Our family has been blessed in these days to join Pastor Mark's Good Friday message (click here) and Pastor Cliff's devotional on Thursday of Passion Week (here) and Pastor Corey's Wednesday family worship (click here).

To those who use liturgical calendars, Saturday of Passion week is known as “Holy Saturday.” While there are services on Friday and on Sunday, this day is traditionally a day of waiting. We wait for Sunday, and this year wait for Sunday worship together (in person, next month we pray!).

As a follow-up to yesterday's blog "It's Friday ... Sunday's Coming" I was thinking about Saturday that original weekend. Sabbath was a stay at home day for them, they weren't to venture out more than 3,000 feet from their home (a Sabbath's journey). If a synagogue was within that distance, they would normally gather on Saturday for corporate worship, but this day they were in lock-down behind locked doors. A sad follower named Clopas was in the area of Emmaus but would need to delay his travels till after the Sabbath. Clopas hoped to have a fellow follower to talk to about these things (and any other stranger on the Emmaus Road who might join in). Many of them wondered what the future would look like as they weren't sure if they could go back to their past employment.

The disciples' trusted treasurer was still missing, and it was reported that he committed suicide by hanging himself. My sanctified imagination suggests Peter is inconsolable and won't talk (very unusual for him)! and John can't forget being up close in the darkest hour of the one on whose chest he had lain Thursday night. We know the religious leaders appealed to Pilate to add extra security detail to the tomb ... just in case. We know there besides the fearful men there were some faithful women wanting to honor the Lord in some way and they were making preparations for Sunday. The next day would prove to be a day that changed the world and gave great hope for darkest days.

As we prepare to worship tomorrow let me encourage you by the Lord who was coming back to life that Sunday and who lives and gives you great hope for whatever you're going through. As you prepare for worship, you can click here for some of the resources weve been making available for outreach invitations, sermon notes, and application questions to be posted soon (to use after the message for discussion and/or personal reflection)

This article below says better than I can some of what I've felt as we approach this Lord's Day:https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/dont-let-coronavirus-steal-corporate-worship/

Here's a different take on the "Sunday's coming" theme: