Holy Week: Preparing our Hearts

As a society, we spend little time in contemplation. We're busy, so busy that we usually just run ourselves ragged right up until a moment of significance and hope that the depth of the moment will leap out at us. It doesn't work. The important moment hustles past with the rest of life and we are left with a somewhat hallow experience.

Without proper anticipation we cannot feel the excitement and full impact of resolution!

As Christians, we are days away from the most important celebration of our faith. We'll be planning family events and purchasing new Easter outfits, meanwhile, our hearts are left unprepared for the climax of the Christian year.

Don't let the Resurrection sneak up on you! Take this week to quiet your hearts and minds and give yourself over to the story and anticipation. On Sunday we celebrated Palm Sunday and let our hearts be glad for the arrival of the King! Later this week we meditate on the Passion of our Lord, as He willingly went to the cross. And, then we wait, with solemn anticipation for the moment the whole world has waited for...the Resurrection!

Here are some resources to help you prepare your heart this week:

• HOLY WEEK: Daily devotions and scripture readings are available on The Urban Ministry Institute's online Church Year Annual. For Holy Week visit here. 
• PALM SUNDAY: A sermon by Rev. Dr. Don L. Davis (sermons available late Monday or Tuesday of each week)
• GOOD FRIDAY: I prepared a booklet for personal or corporate meditation. Good Friday:Meditation and Prayer on the Last Seven Sayings of Christ. (It is meant to be printed double sided and folded in the middle in booklet form.)

Let's beat back the frantic pace of life this week in exchange for a deep anticipation of the greatest moment of our faith!

Set the World on Fire

Driving in the car, listening to Lacrae's song "Fuego" I suddenly thought, how did we get here? Dull and impotent shadows of ourselves, a society of Christians more concerned with the safety of morality than living in the power of the God of the universe. The holy fire of the Spirit being suffocated inside our need for control, when it should be consuming us from the inside out, setting the world on fire with God's glory.

I mean, do we even look like who we are? The fathers and mothers of the faith taught us that being a Christian means so much more than following a moral code, attending church services, and volunteering. During the explosion of the early church, we saw a birth of a people who were wild with abandon, embracing the cross rather than running from it. Christians were families who walked the outskirts of town looking for abandoned babies who were left to die, carrying them home and raising them as their own. Christians were those torn to pieces by lions in Rome. Christians were the apostles, preaching to thousands and boldly declaring truth to persecuting authorities. Christians are missionaries who go to their deaths, even as they take the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Christians openly embrace the sick and the dying. Christians burn at the stake. Christians embrace sinners with Christ-like redeeming love.

We are Christians.

When did we become so domesticated? We've lost our first love...Jesus. Instead we love tame and controllable morality. We love love that doesn't take us to the cross.

What the heck are we doing?

Kevin DeYoung says it well, “The world needs to see Christians burning, not with self-righteous fury at the sliding morals in our country, but with passion for God.” We must unleash the fire in our heart and let the Spirit burn through all the safety nets we've built for ourselves, until all we can see is God's hands holding us.

Then we'll have nothing to live for but Jesus and He can use that kind of abandon to set the world on fire with His glory. To quote Lacrae, "Get your torches high let's set ablaze the sky/Passion's a fire bright and we'll be burning forever/Set the world on fire."

Lecrae "Fuego"