The Thrill Of The Tomb

On this most holy Resurrection Sunday, we were blessed with exuberant joy and fulfilled hope as met together in corporate celebration worship. This day is the basis for our Christian hope and the reason we can always trust in God's promises.

The central focus of our altar today was the cross draped in white silk and decorated with a delightful pink rose. It was a poignant reminder that the 'empty tomb' means that God kept His promise of eternal life through Christ and conquered death, once for all, for us.

Here is the 'Thrill of the Tomb'.

• When we say Christ is raised from the dead, we can also say that we are raised from the dead. [Present tense ~ are raised!]
• When we say that Christ is never to die again, we can also say that we are never to die again.
• When we say that death is no longer master over Christ, we can also say that death is no longer master over us. We need never fear death again, for in Christ, spiritual death is in our past.
• When we say that Christ died to sin, we can also say that we died to sin, because when He died to sin, He died once for all of us.
• When we say that the life He lives, He lives to God, we can say that we live our lives to God. “Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus”. (Rom 6:11)

Ephesians 2:6 ~ "God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus…"

Ditch Good Friday

The Herald Sun (20 March 2008, 5:30pm) reported...
GOOD Friday should be dumped as a public holiday and replaced with a national reconciliation day recognising Aborigines, a Melbourne cleric says. The Reverend John Evans, the Uniting Church Minister at the Church of All Nations in Carlton, said Good Friday had lost its religious significance outside the Christian community. He also said Australia was becoming a more multicultural, multifaith society and having Good Friday as a public holiday may no longer be appropriate.
Dr Evans applauded Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's public apology as a major step towards reconciliation, but said a day such as Good Friday should be set aside to mark the recent steps forward. "We have done a great thing with the national apology but when you look at our public holidays there are no public holidays that recognise the role and place of Aborigines as the first people of this land," he said. Dr Evans said any day, not just Good Friday, could be suitable for a national reconciliation day.
In a statement released today, Dr Evans said: "Whether Good Friday is a public holiday or not will not change or challenge the day's significance. In fact, in the place of Good Friday, there should be a national holiday to mark our endeavours towards Aboriginal reconciliation". When asked about the statement, Dr Evans said: "That would be the gift that I would be prepared to make, that if the only way we could get a public holiday for national day of reconciliation is that it's Good Friday, I'd be for it." He said Good Friday would not lose its name or significance as a result. "We will never not have Good Friday. The question is, should it be a public holiday?" he said. "And I would welcome it to be a public holiday but I would also observe that it is not being treated as a holy day." Dr Evans said a national reconciliation day fits in with the message of Easter, which he said was about reconciliation between individuals, God and each other.
But Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Melbourne, Christopher Prowse said despite the importance of reconciliation it would be inappropriate to have such a day on Good Friday. "Aboriginal issues are very important for Australia, however the Good Friday observance has a different focus and that focus should not be deflected by other issues, however important." But another day could be set aside for reconciliation, he said.

WOW! Considering this argument, I'm all for a National Reconciliation Day, but not on Good Friday. I believe such a day would best replace Easter Monday, for that public holiday has no real significance for anyone, unlike Good Friday (which I agree, is no longer being upheld as a holy day in the majority of our Australian society).
Having lived in Singapore and Malaysia, I can confidently say that, as a mutlicultural and multifaith country, we are not very effective in respecting the holy days of other faith religions. All holy days observed as public holidays are reflected on the respective national calendars, though in practice only those who align themselves to that particular faith are allowed to take the day off.
Religious tolerance of all sorts and persuasions is one 'non-negotiable' the world needs to take hold of if we are to experience effective ecumenism and social harmony.

The Charm Of The Cross

Inala Chapel's annual Stations of the Cross is a spiritual highlight of our Easter celebrations. It's a poignant opportunity to reflect on the scriptural accounts of Holy Week and ponder the Via Dolorosa walk that Jesus made all the way to Calvary ~ for us.

Following this, we met for corporate worship under the theme "The Charm of the Cross...I love to be there!", considering passages from Paul's letter to the Romans (Ch 3) and the Corinthians (1 Cor 1).

The Charm of the Cross?

