I recently came across this kinetic typography video by Peter Artemenko, featuring an excerpt of one of Timothy Keller’s sermons. I loved it!
After watching it a few times, I started hearing it against a beat of some kind. So I played around with it in iMovie for awhile and ended up with this… True & Better (The REMIX)… a 2 minute collision of TRUTH & THUMP. Keller goes street. Word to your mother.
It hurts my heart that so many American churches look nothing like Jesus.
Jesus did not come so that we may have stuff. He came that we may have abundant life. Sometimes the thing keeping us from abundant life the most is all our stuff.
Below is an excerpt from a message by John Piper that someone created a video for.
It is powerful, it is offensive, and it is the truth.
“God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him in the midst of loss, not prosperity.” – John Piper
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 into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” (Mark 24:1-7)
Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
“Woman,” he said, “why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out, “Teacher!” (John 20:11-16)
I’ve been meditating a lot about living in the space between “Good Friday” and “Easter Sunday”; living in the “Saturday” between… living with hope, yet having questions and wondering “what if”. It’s a powerful thought to ponder as you consider that the disciples had no context for seeing Jesus crucified. They didn’t know that Easter Sunday was just around the corner. Surely they were afraid. Surely they hoped, but still wondered “what if”. Living with hope does not mean living without questions and even some fear.
In my blog yesterday about God’s Playbook, I asked the question:
What about the day in between? What about “Saturday”? What about the day they just sat. And waited. And wondered. And tried to breathe. And… waited. What about… “the middle”?
As I’ve been catching up on a lot of blogs I read today, it turns out I’m not the only one who has been thinking about “Saturday”. In fact, there are quite a few folks who are sharing their thoughts about living in the space between the crucifixion and resurrection; about “Saturday”. I want to share some of them here with you. These are all GREAT posts. I encourage you to read them and let them build your faith.
It seems like God is speaking, LOUDLY, about the significance of “Saturday”.
