Grains of Sand

Steve Jones, the President of The Fellowship of churches to which I belong sent this email out this morning. The issue he speaks about has been something that has bothered me for some time. The trend to ignore the death of Christ in favour of the more positive message of the Resurrection has been growing—even in my own church. I am glad that our president has chosen to speak to the importance of Christ's death. Here is the email. Dear pastors, missionaries, chaplains and friends,   Steve here… This next week we celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour. This Sunday, we will begin our Easter worship services with the words, “He is risen!”   However, before Jesus rose, He died.   An organization in Britain called The Churches Advertising Network unveiled a fairly unconventional Easter ad campaign a few years back. They said it was designed to take the “churchiness” out of the Easter holiday. Among the symbols being dropped i...

It's almost supper time and all you have is some leaf lettuce, a pomegranate, a hot chili pepper and an apple turnover. What are you going to do with those four items to turn them into an edible and attractive main course? Sounds like an episode of the Food Network's cooking challenge show, Chopped , doesn't it? On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He met for the last time with the twelve men who had become His inner circle of disciples. If there was ever a band of unlikely suspects upon which to create a movement, this was it. Fishermen, tax collectors, and anarchists, among others, gathered around the table to participate in an historic moment. " Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, 'Take and eat; this is my body.' Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, 'Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins '...

Google Images What do you do when the cross no longer moves you? You keep going back to it until it does. When we are no longer impacted by the remembrance of the cost of our salvation we have, as Paul writes to the Colossians, " lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow " (Colossians 2:19). The cross is the pumping of the heart that moves the blood that supplies life to the body. Psalm 22 is a Messianic psalm, describing the work of Christ on the cross. Over David's story is superimposed HIS-tory. " My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from helping me… Many bulls surround me; stong bulls of Bashan encircle me. Roaring lions tearing their prey open their mouths against me. I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my...