Following on from February’s collection, ‘bathroom liturgies’ is just a phrase I’ve ending up using to describe the tunes I listen to in my ‘morning routine’. Here are a handful that I’m enjoying listening to over the Easter period, helping to get my fickle heart rejoicing in the wonder of Jesus’ resurrection.

1. Jesus Lives (Sovereign Grace Music)

This song captures that sense of reality, clinging onto the triumph of Jesus’ resurrection, knowing it means so much, and yet knowing we still await our own resurrection.

2. Christ is Risen (Matt Maher)

A rousing anthem from Matt Maher, building up into the extremely catchy refrain taken from 1 Corinthians 15: “oh, death, where is your sting…”

3. The Same Power (Worship Central)

I remember when someone first showed me from Ephesians 1-3 that Jesus’ resurrection means that Christians are now raised too, as we’re ‘in Christ’ through faith. This song picks up the idea of that ‘same power’ being at work in us.

4. Christ the Lord is Risen Today (Page CXVI)

Pleasant contemporary reworking of the Charles Wesley hymn.

5. Christ is Risen, He is Risen Indeed (Keith & Kristyn Getty)

I love the way the Gettys capture the implications of the resurrection:

Once bound by fear now bold in faith, they preached the truth and power of grace. And pouring out their lives they gained life, life everlasting. 

What about you? What’s your favourite resurrection-focused track for singing its reality into your heart?

As it happens I’ve never really written about a flower before (admittedly, apart from that metaphoric ditty I wrote about my first crush, Poppy, back in Year 6). But here I am getting mildly botanical, because over the last few weeks I’ve been particularly enthralled by Spring’s darling, the daffodil. Let me tell you why…

In the UK at least, the seasons of the year offer a vivid in-built illustration of new life from death and barrenness. As winter gives way to Spring, it’s hard not to see through these times of change to eternal realities. Martin Luther basically said as much:

Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.

And surely there is no better example of this than the splendour of the daffodil. There it is, popping up in your garden or lining your local verge, all in various shades of sunburst. 

Just as the apostle wrote about the ‘last trumpet’ sounding when Jesus returns, signalling the day of resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:50-53), I reckon daffodils in springtime are like little resurrection trumpeters, vibrant and alert, declaring their good news to our dulled and distracted hearts. 

In fact, A. A. Milne has a line in one of his Winnie the Pooh books where he describes the daffodil as being a herald of life:

She turned to the sunlight, and shook her yellow head. And whispered to her neighbour: “Winter is dead.

Of course in this Easter time we have a seasonal opportunity to discover what the Christian seeks to recall daily: to look back to an empty cross and an empty grave and fix our hearts on these guarantees of God’s love, forgiveness and resurrection future.

But every sown seed that goes into the ground and ‘dies’, before being raised in the ‘glory’ of a flower, is also an enacted reminder that the new-life story is our story (1 Corinthians 15:35-44).

And yet the daffodil is not just a picture of transformation; she is a watchman who also raises her instrument and calls us to behold the new reality that has burst through the horizon in Jesus’ resurrection.

So as we approach Easter, I draw your attention to this little resurrection trumpet. Next time your eyes catch her joyful radiance, faithfully standing tall amidst this season of birdsong and April showers, why not take a moment to imagine her victory blast and remember what’s coming.

Increasingly many churches and individuals are putting time and energy into making creative film pieces for the Easter season, whether to be played at church services, events, or to be shared online. Here’s a list of 12 that I’ve come across.

1. Good Friday: Live! – Christians in Sport

Clever retelling of the events of Good Friday through imagined live scrolling web-based news reporting.

2. Cannonball – Speak Life feat. Guvna B

A visual/lyrical/musical feast, from the team at Speak Life, including Guvna B on vocals. Writer Glen Scrivener has also put together a short explanation.

3. I’m Full Cos It Was Empty – Spoken Truth

Dai Woolridge doing what he does really well.

4. Egg

Any video that manages to begin with the line “Consider the egg…” and still stays classy is clearly a good egg, ahem. Dave Crofts cleverly and gently uses something so often bound up with defining Easter as a provoking picture of bigger things.

5. Dead Come Alive – Full of Eyes

Powerful visual story-telling.

6. Bread of Heaven – Glen Scrivener

Taking up the theme of Passover and Jesus’ body being broken for us, using a child’s voice and drawings, painting the Bible’ grand-narrative and re-setting Jesus’ death and resurrection within its bigger story.

7. What do you think Easter is all about? – UCCF

A simple two-minute video, using pictures to accompany someone probing the question as to what Easter is about, before putting forward some of the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection.

8. That’s Easter: Death to Life – St Helen’s

Short presentation featuring biblical scholars speaking on the reliability of the gospel accounts.

9 & 10. Lego Easter Story – Richard Case/BW Animations

Two takes on the same idea, one apparently a ten-year old’s school art homework project, and the other a more in-depth take.

11. How Deep The Father’s Love – Page CXVI

Page CXVI reworking a song that captures the heart of the Easter message.

12. The Stone – The Gray Havens

Lyric video to accompany an original Easter track.

Know of any other videos? Share the love and drop them in the comments below.

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You may have seen another visually stunning Easter video, called ‘Because He Lives‘, which has been getting quite a lot of online attention at the moment. It’s worth pointing out that this film is actually part of a major social media campaign run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, aka, the Mormons, hence the reason why I’ve not included it. Although the video speaks of Jesus Christ and looks pretty similar to something you might find in a Christian church, once you dig into Mormonism you see that it’s a completely different ball-game to Christianity. Ultimately Mormons have a different understanding of God, of the divine authority and sufficiency of the Bible, and of the power and sufficiency of Jesus’ death. This is a helpful summary article to find out more about these substantial differences, explaining why I think Mormonism is better seen as a 19th century distortion of Christianity (and ultimately a distortion of the goodness of the gospel), rather than a subset within Christianity.