Reaching the Lost. Discipling the Saved. Sharing the Love of Jesus with Everyone.
EASTER SUNDAY!!
The men said to them, “Why do you seek the Living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”
Luke 24:5b-6a
This Sunday marks the highest, most Holy day of the year; because the Resurrection of Jesus changed our eternity! It is the quintessential pivot point from despair to joy; from no future to an everlasting one; from death to life!
Join us as we celebrate!
On Friday, March 29, 2023, at 7:00 PM, we will worship and “celebrate” Good Friday with a form of a “Service of Darkness.”
It will be a meaningful, but difficult service. We pray you will attend.
More information on “Good Friday” and a “Service of Darkness” from
lifebridgesealy.com/ministries/worship/good-friday/.
“Good Friday.” Such a strange name for the day when the innocent Savior of humanity and God’s Son died horribly. Yet, for us, the day marks a pivotal event in history. A holy and unbelievable imbalanced exchange: His perfection and innocence for our sins and guilt.
And twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on His head and put a reed in His right hand. And kneeling before Him, they mocked Him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on Him and took the reed and struck Him on the head. And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe and put His own clothes on Him and led Him away to crucify Him.
Matthew 27:29-31
Lord, have mercy!
And He did. Have mercy. For us. When we were still in sin and rebellion.
We worship and “celebrate” this event and exchange with a form of a “Tenebrae” service. Tenebrae means “darkness” and the service takes its name from the ceremony of extinguishing the worship candles in such a way that the Church is gradually cast into darkness, except for the light of a single candle. The focus of the Tenebrae is the consequence of sin and the magnitude of Jesus’ sacrifice. The worship ends in darkness and silence, symbolizing our Savior’s death upon the cross. The single candle symbolizes the hope of our Savior’s resurrection. At the completion of the Tenebrae service, the worshipers are asked to leave in silence, in order to maintain the spirit of the Good Friday commemoration of our Savior’s crucifixion.
Experience the depth of God’s love for you on Good Friday so that you can sour with the news of His resurrection on Easter Sunday!
You will be blessed.
Holy Week – and indeed, Faith iteself – comes with a roller coaster of ups and downs; highs and lows.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
Genesis 50:20ab
We see that as Jesus rides into Jerusalem triumphantly, welcomed by the crowds as the Son of David; just to be betrayed, denied, abandoned, judged, sneered at, and crucified later that week.
In our readin from Luke we are backing up just a little in our journey to Jesus’ last supper where He instituted the Lord’s Supper and celebrated the Passover with His disciples.
He says, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer. For I tell you I will not eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God.” And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he said, “Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.”
This is a high. Jesus having this wonderful celebration with His disciples that He has “earnestly desired” to have with them.
But the lowest low is coming. Evil s coming. Suffering, pain, and death will follow.
But there is an “until!” There will be more to the story! There will be the highest high when the day comes and He will once again when the Kingdom of God is fulfilled. When death is conquered. When suffering ends. When all evil has been utterly and permanently destroyed forever!
Until can be a difficult word when going through evil or when it is on the horizon. But it is also a word of hope – and patience. A word of anticipation and a word of reliance. It is a word which we can hold on to because we know that what comes after all the trials and pains and lows and evil will be far outweighed with good and joy!
And so we endure. And wait. UNTIL! And then we rejoice – forever!
We continue our journey through the book of 1 CORINTHIANS. We’re at 1 Corinthians 2:6ff.
Let’s go!
Evil is often louder than good. We see it in the news. We see it in our lives. Criticism lingers even as compliments fade.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
Genesis 50:20ab
The evil around Jesus at the crucifixion was deafening. Mocking and ridicule by the religious leaders, by the executing soldiers, and by guilty criminals next to Jesus rand throughout the hilltop. And Jesus, the innocent One, the recipient of it all. Not only that, His own Father had forsaken Him for a time.
But then there is a voice of hope from a strange place. A voice of confession. A voice of longing. A voice of belief. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” And this lone voice from a self-proclaimed sinner elicits a response from the One who had been experiencing only evil before now: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Today! You and Me! In paradise!
When all the world lifts their voice in a cacophony of evil and pain, remember those words for you: through faith in Jesus, His salvation is realy for you today and paradise awaits for eternity!
Let those words of truth and hope echo louder than any evil in your lives; for they are the ones that matter! They are the ones that will last! They are the ones for you; today and tomorrow and forever!
We continue our journey through the book of 1 CORINTHIANS. We’re at 1 Corinthians 1:18ff.
Let’s go!
The world around us is a complicated place that can be hard to figure out. Life sometimes sends us a fair bit of pain and suffering. It’s not hard to spot cruelty and injustice, pain and confusion, all around us. Much of the time, it’s probably best for us to say two things.
