HE IS RISEN!

HE IS RISEN!

By Dwight Cunkle

When Jesus shared breakfast with Peter He was teaching us that Resurrection is less about what we can do for God; it is more about being with Jesus, and responding to the Father, and being more aware of our union in Holy Spirit with him because He loves us so.

PAYG Remember that after Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, his sister Mary anointed Jesus’ feet with oil worth an entire year’s wages. Rereading the passage (John 12:1-11) reminds me of first time through the Ignatius retreat, when we were asked to prepare some gift as expression of our love to give Christ. So, I wrote the song, “You thought of Me.” In my weakness, limited time, emotional and mentally drained state, what can I give You as an offering? Make a cross? Write a poem? You give all to us, and all good things we receive are gifts of your grace, so what can we offer back to you as token of our love?

Last Sunday service there was a beautiful moment of surrender when many in the congregation held out there hands, palms up, desiring Jesus more than anything. It came in response to Jeffrey’s word of loving him instead of self-centered and self-serving love. Then we confessed sins and received the body and blood of Christ together. Since it was Palm Sunday my message told the story of Scriptures fulfilled, to the very day of Christ being proclaimed as Messiah and his triumphal entry.

Perhaps one of our "gifts" to Christ in this season is to both receive the love for which we are asking and believe that as we are seeking and knocking on the door of His heart, we truly are finding his heart - especially regarding the building the revitalization of this congregation in his love.

Immediately after the meeting Richard shared prophetic words which he received during my message which confirmed what I also had received from the Lord - that our sowing was not and is not in vain, whether we are the ones who reap or someone else does, but God’s word will accomplish his purpose and bring fruit as we seek Him and his will.

As we think on Resurrection and a renewal of our “First Love” relationship with Jesus I remember the Christmas poem by Christina Rosetti, “In the bleak Mid-winter."

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him
Nor earth sustain;
Heaven and earth shall flee away
When He comes to reign:
In the bleak mid-winter
A stable-place sufficed
The Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.

What can I give Him,
Poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd
I would bring a lamb,
If I were a wise man
I would do my part,
Yet what I can I give Him,
Give my heart.

Grace and peace to you in the power and love of Jesus, the Risen Lamb of God, who reigns over all.

WHAT WE REJECT WHEN WE REJECT JESUS

WHAT WE REJECT WHEN WE REJECT JESUS

By Caryll Houselander

Behold the man abiding in mankind!

He has put on our humanity. He has put you on—and me. He has covered himself with our shame, blindfolded his eyes with our blindness, bound himself with our slavery to self. He is bruised by our falls. He bleeds from our wounds. He sheds our tears. He has made himself weak with our weakness. Faint with our faintheartedness. He is going to die our death.

All people are condemned to die, but he Is condemned to die not only his own death, but yours and mine, and that of every man whom he will indwell through all the ages to come.

“Behold the Son of God!”

“This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!”

He alone, of all men born, need not have died; but because things are as they are, because we have to pay the price of our sins, and our life on this earth must inevitably be a journey through suffering to death, Christ has chosen to give himself to everyone who will receive him, so that each     person who wills can tread that road with the feet of Christ, and at the end of it he can, if he wills, die not his own death but Christ's…

He has chosen our impotence in order to give us the power of his love, our weakness to give us his strength, our fear to give us his courage, our ignominy to give us his majesty, our pain to give us his peace, our wounds to give us his power to heal, our dying to give us his life, our interdependence that we may give him to one another…

Yes, and behold in him in yourself. Each one of us can recognizer himself, a sinner, in the disfiguring, the bruising, the ugliness, hiding the beauty of the fairest of the sons and daughters of men. And there can be few who do not recognize themselves, too, in the utter loneliness of this man in the midst of the crown that lately spread their garments to be trodden by the little donkey he rode on, and no clamor for his blood.