Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A drawer
Sugar
A sparrow

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

Wellington boots
A cookbook
A taxi cab

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A hedgehog
A journal
A toothpick

Make-A-Story™ Monday - This Week's Writing Prompt

Writing to spec – you’ve heard the term. It means writing what the publisher wants. Can you do it? In our new feature - Make-A-Story™, we ask you to create a story with these elements. The story can be set in any time frame, any length, must adhere to our guidelines and have our standard Christian world view. 

A bottle cap
A lamp
A squirrel

He is Risen! Alleluia!

Happy Easter! He is Risen! Rejoice!

Let's Pray: Lord, thank You for the gift of grace, for dying and rising so that I might have eternal life. Help me always to remember that it is Your gift that makes my life possible. With You all things are possible. . .even everlasting life.



Surrexit Dominus vere. Alleluia.
The Lord is truly Risen. Alleluia.

Holy Week: Saturday

As Jesus lies in the tomb, that grain of wheat fallen to the ground in order that He may bear much fruit, we are forced to ponder our own faith journey. Can we follow Him fully into a resurrection to everlasting life that comes only through separating ourselves from this world?

John 12:20-26

“The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.
Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.

The Father will honor whoever serves me.


Let's Pray: Lord, help me to recognize the strength in weakness, the glory in humility, the life in dying to self so that I might become more like You every day. Jesus, remember me when you come into Your kingdom.


Holy Week: Good Friday

Today, Good Friday, Jesus is beaten and crowned with thorns. He is forced to carry a heavy Cross, He is nailed to it, and He suffers excruciating pain for three hours while He atones for our sins and then finishes the Passover. There are no better words to describe this than in the Gospel. Read carefully the words from John's Gospel.

Soak in the cowardliness of Pilate. How he orders Jesus to be scourged and then crucified even though he finds no fault with Jesus. How many times have you sinned—or allowed sin to happen—out of fear for your own well-being?

Take note of who is at the foot of the Cross. Only one of the Twelve. The rest are hiding away frightened for themselves or perhaps unable to face the horror they cannot undo. Either way, they abandon Jesus in His darkest hour. How many times have you left a friend in need because it was inconvenient or too emotionally draining to spend time with him/her?

Be attentive to the Old Testament prophecies that are fulfilled, not for His sake (Jesus knew Who He was) but so that we could have a tangible basis for our belief even before we have a mature faith.

See how Jesus, even in suffering and death, doesn’t neglect the Law: He is the priest offering sacrifice for the chosen people. He is the sacrificial Passover Lamb Whose blood saves the firstborn (and all those adopted into the fold). He completes the Passover meal as God prescribed in the Old Testament, by drinking wine from the hyssop branch. How many times have you ignored  the commandments because they are inconvenient or because we are saved by grace, and so the rules obviously don’t apply? (Consider this: If Jesus followed the rules, and He is our perfect example, then what does that say about rules?) It is only after He has suffered and bled and completed the Passover, that he then gives over his Spirit.

Today, at 3PM, the hour which marks the death of Jesus, take some time to reflect on His Passion—this act, which saves you and me from eternal death. Call to mind times when you have sinned, and then, as Jesus did, give your spirit back to the Father. “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.”

As a meditation, call to mind anything you’ve done that has caused Jesus to suffer, and then give yourself--sin and goodness--completely to God. “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.” Allow Jesus to take the weight of your sins, thank Him for His love and sacrifice, and then give yourself completely to God. “Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit.” Repeat the words aloud so that you may hear them with your own ears, and they can more fully sink into your mind and heart.


