Morning Note: I accidentally scheduled this for 4:50pm instead of 4:50am. That is why it is late today!  ca

Good Morning Friends,

The forecast for Thursday Morning is “sunny and about 47 degrees at 8am,” so I hope you enjoy some morning sunshine, a good breakfast, and are ready for this day because even from home, this is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Below I will have a psalm for the day, but today I begin with a question:
can we make this space a little more interactive?

For a few weeks I have been sharing mostly written resources with you but I wonder if we could share something with each other? Could we share some pictures with each other that might be our devotionals for next week?

Here is my proposal: The Advent-After-Easter Photo Project
During Advent, we emphasize four themes, HOPE, PEACE, JOY, and LOVE.
And we need those things now also, don’t we?!?!

I wonder if we could share photos with each other that reflect the ways we are cultivating hope, peace, joy, and love while we are staying at home?
What are you doing that generates the spirit of these emotions within your family?
Did you write on your driveway to your neighbors?
Did you zoom with your school friends?
Were you a part of a socially-distanced parade of teachers or neighbors?
Have you put stuffed animals in your windows for all to see?
Are you in a month long board game of Monopoly out of your love for your siblings? Think about those things, then snap a picture and plan to submit your photo to me. 

Here are the guidelines:

Email me a single photo with the appropriate label: HOPE, PEACE, JOY, or LOVE.
You can submit four-six photos per family. I will compile all the photos and put them in a daily video slideshow for the week following Easter.

Each day will have a different theme: Monday is Hope, Tuesday is Peace, Wednesday is Joy, and Thursday will be love, with a different slideshow each day.

Feel free to get creative with your photos.
Have fun and remember that photos will be public so use your discretion when you make submissions.

I will put the photos in a slideshow and we, the church, will be the encouraging devotional for each day that week.
The deadline for the Hope and Peace photos is Good Friday, April 10th.
The deadline for Joy and Love photos is Monday, April 13th.

I hope this makes sense to you. If you have any questions, send me an email.  And please be patient with me and clear with me about how to use your photos.

It is hard to be isolated and separated. Hopefully, by seeing each other the week after Easter, we can make our month of isolation move along a little more quickly.

Peace, Chris Aho

 

A Psalm for Today: 
Psalm 118 – A Song of Victory

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good;
   his steadfast love endures for ever!

Let Israel say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
Let the house of Aaron say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’
Let those who fear the Lord say,
   ‘His steadfast love endures for ever.’

Out of my distress I called on the Lord;
   the Lord answered me and set me in a broad place.
With the Lord on my side I do not fear.
   What can mortals do to me?
The Lord is on my side to help me;
   I shall look in triumph on those who hate me.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in mortals.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
   than to put confidence in princes.

All nations surrounded me;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
They surrounded me, surrounded me on every side;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
They surrounded me like bees;
   they blazed like a fire of thorns;
   in the name of the Lord I cut them off!
I was pushed hard, so that I was falling,
   but the Lord helped me.
The Lord is my strength and my might;
   he has become my salvation.

There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous:
‘The right hand of the Lord does valiantly;
   the right hand of the Lord is exalted;
   the right hand of the Lord does valiantly.’
I shall not die, but I shall live,
   and recount the deeds of the Lord.
The Lord has punished me severely,
   but he did not give me over to death.

Open to me the gates of righteousness,
   that I may enter through them
   and give thanks to the Lord.

This is the gate of the Lord;
   the righteous shall enter through it.

I thank you that you have answered me
   and have become my salvation.
The stone that the builders rejected
   has become the chief cornerstone.
This is the Lord’s doing;
   it is marvellous in our eyes.
This is the day that the Lord has made;
   let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we beseech you, O Lord!
   O Lord, we beseech you, give us success!

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
   We bless you from the house of the Lord.
The Lord is God,
   and he has given us light.
Bind the festal procession with branches,
   up to the horns of the altar.

You are my God, and I will give thanks to you;
   you are my God, I will extol you.

O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,
   for his steadfast love endures for ever.