peace

Easter Saturday 2026

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“This is my Father’s world:
O let me ne’er forget
That though the wrong seems oft so strong,
God is the Ruler yet.
This is my Father’s world:
Why should my heart be sad?
The Lord is King: let the heavens ring!
God reigns; let earth be glad!” (Maltbie D. Babcock)

This is the day between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I don’t know of any faith tradition that observes this day. I imagine that everyone needs a break after Maundy Thursday and Good Friday before Easter Sunday. Besides, what would you celebrate or honor?

As far as we know, nothing happened. I know the Bible talks about how Jesus preached to the spirits in prison between the crucifixion and the resurrection, but I’m honestly not sure what that means. Did Jesus actually descend into hell to proclaim His victory? Was He preaching through Noah to those before the flood? Better minds than mine have had differing opinions for decades.

I do know that most likely the disciples were locked away in a secret room, grieving and terrified of being discovered. Their Lord had just died. They thought the dream was over. Any thought of a future kingdom was as dead as the Rabbi they had followed for three years.

But we have the blessing of hindsight. We can look back, knowing what the next day would bring. We know that those same disciples who had abandoned Jesus in the garden and watched from afar as He was brutally executed would be the same ones to proclaim the gospel with supernatural boldness, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer as Jesus had suffered.

It does seem sometimes that the wrong seems so strong. From every headline, it seems like evil is winning. But we know that this is still the Father’s world. Jesus is still ruler. We know, and one day the whole world will know. So we can look forward with hope and not despair like so many in the world do.

Easter Sunday is a reminder that evil and wrong have already been defeated. Death is not the end. Those who we love and lose who are in the Lord are not lost forever, but are in the very presence of Jesus, and we will see them again.

“And I will rise when He calls my name
No more sorrow, no more pain
I will rise on eagles’ wings
Before my God fall on my knees
And rise
I will rise” (Chris Tomlin / Jesse Reeves / Louie Giglio / Matt Maher)

Invited (Good Friday 2026)

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I got a last minute invite from a friend to see Chris Tomlin’s Good Friday worship concert at Bridgestone Arena. He knew someone who had a suite and couldn’t use the tickets, so he got one and invited me to tag along. We got to sit in comfortable chairs and eat free food. Plus there was a concert.

The concert itself was amazing. Chris sang all of his familiar songs that churches have been worshipping with for years. He had a few special guests, including one Michael W. Smith, to help lead us in worship. The highlight of the evening was hearing David Nassar speak. He mentioned hearing a young Iranian girl named Goinosh singing the song Holy Forever in Farsi at 4 am. Lo and behold, they brought her out on stage to sing it in Farsi while the crowd sang it in English.

The best part was that I didn’t have to pay. I knew someone who knew someone, so when I arrived, all I had to do was walk into the suite and enjoy the show. My ticket had already been paid for.

It struck me how that’s a picture of heaven. One day, I’ll show up at those proverbial pearly gates. I won’t have to fork over a large sum of cash or prove a lifetime of good deeds to get in. When I arrive, I can honestly tell them that my purchase price to get in has already been paid in full.

I love the illustration that Allistair Begg uses about the thief on the cross on his first day in heaven. There’s all these angels asking him all sorts of questions about theological concepts that he doesn’t know the answers to. When they ask how he got in, he said, “The Man on the middle cross said I could come.”

That will be my answer if anyone asks. It won’t be because of my sinless life. It won’t be because my good deeds outweigh my bad deeds. It won’t be because God ignored my sin. It will be because once I asked Jesus to save me from my sin and to be my Lord and Savior. I invited Him to live in my heart.

This invitation isn’t just for a future residence in heaven. It gets me into the throne of grace anytime I’m in need. It gets the Holy Spirit inside of me, enabling me to live a life worthy of God. Right now, I have everything I need for life and godliness. Right now, I have 100% of God in me and with me and for me.

My invitation, bought and paid for, is the same that’s offered to anyone who says yes to Jesus. Anyone who repents and believes in Jesus Christ for salvation. It’s not just a ticket to get into heaven, but an invitation into an abundant life in Jesus that starts right now.

Maundy Thursday 2026

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I love a good Maundy Thursday service, or at least the way my church does it. After growing up in old-school Baptist churches, I’ve loved being introduced to some more liturgical aspects of the calendar year, like Advent and Lent. I especially love the idea of commemorating the week leading up to Easter Sunday.

