Today we talked about Peter.

What do we already know about him?
He was in the sailboat when Jesus first called him to be a disciple.
He wanted his whole body washed, not just his feet.
He denied Jesus three times.

We read the last part of John 21.
Why do you think Jesus asked Peter if he loved Jesus three times?

Peter was forgiven. Peter was asked to serve Jesus by taking care of other Christians.

We can share that forgiveness and care with others too.

We are making Easter cards to give to someone who might need encouragement.

Side note: Though we were focusing on Peter today, we also noticed John was following along, listening to the conversation. And John wrote it down in his Gospel. That's pretty cool. We also noticed the last verse. Jesus did so many other things that are not even written. We think that is pretty cool too.

We are still working on our secret serving!

Simon of Cyrene is a person from the last days of Christ's life who served.

Read Matthew 27:32.

What do we learn about Simon from this passage?

Where was Cyrene? It's in the same place that Libya is today.

How might Simon have looked compared to the people of Jerusalem?

11yr, "He might have had darker skin. He might have been ragged looking from traveling."

Now read Mark 15:21.

What do we learn about him here? He has kids! Two boys.

Now read Luke 23:26. The Bible says the soldiers "forced" him to carry the cross. That would be a horrible job! Sometimes serving is just plain hard.

We can be thankful for people who help us when things get hard. And we can try to help others.

This is going to be a fun week!

We are talking about different aspects and people that are important in the final days of Jesus' life. Today we talked about Jesus washing his disciples feet. Why did he do that? Do you think he was excited to do it? Isn't that a yucky job?

We washed each others feet. As we did we talked about the difference between our feet, which are usually protected by shoes and socks, and the disciples feet, which were probably calloused and dirty.

8yr, "Did Jesus wash Judas' feet too? I wouldn't want to do that."

We talked about serving.

Maudy means "mandate" or "command." Read John 13:34-35. Jesus commanded us to love each other. And then he showed us what that looked like by serving the disciples.

How can we serve each other?

5yr, "Help with laundry. Make a bed."

11yr, "Can we serve mom and dad too?"

Absolutely!

For the rest of this week, we are secretly serving each other. Every time someone does something for another person, they can secretly let me know. I will be keeping a tally. We are going to see how many times we can serve each other!

WE are digging into the chapters of the Bible surrounding the last days of Jesus life. I wish we were going in order. We're not. Instead, the kids are choosing things that they think are interesting or important.

Pilate caught our attention today. We did a little reading.

Did you know he built an aqueduct that brought water to Jerusalem?

He also was probably the builder of a temple in Jerusalem to Tiberius, the emperor.

Some of his actions show cruelty. He killed Jews while they were offering sacrifices, and he had a large group of Samaritans killed.

After reading about him, we read Luke Luke 23:1-4.

See what you can discover about someone or something important in Jesus' last days.

We are using the concordance in the back of our Bible today to look up "King." Where in Scripture is God called our king? Each of us is picking out a passage, reading it out loud, and then saying it in our own words. Sometimes our own words are the same as the verse. That's just fine.

Psalm 44:4 "You are my king and my God, who declares victories for Jacob!"

John 1:49 "Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are king of Israel."

Luke 23:38 "There was  a written notice above him saying, 'King of the Jews.'"

Psalm 47:7 "God is the king of all the earth. Sing to him a song of praise."

Jesus is the King of Kings!

And he died for all people.

What verses did you find?

Sorry about missing a post yesterday. We had no internet access.

Today we are focusing on prayer. We are using a one month on a calendar and filling in people we want to pray for each day. Some people are struggling with illness, some people don't know Jesus, some people are close friends or family members that we love. Each day has a person.

And today we are praying for all of them! Whoo! It's great to pray continually.

We will be praying for a few families several times a day.

Who are you praying for?

Luke 24

The Resurrection

 ¹ 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. ² They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³ but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴ While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. ⁵ 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? ⁶ He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ⁷ ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ ” ⁸ Then they remembered his words.

We are memorizing this section of scripture. We put some easy and obvious motions to it to help us along. We plan to have it down by Easter! That is just in time for the resurrection.

Today, we also used a "Lenten Tree" devotion. It was to make as many words as you can from the word "resurrection."

If you don't want to memorize Luke 24, let us know what verses you would like your family to memorize.

From our Lenten Tree:


The "Romans Road" is a way to remember why Jesus died for us. Read these verses:

Romans: 3:23,
Romans 6:23
Romans 5:8
Romans 10:9
Romans 8:1

Reed each verse in a different room of the house. See if members of your family can remember some of the verses.

Read Matt. 26:36-46. Or act it out!

What would it be like to be a disciple?

What would it be like to be Jesus?

Make today a day of prayer! Pray often. Pray with others. Pray outloud.

We are putting a little sticker on our hand to remind us to pray today.

Today we had a test. One of my children got an answer wrong, but didn't want me to know. She wanted to grade her own test and fix her own mistakes. Is that possible? Can we do that in real life?

We talked about the importance of fixing our mistakes if it is possible. What are some things we can do?

8yr, "We can fix physical mistakes, like spilling water."

5yr, "We can't fix a tree falling down."

8yr, "Well, you can try. You can clean up, rebuild, and plant a new tree."

Can you think of mistakes we cannot fix?

8yr, "Spiritual mistakes, or other things like getting a divorce."

5yr, "If you get in a car accident, you can't fix that. And if someone dies, you can't just get them back."

What should we do then?

We talked about praying, helping others, and ways to help mend relationships. We even talked about specific things that have happended in the kids' lives that they want to pray about and work on mending.

Jesus offers forgiveness freely. For all our mistakes. We prayed together

What does the Bible say?

5yr, "Jesus says, 'Friend your sins are forgiven.'"

8yr, "We don't have to worry. The mistakes aren't fixed, but you can forget about the bad feelings."

Live forgiven and free!

After talking about Judas yesterday, we were reminded that we all need forgiveness. We talked again about what we have learned about ashes. They remind us of sorrow and sin. We stared by thinking quietly of anything we wanted to ask God for forgiveness.

Then we read Isaiah 61:1-3

 ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
   because the LORD has anointed me
   to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
   to proclaim freedom for the captives
   and release from darkness for the prisoners,^[a]
2 to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favor
   and the day of vengeance of our God,
to comfort all who mourn,
 ³ and provide for those who grieve in Zion—
to bestow on them a crown of beauty
   instead of ashes,
the oil of joy
   instead of mourning,
and a garment of praise
   instead of a spirit of despair.

What does this verse mean to you?

We concluded that because of Jesus, we are covered with the oil of joy...not actually. The forgiveness he gives fills us with joy.

We prayed together for people we know who are sad, asking God to show them his joy, even in hard times.
Who can you pray for today?