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Let's celebrate!!

25/4/2015

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On Sunday 24th May we celebrate the Birthday of the Church.  Not  an anniversary of Christ Church, Strabane, but the birthday of the World Wide Church.  We all are members of an historic organisation which is almost 2000 years old, and it all started in Jerusalem.  

In the Book of Acts chapter 2 we read about the day of Pentecost, where the disciples where all gathered together in the Upper Room.  Suddenly something remarkable and transforming happened. A sound like the blowing of a violent wind filled the whole house and what seemed to be tongues of fire came to rest upon each of the disciples.  They where filled with the Holy Spirit and each of them were equipped with gifts which enabled them to work for God.

On this same day, Peter stood up in Jerusalem and preached a sermon which lead to 3000 people placing their trust in the Lord Jesus.  Luke, the writer of  Acts, goes on to describe how the new believers met together for prayer, fellowship and teaching, to break bread (share in the Holy Communion), and to worship God.  Everyday since, the Church has continued to grow - ‘the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved’.  

The wonders of the Holy Spirit did not begin and end on the Day of Pentecost, and was not a one off move of God.  The Holy Spirit continues to move and work among the members of the Church, equipping us with the gifts necessary to work for God.  Everyone, who like the 3000 people in Jerusalem, who places their trust in the Lord Jesus, has a role to play.  We all have gifts which are given to us by God and the Holy Spirit enables us to use them.

The old Latin Hymn Veni Creator, which is usually sung at ordinations, contains a prayer.  This prayer invites the Holy Spirit to enter into each of us and give us the gifts which we need to work for God.  Let me encourage you to make this hymn your own personal prayer, so that each of us can work for the Glory of God and the good of His church.

Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
and lighten with celestial fire.
Thou the anointing Spirit art,
who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.

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Christ is risen

3/4/2015

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Christ is risen;
The Lord is risen indeed. Alleluia!

This greeting and response will be used right across the world, in every parish church of the Anglican Communion on Easter Day.  It is accompanied by proclamations on trumpets, organs, guitars, drums etc. as renditions of wonderful Easter Hymns such as ‘Jesus Christ is risen today’, and ‘Thine be the Glory, risen conquering Son’ mark the end of Lent and the beginning of this wonderful season of celebration. 

Though, I can’t help but think, do we really understand the significance of what we are saying and singing?   Do we really understand that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, crucified and buried, is risen, is alive?

For the believer this is a life changing phenomenon.  It fills us with hope, joy and a sense of expectation and excitement.  Why?  Because not only is Christ risen from the dead, He promises the same for us.  No doubt, with the death and burial of Jesus, the devil thought he had won.  However, with the Resurrection of Jesus, the devil has been defeated and the end of life on this world is no longer to be feared.

Paul writes in 1st Corinthians 15:20 “Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep”.  Why is the resurrection of Jesus described as ‘the first fruits’?  It was tradition for the Hebrew people of the Old Testament to take to the temple the first cut of the harvesting of their crops and present it to God.  This was their way of saying thank you to God for the promise of more to come.  So when the Resurrection of Jesus is described as the ‘first fruits of those who have fallen asleep’, it is acknowledging the promise of resurrection for those who know and love Jesus.

As a result of the events of that first Easter morning, we have nothing to fear.  God has promised eternal life to all who put their trust in the Lord Jesus.  As the hymn writer Henry Francis Lyte, quoting from 1st Corinthians 15:55 “Where is death’s sting? Where, grave, thy victory? I triumph still, if thou abide with me”.

With this promise in mind, let me encourage you to please accept Jesus as your personal Saviour.  Ask Him into your heart, to live there forever.  This surely gives a reason to say a resounding Alleluia to the words Christ is risen.

A Happy Easter to you all.

 

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