Our Maundy Thursday service is very low-key. We typically have one person playing music in an atmosphere of reflection and contemplation. There’s no sermon, only a rotating set of slides with verses from Isaiah 53 and other verses relating to the crucifixion. Two deacons stand in the front of the sanctuary ready to offer the elements of the Lord’s Supper.

To appreciate Easter Sunday more fully, it’s good to remember what led up to it. We need to walk through the last supper of Christ with His disciples. We need to see Him in the garden, praying that the cup might pass but also praying not my will but Thine. We need to relive the arrest, the trial, and the crucifixion.

It’s easy to read those passages in light of the resurrection, but I think we miss something. Those disciples were genuinely grieving the loss of their Lord. They had no idea that the bloodied body they saw buried in the tomb would rise out of it three days later. Sure, they heard what Jesus had told them, but it didn’t make sense, along with 90% of what Jesus spoke to them.

Easter means something because Jesus really was dead. Not to go into graphic gory detail, but most paintings and other depictions of Jesus on the cross don’t really do it justice. Isaiah 52 says that He wasn’t even recognizable as human. I still think that if you filmed the crucifixion with 100% biblical accuracy, it’d get an NC-17 or get censored because it would be way too gory and graphic for most people.

That’s what was in the tomb. That’s why Easter is a big deal. Easter means that there’s no such thing as a lost cause or a hopeless situation. Easter means that the same death that couldn’t hold Jesus in the grave will not have the last word. Jesus has overcome death, the grave, and hell and the victory is already won.

I don’t want to rush into the celebration this time. I want to take it all in as best as I can. I want to weep with the disciples and remember that Jesus wept over Lazarus as well, knowing full well that He was about to call him out of his own grave. Easter means that just as Jesus endured the cross for the joy that awaited, so we can endure anything when we know that Easter Sunday is on the other side of our suffering.

The Suffering Servant

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“The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him” (Isaiah 53:2-6, The Message).

As the old preacher used to say, that’s my Jesus! He didn’t wink at my sin or tell me not to worry about it. He Himself bore my sin on His body on the cross. He took the punishment that I deserved for my sins. He as an infinite being suffered infinitely and died in my place.

There have been lots of renderings and pictures of what we think Jesus looked like. According to Isaiah 53, He was nothing much to look at. He wasn’t anything that would catch people’s eye and hold their attention. The Bible says that there was “nothing beautiful or majestic about his appearance” (Isaiah, 53:2, NLT). Basically, He looked like a lot of other 30something year old Middle Eastern men in the 1st century.

But He’s the only one who lived a sinless life, perfectly keeping the law of God. He’s the only one who willingly took up a cross and laid down His life for others. He’s the only one who took peoples’ sins on His own body and paid their penalty. And He’s the only one who walked out of an empty tomb after three days.

That means He’s the only one worthy of worship. He’s the only one worth singing about, talking about, praying to, and praising. And if I had been the only one, I still believe He would have gone through it all even for me. That’s a kind of love that’s worth singing about and celebrating and living out. That’s my Jesus!

On the Night Before Palm Sunday

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It’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Palm Sunday, which means a week from tomorrow is Easter Sunday. That will be when people who would normally not go to church will show up feeling uncomfortable and not knowing when to sit, stand, or kneel. Many of them will know very little about why we’re celebrating Easter again this year because mostly what they know is rabbits and candy and hunting for plastic eggs.

Although Christmas is my favorite, Easter is not far behind. It represents why Christmas has meaning. If Jesus died on the cross and remained buried in that tomb, then His birth has no meaning and His life has no value. Anything He said or did would in turn be worthless.

But because there is an empty tomb and a risen Lord, we celebrate. We come together to remember that Jesus laid down His life for us to make our salvation possible. He then rose again to make that salvation secure. We can trust that nothing can separate us from the love of a Savior whom the grave could not hold and death could not defeat.

I do love everything about Easter. I love how people still get dressed up in their best Sunday outfits. I love that little kids still get excited about Easter baskets filled with candy and other goodness as well as hunting for those plastic eggs filled with more candy and sometimes money. I love seeing the world explode in pastel colors as the earth comes back to life after having lain dormant for so long during the winter months.

Palm Sunday represents the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem when the people lauded Him with hosannas. Most of them were thinking He was about to instigate an overthrow of Roman rule and a return of kingship to Israel. They wanted a king just like all the other nations, just like another Saul who looked good and said all the right things.

