verticallife

For those local to Dearborn Covenant Church, we have some special gatherings we want to note. Thursday night at 7pm is our annual Maundy (Mandate) Thursday Concert of Prayer. We’ll reflect on the mandate Jesus gave (love one another) as He was in the process of giving Himself for us. We’ll sing, pray, and share in the Lord’s Table. On Friday morning there’s a special Men’s Prayer breakfast for “men” of all ages at 9am. Please contact me on whether you are coming and bringing your boys and what you may be bringing to share (juice, fruit, meat, carbs). Kelly Knezek is heading up pancake flipping! Friday at noon my family and I will be visiting another church for Good Friday service as we have done in the past. I have been trying to get in touch with Citadel of Faith to see if and when they are celebrating Good Friday. I’ll let you know by tomorrow. Sunday morning we’ll fellowship at 9:45 with a continental breakfast and then celebrate our Lord’s Resurrection at 10:30am.

With these devotional letters Ernie Berkas got me writing again, something I love doing. He has challenged me to keep communicating hope by going through the Psalms on a daily basis. Ernie and I will be collaborating again and possibly getting other writers involved. Would you do me a favor? Let us know (honestly) whether these have been helpful in giving you hope during these tough times and whether you would like to continue through the Psalms together.

Lenten Devo_Day 36 “God is Great”

“Behold, God is exalted by His power; who teaches like Him?…Behold, God is great, and we do not know Him…” (Job 36:22,26)

When I (Johnny) was growing up we would always pray a simple prayer before dinner. “God is great, God is good, and we thank Him for our food. Amen.” We have a new version with our girls. “…and we thank You for our food. By Your hands we shall be fed. Give us, Lord, our daily bread. Amen. PRAISE GOD!” Michelle’s brother Rex added the PRAISE GOD.

Ernie wrote, “God is great and God is good but that may have little to do with us unless we as individuals have a relationship with that God. The devil recognized God was great. But the devil did not recognize Jesus Christ (James 2:19). Jesus said, ‘no one comes to the Father except through Me.’” (John 14:6)

Though God may be great, do we recognize or trust in His greatness in everyday life? Are we practical atheists, believing in God with our mind but not knowing Him in daily experience?

Paul said, “What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things… I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:8-11)

“Knowing” throughout Scripture carries with it the sense of experiencing a person intimately. What will you do today, in the midst of “sharing in his sufferings,” to “know Christ” and intimately experience “the power of his resurrection?” In what area of your life today do you need to apply “the power of his resurrection” to?