For “Scripture Sunday”;
A bit late as I didn’t realize that Easter is already upon us, as Passover isn’t for another couple of weeks.
Upcoming Holy Days
Passover
April 22, 2016 - Observed evening before
Feast of Unleavened Bread
April 23-29, 2016
3 Things You May Not Know About Maundy Thursday and Good Friday
“Reflecting on the death of Jesus Christ is a sobering occasion for Christians. Unfortunately the timing of Christ’s death is rarely understood.
Devout Catholics participate in a Good Friday procession.
Churches will soon be packed with some of their largest attendances of the year. The “CEOs” (Christmas and Easter Only attendees) will make one of their semiannual appearances for Easter, the most holy observance of the year for mainstream Christianity. Good Friday, which occurs two days before Easter Sunday, is also significant as the most solemn occasion because it recalls the crucifixion of Christ.
1. Of all the man-made holidays, Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are the only ones that claim to commemorate something Jesus said to commemorate.
On the evening before His crucifixion, Jesus told His disciples to keep the Passover as an annual festival “in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25).
In teaching the Corinthians to observe this solemn service, Paul told them that through this memorial they would “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (verse 26, emphasis added throughout).
Jesus never commanded Christians to celebrate His birth or resurrection. Rather, His instruction was for us to memorialize His death—something that Maundy Thursday and Good Friday actually do attempt to do.
But does that mean you should observe Maundy Thursday and Good Friday?
2. Maundy Thursday and Good Friday aren’t the biblical names of the observance that commemorates Christ’s death.
The terms Maundy Thursday and Good Friday appear nowhere in the Bible. But the Bible does talk about another festival to honor Christ’s death: Passover.
The New Testament Passover established by Christ Himself includes taking bread and wine. The bread represents His broken body and the wine represents His shed blood (Matthew 26:26-28).
Churches vary in how often they partake of the symbols of bread and wine. Some take these symbols daily, some monthly and some on Maundy Thursday. But the Bible instructs us to observe it only once a year on a specific day (Leviticus 23:5). When we take the Passover symbols of unleavened bread and wine, we annually “proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes” (1 Corinthians 11:26).
Observing the Passover is a memorial of Christ’s death. Jesus did not die on many different days throughout the year. He died on only one day, and He observed the Passover on the prescribed evening before the day of His death.
Passover is the annual festival that reminds us of Christ’s death. To learn more about this observance, see “Passover: What Did Jesus Do for You?” and “Questions and Answers About the Passover.”
3. Jesus didn’t die on a Friday.
Today documentation is commonly recorded for births and deaths. While we don’t have these same types of records from the first century giving us the exact day of Christ’s death, the Bible does give us enough details to show that Jesus definitely didn’t die on a Friday.
The fact that there were two Sabbaths during the timeline of Jesus’ burial and resurrection is confirmed by several Bible translations, including the International Standard Version, which translates Matthew 28:1: “After the Sabbaths, around dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to take a look at the burial site.”
The annual Sabbath occurred on Thursday that year; the weekly Sabbath, on Saturday.
Download "The Chronology of Christ’s Crucifixion and Resurrection" infographic.
This chart includes the key events during this momentous week, demonstrating how Jesus’ promise to rise after three days and three nights was fulfilled, proving He is the Messiah.”
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Was Jesus Really Resurrected?
“Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our faith is futile. Do we have historical evidence that it actually happened?
A living Savior is vital to Christianity. Yet there is a very strong movement in our society today to mitigate and destroy our Christian heritage—especially belief in the resurrection. Many contend that Jesus was just a man, just a human teacher, and that He never was actually resurrected after His crucifixion.
So how can we know that it really happened? There’s a lot of evidence that verifies the accuracy of the New Testament and the validity of Jesus’ resurrection—enough to convince anyone willing to believe…….
5. Historically confirmed people
Not only does the New Testament contain historically accurate information and geographical markers, it also refers to some famous people.
Geisler and Turek put it well: “There is no way the New Testament writers could have gotten away with writing outright lies about Pilate, Caiaphas, Festus, Felix, and the entire Herodian bloodline. Somebody would have exposed them for falsely implicating these people in events that never occurred. The New Testament writers knew this, and would not have included so many prominent real people in a fictional story that was intended to deceive. Again, the best explanation is that the New Testament writers accurately recorded what they saw” (p. 225).
Here are some of the historical figures that are mentioned in the New Testamentthat are also found in non-Christian writings that verify the accuracy: Jesus, Agrippa I, Agrippa II, Ananias, Annas, Aretas, Bernice (wife of Agrippa II), Caesar Augustus, Caiaphas, Claudius, Drusilla, Erastus, Felix, Gallio, Gamaliel, Herod Antipas, Herod Archelaus, Herod the Great, Herod Philip I, Herod Philip II, Herodias, James the brother of Jesus, John the Baptist, Judas the Galilean, Lysanias, Pilate, Quirinius, Porcius Festus, Salome (daughter of Herodias), Sergius Paulus, and Tiberius Caesar.
