09/04/2020
Stupid Covid…It doesn’t even feel like Easter
So tomorrow is Good Friday, and I know you’ve said it doesn’t even feel like Easter, which got me thinking.
Is it because no one is planning their long weekend vacations, or taking the kids on road trips? Many people were sent home from work weeks ago, so there’s none of that longing for a break, no counting down the hours until clock off. There’s no churches open to worship and share communion in. The pubs are all shut, and parties all illegal.
This is what Easter has come to mean to us, and we need our rituals, our revelry, and our routines to make things feel ‘real’.
But if were honest, its the state of the world that doesn’t feel real, but perhaps this is the most real and Biblical Easter seen for many generations!
There’s a strange anxious energy in the air, sleepless nights, weird constant dreams, schedules and plans thrown to the wind, the common law is now like shifting sand beneath our feet, we have no idea where we stand, and as each question is answered, six new questions appear in its place. The world as we know it is disappearing before our eyes and literally God only knows what the world will look like on the other side of Covid-19.
If I were alive in the days of Christ, in the lead up to His world altering cross debut, I imagine some of these same experiences were likely. When those drops of blood dripped from His brow in the garden before His arrest, there would have been this unfamiliar heightened spiritual activity too. After Christ’s death and resurrection, the world as they knew it would never be the same again.
In our Christian culture, where Christmas and Easter are celebrated every year, some Bible stories are familiar. Many of us would be familiar with the countless warnings from God to His people, that a captivity was coming if we refuse to turn to God. I don’t know about you but this sure feels like being captives. Or how about the infamous story of the ten plagues, and the Passover, where the spirit of death struck the modern city of its day, taking the lives of those without protection and leaving others untouched. Kind of like an unknown virus that is both a killer and asymptomatic at the same time, yet no one seems to know who it will strike down and who it will miss.
I’ve lost count of how many people have asked me in recent days to “put in a good word with the man upstairs” for them. Isn’t Easter the perfect reminder that each person, every single one of you, has an advocate in Heaven, vouching to God on your behalf, His own precious blood shed in your honour. You don’t need me, though you’re all in my prayers, myself included, but as my teen daughters bestie constantly quips “Y’all need Jesus!” for He is already putting in a good word for you! Hallelujah! đ
This Easter, we don’t need a church to worship, for all it takes is recognition and deep gratitude in our souls. We don’t need a party, for countless unseen angels filling the sky, are already celebrating the softening of our hearts. We don’t need a vacation, for time on this earth is fleeting and never meant to be our permanent home. We don’t need our distractions and our dysfunctions to survive another day, for when all the noise of life becomes quiet our ears can hear more clearly the still small voice to guide us.
The trials we face right now, are simply a test, the furnace to purify the priceless worth of precious metal, the melting pot of affliction to refine us. The clearing away of all our imperfections, our indulgences and our weaknesses, to strengthen and renew our faith.
My prayer for us this Easter is for all to be covered with the precious blood of The Lamb of God, and for hope to spill over in abundance at the possibilities of a New World.
May God bless you and give you His peace this Easter â¤ď¸
27/12/2016
Losing Grip of Christ at Christmas
I canât begin to imagine the intense hurt Our Saviour must feel when He looks upon our world and sees the heresy of His Birthday. It brings tears to my eyes to think of it.
Australia, my home, is a country founded on Christian principles. Our public holidays, spread throughout the year, reflect a hint of our initial patriotism to Christ and the Cross. Sure, we recognise that âreligiousâ people do their part at keeping the traditional meaning of Christmas alive. But many in our community barely even mention the Name and Birth, or Death and Resurrection of the precious life and blood given to us, for us, on those unparalleled occasions.
We are a multicultural country, and have welcomed in practices and beliefs from nations far and wide. It is something we pride ourselves on, opening our arms to the world, defending the persecuted, providing sanctuary for those in despair, accepting the differences of cultures and customs. Cultures which we have established laws to protect, to protect their rights to worship and practice their faith in a country not founded in those beliefs. While somewhere along the way, our attention given to the truth of our own beliefs has all but been wiped out!
âEveryone has a right to their own set of beliefs and traditionsâ I hear you say, and I agree completely. But if taking time off work over Easter and Christmas is the highlight of your year then there is only one person you can thank for that! Jesus/Yeshua/Christ! If we forget to recognise and appreciate that truth, then those days are at risk of being morphed into practices void of the very principles that make our country great. Freedom, acceptance, equality, provision, justice, safety, health and opportunity are just some of the blessings this country stands on, and yet too many are conveniently forgetting that it was Christ who gave up everything, and came to this planet full of selfish hearts, to give us those very concepts!!
Have we all become so mindless that we fail to see the subtle ways the enemy has poisoned our celebrations of victory over him?! The enemy is the one determined to divide, destroy and defile, and Yeshua is the one who came determined to set a path for us towards unity, restoration and integrity. We are the ones who must chose to ignore, or believe, every lie ever told about our Beautiful Saviour and His Father, we are the ones who get to choose to take a good hard look at ourselves and ask ourselves what we really stand for. Do we believe in the principles of freedom, safety, provision, justice, equality, opportunity and healing?? Or do we believe in maxing out the credit card to buy chocolates and gadgets designed to attract our childrenâs attention while allowing disconnection, misbehaviour and social crippling to thrive from those very gifts? Is getting drunk more important than giving praise? Is excess and indulgence our fall-back position or is it the knowledge that Christ is the only answer to this worldâs problems?
“And even now in your Holy feasts to God, you don’t think of me, but only of the food and fellowship and fun” Zechariah 7:6 (LBP)
It is one thing to reject the Lord, and that is a choice He gave us. However, if the Australian Government all of a sudden decided that those days off were cancelled, or only permitted to those who professed belief in the Lord Jesus, would it then become a belief worth fighting for?
01/04/2013
A Poem of Easter’s Truth
A child wakes to a crisp Easter morning
The smell of chocolate is in the air.
Her aim is to find the most number of eggs
That a bunny was willing to share.
….
Shop windows filled with chickens and rabbits
Business doors are closed up tight.
Plans are made for the long weekend
Though not a cross is in sight.
….
The truth of why we celebrate this time
has been lost and no longer kept,
No thought at all for the message of grace
nor of the Saviour’s many tears wept.
….
Our Lord cried in the Garden of Olive trees
On the eve of His great sacrifice.
His torture and grief were for certain
Yet He begged some other way would suffice.
….
The keys of death were far below
Where sin caused life and hope to cease.
Only a blameless soul, willing to go
Could make a path of mercy, to peace.
……
In our home on every Good Friday
We read aloud this precious story.
We sip wine as blood and eat bread of life
In awe of His risen Glory.
……
Bunnies are cute and chocolate is sweet
And the truth of the cross, tough to grasp.
But next month all the eggs will be gone,
This gift of forgiveness shall last and last.
……
I hope you enjoyed this poem, perhaps you would also like the one I wrote at Christmas. Here is the link in case you missed it A Poem of Christmas Woe.
Happy Easter & Blessings to all!
Inner Angels & Enemies 