This may be a
little belated, but I trust you all
experienced a very happy and blessed
Easter, in whatever way you
celebrated it. All I ask is that you
take just a few minutes to read my
Weekly Power Surge on this most
significant weekend in the Christian
calendar.
Let me begin with a relevant story.
One Easter, a Pastor brought
an
old
beat-up
rusty
bird
cage and sat it next to
the
pulpit.
As
he gave his sermon
that
Easter
morning
he held up the
cage
and
said,
“You might be wondering
why
this
is here.
As
a
matter
of fact,
that's
not
the
normal
part of an Easter
service,
having
a
bird
cage
here.”
He
said,
"Let
me tell you the
story
of
it.
Several
days
ago I was
noticing
a
little
boy
in
tattered
and torn blue
jeans
and
a dirty
T-shirt,
cap off to the side, whistling,
walking
down an alley,
swinging
this
bird
cage.
Clinging to the bottom
of
the
cage
were
little field
sparrows
he
had caught.
So
the pastor
stopped
him and
asked,
'Say, sonny,
what do you have
there?'
He
said,
'Oh,
I've
got some birds.'
'What
are
you
gonna do with
'em?'
the pastor continued.
'Oh,
mess
around
with them, tease
‘em,
something
like that. “Well:”
the pastor asked, “when
you
get
tired
of 'em,
what are
you
then
do?'
The boy thought a moment
and
said,
'Well,
I got
a couple of
cats
at home
and
they
like birds. I think I'll
just
let
them
have
'em.'''
The pastor
said
his
'heart
went out to the
little
birds
so he made the little lad an offer.
“How much do you want for the
birds?” Surprised, the little boy
said, “Mister,
these
birds
ain't
no good."
"Well;”
continued the pastor, “regardless,
how much would
you
like for 'em?" The little
fellow
said,
"How
about
two dollars?"
he
said.
"Sold."
So
the pastor reached
in his
pocket
and
peeled
off two
dollar
bills.
The little boy
shoved
the
bird
cage forward
pleased
with
his stroke
of good fortune.
When
the boy
left,
the pastor walked
a good
distance
away,
lifted open the little cage
door
and
said,
"Shoo,
shoo."
And he
shoved
them
out
of the door and they
flew
free.
The
empty
bird
cage
was the perfect
illustration
of how
Satan
had the human
race
trapped and frightened. Jesus
Christ
not
only
paid
the price for our
freedom;
He
has
set
us
free.
I’m
sure this Easter you will have given
gifts to family and friends of
chocolate eggs, cards or fluffy
bunny rabbits, and your generosity
would have brought you and the
recipients of your gifts, much
pleasure.
The unequivocal Christian message
of this and every Easter is…….
Two
gifts for the price of one…
Whereby we are all freely offered
….
the love of God displayed in the
death of His Son on the Cross of
Calvary, crucifying in its totality,
our sin, shame and everything we
weren’t meant to be, and His
resurrection on the third day
victorious over death.
And in exchange for our surrendered
life, we are offered two
life-changing
gifts,
(1) forgiveness of sin;
(2) a promise that for all eternity
we will never be separated from the
love and the presence of God.
Easter teaches us that, for the
followers of Jesus Christ, the
greatest reality is of an
experienced forgiveness, and
knowledge, that death is but a
phase, not a finality; a tunnel, not
a cave. It’s a one-way route to a
glorious eternity, not a dead-end
street to eternal oblivion.
You see, the world is but a great
hotel, where we stay for a few
nights and then we check out. What
folly it is to totally centre our
lives around our hotel…. and to
forget our eternal home…….
A
Christian’s best experience is yet
to come…….
Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth
and the life…..not….I am one of many
ways, or, I am only part of the
truth, no, He said, “I am the (only)
way, the (only) truth and the
(only) life,” and He concluded by
saying, “no one comes to the Father
(God) except through ME.” John 14:6
Let me encourage you to take a
little time out to read the gospel
of John’s account of the post
resurrection appearance of Jesus.
See John
20:19 – 22.
We one read again the
ageless account of that first Easter
Sunday. You must either feel
uplifted in your faith, or
challenged to embrace that faith?
You will notice in that Bible
passage in verse 19
“……the doors
were shut where the disciples were
assembled, for fear of the Jews.”
Then in verse 20 we read, “Then the
disciples were glad when they saw
the Lord (the resurrected Jesus.)”
They went from Fear to glad in an
instant!
That’s the impact the presence of
Jesus Christ makes in our lives…we
go from fear to gladness.
Let me ask you the following
questions, questions that only you
can answer.
Is your life empty but full of fear?
Is your life empty but full of
hopelessness?
Is your life empty but full of
uncertainty?
Is your life empty but full of
stress?
Is your life empty but full of
darkness?
Well you can rejoice
today………because….
The
Tomb of Jesus is empty
So
your life can be FULL!
