand which problem He is addressing.
We think the problem is our circumstances
or “the Romans”
or some other person.
The problem God is addressing is
us.
The problem is our failure to seek and trust
only Him.

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: I Walk the Dark Emmaus Road
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

Certainty

2014-04-06 Devotional, Devotional with Hymn No comments

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and that in the end
he will stand upon the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
(Job 19:25-27, NIV)

We have a hope
that flows deeper than grief.
We have a joy
that no sorrow can take away.
We have a confidence
that no darkness can shake.
We have a life
that no death can ever destroy.

“Do not be afraid.
I am the First and the Last.
I am the Living One;
I was dead, and
behold I am alive for ever and ever!
And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”
(Revelation 1:17-18, NIV)

Listen…and sing if you want:
Hymn: I Know That My Redeemer Lives
Recording
Printed Music & Lyrics

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