HAPPY RESURRECTION DAY!
This is a song this blessed Sunday celebration is incomplete without for me.
Listen, sing along, and rejoice with me!
He died and and He rose again for each of us to be free!!
Hallelujah!
Blessings and prayers to you today and always, dear friends! ❤
As Resurrection Sunday approaches, my mind naturally inclines to Calvary, to the glorious and complete redemption there.
But- it further goes to the churches in our land of late.
To pondering what the sermons across the country will consist of…
Will humble gratitude for the cross prevail?
Will a brokenness over the broken body of our Savior have its proper place?
Or will the disturbing trend for feel-goodism be front and center?
It can be a blatant parade of back-patting and busy work, a focus firmly centered on egg hiding and hunting and new clothes…
Or it can be more subtle, a type of gladness without the substance.
Doing the things because we always do the things, but all without pausing to contemplate why we do the things…
Or, sometimes, even if they are God’s things!
Yes, indeed, speaking His name, singing His praise,and doing good unto others can most definitely be His things!
But, then, there is also speaking His name in an attempt to gain His endorsement over sin, doing what we call good deeds that do not a thing for someone’s eternal destiny, aligning with what we deem the “correct” culture that has not a hint of Biblical correctness or an understanding of what mercy really means, and singing in a soulful, hip sort of way, but rarely inviting Him further than our lips…
It is a something that has infiltrated our churches at an alarming rate.
I did not coin this phrase, but it well suits where we are-
What we are far too often presenting is:
A social gospel.
An attempt to “cool” up and make “user friendly” the message of Christ that strips all the meaning.
And it sure doesn’t have to be Resurrection Sunday to see it.
But this season we celebrate His indescribably beautiful sacrifice to us does emphasize for me the disparity existing far too often between the soul of the church and the soul of the Lord…
So, all that spiel to say I offer you a perhaps different something to think on this Good Friday.
A list, if you will, of what the Gospel is and is not about…
It’s not about being cool.
It’s about being faithful.
It’s not about putting a happy face
To every gritty ounce of grace.
It isn’t the nod to embrace
The filth of our sin.
Rather, it is the precious breaking of
Those terrible bonds
Our mind must stay upon.
The cross must brutally remind
Of the Salvation we could not
Ourselves find…
Sundays of lapping up a self-soothing
Phrase,
Cannot cure the disease of humanity’s
Vacant glaze.
For your belly with fill for a while;
You might even dare a smile.
But the hollow, sin-shrunken frame
Stays on your back mile for mile…
You trade true freedom
For endless, useless scrabbling,
A weak, powerless strum
Over allowing Jesus in to blast away
All the wastelands you’re still
Inhabiting!
“But, I want to feel good, ” a grumble
Rises in the crowd,
“Jesus means all I do and all I am is
Stamped approved!
Let me float on my mellow cloud
And the rest of you can just sit there
Letting your Bible and your truth bog
Down your mood…”
“Ah, but friend,” comes the pleading
Reply.
“There is but one Bible. One truth. One Christ.
Christianity has never meant you’ll
Feel good for always-
Not in this life, anyway…
It’s about Jesus taking on the
Degradation we could not will away.
Not that we might stay in it,
But that He could split the veil
And show us a better way….
It is about endurance of hope
In the recognition of every high and
Low.
It’s about denying self and taking up
One’s cross,
Knowing the depth of His love
Covers every cost.
It is mercy, to be sure.
But blended perfectly with His
Holiness,
And this alone, church,
Must be our answer-no compromise!
For only in His truth do we begin to recognize
Desperate humanity’s cure….
May we hold fast to His truth this Resurrection season and always! Blessings and prayers on your Good Friday, dear friends! ❤
Hey, friends. It’s been a bit again since I shared a song. This one is pulled from early childhood memories. My dad, the quiet, unassuming metalhead, had discovered Christian music shortly after I was born. This song was a distinct departure from his usual, but one he fell in love with and therefore couldn’t stop playing.
Its tune captured my young self over time and then, life happened and memory of it shifted to the background until a couple of years ago.
We had had an awesome day of Goodwill finds, including a fairly nice turntable. I was excited to begin recollecting vinyl and chatted with my folks about it. Next thing I knew, my mom and dad were combing through their collection to pass some on to me.
Harvest was among the ones Dad shared, which I politely took without quite remembering it yet. I took it home and, honestly, put it away for a time, more entranced by the classic rock mom had chosen to give me 😏 ( Hey, CCR is another huge part of my childhood soundtrack. It was hard to resist the unique sound of their “I Heard it Through the Grapevine” on that turntable.).
And that was that for a time.
But, something in me one morning was drawn to straightening my collection…maybe because they were overflowing my makeshift shelves. 😁And, I picked up the Harvest album among the others and perused the titles, trying again to recall much about them.
And, then, all at once, the melody came back to me. I simply had to put it on then and there. And I was instantly drawn in again, reminded of the sheer beauty and truth in the story woven, sung and played in such a gloriously heartfelt manner.
For He is the resurrection and the life indeed! The joy and the hope of knowing that is beyond measure! It buoys the spirit on the bleakest of days!
Something sorely needed in this dark and troubled world.
And, so, I pray you enjoy, my friends.
That your hope of everlasting life through Jesus is lifted and your faith is affirmed by this incredible truth.
Blessings and prayers to you! ❤
Just pondering the wonder and glory of the Empty Tomb that ushered in the filling of our souls. Our gatherings this year look different, but there is nothing that can wipe out the possibility to celebrate this amazing gift He gave. 😊
Hush gathers over the morn,
Yet anticipation is humming,
Joy poised to be reborn
As creation sounds a blessed drumming…
Stone once sealed,
Now rolled out, the entrance revealed:
A folded shroud,
A vacant room,
And baffling bright promise
Alights the former gloom…
Oh, blessed ,empty tomb!
The indwelling you represent
Cheats the dead soul’s doom!
For, in Him who is alive,
We are gifted the chance to
Actually, truly forever live!!
In Him who all that is worthy derives,
We learn just how much He chose to give…
Blessings and prayers, dear friends! Happy Resurrection Sunday! He is ALIVE! Woo hoo! ☺
