At my church, we're having an all-night prayer vigil starting Maundy Thursday evening and going until noon on Good Friday. We have a sign-up sheet to choose a one-hour "shift" to spend alone with Jesus in the chapel during that time period, in prayer and meditation, with most time slots falling in the dead of night.
I'm planning to choose an hour in the middle of the night to go to remind myself of the loneliness and darkness Christ endured during his final hours. It's also a reminder of where we are in time as human beings, waiting for the light to come back to this world while so many of us feel lonely and hopeless and lost. I'm hoping some of you frens will want to join me Thursday night or Friday morning, wherever you are in the world, in praying for one hour to thank Jesus for what he endured and for peace for all people around the world who are suffering from all forms of tyranny, oppression, violence, cruelty, and trafficking.
I'm curious if anyone else has similar plans for Good Friday and what you'll be doing. In any case, I wish you a peaceful Holy Week.
I try to tell the Lord daily how much I love Him and how much I appreciate the blessings that He has given me. I am very proud to call Him my Saviour, my Redeemer and my Friend. Although I can never repay Him for what He has done for me, I seek to serve Him by telling others the "Good News".
It is really a love story - He loves us so much that He willingly died on that cross that we might be saved from an eternity in hell. The grace, mercy and loving kindness of Jesus is something that all believers should share with the lost among us every day of the year.
Your church's all night prayer vigil is a great idea! We can never pray enough. I know the Lord hears, appreciates and rewards the prayers of the faithful. I pray that you and your church will be richly blessed as you continue to serve Him with trust and obedience.
Our church is having a special service on Thursday night. I will be happy to "join" you in prayer for this lost world and the troubling times in which we find ourselves. God has been so good to me and my family and I am always happy to tell Him (and others) how much I love Him. God's message to us is: Fear not, for I am with you. Greater is He that is within us than he that is in the world. God bless you.
Our Holy Week vigils will start Friday night at 5 PM with a Communion Service and prayer. Then Sunday Easter morning we will have a Sunrise Service at 6 AM and Sunday School at 9 Am and Services at 10 Am. We normally have Sunday School at 10 Am and Services at 11 Am but this being Easter Sunday, we will have them an hour earlier. Waiting to see how many CEO's show up. That's Christmas and Easter Only church visitors for those who don't know what that means.
HAPPY HOLY WEEK. HE HAS RISEN. GOD BLESS US ALL.
You're up early today. God bless you and yours as you enjoy this special time of year to remember our Lord and Saviour.
Mary, you have been a source of blessing to me over the last 3 years here on GA. Your consistent testimony for Jesus Christ, your words of prayer and encouragement for others in need and your faithfulness to our King has been an inspiration to me personally.
I hope that the Lord will continue to bless and keep you until we can all meet face to face in heaven. God bless you..........Gary from Canada
Thank you for your words of kindness. You just blessed me greatly. It is a very great Holy Week indeed.
Amen.
He is Risen Indeed!
We call them Chreasters!
Ah! I will have to remember that.
We're having a Good Friday service at church and we, the choir, are singing three songs, with this one being the last one, sung in total darkness--
https://youtu.be/24pe76Edh_s?si=TAujXC6ctzBT1oMt.
I closed my eyes to listen.
Absolutely beautiful.
Isn't it? I'm so looking forward to singing it.
Beautiful, and may you be blessed thereby.
Amen.
Amen! Every morning(3am) I am in prayer and in the Word with God. I will add it to my prayer morning. HalleluYAH! We are so close to leaving.
Christ’s resurrection is the single most important event in the history of this tired world. We should all be shouting His name and praising God from the rooftops! I will be at Maundy Thursday, Good Friday vigil and sunrise services this week. He has risen!
I intend t spend Good Friday immersed in the Stations of the Cross, at home, I will fast, on Thursday, I pray and remember the Last Supper. When my son was a child, we spent Holy Week with our church, who had a last supper every Maundy Thursday, the pews were removed and we ate together in the church, ending with washing the feet . I do not go out much anymore, and have not participated in the last 14 years. I miss those years a lot, I have drifted away from so many things I was part of, I guess "miss" is not the right word. I enjoyed those years so much, but I have changed and have become in love with my solitude. My journey with Christ has become so intimate, and hourly, it is hard to connect unless I am doing service.No internet for me from Thursday night till Easter, no social media, me, the Bible, the prayer book, writing in my journal, some art work I have been planning to do.
We do this at my church as well. Everyone brings greenery to adorn the altar like the garden of Getshamine. It’s quite a fulfilling vigil to participate in.
IMO, it is better to celebrate and praise God every day; the miracle of his Creation and existence is visible every day with the rising sun welcomed by a symphony of birds and other critters. Peace of the Lord to all.
Have yall talked about the red heifers in israel or the fact that israel, the U.S. and the Ukraine might all be implicated in that terrorist attack in Russia and whether or not Russia is Magog?
I don't know or have any church .. all the ones around me are either Catholics or Ukrainian (old people and speak their own language)or used for AA meetings.. and then other ones are like 7 day adventist or Jehovah Witness... None I can go to. I like charismatic and speak in tongue ones w/ more young people, the one 30 mins away from us is a Chinese church, I wouldn't be able to understand. So I'll just stay home w/ the hubby and put on Don Moen and just sing and worship and fast for Good Friday.
I love Don Moen.
Not to minimize prayer...my neighbors wife will be away visiting family...I’ll be going over and clean guns with him for Good Friday...
Cloaks have been sold...
Amen.
I do not understand tho....Why do you NEED a church building to meditate>>?? God/Jesus doesnt accept calls from your house?? Or only prayers can be made in stained glass buildings>?
But the church DOES want you to be a good lil participant in the collection box
There is such a thing as corporate worship, where all the believers get together and worship God as one. Of course we should do individual prayer every day, and God is with us when we do. But corporate worship, especially in a place dedicated to God, produces a much stronger effect on the soul. The multiplier effect, fi you will. Listening to this hymn in a proper setting, with wonderful acoustics, makes the experience very much more moving and it penetrates the soul. Surely you can understand this. There ARE holy places. Not every place has this effect on the soul.
You can pray from home and not bash the church though
Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there..."
you don't have to be in a church to pray, but God wishes us to gather together and celebrate. how do we show love to one another if we never gather together?
I think the hippies got it right back in the '60s/'70s - they would gather out at the coast for worship and baptisms. I love being outside, and am always in awe of God's handiwork. One of my favorites to do was when my cousin and I would go fishing. We'd be on the lake at the crack of dawn, and there's nothing like watching the day come on, while sitting on a mirror lake with patches of little fog layers drifting across it.
These days, I enjoy the miracle of taking an insignificant speck of a seed, and watching it transform into a beautiful tomato, pepper, or whatever, plant, just from sticking it in some dirt and water.
I’d like to attend a baptism in a nice clear spring fed river in the mountains some day…
Living water.