Easter Saturday Thoughts

Today, Easter Saturday, is the day or the time between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

Jesus is dead. We believers await the Easter "morning" when we can rejoice, sing and shout our loudest hallelujahs in our hearts because Jesus is risen!

What a wonderful encouragement this is!  Jesus is in the grave, it is the interval time. Just as certain as the old prophecies about the Messiah's birth and death and Calvary, the Bible gives assurances from Jesus that he is coming again.

Good Friday Reflections

The old rugged cross

Consumatum est ... "It is finished... Father, into your hands I commit my spirit."

Quiet reflections. Humbling prayers for Christians who take to heart the meaning of the Holy Week, of Christ's death, and his eventual resurrection.

On reflection, there's this human dilemma. A strange conflict occurs. For whilst the human level is struggling to survive from being swallowed up by the ruthless quicksand of day to day challenges at their worst, the spiritual level is soaring with that beckoning eternal hope of "Why are you cast down oh my soul?" And that still small voice that follows out of nowhere, "Oh, you of little faith, why can't you keep still, cast your cares to me?" 

Good Friday

Good Friday or Holy Friday is a religious holiday observed mainly by Christians. It commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary.  The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, good Friday, Black Friday.

The estimated year of the Crucifixion is AD 33, by two different groups, and originally as AD 34 by Isaac Newton via the differences between the Biblical and Julian calendars and the crescent of the moon.

Holy Saturday Reflection

The Cross, our Salvation

A reflection of Luke 23: 32-43

The people, including rulers and soldiers ridiculed Jesus and said, "… He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One… If you are the king of the Jews, save yourself."  vs35-36 NIV.   Jesus Christ continued His mission until death. Like any child, He could have refused His Father, but Christ accepted His task with obedience. What a most painful task of bearing the emblem of all our sins.        

We know about the resurrection, the events after the crucifixion and burial, and can  acknowledge that Christ is King indeed.  It is also worth remembering the other remorseful criminal alongside Jesus and the significance of what the Lord said to him, "… today you will be with me in paradise."  What a promise of hope. 

Palm Sunday Notes

Palm Sunday 

Palm Sunday always falls on the Sunday before Easter Sunday.  It is a Christian moveable feast that commemorates the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. in some Christian churches,  it is marked by the distribution of palm leaves, often tied into crosses, to the worshipers. however, the difficulty of procuring palms for that day's ceremonies in unfavorable climates for palms led to the substitution of boughs of box, yew, willow, olive, or other native trees.

The followers of Jesus honoured him as he entered Jerusalem just few days before his crucifixion. The people rejoiced and thanked God for the great things Jesus had done for them, teaching, healing the sick, performing miracles, and more.

The Old Rugged Cross

Hymns / Holy Week

"The Old Rugged Cross" is a popular Holy Week hymn written in 1912 by American George Bennard (1873-1958), an evangelist and song-leader.



The hymn has been a country gospel favorite, performed by some of the twentieth century's most important recording artists, including Elvis Presley, George Beverly Shea, Anne Murray, Jim Reeves, Mahalia Jackson and manya more. British television dramatist Dennis Potter used the gospel song in several of his plays, most notably Pennies from Heaven (1978); and the song also played a major part in "Gridlock" (2007), an episode of the long-running sci-fi drama series Doctor Who.


Video Credit:

The Old Rugged Cross. Youtube, uploaded by Smileyface522. Accessed March 30, 2012.


Resource:

The Old Rugged Cross.  en.wikipedia.org. Accessed March 30, 2012.



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Pain and that Old Rugged Cross

Holy Saturday Reflection - The Old Rugged Cross

Good Friday is the day when Jesus suffered from that awful cross in Calvary. As human beings we think of the times when we feel much pain, physical or emotional, that weigh on us heavily.

Some of us have had a brush with death or have been seriously ill. Others have had freak accidents, or simply grieving from a loved one's loss. Wounds and swellings hurt. Hindsight, for what we are celebrating today - Good Friday - for whatever pain we feel, is most likely less compared to what Christ must have felt as he suffered on that rugged cross.  Let us once again reflect on Christ's 7 last words that form the part of Christian meditation for the Holy Week. 

The Seven Last Words of Jesus on the Cross

1. Father forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:34).