Easter pt 1

Easter this year is at March 28. I remember that I got to know a new friend called Christ about one week before Easter some years ago. Looking back it has been an awesome 9 years.

Having just celebrated Christmas a month back and Easter a few months down the future, it got me thinking about the relevance on easter to us Chrsistians.

I thought it odd that Christmas is celebrated so widely, so intensely, so viraciously, so much over the world these days by christians. I mean we eat, drink, throw parties, buy presents, shops go on sales, we go on shopping madness, the world's financial system takes a rest, we get our promotion...etc Meanwhile during easter, we go to church, sing a few songs have a good rest - maybe even check on our stocks.

However when I read the gospel, more chapters are devoted to Jesus' death than his birth. For sure, if Jesus wasn't born how can He die? But I was thinking, do our actions do speak of our belief - and it seems we don't see much relevance in His death.

Is there relevance to how he died to many of us christians in this urban age?

I wonder how many of us christian thought about it. I know I did. I used to wonder when I became a new christians, what does his death mean to me? I mean I know that believing in him makes a christian but now that I'm a christian, so what? My life got better sure, my bad habits got less and less? (This is not to say that I did like being christian, I loved it. I just wanted more of God)

But really how does this guy's death relate or affect my my work, my relationships, my life...etc? Hey I... the big I.. still have to work as hard you know! It's a dog eat dog world out there man! It seems being a good christian also mean that I MUST be of a good example to turn people to God. Pastor says, we are doing this and that to sow the love of God... and we shouldn't complain because we should work like we're working for Jesus - the bible said so.

Sure... I mean I love serving and He deserve our service because of what He has done. His great love.

However when I think of God that way: He is there and I am here. I'm here to serve Him who is 'there', wherever there is. He seemed formal and distant at best. We pray for Him to help us in our work, relationship and then go about working on our work without Him. Worst, I only 'pray' to Him!

You must be wondering if I'm smoking something. Nothing wrong there to pray to Him but I find it very wrong if we ONLY pray to Jesus. Whatever happen to TALK or LISTEN or JOKE or ASK...etc?

Jesus died and rose again. He endured the pain and took our sins. Now that He is risen, He realllly is God.

I think most people see easter as that - He is now God so serve Him.

But if we look beyond that we would clearly see how that has relevance to our lives - every part of it. One of the 'things' He did which I am thinking of right now is how His death and resurrection made us close to Him.

Even if you don't serve Him, don't pray to Him, He is now very close to you. Even if you have done wrong, or not obeyed you're VERY VERY close to Him. His spirit dwells in you. The Holy Spirit dwells in us as a gurantee that He'll come back. Gurantee man! This gurantee can happen because He rose!

Our relationship with God now is very very very close. We don't have to be more holy to be close to Him. We get closer to Him like how we get closer to a friend - by developing a relationship. He wants a relationship with me not my holiness - for at best my holiness is like used sanitary pads (in the bible it translate in greek to filthy rags). His spirit who dwells within us will help us, teach us into all things including our work, our relationship... etc

We can now enter boldly to the throne of God. What used to be limited only to the High Priest once a year IF he does all the rituals correctly is now accessibly to me -wirelessly (literally :) ), instantly and at anytime.

So how does all this affect our every day lives? It means now God is not distant anymore. In fact Jesus only called God once just before He died, the rest of the time He called Daddy. For us, He's now your best friend, who comes by your place to comfort you when you're down. When you screw up, He's there to help you. When you don't know how to finish your work properly, He'll guide you. You know the time when you screwed up so badly your best friend help you 'fix things', He does that too. When you're bored, He's there to talk to you.

I used to think that if I follow his examples, I WILL be able to get better and achieve more. Sure I did. Now I found a better way, I do it with Him, along with Him for 'He writes His laws in my heart', 'He leads me to quiet water'.

I'm not saying we shouldn't serve I am however saying that He does not need us to serve to love us more or He loves us any less.

He is closer than you think.

No, really...

He was talking to me....


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You said it best... when you say nothing at all.

After the song got popular, it became a cliche. Ha ha, and how true, how true! And I don't mean it in a sarcastic kind of way.

My journey started after listening to a sermon last year when I 'discovered' that if I give honour to my parents, God will honour me! Wow! He promise to bless me if I honour them. Awesome. Of course, we're supposed to honour them, God just throw in the bonuses if we do them like giving us long satisfying life...etc

Then I 'discovered' that if I honour God, God will honour me too. Simple.

Then I thought, what if I honour my friends? Give them honour. What would happen? Others reciprocate. Give respect and it will be given back. You get to make better friends, love more and learn more about people around. Life got more interesting.

The amazing thing I found out about this is that I have an unlimited amount of honour to give. How much honour can I give? As much as I want! And the more I give, the more I got back in return.

Ok but how do I give this abstract thing called 'honour'? I learnt later that most times, I can give 'honour' to friends by listening to them. People just love to talk. Incredibly, they love to teach! and I get to learn so much from their lives! ..... and all this while I was trying to get people around me to talk more so that I can learn from them but really all I had to do was to keep quiet! hahaha eric just loved to talk!

Thank you Jesus for this important lesson this year.