EASTER SUNDAY
So we come to the final post of this Easter week series. I pray that you have been blessed and encouraged by them and we close with the glorious news that Christ the Lord is Risen Today – HALLELUJAH!
A time to rejoice that Jesus is alive. The cross is empty. The tomb is empty. Jesus is risen from the dead. In the words of that hymn ‘Christ the Lord is risen today’, Love’s redeeming work is done. Our glorious King does indeed live again: Hallelujah! May we hail Him today as our resurrected King and give thanks that the grave could not hold Him.
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May God bless you this Easter time and may resurrection hope spring in your soul. May you know and experience the truth that the same power that raised Christ from the dead lives in you.
From everyone at TIMC, a very Happy Easter to you all.
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[written by Stuart Hunter]
EASTER SATURDAY
Imagine the scene - the man who, just a few days before, had had crowds lining the streets shouting "Hosanna". The one you had put all your hope in, who you had seen raise people from the dead, perform miracles and had promised you eternal life had just been put on a cross and died. It was all over. His body had been laid in a tomb and now there was no hope. Imagine what that must have been like. All your hopes and dreams crushed and now there was nothing. It was finished...
But was it? It must have been an awful situation for Jesus’ followers to be in. A time of hopelessness and sorrow. But we know the end of the story. Jesus’ death wasn’t the end as the following day He rose again. Saturday was just a time of waiting.
In our lives we sometimes find ourselves waiting. Waiting for so many things beyond our control. Whatever you are waiting for, may God give you patience and hope. God’s timing is perfect, even when it makes no sense at all.
This Easter Saturday may you be filled with hope because what God wants WILL happen. Jesus’ death was not the end and because of this we can have hope and peace in the blood of Jesus.
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[written by Jen Hunter]
GOOD FRIDAY
“The wages of sin is death. The free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
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Days of darkness caused by sin are on the human time-line. The darkest being “Good Friday” when the sinless Son of God, the One worthy to fulfil God’s plan of salvation, was nailed to the cross. The sins of the world were laid upon Him as He suffered forsaken by Father. At the end Jesus prayed, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” Darkness was over the whole land as Jesus hung on the cross of crucifixion, the sun stopped shining. In His last words, “It is finished” the price of sin was paid so we could be forgiven.
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“Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer; but this I know with all my heart – His wounds have paid my ransom.”
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[written by Michael Quin]
THURSDAY 28TH
Resurrection and suffering - the two sides of Easter. It's interesting Paul puts the two together.
Horatio Spafford was a successful attorney, but lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871, he also lost his four year old son to scarlet fever. Thinking a holiday would do his family good, he sent his wife and daughters to England. While crossing the Atlantic, the ship collided with another and sank. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all four of his daughters.
Horatio, on hearing this, immediately left for England. The captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy, informed Horatio when they were passing the site of the ship wreck. Thinking about his precious family he wrote these words;
When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot Thou hast taught me to say, “It is well, it is well with my soul.”
How could he write that? He knew the two sides of Easter - suffering and resurrection.
Incredible suffering. Incredible glory. And that's Easter.
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[written by Ian Hunter]
WEDNESDAY 27th
The symbols of Easter are many and varied, from the crown of thorns and the cross, to the empty tomb, daffodils and Easter eggs. That’s not so surprising. Easter covers the deepest anguish of the soul on Maundy Thursday, the cruellest pain and the uttermost loneliness on Good Friday, the saddest separation of Easter Saturday, and the most glorious victory and brightest hope of Easter Sunday.
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Perhaps you might be feeling some of those things right now: anguish, physical pain, loneliness, separation? If so, then know that Jesus has been there too. Know that He understands how you feel, and be sure that He is near you now.
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The Easter message is also one of victory and hope. Jesus rose from the dead and offers forgiveness, healing, peace and purpose, along with an indescribably wonderful eternal home and life with Him. All this can be yours in Jesus.
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Happy Easter!
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[written by Hako Catchatoor]
TUESDAY 26TH
When God created us, He loved us but mankind turned away from Him and disobeyed Him. Our wrongdoing put a barrier of sin between God and man. Then in great love God moved His only Son, Jesus, to become like us in our humanity and humbly lay aside all His glory as God.
Jesus followed His Father God's plan obeying the call to offer Himself as our Saviour and dying on the cross for us so that God could justly forgive our sins and heal our sicknesses (when we repent). What amazing love. "How can it be that Thou my Lord should die for me?"
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[written by Margaret Mort]
MONDAY 25TH
Over the last 30 or so years of my life, I have sung or listened to the words of the hymn When I Survey the Wondrous Cross countless times. It’s a song I have come to love. Yet at Easter time, I feel these words take on a different emphasis.
As I travel through the highs and lows of Holy Week and the differing emotions that Jesus and His disciples experienced throughout those few days, this hymn helps me to put the Easter story into context. Without Good Friday, there is no Easter Sunday. We cannot have one without the other. It is the place where both ‘sorrow and love flow mingled down.’
As we journey along through this week, may we come to a place where we see the cross for what it is: ‘Wondrous.’
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[written by Andy Hunter]
palm Sunday
On that first Palm Sunday, Jesus came into Jerusalem riding on a colt. Word had spread that He was entering the city and crowds lined the streets to welcome Him. People spread their cloaks on the road, waved palm branches for Him and cried out: “Hosanna”, which means ‘save us now’ - precisely what Jesus came to do. He came to save but He did not save in the way they expected.
The people longed for Jesus to be this new political Messiah that would free Israel from Rome, but Jesus Himself said that He did not come to be served but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many. Out of His love for us, He died on the cross, taking our sin and shame that we may once again have a relationship with Him. In the words of the old hymn: Hallelujah! What a Saviour!
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[written by Stuart Hunter]
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