Have a Blessed Resurrection Day. Happy Easter from Mama’s Empty Nest.
Category Archives: Easter
Spectacular Sunday: He is risen!
I captured this photo a couple of years ago at the Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens in Pittsburgh one day when my husband and I visited there in need of a winter’s day respite.
Something about this sight intrigued me enough to warrant taking a picture. In comparison to some of the other photos I snapped of exquisite plants and flowers that day, this one doesn’t seem that extraordinary.
But yet, each time I view these snapshots, I am drawn to this picture over and over again. Finally, this week as I prayerfully considered Holy Week and what it means to believers in Jesus Christ like me, I realized why this photo attracts me with such intensity.
It reminds me of the picture in my mind of how I think the tomb appeared on that Resurrection morning. The stone was gone. The tomb was open. And it was empty. Our Savior defeated death and He arose!
“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered his words.” ~ Luke 24: 1-8
The tomb is empty. My Savior paid the ultimate price for my sin and the sins of this world. He arose from the grave victorious! And so shall we. Hallelujah! He is risen, indeed!!
Copyright ©2012 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com
Easter beauty
As I await the joyous sunrise of Resurrection Sunday, I remember when I was a young girl anxious to celebrate Easter. My mother and I always wore an Easter corsage to church, often a delicate orchid.
I took these photos of beautiful flowers at an orchid show a couple of years ago. Each time I view these pictures, they remind me of Easter.
“Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith!” ~ Jesus Christ in Luke 12: 25-28
Copyright ©2012 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com
Good Friday’s ultimate sacrifice
Luke 23:44-56
The Death of Jesus:
“It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon,for the sun stopped shining. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Jesus called out with a loud voice, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.’ When he had said this, he breathed his last.
The centurion, seeing what had happened, praised God and said, ‘Surely this was a righteous man.’ When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and went away. But all those who knew him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things.
The Burial of Jesus:
Now there was a man named Joseph, a member of the Council, a good and upright man, who had not consented to their decision and action. He came from the Judean town of Arimathea, and he himself was waiting for the kingdom of God. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid. It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.
The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed Joseph and saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. Then they went home and prepared spices and perfumes. But they rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment.”
Wishing you Easter joy
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Christ the Lord is risen today!
Hallelujah!
Happy Easter to all my readers! I hope you’re enjoying this day with loved ones and family and that you experience the joy of knowing Jesus is Lord and He has risen from the grave.
©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com
What’s so good about Good Friday?
Image via freefoto.com
It is Good Friday.
The day that I, along with other Christians, remember what our Savior Jesus Christ did for us that day as He was tried unfairly, sentenced to death by crucifixion, and endured six tortured and grueling hours hanging and dying on a cross between two criminals.
What’s so good about someone dying on a cross? Why did He do it? For you. For me. For all of us. Because He loves us. It’s as simple as that.
The book of John in the New Testament tells us that in Chapter 3, Verse 16: “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
So on this 22nd page of Chapter 4 in my book called Opportunity, I want to share my Savior with you because what He did today is not the end of the story. His death brought life to you and me and He revealed this on that miraculous Sunday morning that we call Easter.
If you don’t know Jesus Christ, find or borrow a Bible, turn to the book of John and read about the One who came to earth to save the lost. It’s the best place to start.
As you contemplate that wondrous cross where Jesus gave His life, watch this video and know that He died just for you.
©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com
At the Cross
Alas! And did my Savior bleed? And did my Sov’reign die?
Would He devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?
At the cross, at the cross where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away,
It was there by faith I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!
Was it for crimes that I have done He groaned upon the tree?
Amazing pity! Grace unknown! And love beyond degree!
Well might the sun in darkness hide, and shut His glories in,
When Christ, the mighty Maker, died for man the creature’s sin.
But drops of grief can ne’er repay the debt of love I owe;
Here, Lord, I give myself away, ’tis all that I can do!
~ Old hymn written by Isaac Watts & Ralph E. Hudson
Saving a wretch like me
Image via freefoto.com
Busy week. Long day. Too tired to string a series of words together to make any sense. No motivation to write.
But as we head into this Easter weekend, my thoughts turn to my Savior. How He communed with his beloved disciples during the Last Supper knowing He was heading for the cross. And as I contemplate that, this song keeps running through my mind.
©2011 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com
