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Written by Sarah Young, a contemporary author. This is an excerpt from her book “Jesus Calling for Easter.”

I  broaden the path beneath you so that your ankles do not turn. This shows how intricately I am involved in your life-journey. I know exactly what is before you, and I can alter the path ahead of you to make your way easier. Sometimes I enable you to see what I have done on your behalf. At other times you are blissfully unaware of the hardship I have spared you. Either way, My work to widen the way before you demonstrates how lovingly I am involved in your life. From your perspective, My workings are often mysterious. I do not protect you — or anyone — from all adversity. Neither was I shielded from hardship during my thirty-three years of living in your world. On the contrary, I willingly suffered unimaginable pain, humiliation, and agony on the cross — for your sake! When My Father turned away from Me, I experienced unspeakable suffering. But because I was willing to endure that excruciating isolation from Him, you will never have to suffer alone. I have promised: I am with you always!

You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn. [Psalm 18:36]

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Written by James Allen Francis (1864-1928), a Canadian pastor.  This was given as a sermon to summarize the profound impact of the life of Jesus Christ in 1926.

Here is a man who was born in an obscure village as the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty and then for three years was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never owned a home. He never had a family. He never went to college. He never put his foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He never did one of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself. He had nothing to do with this world except the naked power of his divine manhood. While still a young man the tide of popular opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. One of them denied him. Another betrayed him. He was turned over to his enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon the cross between two thieves. His executioners gambled for the only piece of property he had on earth while he was dying, and that was his coat. When he was dead, he was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend. Nineteen wide centuries have come and gone and today he is the center of the human race and the leader of the column of progress. I am far within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that were ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon the earth as powerfully as has this one solitary life.

But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect. [1 Peter 3:15]

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Written by A. W. Tozer (1897-1963), a pastor, author, magazine editor, and spiritual mentor. This is an excerpt from his book “The Knowledge of the Holy.”

Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place…Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolator simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear…We do the greatest service to the next generation of Christians by passing on to them undimmed and undiminished that noble concept of God which we received from our Hebrew and Christian fathers of generations past. 

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. [Romans 1:21]

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Written by Ed Stetzer, a contemporary pastor, author, and Dean at Biola University.  This is an excerpt from his book “Christians in a World of Outrage.”

You can’t hate people and engage them with the gospel at the same time. You can’t war with people and show the love of Jesus. You can’t be both outraged and on mission.

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. [1 Peter 2:9]

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Written by Ken Shigematsu, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “Now I Become Myself.”

The temporary state of feeling shame when we realize that we have lost standing in someone’s eyes because we have done something wrong can be redemptive. As the theologian Lewis Smedes writes, “A healthy sense of shame is perhaps the surest sign of our divine origin and our human dignity. When we feel this sense of shame, we are feeling a nudge from our true selves.” But feeling shame as a more permanent trait—a sense that we are fundamentally flawed and are unworthy and unlovable — is toxic and destructive… At the beginning of the biblical story, humans walked with God without shame in Eden in the cool of the day, enjoying true intimacy with the Creator. We, too, can overcome our sense of shame as we walk with God and enjoy intimacy with our Maker. When the light of God’s love shines into our lives, the diamond of our true self will be illuminated, and we will grow more beautiful and vulnerable, open and free. As we live in the light of this divine love, we will be freed of the shame that binds us. Our deepest happiness will not come from pursuing achievement, pleasure, or material security, but from knowing and living in divine love. This love isn’t something we achieve but is a gift that we receive. It is not something we can create; it is conferred on us by another.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears. Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. [Psalm 34:4-5]

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Written by Max Lucado, a contemporary pastor and author. This is an excerpt from his book “God Will Help You.”

