little girls are cute.
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Easter. Show all posts
Resurrection Sunday, 2020
Of course, i've been reading lots lately. One of the most recent things i've read is a booklet of Dr. J. Vernon McGee's The Tabernacle: God's Portrait of Christ. (takes a minute to download, but it's free.)
i find the ideas presented very powerful explanation of Christ and salvation.
Wordless Wednesday: My Favorite Max-Scrapbook Page
At first i really didn't like this one. Then i understood what he was trying to accomplish here:
What Goes into a Saturday Sister Meditation
In case anyone is interested in how i write these:
Many of the ones i'd previously written were for a group, and had an element of committee editing. But none of them seemed suitable, or at least quite what i wanted to offer for Easter.
And no Biblical woman is so associated with Easter as Mary Magdalene.
She is often thought of as a sinful woman, but, if so, that is not explicitly stated in Scripture. Wikipedia's article on her places the first mention of her as a harlot about 500 years after Jesus.
What Scripture does tell us is that He cast 7 demons cast out of her.
i was reminded of another place where 7 demons were mentioned, and went searching for it. The passage tells of 1 demon cast out. He found no place to rest, and, like the prodigal, thought to return.
The demon in this parable found "home" clean & empty, as good as a welcome. Instead of simply returning, he brought 7 other more wicked than himself to move in.
Which was all fascinating. Could Mary have gotten in this state because she had previously had one demon, someone else had cast it out, but her cleaned-up life had no new passion?
Like i said, all very fascinating, but not where i wanted to go.
The Saturday Sisters series is not about discussing theology or demonology. i might have the genesis of some sort of fiction here, but the numbers don't add up.
Biblical fiction must not contradict Scripture or what is known about life in Bible times.
So, what is message of Mary Magdalene?
You may well get as many answers as you have people writing about her.
It's fashionable to write about her as Apostle to the Apostles. There's a body of work about her as Jesus' wife and appointed leader after Him. (no comment here on that - you can read me elsewhere to see my opinion.)
i like Liz Curtis Higgs' novel Mad Mary, bearing in mind that it is fiction.
But back to the question, i had to find MY message to you about Mary Magdalene.
And that is the start of the process of the writing. . . .
Saturday Sisters: Mary Magdalene
Yes, everything else is worthless when
compared with the priceless gain
of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord.
I have discarded everything else,
counting it all as
garbage,
so that I may have Christ.
-- Philippians 3:8 NLT
Mary Magdalene is one
of those Bible people about whom we don't know as much as we think we
do.
In Luke 8:1-3, she is first mentioned as one of those "on
tour" with Jesus, one of the women supporting Him with their
resources. Here also, along with the resurrection account in Mark,
we learn that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her.
These are the only
mentions of her early connection with Jesus, but how powerful that
connection must have been.
No longer incapacitated, she used her new
life in service of the Life-Giver.
She was among the few
at the foot of the cross and one of the first at the empty tomb.
John's gospel records her sorrow in not finding her Lord's body as
expected, and her joy when He appeared to her.
Jesus commissioned her
to tell the disciples of His resurrection. She wanted to stay, and she didn't understand it
all.
Still, she obeyed
She obeyed, even though the men didn't believe her far-fetched story.
Guys coming back from death, you know, that's not the normal human experience. Obviously the dear woman's grief has deranged her.
Guys coming back from death, you know, that's not the normal human experience. Obviously the dear woman's grief has deranged her.
There are tantalizing bits of Mary's story that we might like to know, about her earlier and later life, but we do know what we need to know.
She met Jesus.
She decided about Jesus.
She followed through
without looking back.
She decided about Jesus.
She followed through
without looking back.
What about us? Can we say the same?
But don’t begin until you count the cost. . . .
no one can become my disciple
without giving up everything for me.
--Luke 14:28, 33NLT
Yes, everything else is worthless when
compared with the priceless gain
of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.
-- Philippians 3:8a NLT
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