The revchristruelsen’s Podcast

The Way of the Cross Service for Good Friday

I encourage you to observe one of your congregation's Good Friday services, but I invite you to share in this one, especially, if you are not able to make it to a service on Good Friday.

Recorded in 2021, here we observe Good Friday with the Stations of the Cross Service . . . .   May this service be a blessing to you as you remember how our Lord died upon the cross to atone for our sins.  Our Lord Jesus Christ is now risen . . . .  Let us hear God's word together and recall how Jesus, the lamb of God, takes away the sin of the world . . . . 

The painting: Behold the Man by Antonio Ciseri, 1871.

From Garden to Table

Texts for discussion: Exodus 24:3-11 and Mark 14:12-26

In Exodus, Moses and the Elders, beheld God and ate and drank with Him at table.  Mark 14 repeats the event, and both look forward to the Heavenly Feast to come.  

The Last Supper, by da Vinci. Public domain.  

Impossible Things

Text for discussion: Mark 10:17-31.  

When we reflect on our lives, we would all like to think that we are good.  When we try to justify ourselves, a reflection on our deeds and our lives will remind us forcefully that we fall short.  In understanding this, Jesus shows us how to do the impossible: thread a camel through the eye of a needle.  

Hymn:  Built on the Rock (public domain).

Pictured: The Rich Young Ruler by Alexandre Bida (public domain)

The Eyes of Faith See Different Things

Text for discussion from Mark 8:22-30.

 

When we look at the world's problems and troubles, the solutions we seek are worldly solutions.  Through the eyes of faith in Christ we see different problems and different solutions.  

Hymn: On My Heart Imprint Your Image. (Public domain).

Painting: Christ Healing the Blind Man, Gioacchino Assereto, circa 1640. (Public domain).

Playing for ALL the Chips

Text: Mark 7:24-37

 

When the Father sent the Christ, He did not send Him just for a particular tribal family, a small nation, but for all the peoples of the earth.  Yet, the Christ comes from a specific people, descended from Abraham, from Judah, from King David.  Despite being Jewish, Jesus even has Gentiles in His heritage.  

In Christ, God intended to rescue all humanity from sin, death, and the devil.  

The hymn: Lord of Glory, You Have Bought Us (public domain)

The Woman of Canaan illustration from Women of the Bible by Harold Copping (of unknown date) at Wikimedia Commons.  Public domain.  

Advice for the Dark Times

Text for discussion: Mark 5:1-20

 

A man who had been living in the tombs encounters Jesus.  The demon-possessed man falls down before Jesus, and in a frightening turn of events, 2,000 pigs rush down a steep bank and into the sea.  Jesus heals those who live in darkness.  Jesus is always the answer for the dark times of our lives.  

The painting: The Swine Driven into the Sea by James Tissot.  Public domain.  

Hymn: A Mighty Fortress.  Public domain.  

The Wounds Only God Sees

Text for discussion: Mark 2:2-17

Jesus heals both the wounds of the body and the wounds of the soul.  He heals only the wounds that God can see, wounds that we don't even know are there.  He has the authority to forgive sins.  

 

The hymn: Just as I am Without One Plea.  

The artwork: Man with Palsy Lowered to Christ.  by James Tissot.  Public domain.  

Refocus, Recenter

Text for discussion:  Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 

Is life unrelenting?  Has it gotten to busy, too full?  There are times and seasons in our lives when we reset.  We do not enslaved to the patterns of the past.  Lent is a time to reset, and recenter our lives on faith, on the things of God.  

 

The Hymn: Savior When in Dust to Thee (Public Domain) 

Pharisees in the Temple, by Rembrandt.  1648.  

Breaking Down the House!

Leviticus 14.  

 

What do you do when a house is unsalvageable?  Before you do that, you might see if the foundation is good and the studs are in good shape.  You might tear everything out down to the studs.  If it is unsalvageable, here comes the bulldozer.  

People are different.  God makes what seemed unsalvageable, salvageable.  He makes the unclean clean, and the dead to life, alive.  And in Christ, He raises the dead to life!   

The engraving: by Dore.  Moses is represented.  Public domain.  

The hymn: Beautiful Savior.  Public domain.  

Of Ants and Grasshoppers

Luke 16

 

We can become engrossed with worldly ways and perspectives, forgetting that life is transient, and neglecting the bigger picture.  Christ has risen from the dead, and He has a future beyond this life in store for us.  

The hymn: My Faith Looks Up to Thee (public domain).

The painting: Lazarus and the Rich Man by Eduard von Gebhardt, 1865.  Public domain.