Posts Tagged: "Easter"

easter post

NWLife Weekly Conversation—Easter

- - Life With God, Uncategorized, Video

Here is our fifth video NWLife podcast featuring our weekly conversation.

Today’s theme: Easter

Easter is the great reversal, the surprise of hope, the impossible made possible. Desmond Tutu said, “Good is stronger than evil, love is stronger than hate, light is stronger than darkness, life is stronger than death. Victory is ours, through him who loves us.”

In today’s podcast, little Kainoa shares the Easter story in his own words, our band opens with Coldplay’s Broken in the church lobby, Shannel reads John chapter 20 out in nature at sunrise, our teaching team members have a conversation about what Easter means, and our band leads Living Hope from the stage.

The cross is the eternal expression of the length to which God will go in order to restore broken community. —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

holy saturday post

So that the world may be made Easter new, without greedy lack, but only wonder

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Thankful Notes (#237)

This was a good day. Maybe not a typical Saturday, but still… good. My dad has been in his new house next door for two nights now and we are in the beginning stages of establishing a new rhythm.

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday, and, of course it will be different.

I’m not 100% OK with that, but then again, I have no power to change these things. I am proud of what our church is doing. Years and years ago, I remember hearing Pastor Tommy Barnett talking about, “When you poke something, what does it bleed?”

Our church bleeds serving and giving… and something about that reminds me of Jesus.

We will have our Drive-Thru Food Bank tomorrow at 10am and 5pm. Groceries and toiletries and Easter baskets for kids will be handed out to anyone who comes through. And I know a good number of our church family will stop by with donations.

kainoa for post

We also have a special Easter edition of our NWLife Weekly Conversation Video Podcast featuring some beautiful music performed by our band, and an Easter story summary told by one of our own kids—Kainoa, and an outdoor sunrise reading of John chapter 20 by Shannel, and a conversation among the teaching team about what Easter means to us.

shannel reading for post

While my heart longs for a different kind of Easter Sunday, it is also at peace and fully satisfied with what we have managed to do as a church in these strange times.

I hope you will join us, either in person or online, tomorrow for the most unique Easter of our lifetime.

An Easter Prayer by… Read More

light in the garden easter post

The Light That Sweeps Over The Garden

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Wilderness and desert will sing joyously, the badlands will celebrate and flower—Like the crocus in spring, bursting into blossom, a symphony of song and color. —Isaiah 35.1-2

A sound behind her stirs

A scatter of bright birdsong through the air.

She turns, but cannot focus through her tears,

Or recognize the Gardener standing there.

She hardly hears his gentle question, “Why,

Why are you weeping?” or sees the play of light

That brightens as she chokes out her reply,

“They took my love away, my day is night.”

And then she hears her name, she hears Love say

The Word that turns her night, and ours, to Day.

—Malcolm Guite, from his book Sounding the Seasons

 

I wanna testify

Scream in the holy light

You bring me back to life

And it’s all in the name of love

—Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha, In the Name of Love

 

His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it. —John 1.5

We crucified Love.

But Easter tells us… Read More

first sadness then gladness post

Lent Day 11… First Sadness, Then Gladness

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

Today’s Lent post is from Walter Brueggemann’s devotional book, A Way Other Than Our Own.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.

Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep.

—Luke 6.21b, 25b

In his “woe,” Jesus reviews the “laugh now” party. The “laugh now” party consists of those who celebrate the way things are, who benefit from the way things are. The “laugh now” party is filled with buoyancy and confidence, looks extremely well fed, speaks only positively, and sleeps unhindered at night.

Jesus says of the “laugh now” sect: “You will mourn and weep.” You will have your laughter silenced. You will plunge into grief when the bubble bursts, as it surely will. You will face loss, because… Jewish control will not last and because the Empire of Rome, like every empire, will pass away soon. And you will be left bereft.

Mourning and grieving and weeping have to do with… Read More

love has won

Love Has Won

- - Life With God, Uncategorized

I believe nothing has the power to separate us from God’s love.

Not death, not life, not angels or demons, not scary things or stressful things…

Not even hell has the power to separate us from His love.

No power up high or power down below—in fact, nothing in all the universe will ever be able to separate us from the love of God… Read More