These names of dozens of key biblical characters are found in other, non-Christian writings of the day—one more way of verifying the accuracy of what we have in our Bible today.
6. Ten non-Christian corroborating sources
There are 10 known non-Christian writers who mention Jesus within 150 years of His life, helping corroborate the biblical record.
These are: Josephus, the Jewish historian for the Roman government; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a Roman politician; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Thallus, a first-century historian; Seutonius, a Roman historian; Lucian of Samosata, a Greek satirist; Celsus, a Roman philosopher; Mara Bar-Serapion, a private citizen who wrote to his son; and the Jewish Talmud.
By contrast, over the same 150 years, there are nine non-Christian sources who mention Tiberius Caesar, the Roman emperor at the time of Jesus’ ministry. So discounting all the Christian sources, Jesus is mentioned by one more source than the Roman emperor. If you include Christian sources, authors mentioning Jesus outnumber those mentioning Tiberius by more than four times.
Geisler and Turek’s book outlines what can be pieced together from the 10 writers, some of whom are decidedly anti- Christian. They attest that Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar, lived a virtuous life, was a wonder-worker, had a brother named James, was acclaimed to be the Messiah, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate on the eve of the Jewish Passover, accompanied by darkness and earthquake.
They further affirm that His disciples believed He rose from the dead, were willing to die for their belief, spread Christianity rapidly as far as Rome, and denied the Roman gods, instead worshipping Jesus as God (p. 223).
More on this can be found in The Case for the Real Jesus by Lee Strobel (2007, p. 113). Strobel further relates this:
“‘We have better historical documentation for Jesus than for the founder of any other ancient religion,’ said Edwin Yamauchi of Miami University, a leading expert on ancient history. Sources from outside the Bible corroborate that many people believed Jesus performed healings and was the Messiah, that he was crucified, and that despite this shameful death, his followers, who believed he was still alive, worshiped him as God. One expert documented thirty-nine ancient sources that corroborate more than one hundred facts concerning Jesus’ life, teachings, crucifixion, and resurrection” (p. 272).”
Complete article at: http://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-magazine/was-jesus-really-resurrected
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Update:
One morning, I woke up to sharp pain in both hips, probably from doing a lot of standing
the day before. We have also had a cold spell, maybe that had something to do with it. That’s a new thing for me, I don’t have aches and pains, but I suppose it is due to my age, going on 81. I took an extra Flaxseed Oil capsule and an Aleve and I was good to go.
In the couple of mornings that we worked, Jay and I installed some of the wiring in the new wall between the new kitchen and bathroom. While it is just bare studs, now is the time to do it. This circuit is going straight to the breaker box on it’s own breaker. On the kitchen side there will be a counter top with upper and lower cabinets with several outlets for coffee maker, toaster, toaster oven, microwave, and anything else. We also ran the wire, also on it’s own circuit, to the new location of the water heater. It will be in a “blind” corner of the same kitchen cabinets right next to the new bathroom. On the other side, the front side of the kitchen, in the sink/stove area we have installed a counter height outlet next to the stove area for an electric pressure cooker or frypan or crockpot. It is over 3’ to the sink, so it didn’t have to be a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter). There are already GFCI outlets for the disposal and dishwasher under the counter.
Jay went to church with me, and he took some roast beef with veggies that he had made. He had hoped to warm it up in the church oven, but the oven was full and so it was warmed up in a crockpot. He said that made it even better. I took Cauliflower Au Gratin with buttered crumbs on top and Yucca Root fries. The fries tasted good, but holding them in the oven while the service was on, dried some of them out.
The Bible readings were Lev. 6:8-8:36, Jere. 7:21-8:3, 9:22,23, and Mark 12.28. and the Teaching was again about Prophecy and Jerusalem.
All week I have been getting things ready to go on consignment at the resale store, or donated to Outreach Ministries. I cleaned out a lot of places, washed the clothes, cleaned the shoes and purses, tried out the computer monitors and TVs, so today Jay and I loaded it all in the van ready to go to Conroe in the morning for my doctor appointment. It is another 6 month check-up from my heart surgery.
Nala, my foster cat, got out, and that is a no no. She could catch one of the deadly diseases that outside cats get. She wouldn’t come when called, so I left the back door of the attached garage closed but with tape over the latch so it wouldn’t catch. Then I got a heavy tow chain out of the shed, screwed a really big hook in the hinge-side door jam, hooked the chain to it and looped it through the top of a propane bottle and over the door handle and over a metal table next to the door. The door would open enough to let her in, but not a person without causing a lot of commotion. There is a motion security light over that back door, and I would be able to see it come on from my bedroom, so I went to bed and prayed. Something woke me up in the night, and there she was in the garage waiting to be let in the house. So I took the tape off the latch and closed the door and went back to bed. I was so grateful that she came back after less than half a day.
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