CHRIST IS RISEN! HE IS RISEN INDEED!

Psalm 38 | LORD, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. All my longings lie open before you, Lord; my sighing is not hidden from you. My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes. My friends and companions avoid me because of my wounds; my neighbors stay far away. Those who want to kill me set their traps, those who would harm me talk of my ruin; all day long they scheme and lie. I am like the deaf, who cannot hear, like the mute, who cannot speak; I have become like one who does not hear, whose mouth can offer no reply. LORD, I wait for you; you will answer, Lord my God. For I said, “Do not let them gloat or exalt themselves over me when my feet slip.” For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me. I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. Many have become my enemies without cause; those who hate me without reason are numerous. Those who repay my good with evil lodge accusations against me, though I seek only to do what is good. LORD, do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior.

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App. Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics. W

John 12:24 | Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

GOOD FRIDAY

DAILY THOUGHT: DYING WITH CHRIST (JOHN 12:24)
Though Jesus’ death is unique, he invites us to die as well. Like a seed that is planted in the ground and dies, Jesus invites us to die to ourselves in order to bear good fruit. We are asked to lay our lives down in love so that we may be raised into new life. The breath-taking good news of Good Friday and Easter Sunday is that life comes out of death. To embrace resurrection-life we need to learn how to die. The big question facing us today as we journey to the Cross and the Empty Tomb is: “What do we need to die to today in order to enter more fully into the new life that Christ wants to give us?”

DAILY PRACTICE:
Begin with the daily prayer request. Commit the verse above to memory. Write down your answer to the question above on a small piece of paper, tear it up and bury it into the ground. Speak with the living Christ about what you have done and listen to what he may say to you. In your own words, tell him that you want to die with him so you may rise with him into new life.

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App. Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics. W

Mark 14:1-9 | Now the Passover and the Festival of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were scheming to arrest Jesus secretly and kill him. “But not during the festival,” they said, “or the people may riot.” While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly. “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial. Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.”

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App. Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics. W

Mark 12:13-17 | Later they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to Jesus to catch him in his words. They came to him and said, “Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity. You aren’t swayed by others, because you pay no attention to who they are; but you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?” But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they replied. Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” And they were amazed at him.

DAILY PRAYER REQUEST: Lord, may we know you more clearly, love you more deeply and follow you more closely.

DAILY THOUGHT: GIVING TO GOD WHAT BELONGS TO GOD
(MARK 12:13–17)
“Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” What does this verse mean for us? Surely, it cannot mean that we must split our lives into two parts – the “religious” part and the “social” part. This would mean that Christ-followers can never critique any political or economic policy, however oppressive or corrupt they may be. Certainly this verse about giving to God what belongs to God opens up many questions. Did Jesus mean that because we are made in the image of God, we owe all of our lives to God and we need to surrender them totally and completely to God in the same way that we need to pay taxes to the government because that is what is due to them? This could certainly be part of what Jesus meant. Let us pray that God will help us to understand what is at the heart of this command that we may give ourselves fully to our true Servant-King.

DAILY PRACTICE:
Begin with the daily prayer request. Read the full story in which this command by Jesus is placed. (Mark 12:13–17) Reflect on your life today: What “parts” of your life do you tend to keep from God? How may God be inviting you into a fuller surrender of your life at this moment? Cup your hands, as if you were holding your whole life in them, and abandon yourself to God with these words: “Into your hand, Lord, I commit my life.” Throughout the day, especially in challenging situations, repeat this prayer again.

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App. Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics. W

John 3:16 | For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Matthew 6:1-4 | “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

DAILY PRAYER REQUEST: Lord, help me become more generous.

DAILY THOUGHT: A GENEROUS GOD
Has it ever struck you how generous God is? To begin with, God has given you and me the unrepeatable gift of our lives. In addition, not only has God created us, God has also given us all the gifts of this world to enjoy and to share. But God’s generosity does not stop here. God has also poured his love out to us in and through Jesus Christ. This is the staggering extravagance of the broken-open heart of God. As gospel writer John puts it: “For God so loved this world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Will you today allow your heart also to be broken open by this generous God?

DAILY PRACTICE:
Pray the daily prayer request. Today take time to meditate on the generosity of God. One simple way in which to do this is to look at the cross. As you do this, open your closed heart to receive the generous love of God. Here is a prayer you can say aloud: “Lord God, thank you for all your gifts. Thank you for the gift of my life and the lives of my loved ones. Thank you for all the gifts of creation that come to me freely each day. Most especially, thank you for the gift of your love shown on the cross. Please break open my closed heart that your generosity may flow through me.”

Devotional from YouVersion Bible App. Contact Pastor Rod Lindemann at RodL@TimothyLutheran.com on how to use the Bible App for additional readings and topics. W