Greetings of peace, joy and solidarity! Today’s entry is actually a post I posted on Facebook. And Instagram. As you may know if you’ve been following the blog, I’m going through a Bible in a year project. I’m on is the book of Job at the moment. I always receive great inspiration and hope from this sometime is very dark and very disturbing book. The most powerful message is that God is always with us and for us. When life is suffocating and difficult, God is still working God’s will. I pray for all of us that as we continue living through this epidemic of COVID-19 as well as the epidemic of rampant racism and police brutality we remember that God is with us and for us. I pray for you. I pray for the souls of those who have been murdered. I pray for peace and assurance as well as the bestowing of hope upon those left behind. I pray for the police and lawyers and lawmakers that they would be given wisdom and hearts of compassion and justice according to the will of God. Amen.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
MotivationMonday – Black fathers are losing their wives, daughters and sons. Black daughters and sons are losing their fathers. Black mothers are losing their husbands and children. Black children are losing their mothers. Loss, murder, and countless numbers of tragedies and travesties befall people of all creeds and stations. #LordHelpUsAll.
Most authentically though, I speak from my own social location and to the issues burning most on my heart right now, which include the suffering and injustice perpetrated upon black bodies, minds and spirits.
I am a black daughter, mother, wife, sister, niece, aunt, friend, mentor, minister/teacher/preacher and advocate, and I want a better world for my people. We don’t know why horrific things happen and evil, power-hungry and vindictive people gain and maintain power. We wonder where God is in all of this and why setan is giving so much freedom to torment God’s people. We blame ourselves and we blame others and we seek solutions. Some of us are already in states of despair and some may be considering or have given into the temptation to self-destruct or comit suicide, because the pain is too much.
We’ve had enough for a very long time!!!!! I can’t answer your questions just like the book of Job doesn’t answer your questions, but I can help be the friends as they were at the end of chapter 2 before they started giving such fearful and condemning advice, they were good friends who sat silently with Job for seven days. I am with you not only for seven days but for as long as we need each other, which will be as long as there is life breath in you, because we are gods answers to each other’s prayers. As I read these verses from Job chapter 2, this is the message GOD put on my heart for you.
“I am worn out from my groaning. All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears” (Psalms 6:6 NIV).
Psalm 88:11–13 another prayer for deliverance. Jesus made God‘s wonders known below the earth on that day! But we pray for deliverance, because we can only make God‘s wonders known by living since we are not Jesus.
“Is your love declared in the grave, your faithfulness in Destruction? Are your wonders known in the place of darkness, or your righteous deeds in the land of oblivion? But I cry to you for help, Lord; in the morning my prayer comes before you” (Psalms 88:11-13 NIV).
Hold on sisters and brothers! The sun, the hope, the light, the joy and the promise is coming. Don’t rush it! The shadow, the pain, the isolation, the grief, the uncertainty and the feelings of abandonment only make the glory more intense. Are you able to sit here for the last moments of Holy Saturday (or revisit) and resist the temptation of rushing onto Resurrection Sunday? It’s difficult, but I’ve always found it enriching and helpful.
I have found that suffering does build character. It does build endurance. It does create a deeper capacity for compassion and empathy
So I started this blog with Psalm 6:6 and 88:11-13 as prayer of lament. For those who are, by chance, not feeling sorrow or pain, perhaps you can pray for those who are. Thanks be to God. Amen.
What Does Scripture Tell Us About Ehere Jesus was on Holy Saturday?
Not surprisingly, the Gospels tell us little, because the original disciples did not know where Jesus was on Saturday. They believed that he was in a tomb waiting to have his body prepared for burial. Then, it was discovered that his body had disappeared and they thought someone stole him. At this point in time we pause and experience their Fear, uncertainty and great grief. Good Friday was bad enough, and now this.
As we today fight this coronavirus pandemic and see life around us all but stopped, and as we fear for ourselves in our love ones, we experience some of the same emotions as we live the story we find ourselves in.
List of scriptures I found most helpful in understanding the activities of Jesus on #HolySaturday In Canonical Order.
What I did to put together material for this blog is I searched the Internet. Big surprise! We find information in Matthew, John, Acts, Ephesians, Philippians, Hebrews, First Peter and First Corinthian’s.
Jesus Foretells What Must Happen
Just as the original apostles/disciples forgot, I had, too! I was happy to find this.
“For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth” (Matthew 12:40 NIV.).
Oh yes, and John has a prediction as well! The dead who serve God and have faith in God yet who had died/fallen asleep before Jesus came to earth will hear Jesus his voice and live. He has gone to rescue those held captive. That part comes in a liter photo.
“Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live” (John 5:25 NIV).
Peter cause us to repentance for the wall we played in Jesus being crucified and so part of good Friday is sitting in that repentance for that shared seven, and the continued sin. Peter speaks from his own place of humanity, because he was as close to Jesus as anyone could be and yet he denied Jesus three times. Lord, and your mercy!
“But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him” (Acts 2:24 ).
Paul also supports the truth that Zjesus descended before he assented. Jesus had to descend from earth in order to ascend from earth since we know he did make appearances back on earth.
“(What does “he ascended” mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions? He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe)” (Ephesians 4:9-10 NIV).
Jesus came as a human in order to overcome death on our behalf. He had to experience the entire human experience, which does include death, but then he went beyond that and stuff and give us eternal life! Thanks be to God! I can shower over but he had to Indore and I’m grateful that it was done.
“Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death —that is, the devil— and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death” – Hebrews 2:14-15 –
And finally, Firdt
Peter is the scripture I found that the Catholics and Methodists, and probably other “protestants” agree is critical to understanding Holy Week. It talks about Jesus descending into hell to break the chains and set the captives free. This is a powerful statement, and if I think about it, I feel it even more poignantly, because it points out that Jesus was so far from heaven at this point.
People love the simple scripture that says, “Jesus wept” (John 11:35). The people who find comfort and reassurance in that scripture would likely find assurance from this passage. Only Jesus can do this: break her heart and heal them at the same time.
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“For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits—” (1 Peter 3:18-19).
Until The Marrow
Jesus, I thank you for dying on the cross for us, for me! I love you because you first love me. You are the author of life and the finisher of our faith in the saver of our souls. What amazing love and forgiveness. Grant us a restful night that we might wake up in the morning willing to praise you through the storm, through the separation and isolation and through our enemies who seek to seporate us from you. Speak to us through the scriptures that we may feels a full range of emotions from the disciples, to the early church all the way through to the current church. Help us bring other people into this Victorious story. In Jesus name we pray, amen!
Ministry With Christy Clark 