But a few knew that Jesus’ kingdom was not of this world. They knew that His kingdom wasn’t just for Jews. His kingdom was for anyone who would put their faith in this Messiah. This road that led to a kingdom wasn’t covered with palm branches and hosannas laid down by the multitudes but instead lead to a hill with Him carrying a cross while multitudes jeered at Him and called for His execution. This road would lead to suffering and death, but we know that soon that crown of thorns He bore on the cross would soon be exchanged for a throne that He would never relinquish.

Easter Sunday is a reminder that the worst part isn’t the end. As one writer puts it, your story never ends with ashes. The resurrection means that no one is ever too far gone or too lost to save. It’s never too late to be who God made you to be or to live out His purposes for you.

May our hosannas ring out just as loudly as they did 2000 years ago, but may we also look to the cross and the tomb where Jesus lay for three days and remember that it was for us that He lived and died. But may we never lose sight of that Sunday when He rose again. May our song from now on always be an Easter song because we are an Easter people with a risen Lord!

A New Way to Live

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“It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom. But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely” (Galatians 5:19-23, The Message).

Those of you who were saved later in life can probably attest to this. Following Jesus not only saves you from your sin and guarantees you a place in heaven, but it is simply a better way to live. Period. Instead of carrying the burden of being our own gods and saviors, we get to live out of the freedom that Jesus won for us on the cross. We live out of new identities and new hearts and new purposes.

The good news is that it’s never too late for those in the first category to switch to the second. You can know true peace and fulfillment through Jesus at any age. Because of Easter Sunday, death and ashes will not have the last word. There is a hope that even the grave can’t conquer.

Thank You, Jesus, for giving us a new way to live. We’re no longer slaves to sin or to our addictions or our passions. We can choose a better way now that You chose the nails for us. We can now be fully alive since you laid down Your life for us. You became obedient to the point of death on a cross so that we could finally know what it means to live victoriously and abundantly in Your mercy and grace. Amen.

Loving People & Glorifying God

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“Love is doing what will enthrall the beloved with the greatest and longest joy. What will enthrall the beloved this way is the glory of God. Love means doing all we can, at whatever cost to ourselves, to help people be enthralled with the glory of God. When they are, they are satisfied and God is glorified. Therefore loving people and glorifying God are one” (John Piper).

We love God in part by how we love people. If we say we love God whom we have not seen, as the verse goes, but do not love the people in our lives that we can see, we show that we don’t really love God. Basically, we lie.

The best way to love others is to bring out the best in them. That’s what God does. He brings out the best in us. So when we lead people to places where they most glorify God, that’s where they find their deepest satisfaction. I love how John Piper says that the chief end of man is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.

God’s glory is our greatest good. People that don’t know God can hardly give Him glory or glorify Him through their lives. It seems that when people fall in love with Jesus, they become their best selves and God is honored and both we and them are most satisfied.

I think it was also John Piper who said that the chief aim of the church is worship. Evangelism exists because in so many places worship doesn’t. People can’t worship what they don’t know and who they have never met. When the Church fulfills the Great Commission, worship is birthed in places where it wasn’t before and God gets greater glory as our love is tangibly expressed in sharing the gospel.

Lord, help us to love You well by loving others well and always pointing them to Jesus as their greatest good for the glory of God. May as may people as possible come to find their greatest satisfaction in glorifying God and enjoying Him forever. Amen.

No Cancel Culture for Me

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“I have never met a person I could despair of, or lose all hope for, after discerning what lies in me apart from the grace of God” (Oswald Chambers).

I am not a fan of cancel culture. I don’t believe in one strike, you’re out. Social media is full of people who look down from their holier than thou pedestals and condemn those who are perceived to be beneath them. I should know. I’ve done the same thing a few times in my lifetime.

But I think Mr. Oswald is on to something. When I’m honest about the thoughts that run through my head and the desires that sometimes pop up out of nowhere, I can’t condemn anybody. Whenever I am able to discern what lies in me apart from the grace of God, I freak out a little bit and then I thank God a lot for saving me.

There, but by the grace of God, go I. And possibly you. It’s easy for me to judge someone purely by actions while expecting others to judge me by my intentions. But that’s not how it works. Who knows? If I had the same experiences and background as these people, I might just do the same or worse.

What I know for a fact is that Jesus forgave me for every single one of my sins. He didn’t hold back forgiveness on any of them in order to be able to hold them over my head if I ever get out of line. He’s forgiven them. He’s cast them away as far as the east is from the west. Or as The Message puts it, “And as far as sunrise is from sunset, he has separated us from our sins.”

