Thursday, April 13, 2017

First Line Friday: Jesus Edition!


Happy Friday! As it is Good Friday, I am super excited to share my first line this week. It is a book I have been reading every year for the last three, starting Palm Sunday and continuing through Holy Week to the following Sunday

17914369

What I love so much about it is that it is a day-by-day guide to Holy Week, complete with applicable chapters from all four books for each day, Sunday through Sunday. Everything is arranged in chronological order as best we can know, as well as author commentary and bits of historical context, plus all kinds of charts and maps to aid you. There are also some excellent footnotes that the author includes, which I greatly appreciated. I will continue to read this every year, as long as I am able. It is a wonderful guide. While these are stories many know so well, it is kind of a comfort as much as anything else, to read and reread each year.

I am taking my line - oh who am I kidding, my PARAGRAPH - from the brief section entitled "Early in the Week: The King Comes For His Kingdom: Sunday-Tuesday". It briefly describes Jesus' movements in the week leading up to Palm Sunday.

"The year was AD 33. The excitement in the cool spring air of Jerusalem was palpable. Thousands of Jewish pilgrims had gathered from around the world for the upcoming Passover feast, and word had spread that Jesus - a thirty-something itinerant rabbi, prophet, and healer from Galilee - had raised Lazarus from the dead, had withdrawn from Bethany - a village just a couple miles east of Jerusalem - to a town called Ephraim in the wilderness (John 11:54), and was staying at Bethany during the weekend prior to Passover (John 11:55-12:9-11, 17-18)." 

Leave a comment letting me know what you think of my line, or leave a line of your own to share. Then visit the blogs of my fellow First-Liners and see what they have this week as well.


Rachel - Bookworm Mama




Lauraine - Lauraine's Notes

Andi - Radiant Light


Robin - Robin's Nest


Kathleen - Kathleen Denly



Happy Reading, Happy Friday, Happy Easter!

Sarah

16 comments:

  1. What a coincidence! �� I've got an Easter theme to my first line too: Behold the Man, by Bodie and Brock Thoene.

    Have a blessed Easter <3

    ReplyDelete
  2. Going to look for that book. Happy Friday! My first line is from Noelle Marchand's "The Nanny's Temporary Triplets" : "By the power vested in me by God and the state of Texas" --- "Stop this wedding!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Becky, thanks for coming by. I highly recommend this one, it is such a great way to prepare for the week and what's to come on Sunday. I was told her also has one revolving around the birth of Jesus but have not been able to find it yet.

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Hi Amanda, it really is. It is a great way for me to really focus this week and prepare for both Friday and Sunday.

      Delete
  4. The Final Days sounds like a perfect way to prepare your heart for Easter weekend! I must check this out. While my first line does not keep with the uplifting "mood" of Easter and this beautiful spring day, it's certainly the very essence of why we celebrate:

    My first line is from Candice Curry's autobiography A CON MAN'S DAUGHTER: "I could hear my name being called, but I was stuck somewhere between a dream and reality."

    But the line that made me keep reading is this one, a thought Candice had as a 13-year-old: "I strained to hear God's voice in my ear but only heard Satan whisper how much he loved me."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Karen, thank you for coming by. It is such a wonderful book, I recommend it to pretty much everyone I know. I appreciate all the little extra too that it offers like the charts and maps, and how it reminds us that we don't have to try to make all the stories fit into one narrative (for example the different accounts of Judas' death), but that the stories were the perspective of the person who wrote them and everyone chose to record the details that were most important to them. It is a wonderful book.

      Delete
  5. My first line comes from GRACE by Max Lucado.

    Some years ago I underwent a heart procedure.


    Happy Resurrection Weekend!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Caryl for sharing your line with me this week. Have a blessed Easter.

      Delete
  6. Happy Easter! A Perfect book!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is wonderful, I highly recommend it. It really helps me focus on the importance of this week and have my heart ready and right for it. Happy Easter!

      Delete
  7. Looks like an excellent book, Sarah! Thank you for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It really is wonderful Beth, I feel so much more prepared for the week when I read this one. It is a good, humble reminder of what He did for us, without glossing over the trauma and misery of Friday. We are lucky in that we have the benefit of knowing what is coming on Sunday, but His followers did not fully grasp it yet.

      Delete

Thanks for visiting my little book nook. I love talking books so leave a comment and let's chat!