• Righteousness from God through faith…(Rom 3 v22)
• Justified freely by His grace…(Rom 3 v24a) - JUST-AS-IF-I’D NEVER SINNED
• Redeemed by Christ Jesus on Calvary… (Rom 3 v24b) - BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB!
• Christ made us right with God [our righteousness];
• Christ made us pure and holy, [our holiness] and
• Christ freed us from sin. [our redemption]

Contemplating The Cross

Our Maundy Thursday evening service was well attended and well received. It was an opportunity for contemplating the Cross and remembering the Last Supper in the Upper Room, when Jesus reminded the disciples of His mandate ~ "A new commandment I give unto you: that you love one another, as I have loved you." (John 13:34)

Corporate and personal prayer, times of meditation, reflective music and powerful Scriptures made this a most unforgettable evening. As we left in comtemplative silence, our hearts rejoiced greatly in the personal knowledge that God's love enables us to experience redeeming grace through Jesus.

The General's Easter Message: By His Wounds We Are Healed

Who among us does not need healing? Which of us is perfectly whole? Where is the one with no need of a Saviour? The first step toward healing is to recognise our need. Yet how often our pride gets in the way and we struggle on wounded, our vitality quietly seeping away and our effectiveness for the Kingdom compromised.

The Salvation Army consists of soldiers of Christ working tirelessly for God’s Kingdom of purity, love and light. The work takes its toll. The fighting can be hard. Inevitably there will be wounds along the way. Many of you reading this are aware of it. You serve well, but can grow weary. You work hard, but can grow tired. You give of yourself sacrificially for others, but the results can seem small.

God sees it all. More than that, our Saviour has experienced it for himself. In the person of Jesus Christ we find a Saviour who is the Wounded Healer. Those resounding, passionate, moving verses found in the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 53, speak to us still today: ‘He had no beauty or majesty ... He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering ... and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows ... He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities ... and by his wounds we are healed' (vv 2-5).

There is no one who does not need the Saviour. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory God intends for each human being (Romans 3:23). Isaiah 53 says: ‘We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all’ (v 6). This is Jesus, our only Saviour. This is the Son of God, born of Mary, raised in Nazareth, the young man who was perfectly filled with the Spirit of God, born to be our Wounded Healer.

Do you know him? Have you searched him out? Have you recognised your need of a Saviour and turned to Jesus? Countless millions have done so, included among them the world’s Salvationists. By his wounds we are healed. Without him we would be nothing. Only Jesus makes us whole, and we return to him again and again seeking fresh healing from the hurts and trials of the battle against sin and evil.

How gentle is this Wounded Healer, how understanding of our pain. How gracious he is, how patient with our pride, how tolerant of our foolishnesses. He has walked our way before us and understands. Therefore we can approach him with confidence, for he knows and sees it all. He is not shocked by our sin, not repelled by our lack of love, not anxious to make us feel small. Instead he longs for each of us to reach that full height of all we can become in the strength of his power and love as they flood our beings. He has a plan for each of us and it begins at Calvary’s Cross.

See the Wounded Healer there impaled. The nails through his hands and his feet hold him, but not as firmly as his love for you, not as determinedly as his longing for your healing from sin. How ardently he desires your salvation, how invincibly he loves you. Do you see it? Can you realise it? Your Wounded Healer did it all for you and for me. At Calvary’s Cross we find forgiveness for our sins, balm for life’s hurts, healing for our wounds, through the only Saviour. There is no other.

Shaw Clifton, General of The Salvation Army

The Easter Predicament

With public holidays either side of the Easter weekend and the added fact of living in a secular society, it's easy for many (Christians included!) to have a secular attitude to this most sacred time of the year.
My wife's words this morning offer us a good challenge.

EASTER ~ IT'S EITHER A HOLIDAY OR A HOLY DAY.

YOU MAKE THE CHOICE!

Well, I know where I stand on the matter ~ Holy day.

What about you?

Saviour, Redeemer, Friend

Day 2 of Holy Week was a further opportunity for contemplative worship with our 'extended congregation' in the nursing homes and hostels. We considered the following text.

John 15:13-15 (NIV) ~ "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you."

The complete, Divine love of Jesus paid the price of sin for us ~ He is our Saviour.
"He died that we might be forgiven...saved by His precious blood" ~ He is our Redeemer.
His personal, sacrificial Love demands our souls, our lives, our all ~ and that's why we can call Him, Friend.