John 19:1-30
    Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged.
    And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head,
    and clothed him in a purple cloak,
    and they came to him and said,
    “Hail, King of the Jews!”
    And they struck him repeatedly.
    Once more Pilate went out and said to them,
    “Look, I am bringing him out to you,
    so that you may know that I find no guilt in him.”
    So Jesus came out,
    wearing the crown of thorns and the purple cloak.
    And he said to them, “Behold, the man!”
    When the chief priests and the guards saw him they cried out,
    “Crucify him, crucify him!”
    Pilate said to them,
    “Take him yourselves and crucify him.
    I find no guilt in him.”
    The Jews answered,
    “We have a law, and according to that law he ought to die,
    because he made himself the Son of God.”
    Now when Pilate heard this statement,
    he became even more afraid,
    and went back into the praetorium and said to Jesus,
    “Where are you from?”
    Jesus did not answer him.
    So Pilate said to him,
    “Do you not speak to me?
    Do you not know that I have power to release you
    and I have power to crucify you?”
    Jesus answered him,
    “You would have no power over me
    if it had not been given to you from above.
    For this reason the one who handed me over to you
    has the greater sin.”
    Consequently, Pilate tried to release him; but the Jews cried out,
    “If you release him, you are not a Friend of Caesar.
    Everyone who makes himself a king opposes Caesar.”
    When Pilate heard these words he brought Jesus out
    and seated him on the judge’s bench
    in the place called Stone Pavement, in Hebrew, Gabbatha.
    It was preparation day for Passover, and it was about noon.
    And he said to the Jews,
    “Behold, your king!”
    They cried out,
    “Take him away, take him away! Crucify him!”
    Pilate said to them,
    “Shall I crucify your king?”
    The chief priests answered,
    “We have no king but Caesar.”
    Then he handed him over to them to be crucified.
    So they took Jesus, and, carrying the cross himself,
    he went out to what is called the Place of the Skull,
    in Hebrew, Golgotha.
    There they crucified him, and with him two others,
    one on either side, with Jesus in the middle.
    Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross.
    It read, “Jesus the Nazorean, the King of the Jews.”
    Now many of the Jews read this inscription,
    because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city;
    and it was written in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek.
    So the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate,
    “Do not write ‘The King of the Jews,’
    but that he said, ‘I am the King of the Jews’.”
    Pilate answered,
    “What I have written, I have written.”
    When the soldiers had crucified Jesus,
    they took his clothes and divided them into four shares,
    a share for each soldier.
    They also took his tunic, but the tunic was seamless,
    woven in one piece from the top down.
    So they said to one another,
    “Let’s not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it will be, “
    in order that the passage of Scripture might be fulfilled that says:
    They divided my garments among them,
    and for my vesture they cast lots.
    This is what the soldiers did.
    Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother
    and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas,
    and Mary of Magdala.
    When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved
    he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.”
    Then he said to the disciple,
    “Behold, your mother.”
    And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.
    After this, aware that everything was now finished,
    in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled,
    Jesus said, “I thirst.”
    There was a vessel filled with common wine.
    So they put a sponge soaked in wine on a sprig of hyssop
    and put it up to his mouth.
    When Jesus had taken the wine, he said,
    “It is finished.”
    And bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Holy Week: Thursday

This evening marks the beginning of the holiest three days of the year: The Easter Triduum. Today, Jesus reveals Himself as the Passover Lamb. Our King of Kings shows us lowliness and humility, not just by His impending sacrifice, but by stooping to wash the disciples’ feet. He becomes both priest and servant, both King and Sacrifice.

While Jesus’ example here is meant in a special way for His immediate successors—the Apostles and the clergy who follow through the ages to lead His church—His example shows all mankind how we are to be. By His grace and sacrifice we are grafted as sons and daughters into His kingship. We are royalty of the highest lineage. But we are not to lord our status, our station as Christians over others. We are to become servants; to fulfill the needs of others, to help bring the lost or floundering to Christ to be washed clean, to place ourselves at the foot in service rather than elevating ourselves to the head. It is an awesome responsibility, and one that can be fulfilled only by stepping in the footsteps of Jesus and following his lead.

Let’s pray: Lord, help me to remain humble in service to You and to others. Help me always to remember Your example so that I might also lead by showing the world a spirit of charity; and even when I am in the shadow of impending hardship and pain, allow me the grace to put others’ needs before my own.

Holy Week: Wednesday

Isaiah 50:4-9 is a beautiful example of how we are to be good servants of the Lord. Woven into the passage are warning, instruction and hope. If we listen to the Lord, He will teach us how to use our gifts (in this case, a well-trained tongue that can uplift the weary). But, invariably, when we are using our gifts to glorify God, we will be ridiculed and possibly even attacked. How are we to react to this? By standing strong, not turning away from God; by not seeking revenge; and by peacefully accepting the “consequence” of fulfilling His will without regard for ourselves.

In return for our faithfulness in honouring Him and the gifts He supplies, He will provide the vindication our flesh may want to seek for ourselves.

Let’s Pray: Lord, help me to acknowledge the gifts you have provided that are uniquely mine, and help me to share those gifts to Your Glory. Help me never to place my own well-being before You. Grant me the grace to understand that, while living in the spirit goes against every fiber of my flesh, it is no less than Jesus did, even unto death on a cross. Thank You for Your sacrifice that purchased for Me the ultimate gift of everlasting life.

The Lord GOD has given me
a well-trained tongue,
That I might know how to speak to the weary
a word that will rouse them.
Morning after morning
he opens my ear that I may hear;
And I have not rebelled,
have not turned back.
I gave my back to those who beat me,
my cheeks to those who plucked my beard;
My face I did not shield
from buffets and spitting.

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let him confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?