John Estorge's Blog

Easter Sunday

John Estorge — Sun, 31 Mar 2013 11:19:26 +0000

What were the disciples looking for on the first Easter Sunday Morning?

On that first Easter morning, there was a band of women and a group of disciples who were hunting. But they weren't hunting for Easter Eggs, they were hunting for their best friend, Jesus the Christ, the Promised One...

But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.

What is Holy Saturday?

John Estorge — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:25:35 +0000

Reblogged from John Estorge's Blog:

Holy Saturday is the time in between John 19:41-42 and John 20:1: Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there...(INSERT HOLY SATURDAY HERE)...

Good Friday Evening and Holy Saturday: The Waiting

John Estorge — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 22:06:23 +0000

The Historical Narrative of that first Easter Weekend began on Good Friday evening with a wealthy Jewish Disciple of Jesus named Joseph of Arimathea along with Nicodemus, a Pharisee and member of the Jewish Sanhedrin wrapping Jesus’ lifeless body in clean linen and laying him in his own new tomb. The tomb had been cut in the rock then covered by rolling a giant stone down a slope to cover the tomb’s entrance. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary sat and watched with great emotion. Later several Roman soldiers would be posted to lock down and seal the tomb to prevent body theft and resurrection fraud.

As the sun rises on that first Easter Morning, the women emerge from the darkest 30 hours they have ever experienced, an empty void, a Black Sabbath. The gospel writers give us few details about the day between Good Friday Sunset and Easter Sunday Sunrise it is just empty space and dead air. After a Good Friday of despair, darkness, defeat and hopelessness and before an Easter Sunday of joy, light, victory and hope, the women and the disciples endured the longest day of their lives. A day of stark emptiness. A day of dead intermission between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ when His body lays in the tomb. A parenthesis when they reflect on reflect on their cowardice, their denials, and their desperate flights in fear.

For the disciples it would be a dark season of emptiness, wondering what would become of them as they hid from the authorities. The women, not feeling the same guilt as the apostles, would still feel empty, lonely, grieved and without hope. They would spend the better part of these two nights laying on their beds soaking their pillows with tears. And so the story continues in Matthew’s Gospel, “Now after the (Black) Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.” And what they would find was completely unexpected…

A Good Friday Prayer

John Estorge — Fri, 29 Mar 2013 20:52:56 +0000

Reblogged from John Estorge's Blog:

O Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered death upon a cross for our sakes; We look upon You whom we have pierced and we mourn for our sins with godly sorrow; teach us how to forgive as you have forgiven us; display to us that we are to suffer as you suffered and prove to us that just as you have overcome that we shall overcome.

Modern- Day Knight

John Estorge — Wed, 30 Jan 2013 15:04:48 +0000

As I ponder my life past and present, I find a hunger to develop a deeper trueness and integrity so that the person I project to be is more congruent with the person I truly am. I have always been fascinated by the virtues embodied by medieval knights and have wondered privately what a modern-day night would look like? To be understood, what I am searching for is a 21st Century strong, faithful and true masculinity that I do not see. I am NOT talking about hurting anyone.

In the middle ages, a knight was expected to possess not only the toughness and skills for battle but also to have the tenderness to control this aggressive part of his nature. The Knight lived by a code that was described by the Duke of Burgandy in the 14th Century. This is a list of the virtues that a Knight should exhibit:

Faith, Charity, Justice, Sagacity, Prudence, Temperance, Resolution, Truth, Liberality, Diligence, Hope, and Valour.

Cunning as Serpents; Innocent as doves

John Estorge — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 03:28:01 +0000

Matthew 10:16
I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)

Coffee-stained Bible

John Estorge — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 14:12:59 +0000

The Name Jesus

John Estorge — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:14:36 +0000

Matt. 1:20-21 But after he had considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus,because he will save his people from their sins.”

A New Year Has Dawned

John Estorge — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 15:13:51 +0000

I am the man who has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. He has driven me away and made me walk in darkness rather than light; indeed, he has turned his hand against me again and again, all day long. He has made my skin and my flesh grow old and has broken my bones. He has besieged me and surrounded me with bitterness and hardship.He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.

He has walled me in so I cannot escape; he has weighed me down with chains.Even when I call out or cry for help, he shuts out my prayer. He has barred my way with blocks of stone; he has made my paths crooked.

Like a bear lying in wait, like a lion in hiding, he dragged me from the path and mangled me and left me without help. He drew his bow and made me the target for his arrows.

He pierced my heart with arrows from his quiver. I became the laughingstock of all my people; they mock me in song all day long. He has filled me with bitter herbs and sated me with gall.

He has broken my teeth with gravel; he has trampled me in the dust. I have been deprived of peace; I have forgotten what prosperity is. So I say, “My splendor is gone and all that I had hoped from the Lord.”

I remember my affliction and my wandering, the bitterness and the gall. I well remember them, and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and therefore I have hope:

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.”

The Lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him;

-Lamentations 3:1-25 (NIV 1984)

Christmas Poem

John Estorge — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:04:42 +0000

OUR GREATEST NEED

“If our greatest need had been information,
God would have sent us an educator.
If our greatest need had been technology,
God would have sent us a scientist.
If our greatest need had been money,
God would have sent us an economist.
If our greatest need had been pleasure,
God would have sent us an entertainer.
But our greatest need was forgiveness,
So God sent us a Savior!

-Max Lucado