Eight Biblical Devotions To Prepare For Easter
{from John Piper’s Desiring God}
I just found this online and I’m excited to do this with my family this year. It is simple but meaningful.
We are going to start tonight and do it once a week until Easter.
I am using simple tealights as candles.
Below is the introduction,
then a link to click through to the readings
Introduction
Using These Readings
Each reading begins with a few sentences that summarize the thought for the day. All the rest is Scripture—letting God speak to us directly from his Word.
This devotional may be used weekly or daily. And if you choose, it also can be used together with seven candles, representing the Light of the World.
Reading Weekly
There is one reading for each Sunday of Lent and for Good Friday and Easter.
Reading Daily
Daily use should begin on the Saturday of Palm Sunday weekend. This leaves Saturday, the day before Easter, with no devotional, a reminder of the emptiness experienced by Jesus’ followers between his death and resurrection.
Without Candles
These pages may be used simply for personal or family reading and meditation in preparation for Easter. In that case, please ignore the bracketed candle instructions within each reading.
With Candles
The readings may also be used in conjunction with any grouping of seven candles. On the first day, all seven should be burning as you begin reading the first devotional. Bracketed instructions within the reading tell you when to snuff out one candle. On the second day, six candles burn as you begin reading, and you snuff out one of them when instructed, and so on. On Good Friday, the last candle is extinguished. Then on Easter, there are instructions within the reading to light all seven candles.
The Symbolism of the Seven Candles
“The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:5). But for a while it seemed as if the darkness was overcoming—for a long while.
Your seven candles symbolize the Light of the World—the Light that was God’s glory and that illuminated God for us—the Light that, in the end, seemed to have been darkened. As we move through the season preceding Easter, the candles are snuffed out one by one, until all are dark on Good Friday, when Jesus died and the earth was covered with shadow. Darkness apparently had won. The Light of the World had been extinguished. It was finished.
But NO! Easter brings resurrection! Life! Return from death! The Light has won and all the candles burn as we praise him—the Light of the World, the Bright Morning Star, the Glory of God.
Click here for the readings…
