Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
The Power of Holy Week
Holy Week arrives with profound significance, bridging Palm Sunday to Easter Sunday in a journey that transforms our understanding of divine love and sacrifice. This episode explores the deep meaning behind this sacred time when all elements of Christ's ministry converge toward the ultimate demonstration of God's love for humanity.
We reflect on the beautiful lyrics of "In Christ Alone" by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend, unpacking how this powerful hymn captures the essence of Christ's redemptive work. The song reminds us that our hope, peace, and strength are found in Christ alone—the cornerstone that remains firm through life's fiercest storms and deepest challenges.
As we journey through this significant week, we're invited to not only celebrate Christ's victory over death but also to extend His love to others—especially those we find most difficult to love. Take a moment today to reflect on this incredible gift and how it continues to change lives two thousand years later.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right with Danny Mac. I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great five-minute start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back, relax and let me help you start your day right. Good morning, everybody, and welcome to this really beautiful and powerful week. This is what's known as the Holy Week Between Palm Sunday, which we celebrated yesterday, good Friday coming up this Friday, and then next Sunday, which is the greatest day in all of the history of mankind. It's the day that Jesus Christ rose from the grave. This is the week in which all the pieces came together of Jesus' ministry His virgin birth, the miracles he performed, the choosing of His disciples, the instilling of His words and truths inside of them, and all the work that Christ did on this earth leads up to this Friday, where Christ is killed on the cross, paying the debt for all of the sins of mankind, and then his rising again on Sunday in victory over death, over evil and everything Satan could throw at him. It is a fabulous, fabulous week. So today's song is all about the greatness and goodness of what Christ has done for us, and I chose the song In Christ Alone, written by Keith Getty and Stuart Townsend.
Speaker 1:1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6, says there is one God and one mediator who can reconcile God and humanity? The man, jesus Christ. He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone, and that's what this song is all about. The first words of the song read this way In Christ alone my hope is found. He is my light, my strength, my song, this cornerstone is solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love. What depths of peace when fears are stilled, when strivings cease, my comforter, my all in all. Here in the love of Christ I stand. I love that last part. Here in the love of Christ I stand.
Speaker 1:If it wasn't for Christ's love for us, we wouldn't have any of the hope, and that love that God has for us is still such a mystery to so many people. The words of John 3.16, "for God so loved the world that he gave His one and only Son that whosoever would believe in Him would not perish but would have everlasting life". To know of God's love for us. What a great and powerful message that we can give to this world around us, to declare that God loves us and that God loves you no matter what, and we need to make sure that we don't forget that God's love is for everyone, including everybody, that we disagree with everybody who seems against us, everyone who seems to be fighting so hard to destroy what we believe and hold so dear to ourselves. God still loves all of them. He may not love what they do, but he loves the people because they are all His creation and God wants to work in their lives. He wants to transform their lives and set them free from all the things that are causing so much hate and destruction within them and help them to find the life that there is through the miracle of Jesus Christ that took place with the events of this coming weekend. He loves people and he loves you and he loves me and he loves your neighbor and your co-worker and your boss and the guy down the street that you don't like and their boss and the guy down the street that you don't like. God loves. It is completely in Christ alone that there is peace and the opportunity for any of us to come to know God.
Speaker 1:The second verse of the song says In Christ alone, who took on flesh. Fullness of God and helpless babe, this gift of love and righteousness, scorned by the ones he came to save. Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied, for every sin on him was laid. Here in the death of Christ, I live. Then the next verse tells us Then, bursting forth in glorious day up from the grave, he rose again and as he stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me, for I am his and he is mine. Yes, the blood of Christ paid the price so that we can become a part of His family, that we can belong to Him. He washes us clean from all the things that we've done wrong, the sin in our lives, the things we've said and done that are completely wrong he forgives us for, and he washes that away from us. What an incredible thought that all of our mistakes, all of our sins, all of the silly and stupid things we've done in our lives are removed by the blood of Christ and we can stand before him as ones who are his children. And the only way that that can happen is in Christ alone.
Speaker 1:I'm going to leave you today with just a short clip of In Christ Alone, just to give you a taste of it. In your show notes there's a link where you can go and watch and listen to the entire song. I hope you do that. Have a great day. Here's Keith and Kristen Getty singing In Christ Alone. It's dead, up from the grave. He rose again and as it stands it's empty, Since nothing Loves its grip On me.
