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The Steve Laube Agency

The Steve Laube Agency

Helping to Change the World Word by Word

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Home » Theology

Theology

Gray Saturday

By Steve Laubeon April 16, 2022
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I wrote this many years ago and post it every Easter weekend as a reminder. May it speak to you in some small way.

Gray Saturday
by Steve Laube

Holy weekend is such a study in contrasts.

Friday is dark. Somber. Frightening in its hopelessness and pain.
I do not like Dark Fridays.
The nails bury themselves deep into my soul.
They become a singular stake through the heart of this sinner.
Piercing. Rending. Bloody.
Vanquishing this creature of the night who dares to follow his own way.
Christ’s death becomes mine.
The death I deserve.
Alone. Anguishing. Agonizing.
There is no one or nothing that can assuage this dreary weight upon me.
I stand in silence. Staring at the stars and wondering if they can hear my cry or if they care.

Saturday is Gray.
Caught between the darkness and the dawn.
We move around as if yesterday had not happened.
Errands. Busyness. The routine. They conspire to distract from the lessons.
The mundane becomes standard. Bleak. Meaningless. Gray.
Why did Jesus have to wait for the weekend?
Why this middle day of contemplation and forgetfulness?
When night comes we will have survived the gray day.
But only because we know tomorrow is only hours away.
What would it be like if we did not know such hope?

Sunday is Light.
A celebration of life, love, and hope.
It is only because of Sunday that we can face the Fridays of turmoil.
Lift your face toward the dawn.
See the grace that speeds across the hills as the sun licks each place with its touch.
The Son touches your face and the chills of rapture spread to the tips of your toes.
This gives us reason to live.
This gives us reason to love.
This gives us reason to hope.
To live where there is no life.
To love where there is no love.
To hope where there is none to be found.

Unfortunately, we all live in the Saturday Gray.
Forgetting the darkness and depth of our sinfulness.
Forgetting the truth found in the dawn.

Let us be mindful of this during the coming months.
We have been given a choice of days in which we can live.
None of us want to wallow in Dark Friday.
None of us should be satisfied with Gray Saturday.
Instead, let us celebrate and embrace the peace and warmth of the gracious gift of Christ’s resurrection and life.

© 2002 Steve Laube

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Category: Christian, Faith, Personal, TheologyTag: Christian, Faith, Personal, Theology

Dark Friday

By Steve Laubeon April 15, 2022
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I wrote this piece a few years ago and thought it appropriate to post every year on Dark Friday.

Take Me, Break Me
(a prayer)
by Steve Laube
Take my eyes Lord.

Strike me blind.

* * *

Then heal me Lord
That I may see with Your eyes.

 

Take my hands Lord.
Crush every bone.

* * *

Then heal me Lord
That I may touch with Your tenderness.

Read moreDark Friday
Category: Personal, TheologyTag: Dark Friday, Theology

God Gave Me This Blog Post

By Steve Laubeon September 27, 2021
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God gave me this blog post.

By invoking divine inspiration I have guaranteed that you will read this post and possibly give me money to read more.

Sound like a stretch? Then what if I just wrote or said:
“God spoke to me”
“I was led to write this”
“God revealed this to me”
“I have been called to write this”
“I believe this is an inspired post”

Read moreGod Gave Me This Blog Post
Category: Book Business, TheologyTag: Pitching, Theology

Wishing You Peace and Love on Thanksgiving Day

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon November 26, 2020
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On this Thanksgiving Day, let us approach this new season with a sense of peace and the constant reminder that the Lord is in control. I post this well-known prayer in hopes you might appreciate reading it again. From St. Francis of Assisi: Prayer for Peace Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace; where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; …

Read moreWishing You Peace and Love on Thanksgiving Day
Category: Personal, TheologyTag: Faith, thanksgiving, Theology

How Are You Reading?

By Steve Laubeon April 27, 2020
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by Steve Laube

I collect books. I graze through them like I'm at an all-you-can-eat buffet. I sample this tidbit and that. Eventually I get enough to eat or have found the right morsel to consume until it is finished.

It helps make me an eclectic sort. But there are days, even weeks, where I must discipline myself to become immersed in extraordinary writing. It is there where the soul …

Read moreHow Are You Reading?
Category: Reading, TheologyTag: Reading, Theology

Problem Solved! — NOT!

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon July 19, 2018
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Sometimes my office receives submissions for books that claim to solve a problem or provide the answer to a question that has been plaguing mankind since it was known to be an issue. To wit: Why the death penalty is Biblical. Why the death penalty is not Biblical. Why there is climate change. Why there is not climate change. Why Dispensationalism (or another Bible interpretation) is right. Why …

Read moreProblem Solved! — NOT!
Category: The Writing Life, TheologyTag: The Writing Life, Theology

Be Careful Little Hands What You Type

By Dan Balowon July 10, 2018
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Just as those involved in Christian ministry are committed to serving God as “his hands and feet” on this earth, Christian writers are similarly motivated, giving a voice to God’s work and communicating his grace and love to a hurting world. But just as some ministries can veer off the right path in their work, Christian authors can also wander off-course in an effort to create an engaging book …

Read moreBe Careful Little Hands What You Type
Category: TheologyTag: Creativity, Theology

Prayers for the Nation

By Tamela Hancock Murrayon July 5, 2018
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 As we celebrate the anniversary of the founding of the United States this week, it is my privilege to offer prayers that are timeless yet needed today more than ever. These can apply to any country. I hope you will be blessed by these prayers from The 1928 edition of The Book of Common Prayer. A Prayer for Congress. MOST gracious God, we humbly beseech thee, as for the people of these United …

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Category: Personal, TheologyTag: Christian, Faith, Theology

Publishers and Theology

By Dan Balowon May 15, 2018
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One of the more complex aspects of publishing Christian-themed books is the publisher theological position or “grid” which covers whatever products they seek to publish. Just like all churches are not alike, Christian publishers are definitely not alike. Some may have groups or “imprints” focusing on a specific theological perspective, but for sure, theology is an issue in their decision-making …

Read morePublishers and Theology
Category: Book Business, Publishing History, TheologyTag: Book Business, Theology

40 Days with One Composition

By Steve Laubeon April 2, 2018
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For the last few years I’ve used the forty days of Lent as an auditory discipline. I try to listen to one collection of music during the entire season. This year’s choice was Franz Joseph Haydn’s “The Seven Last Words of our Savior on the Cross.” I listened to the string arrangement performed by the Callino Quartet. First performed in a somber setting on Good Friday …

Read more40 Days with One Composition
Category: Creativity, Personal, TheologyTag: Creativity, lent, Theology
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