Friday night, starting at 7, we have the opportunity to join with 50,000 believers around the globe and:
1.) hear teaching about the cross and everyday life
2.) pray for the people of Turkey

Ann Voskamp was recently interviewed about why she participates in “Secret Church”.

In One Thousand Gifts you’ve written about being grateful for God’s everyday gifts. How do you see this idea overlapping with this year’s Secret Church theme? How does gratitude fit in with the gospel?

Ann Voskamp: I read in Scripture that the gospel shapes us in two fundamental ways, much like what we see happening at the gathering of the Last Supper:

1) The shape of the Christ-life is eucharistic — Jesus takes the bread and does what? He gives thanks, eucharisteo in Greek. So the shape of the Christ-life is firstly eucharistic, full of gratitude for the incomprehensible grace of the constant goodness of God, thankfulness for the saving grace of Christ, endless gratefulness for the relentless love and companionship of Jesus and His tender sanctification of our souls.

2) We see how, at the Last Supper, the shape of the Christ-life is secondly cruciform. The shape of our lives should be cross-like, full of cross-like sacrifice. Jesus took that bread, gave thanks for it, and then broke it and gave it. How does our everyday life look like Christ did in that moment of breaking the bread, symbolic of His body, and of giving Himself away?

Want to register now?
Read the interview.

 

Tuesday, March 31, AD 33.

The following video features short explanations from and interviews with New Testament professors Grant Osborne (of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) and Andreas Köstenberger (of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) along with historian of ancient history Paul Maier (of Western Michigan University), focusing in particular on the opposition to Jesus and what angered his Jewish antagonists so much.

Tuesday Video

 

Monday, March 30, AD 33.

3-Final-Days-of-Jesus_Holy-Week-Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following video features short explanations from and interviews with New Testament professors Nicholas Perrin (of Wheaton College & classmate of mine at Covenant Seminary) and Grant Osborne (of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School), focusing in particular on the cursing of the fig tree, the cleansing of the temple, and the role of the temple in the theology and practice of Jesus. Watch for a new video each day this week.
watch the video

Also, here’s a harmony/chronology of the events:
1.) Of Monday
2.) of Holy Week

 

Some resources for you:

1.) Palm Sunday Video Teaching

2.) Here’s an attempted harmony/chronology of the words and actions of Jesus in the final week of his pre-resurrection life.    
What happened on Palm Sunday?
What happened on Monday?
What happened on Tuesday?
What happened on Wednesday?
What happened on Thursday?
What happened on Friday?
What happened on Saturday? Nothing is recorded.
What happened on Easter Sunday?

3.) Holy Week Geography and Harmony in Google Earth

Here is something you might find fruitful while contemplating the events leading up to our Savior’s death and resurrection: an attempt in Google Earth to show the locations of the major events (to the best of our knowledge) along with descriptions and biblical passages describing those events.

Click on the image below to go to the Google Map, then click on each letter to see a summary of the events for each day.

Visit Google Maps to see this map.

The KML file lets you interact with this map in Google Earth, allowing you to rotate the view and zoom in from various angles.

 

 

MLK was killed in Memphis at 6:01 on this date in 1968.

According to biographer Taylor Branch, King’s last words were to musician Ben Branch, who was scheduled to perform that night at an event King was going to attend: “Ben, make sure you play ‘Take My Hand, Precious Lord’ in the meeting tonight. Play it real pretty.”

Mahalia Jackson sings “Precious Lord”

9 things you need to know about MLK