Easter message to my family
Happy Easter to my family and friends. Today we are celebrating Easter, the day when we commemorate the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This Easter is very unique because unlike the usual Easter, we celebrate this day cooped at our own home and we "attend church" in our home. All this can been seen very un-Christian way of celebrating Easter. But have you ever wonder why God is allowing this horrible pandemic? Have you ever wonder, if what God wants is for His people to go to church regularly, then why He let all the churches around the world CLOSED?
Whether this Covid19 comes from God or from Satan, we do not know. (Yes we know that it comes from people who did not observe proper handling measures when selling live animals.) But what we all know is that Covid19 is happening and affecting lives badly across the world. There are so many lessons that I have learned during this season. I would like to humbly share with you just one point, as to not bore you.
One of the important lesson that I have learned in this season is that it has something to do with our churches being closed. Catholics, Protestants, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic Orthodox, etc, closed their buildings, not allowing a single worshipper into the church building. Many Christians (in whatever denominations) suddenly feel lost and confused. "Where are we going to pray?". "How are we going to receive our Holy Eucharist?". "How are we going to have our meditation in the Chapel?" "How are we going to have Holy Communion?". "How are we going to do our confession?". "How are we going to sing our worship without the Choir group?" and many more questions.
I would like to bring up a passage that I find is very relevant to this particular lesson that I am learning.
John 4:20-21 says,
…20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
In that time, the Jews would go up to the temple in the mountain to pray and "meet with God". Then, in the year 70AD, the Roman empire waged a war against the Jews and destroyed the main temple in Jerusalem, as Jesus predicted. Suddenly, people no longer have a temple to go to.
This passage reminds me a lot of what is happening to us today. What I learned from this season is that church building is not the only place of worship, WE are the place of worship too. We can call out to Jesus from anywhere. We can worship God from anywhere. We can listen to sermons from anywhere. We confessed our sins directly to God. We share our thanksgivings with our family, Christians or not Christians! no longer with our church friends. We observe the last supper from our own home. Our daily actions become an act of worship to God. We are no longer a Sunday Christians. With churches all temporarily closed, we have to quickly realised and learned that our body is the Holy Temple of God (1 Cor 6:19). My brothers and sister, this is the time when we look inward into our hearts and lives and check our spiritual posture. Do not be a Christian who just go to church. Why? because if you are, that means as of now, you have no right to call our Jesus, "Lord". I am sorry if my words are harsh, but this is something that is close to my heart. I am not saying that I am the perfect Christian. I have many flaws, many weaknesses, and I still harbor bad thoughts. But what I am is that I am always willing to look up to Jesus and be used as a vessel to carry out God's work that He has planned for me, from the time even before I was conceived.
So I would like to ask you, what does Easter means to you personally?
Happy Easter and God bless you!
This Easter is very unique because unlike the usual Easter, we celebrate this day cooped at our own home and we "attend church" in our home. All this can been seen very un-Christian way of celebrating Easter. But have you ever wonder why God is allowing this horrible pandemic? Have you ever wonder, if what God wants is for His people to go to church regularly, then why He let all the churches around the world CLOSED?
Whether this Covid19 comes from God or from Satan, we do not know. (Yes we know that it comes from people who did not observe proper handling measures when selling live animals.) But what we all know is that Covid19 is happening and affecting lives badly across the world. There are so many lessons that I have learned during this season. I would like to humbly share with you just one point, as to not bore you.
One of the important lesson that I have learned in this season is that it has something to do with our churches being closed. Catholics, Protestants, Anglican, Methodist, Catholic Orthodox, etc, closed their buildings, not allowing a single worshipper into the church building. Many Christians (in whatever denominations) suddenly feel lost and confused. "Where are we going to pray?". "How are we going to receive our Holy Eucharist?". "How are we going to have our meditation in the Chapel?" "How are we going to have Holy Communion?". "How are we going to do our confession?". "How are we going to sing our worship without the Choir group?" and many more questions.
I would like to bring up a passage that I find is very relevant to this particular lesson that I am learning.
John 4:20-21 says,
…20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21“Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.
In that time, the Jews would go up to the temple in the mountain to pray and "meet with God". Then, in the year 70AD, the Roman empire waged a war against the Jews and destroyed the main temple in Jerusalem, as Jesus predicted. Suddenly, people no longer have a temple to go to.
This passage reminds me a lot of what is happening to us today. What I learned from this season is that church building is not the only place of worship, WE are the place of worship too. We can call out to Jesus from anywhere. We can worship God from anywhere. We can listen to sermons from anywhere. We confessed our sins directly to God. We share our thanksgivings with our family, Christians or not Christians! no longer with our church friends. We observe the last supper from our own home. Our daily actions become an act of worship to God. We are no longer a Sunday Christians. With churches all temporarily closed, we have to quickly realised and learned that our body is the Holy Temple of God (1 Cor 6:19). My brothers and sister, this is the time when we look inward into our hearts and lives and check our spiritual posture. Do not be a Christian who just go to church. Why? because if you are, that means as of now, you have no right to call our Jesus, "Lord". I am sorry if my words are harsh, but this is something that is close to my heart. I am not saying that I am the perfect Christian. I have many flaws, many weaknesses, and I still harbor bad thoughts. But what I am is that I am always willing to look up to Jesus and be used as a vessel to carry out God's work that He has planned for me, from the time even before I was conceived.
So I would like to ask you, what does Easter means to you personally?
Happy Easter and God bless you!
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