t’s a lovely time of year! Today is the first day of Spring and new life is all around us! The weather is turning for most of us and warmer temperatures are here. I have noticed the robins singing in the morning and bobbing along my yard looking for worms. The other day on a walk I saw the most gorgeous flowers newly blooming and the trees are getting their leaves. In some communities this is spring break week and many are gone on vacation
This is also a significant week of another kind. We are in Holy Week, the week before Easter. Many churches have services over thiscoming Thursday–Saturday prior to Easter Sunday. Maundy Thursday (meaning “commandment”) is a service where on the night Jesus was betrayed, the night before He was to die, He washed the feet of the disciples in a striking example of servanthood. Jesus commands us to love our neighbor and serve others.
Good Friday is really anything but good! Oh, it will be a lovely day off for many of us but this day used to be called “God’s Friday” because it marked the day Jesus died. Sometime during that busy day take a few moments to remember what has been done for you.Saturday many churches will host an Easter Vigil, a service later in the evening after dark with Bible readings and prayers moving us toward Easter.
The seasons of the church calendar help us to live through the life of Jesus while all along knowing the end of the story! Saturdayevening I had a wedding to perform and was not able to watch the IU playoff basketball game! I graduated from IU and have always been a big fan of the basketball program. I listened to the game on the way home as they won against Kentucky. I had recorded the game on TV and watching back through it, all the while knowing the ending, was wonderful! I wasn’t nearly as anxious or worried knowing they won the game.
Isn’t this the Christian life? We know the end of the story! Jesus has defeated death, and we are made new! Easter is perfectly timed to be around spring time. Jesus raised from the dead gives us new hope and joy, the old is gone, the Lord makes everything new! As God renews the earth, know also that God longs to renew you and me! Our old “stuff” has been forgiven! We are free from the past, and made new. Let go, let God. Rise to newness in your own life….”spring” into action where action is needed, and move through this week with the hope and joy of what is to come at Easter! New Life!!!
We will also defeat death one day, God is in control so just maybe we can be less anxious and worried?? After all, it is a lovely life, isn’t it?
A blessed Holy Week and Easter for you and yours,
Pr. Doug
Eric is our current Webmaster and works on the NLS Communications Team. Raised in Judaism, he found Christ and the New Testament at age 16 in a Southern Baptist Church. He searched many denominations for the real church, only to find the Holy Spirit is present in all of them. He's worked for One for Israel, a group of native Israeli believers who are sharing the gospel in the holy land in Hebrew and is part of the only Hebrew speaking seminary in Israel.
