Easter and the Love of God
It is another Easter season. Traditionally, this period starts when lent (traditional 40 days fasting for Christians) comes around and ends with the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord on Easter Sunday.
On Friday after an agonizing time on the cross, a place he got to by carrying his own cross after receiving a crown of thorns, abuse from the soldiers and mockery from the people, he asked for forgiveness for everyone who had taken part in the abuse of the innocent one and after a while he said it is finished and he gave up his life. He was taken down from the cross, his body was washed and spices were applied to his body and the grave was closed with a very heavy stone and soldiers were appointed to guard the grave and everyone went home for the Sabbath and the passover. On Sunday morning, the world changed forever.
This period is probably the most important period in the life of Christians because it culminates in the resurrection of the Lord which basically is the beginning of the Christian church. During his 3-year ministry, the Lord told the disciples and everyone who cared to listen that he would die and be buried and would rise again and would return to his Father. The disciples would not hear anything of it but he kept on with the message. Another group of people showed interest in this idea but were rather interested in not seeing it come to pass. This group arranged his death, provided false witnesses and judged him through some illegal judgment to ensure that he was out of the way and his “lies” would not come to pass and also made sure that a lie would be circulated concerning the resurrection when it eventually happened. From the moment he was arrested to the moment he said it was finished, his disciples were confused and in disarray. They had left all to follow him, they had trusted him with their lives, everything about them found its identity in him and here they are miserable and helpless because he has been taken from them and there was nothing they could do about it. Then the Lord appeared to them and they saw him and they were convinced that indeed He has risen. They received such an awakening that nothing else could have given to them. Everything the Lord had told them suddenly made sense, they understood him with such clarity they had not had in a while. They were emboldened and they knew immediately what they had to do especially after the Lord himself told them “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt 28:19-20).
This is the season to remember that the Lord of life, gave himself for people who did not deserve him and received from the people that which he did not deserve but accepted took as the Lamb of God the true passover lamb.
So more than easter eggs and other fun stuff, let us remember to thank God for the best gift ever.
Happy Easter!
An Angel of the Lord told me
September 30, 2017 by Jide Ajayi • Issues, Life •
I am always amused when I hear people speak in conversations, and in two or three sentences they utter a few “God laid it on my heart” or “God told me” to do one thing or another. The things they say God told them to do are things that sometimes are altruistic in the interest of one’s neighbor though at other times, they are self-centered desires within the heart, which does not reflect the mind of God in anyway.
In Act 27, we see Paul at the start of the journey to Rome after the Felix granted his request for audience with Caesar since Paul and his friends were not willing to give him the bribe he desired.
As a result of the events above, Paul as a prisoner finds himself on a ship that was sailing to Rome with other prisoners. There are so many details in this section about waves, sailing seasons, seas and cities that gives such a rich trove of the period and seafaring.
In Acts 27:9, we get a snapshot of the journey and person of the apostle. Luke tells us that the voyage was now dangerous because even the fast was now over. The fast here being the Yom Kippor fast or the day of Atonement fast, which is around our September-October period. This gives us a clue into the time of the journey and there by understand the nature of the weather and seafaring at the time. From Luke’s statement, there is communication to the reader of an understanding, that this period is a time of dangerous voyage. In this sentence, the stage is set for the next part of the story. The voyage was already long as much time had passed, then the time of the year was another challenge that would only make matters worse. In this crescendo, Paul speaks, and the choice of word is just succinct, he said I perceive that the voyage is going to end in disaster. At this point, he did not say the Lord laid it on my heart, or I just heard from the Lord that this voyage is going to end in disaster, he said, I perceive…
This is because he saw what Luke saw and wrote and probably what other could see or not, moreover, his experience in sailing from location to location during the missionary journeys and knowledge o the sailing seasons would have informed his observation and notice.
We are human and we are allowed to use the faculties God has given to us especially when we become Christians. We can say I perceive, we can say based on my experience, it does not means we don’t have faith, it does not mean God cannot use our experience or the reverse of it. It means we can be thankful for the gifts God has given to us and that we can use them for his glory.
In a few verses after the ship had been thrown around a few times and enough loss had been experienced, we see in Acts 27:23, reference is made to someone other than Paul and he said, an Angel of the Lord whose I am and whom I serve came to me saying…It is necessary for you to stand before Caesar.
Again we see Paul does not use wording or phrasing that is common today, he reported it as it is, reporting exactly from where the source of each speech came.
The Lord is gracious and he can do whatever he wants to do in anyway he wants to do it but when everyone sounds alike without really sounding like those influenced by the word of God, there is that wonder whether it is of God or another spirit.