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
Genesis 50:20ab
The first is this: “I don’t really understand how this is all fitting together, but I am here with you as we go through it.”
The other thing that we say and that we believe is: Our God is still at work, and he knows how to take the evil and use it for good.
It’s not a blind faith. The proof of it, simply put, is Jesus.
God worked good from evil for us and all people, through Jesus our King, our living, reigning King through His suffering, trial, death, and resurrection.
And God still does that today, for the people of the King.
Praise the Lord that, even though evil still hurts and affects us, it doesn’t overcome us.
It is a conquered enemy for our eternal future in paradise!
~ The Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Gibbs, edited by The Rev. Scott Heitshusen
We begin our journey through the book of 1 CORINTHIANS.
Today: an introduction!
Let’s go!
Jesus now stands before the religious leaders for a “trial.”
As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good.
Genesis 50:20ab
Sure it’s really a mockery of one, but even the leaders know they need to go through the paces to get things taken care of. If a mockery of justice will do it, so be it!
In fact, since it is a mockery, mocking this Jesus is given the green light. The guards, even before the trial begins beat and mock. When in the trial, the leaders ask questions with no intention of listening to the answers; so they can ask in mockery. “Are You the Son of God, then?” They weren’t really asking. They weren’t interested in any response Jesus was going to give; so long as they could turn it around and get to the conviction they had already decided to impose.
Jesus knows this and isn’t interested in helping them in this mockery. But He does say something interesting here: “From now on the Son of Man shall be seated at the right hand of the power of God.”
This time of evil and darkness will be over soon, true; but is there more to this? Is He giving them the ammunition they need to get it over with; to get the Plan moving forward?
Perhaps.
Or maybe He was also giving them an out: a reminder of who He is and a chance to crawl out of their willful, blind ignorance and into the Light; into Him?
Perhaps some of both.
But we mustn’t fall into the trap of thinking that we would act differently than these soldiers and leaders. We would act godly! We would stand up for righteousness and the Righteous One!
These people likely felt they were fulfilling ‘justice’ – maybe just more efficiently.
This man was guilty; anyone could see it! They were doing their job; their godly job!
They were blind-fully ignorant!
But we are blessed now because the Holy Spirit has given us sight into His Will and cured our ignorance of His Plan! We are called to act, no longer in the blind ignorance of unbelief, but in the gracious way of salvation through Jesus!
The Holy Spirit has removed our blinders and lets us see Jesus, the Son of Man, seated at the right hand of the power of God!
All by His grace. All by His mercy. All by His spirit.
There but for the grace and Spirit of God would we go!
“Thank You, Lord Jesus, for enduring mockery for our sake and for the Holy Spirit who has removed our blind ignorance in Faith!”
We are between topics, so this Sunday, it’s anything goes!
We’ll see where the discussion takes us.
Come and be with us to celebrate the ultimate Love and true freedom we all have through The Resurrection of Jesus!
Sunday, March 31, 2024
We will have a Pancake Breakfast that morning at 8:30 AM (no Adult Bible Class that day) and an Easter Egg Hunt following around 9:30 AM. Then Worship at 10:00 AM.
Join us!
More information about the Resurrection of Jesus celebrated on Easter from:
lifebridgesealy.com/ministries/worship/easter-the-resurrection-of-jesus/.
This is the great shout for Easter; the highest day on the Church calendar!
On this day we celebrate the victory of Jesus over sin, death, and the power of the devil. All that He went through and endured is over and exultation and joy remain.
And for all who have faith in Jesus as their savior gain the same victories He won! Our sins are gone and forgiveness takes its place. Death is gone and everlasting life takes its place. Pain and anguish are bound to this life only and joy eternal awaits.
The resurrection of Jesus is the sole event to which all of history hinges. All of the old testament points to its coming and all since draws meaning in the light of it.
If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.
1 Corinthians 15:17
Without the resurrection everything else would be pointless and moot!
Come and be with us to celebrate this greatest day of the year and see how Jesus, though His resurrection, changes everything – for you!
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EASTER SUNDAY!! The men said to them, “Why do you seek the Living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.”Luke 24:5b-6a This Sunday marks the highest, most…
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We are starting a new BridgeKidz series with the tagline, “Worshipping God Every Day”
Honor the LORD our God. Worship at His feet. He is holy.
Psalm 99:5 (NIrV)
We worship God in church with songs of praise, but that is just one part of worship. Worship can happen anywhere and at any time, regardless of the circumstances of our lives. Worship can happen when we sing, when we pray, and when we show love to others.
Kids will learn that every day we can praise God in some way.
Our series begins on Sunday, March 3, 2024, and will continue through May 5, 2024.
Join us!
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