The "Easter Season" has passed. Easter hats are put away, family traditions are over till next year, the Sunrise Service has set, what do we do now as individuals and as a church in response to the truth we just celebrated?
Wait, we can't think about that too much yet, we have Homecoming Sunday, Mother's Day Sunday, Father's Day Sunday, then we will want to recognize the graduates one Sunday and we need to come up with some summer programs. Those things will keep us very busy, but we could probably get serious about applying the Easter message sometime around July. Oops, I forgot about taking a Sunday to celebrate our country and maybe we need to do something for Labor Day? After that we need to consider if we should celebrate Halloween (call it a "Fall Festival" of course). That seems like the perfect time to get busy with our response to the Easter message, but Thanksgiving is at hand and then we will glide right into Christmas. Of course New Years Day and Valentines Day will keep us plenty busy until we get back to Easter!
Matt. 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. (NKJV)
Acts 1:6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (NKJV)
It is not necessarily bad to recognize people's accomplishments and other Holidays at church, but maybe a bit of focus is needed? Jesus should always be the focus!
Well said, beloved of Christ. Our Lord and Savior should be cause for celebration every day. Every example we are given in Scripture, from Abraham to Paul, shows us that when the calling of God is brought to fruition in a person, that person becomes a strange creature indeed. If Jesus has truly given me the "knowledge of salvation" (LUKE 1:77)- That I was under Eternal condemnation, that Jesus is REAL and is Who He says He is, and that in spite of my nothingness He in His sovereign grace chose to give me His righteousness- How can that ever be normal to me? If I have the Holy Spirit of the true and Almighty God living inside me as a result of Christ's perfect, finished work on the cross, I will glorify God and the Lamb, because as our Lord himself said, when the Spirit comes, He will speak not of Himself, but will guide the redeemed into all truth- And GLORIFY JESUS the King. If I have truly been given the faith that this is now MY reality- Well, all Glory to God, it's been a bit over 3 years now since God through Christ made this dead man alive, and ive not been ABLE yet to shut up about it, and if His Word is true I never will-For the Living God lives in me!(Eph.2:22) Inconcievable yet true. But we always say "That brother/sister is on fire"- as if someone who has been allowed to see and Believe unto salvation Could be any other way. I am given the faintest glimses of what He has done for me, and am compelled to tell. I couldn't hush if I wanted to, and I don't. For God through Jesus has took a man who HATED Him and by His Power and Grace made me love Him. He has taken from me the old heart of stone and given me a new, living, fleshly one (EZE 11:19-20). Do we really beleive that. I ask this pleadingly, not haughtily, beloved. It is also written that from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (MATT 12:34-35) What I prize most will be the center of my conversations. If I claim belief that Christ has given me the priceless treasure of forgiveness and eternal life-then the reading of His Word and the proclaiming of His glory and power and wonderfullness should be a ravenous hunger to me-A fire shut up in my bones(Isaiah 26 ; 33:13 ;34:16;38:19-20;ch. 48;51:16; 59:21; 61:1-3; 61:10-11
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