Easter Quotes: Jesus is alive, normal is dead!

Kendall Harmon has posted an excerpt of the Rev. Patrick Allen’s Easter Sermon – what a WONDERFUL summary of the truth of what Christ’s resurrection means – “normal is dead.”  Hallelujah!

Easter means that Jesus is alive and normal is dead. Nothing, not even death, is certain, and in fact death is defeated, has met its match in Love Himself.

The tomb is empty – empty as in vacant; empty as in powerless. Death – life’s great certainty; the most normal, expected, routine, trustworthy thing going, in fact a sure thing, has come untrue in Christ.

The full sermon is here (text) or here (audio)

John 14:23

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23)
      Holy Spirit, please help us daily keep Jesus’ word.

      Father, we depend on your love for us.

      Jesus, come with your Father and your Holy Spirit and make your home in our hearts.

      LORD, let the river of your Spirit flow through this diocese.

Praying The Nicene Creed
I acknowledge one Baptism for the remission of sins;
      Jesus, thank you for washing away my sins. Thank you for baptizing me with your Holy Spirit. Please help me to live day by day in the hope of the resurrection. Thank you.

Tuesday: 5, 6 * 10, 11; Exod. 15:1-21: 1 Pet. 1:13-25: John 14:18-31
Wednesday: 119:1-24 * 12, 13, 14; Exod. 15:22-16:10: 1 Pet. 2:1-10: John 15:1-11

      Notes from the Front Line

***** Start now reading and reflecting on the lessons for next Sunday so that you can receive all that God has for you (Psalm 98 or 98:1-5; Acts 4:5-12 or Micah 4:1-5; 1 John 1:1-2:2 or Acts 4:5-12; Luke 24:36b-48 ).

Albany Intercessor

An Easter Prayer: May Your Resurrection Power Break Forth

May your resurrection power break forth in newness of life

May all that is broken be transformed

May all that is distorted be renewed and made whole

– Another of Christine Sine’s Easter Prayers, from her blog Godspace.

Celebrating 5000 entries at Lent and Beyond!

It was just over a year ago that Jill wrote a post celebrating 4000 entries at Lent & Beyond.  Today, we reach the 5000 post milestone on this version of the blog.  (Actually we’ve published more than 8500 posts, when you count in the 3500+ posts at our original blogsite!)

It’s fun that I’m in a short season of renewed blogging and get to commemorate it myself and highlight some of my favorite posts from the past 8 years!  I never could have imagined when I first started a Lent prayer campaignand associated blog in Feb. 2004 all that God would do in the years ahead, or that I’d still be blogging, albeit sporadically, 8 years later.

Celebrating 5000 Blog Entries (Part 2) – Some of the special prayer series we’ve done over the years

As part of our celebration of 5000 blog entries on this site, I thought it would be helpful to pull together at least a partial listing of some of our special prayer series.

Apart from the special menus and compilations of Advent, Lent and Easter devotional posts and resources, we’ve done a number of special prayer campaigns in recent years.  Below are just a few of the menus of prayers or links to special prayer collections we’ve compiled since 2006, or category listings where you can find all the prayers posted in conjunction with a specific event or topic.