When Peter and a few other disciples found themselves in the middle of Galilee one stormy night, they knew they were in trouble… What should have been a sixty-minute cruise became a nightlong battle. The boat lurched and lunged like a kite in a March wind. Sunlight was a distant memory. Rain fell from the night sky in buckets. Lightning sliced the blackness with a silver sword. Winds whipped the sails, leaving the disciples “in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves.” Apt description, perhaps, for your stage in life? Perhaps all we need to do is substitute a couple of nouns…In the middle of a divorce, tossed about by guilt. In the middle of debt, tossed about by creditors. In the middle of a recession, tossed about by stimulus packages and bailouts. The disciples fought the storm for nine cold, skin-drenching hours. And about 4:00 a.m. the unspeakable happened. They spotted someone coming on the water. They didn’t expect Jesus to come to them this way. Neither do we. We expect Him to come in the form of peaceful hymns or Easter Sundays or quiet retreats. We expect to find Jesus in morning devotionals, church suppers, and meditation. We never expect to see Him in a bear market, pink slip, lawsuit, foreclosure, or war. We never expect to see Him in a storm. But it is in storms that He does His finest work, for it is in storms that He has our keenest attention. Jesus replied to the disciples’ fear with an invitation worthy of inscription on every church cornerstone and residential archway… We cannot go where God is not. Look over your shoulder; that’s God following you. Look into the storm; that’s Christ coming toward you.

He [Jesus] got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. [Mark 4:39]

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Written by Pelena Cosme, a contemporary digital content producer.

Heavenly Father, thank you for Mother’s Day. A day dedicated to celebrating motherhood around the world. Father, we thank you for equipping mothers to be a blessing to their children, husbands, extended families, and communities. We thank you for selflessness, for love, and for strength. Lord, we recognize all that they do and we bless you for raising mothers who stand for their families and give so much. We pray this happy Mother’s Day prayer asking that today they feel appreciated and know how much they are loved by you and their families. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her [Proverbs 31:28]

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Written by Rich Villodas, a contemporary pastor and writer. This is an excerpt from his book “The Narrow Path.”

How you love others is how you love God. This is one of the reasons many are giving up on the church. A faith that purports to love God but mistreats others is a farce. Evidence of whether our character is being formed by Jesus is found in the quality of our love. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount (and in multiple places elsewhere in the Gospels), Jesus defines the broad path as a livestyle that doesn’t see love of God and love of neighbor as a singular thread. Tragically, there are many Christians on the broad path. When the church refuses to love our neighbor we are traveling on a path that doesn’t lead to life. Although it’s easy to drift onto the broad path—to succumb to moralism, success-ism, and individualism—there is good news. Ther is another path available to us. Jesus invites us onto the narrow path, and no matter how long we’ve deviated from it, we’re always welcome.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with a all your strength. The second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these. [Mark 12:30-31]

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Written by Eugene Peterson (1932-2018), an American minister, scholar, theologian, author, and poet. This is an excerpt from his book “Under the Unpredictable Plant.”

If we want to change our way of life, acquiring the right image is more important than exercising willpower. Willpower is a notoriously sputtery engine on which to rely for internal energy. But a right image silently and inexorably pulls us into its field of reality, which is also a field of energy.

I can do all things through him who strengthens me. [Philippians 4:13]

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Written by Brandon Gilliam, a contemporary writer.

Jesus fasted, most notably for forty days in the wilderness before beginning His public ministry (Luke 4:1-2). In this time of hunger and physical weakness, He resisted the temptations of the enemy, demonstrating that strength comes from dependence on the Father. Fasting reveals the places where we rely too much on physical comforts, habits, or routines in place of God. Fasting reminds us of our limits and reveals that our limits outline the canvas of freedom. Fasting is about learning that freedom is found not in satisfying every craving but in surrendering to God’s provision…Fasting cultivates self-discipline, not as an end in itself, but as a means to a deeper, freer, more surrendered life. Modern life can stifle us into routines where we are just getting by but not really living. Fasting is meant to tear us from the very day and remind us of the simple hope that God can and does sustain us moment by moment.

I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. [1 Corinthians 9:27]

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