Who am I to withhold forgiveness? Who am I to deny grace? If I have been forgiven an infinite debt, how can I hold a small debt over someone else’s head and make them pay for it when I got off free?

Lord, You said that if I don’t forgive others, I won’t be forgiven. Help me to extend the same grace to others that you gave to me. Help me to love others the way You have loved me by seeking to bring out the best in me and compelling me to be my best self and a clearer reflection of You. Amen.

A St. Patrick’s Day Prayer

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I found a prayer attributed to St. Patrick that seemed appropriate and fitting for St. Patrick’s Day. It’s also very useful for the other 364 days of the year:

“I arise today
 Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity.
 Through belief in the threeness,
 Through confession of the oneness,
 Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
 Through the strength of Christ’s birth with His baptism,
 Through the strength of His crucifixion with His burial,
 Through the strength of His resurrection with His ascension,
 Through the strength of His descent for the judgment of doom.

I arise today
 Through the strength of the love of cherubim,
 In the obedience of angels,
 In the service of archangels,
 In the hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
 In the prayers of patriarchs,
 In the predictions of prophets,
 In the preaching of apostles,
 In the faith of confessors,
 In the innocence of holy virgins,
 In the deeds of righteous men.

I arise today, through
 The strength of heaven,
 The light of the sun,
 The radiance of the moon,
 The splendor of fire,
 The speed of lightning,
 The swiftness of wind,
 The depth of the sea,
 The stability of the earth,
 The firmness of rock.

I arise today, through
 God’s strength to pilot me,
 God’s might to uphold me,
 God’s wisdom to guide me,
 God’s eye to look before me,
 God’s ear to hear me,
 God’s word to speak for me,
 God’s hand to guard me,
 God’s shield to protect me,
 God’s host to save me
 From snares of devils,
 From temptation of vices,
 From everyone who shall wish me ill,
 afar and near.

I summon today
 All these powers between me and those evils,
 Against every cruel and merciless power
 that may oppose my body and soul,
 Against incantations of false prophets,
 Against black laws of pagandom,
 Against false laws of heretics,
 Against craft of idolatry,
 Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
 Against every knowledge that corrupts man’s body and soul;
 Christ to shield me today
 Against poison, against burning,
 Against drowning, against wounding,
 So that there may come to me an abundance of reward.

Christ with me,
 Christ before me,
 Christ behind me,
 Christ in me,
 Christ beneath me,
 Christ above me,
 Christ on my right,
 Christ on my left,
 Christ when I lie down,
 Christ when I sit down,
 Christ when I arise,
 Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
 Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
 Christ in every eye that sees me,
 Christ in every ear that hears me.”

Prone to Wander: A Prayer for Prodigals and Deconstructers

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“O to grace how great a debtor
daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
bind my wandering heart to thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
prone to leave the God I love;
here’s my heart; O take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above” (Robert Robinson).

I read where Robert Robinson, author of the famous hymn “Come, Thou Found of Every Blessing”, actually walked away from his faith for a while but eventually returned. I don’t know any details. I know that God’s power to restore and redeem His own children is amazing and never failing.

My prayer is for those who have altogether left the true faith or have watered it down to make it humanly palatable. I pray you come back. I pray that you will know that the God who made you is the same God who loves you. He is the same God as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as revealed in the Old Testament. He is the same God as the God who became incarnate in Jesus in the New Testament. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Truly, we are the ones who are prone to wander. We’re the ones who will drift into error and heresy if we forget our first love or quit striving for Christlikeness and settle into complacency and compromise. It’s easier to let go of our convictions for the sake of so-called peace and fitting in. It’s so much easier when we’re liked and when all people speak well of us. But Jesus said woe to those when everybody praises you and says nice things about you.

The truth of the matter is that Jesus said much that made people quit following Him. He said some hard truths that people didn’t like because what they heard made them uncomfortable and challenged them to change. He preached love toward those who were the least but He also emphasized repentance because the Kingdom of God was at hand. He told the woman that He didn’t condemn her but also to go and sin no more.

Lord, I’m praying that those who have fallen away will come back to true faith. I’m praying for some who were never Yours but who thought they were and even did amazing things in Your name though You said that You never knew them. May they truly embrace Your gospel of grace and find forgiveness and salvation in You. May they know not my truth or their truth but Your truth because You are the Truth, the Life, and the Way.

Restore Your truth to churches and denominations that have lost their way. Redeem them to places where Your Word is taught and Your gospel is preached. Revive Your Church, Lord, so that we can again be the ones who bear Your name well and share Your love faithfully until everyone has heard. Amen.