Author: Wick

Husband, Father, Pastor, Missionary, Writer, Poet, Friend, reader, coffee enthusiast, hockey Wing-Nut, musical participator, etc...
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Easter Thursday

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So we’ve tried something new this year, even in the midst of what seems to be one of our busiest weeks in quite sometime. We’re stealing a suggestion from Bishop Wright, and celebrating Easter as a week long celebration. We are hoping to make this a family tradition as our daughters continue to grow, adding different aspects to it.

Each day we’ve attempted to include something special, and out of the ordinary. Our goal will be, as each of our 3 girls grow, give each of them one day during Easter week to plan something special. Until they get to the age where they can plan/choose something like that…guess we’ll do it for them. This week was/is:

Easter Sunday: Obvious Easter celebrations, hidden baskets, dinner with family, candy, etc.
Easter Monday: Movie night with homemade pizza, with blankets and pillows all over the living room.
Easter Tuesday: Met Sarah and the kids Lunch break at the mall, letting the girls go nuts on the play area there.
Easter Wednesday: Quick stop over at McDonald’s before church, letting Addie venture into the unknown. Even though she only went as far as the blue tube, and the little car. She still loved every minute of it. Then over to church for an Easter dinner/movie night with the teens!
Easter Thursday: Breakfast out with the family, McDonald’s again – at Addie’s request. She had the whole play area to herself! (play area didn’t open until 9am, but they totally opened it at 8am for us!)
Easter Friday: Daddy gets to stay home and play with the girls all day on his day off!! Garage sale at Nana Nicol’s house, if any of ya’ll need baby stuffs.
Easter Saturday: Hanging out with Uncle Larry/Staci, and building a swing set in the backyard! WOOT.

May we all continue celebrating Easter with our lives, recognizing each Sunday together as a celebration/proclamation that Jesus Christ has been resurrected – that NEW LIFE is possible!

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Easter Wednesday

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It was tough to do. Last week, while our church’s CLC (Childrens) was celebrating Easter, having Easter Egg hunts, etc…I resisted the temptation. Teenagers, after all, are old enough to begin appreciating things like Lent, etc. So we focused instead on waiting for the resurrection. We went throught the story of Christ’s last week, all the way up to his final moments on the cross, and breathing His last breath.

Incidentally, if you’re looking for a great book to use for illustrating such moments of familiar or unfamiliar Bible stories, I recommend “The Book of God” by Walt Wangerin, Jr. I heard of it back in 2001 at a Youth Specialties Convention seminar with Tony Jones, and have enjoyed using it and reading it ever since. It’s basically the entire Bible, written chronologically as a Novel. Great stuff.

We experienced a great Christian oxymoron,
a deeply satisfying hunger.

To talk in great detail about the need for a savior, the need for all things becoming new, the need for a Spirit that is given by God to restore all things and reveal His Kingdom as being, and not yet……and yet not celebrate it’s arrival.

Who knows….maybe the teens blew it off, skipped church Sunday, and completely missed out on the festivities. Maybe they didn’t experience any hunger at all. But I gotta believe some did, and all did somewhat, no matter how it was acknowledged/cast aside.

So tonight, with the teens arriving who probably missed out on Sunday celebrations, and haven’t thought much about it since then….I will be re-visiting the hunger briefly. Before launching into a celebration of Easter each of them would have preferred to the hams and green bean casseroles found in dining rooms all over the place this past week.

How will we celebrate?

Pizza and Mountain Dew. With a bit of half-off Easter candy, thanks to our good friends at Walgreens. Boom. HAPPY EASTER!! NEW LIFE IS POSSIBLE!!!!

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Easter Tuesday

Posted on by Wick
“So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence
with the glory that I had in your presence
before the world existed.” John 17:5

Jesus prays this prayer before the moments leading to his arrest and execution. After laying dead for days in the tomb, we believe Jesus was resurrected.

In John chapter 11, we see Jesus calling Lazarus back from his grave. Lazarus emerges, alive, though once dead. Christianity believes that there is a difference between Jesus and Lazarus, in regard to resurrection. You’ve heard this before.

What is that difference? Lazarus returns simply as he was once before – humanly living. His heart was pumping blood through veins, his lungs were taking in oxygen, etc. He was alive.

Jesus is resurrected by the glory of God. Still physically, but in a new way. Throughout the New Testament, Jesus is referred to as “Firstborn among the dead“. We believe that someday we will all be resurrected with new bodies (1 Cor. 15), and we believe that at his resurrection, Jesus is given His fully, before all of us. The first to be born of resurrection. The first human to be completely alive by the presence and glory of God.

It is THAT KING, ruling over the Kingdom that exists by that same presence, that we pray to. That we worship. That invites us to not wait until we receive our own resurrection bodies, but to come alive by His Spirit even NOW, and to be His agents, announcing the True reality to a broken world in need of that revelation.

Relationships, words, drama, finances, tax season, wars, terrorism, corrupt government on every level, broken churches, broken homes, etc. We are called to live out God’s Kingdom, and be sourced by Him, in the midst of it all, bringing life/healing/restoration/God’s Spirit to each of these…believing our work as His Body is accomplishing great things for the Kingdom. (Rev. 21:5)