Happy EASTER!
From our family to yours, Happy Easter everyone! We hope that you are having as incredible a day as we are! We are rejoicing today for our Savior Jesus rose from the dead on this day and for that we are all eternally grateful! The essence of Easter is often clouded over by bunnies, eggs and family meals (don't worry, we have eggs, bunnies and food too!), but let us not forget that because Jesus was crucified and then rose again three days later, our earthly sins have been forgiven and we all have the opportunity to live in Heaven with our Father and Savior one day. You too have been granted this amazing forgiveness and can live eternally in Heaven if you accept Jesus as your personal savior. What an incredible gift we have been given! Hallelulah!
Did you know that on Easter more people attend a church service than any other day all year round? I was shocked when I first heard this because I thought for sure that Christmas would top the charts!
More powerful for me than any Easter church service is communion at our church. I grew up with a Catholic mother who raised me in her church half of my childhood weekends, and a Protestant Christian father who took me to several types of churches ranging from Church of Christ to Assembly of God on my weekends with him. Never in all my life of experiencing communion though have I experienced something as powerful as what our church, Western Reserve Grace Brethern, has.
Most churches celebrate communion with the bread and the cup, an explanation of the practice of commuion and the story of Jesus' last supper. I want to emphasize that there is nothing wrong with any church's communion celebration! I grew up with this type of communion and it is wonderful. I have just felt that the communion event at our church is more meaninful and powerful for me.
Our church has three-fold communion, and it is only held a couple of times each year to protect the "specialness" of our event. It begins with washing of one anothers' feet just as Jesus did with his diciples which symbolizes Christ's ministry of sanctification, next we have a love feast (a meal) together which is a symbol of Christ's future ministry of glorification, and finally, we take the bread and the cup, symbolizing Christ's past ministry of justification. We have music, our pastors and elders read scriptures, provide explanation and pray with the group, and we have an opportunity to share a testimony of what God is doing in our hearts and lives. I know that some of you are thinking that this whole celebration would be "too much" or "over the top" for you, and at one time I might have had those thoughts myself. But it is an incredible experience, and I have never felt so close to Heaven as I do during the three-fold communion ceremony.
We just had our three-fold communion on Thursday, and I enjoyed every single second of the almost 3-hour ceremony. It may seem like a long time, but it went so quickly and had there not been a clock in the room, I would never have guessed we'd been at church for that long. Having communion that night really set my mind's focus on Easter, what my Jesus did for me, and how important my faith is to my life.
I encourage each of you to take a few moments today to reflect on the true meaning of Easter either by yourself or with your families. What a Glorious day, what a Glorious Savior!
Did you know that on Easter more people attend a church service than any other day all year round? I was shocked when I first heard this because I thought for sure that Christmas would top the charts!
More powerful for me than any Easter church service is communion at our church. I grew up with a Catholic mother who raised me in her church half of my childhood weekends, and a Protestant Christian father who took me to several types of churches ranging from Church of Christ to Assembly of God on my weekends with him. Never in all my life of experiencing communion though have I experienced something as powerful as what our church, Western Reserve Grace Brethern, has.
Most churches celebrate communion with the bread and the cup, an explanation of the practice of commuion and the story of Jesus' last supper. I want to emphasize that there is nothing wrong with any church's communion celebration! I grew up with this type of communion and it is wonderful. I have just felt that the communion event at our church is more meaninful and powerful for me.
Our church has three-fold communion, and it is only held a couple of times each year to protect the "specialness" of our event. It begins with washing of one anothers' feet just as Jesus did with his diciples which symbolizes Christ's ministry of sanctification, next we have a love feast (a meal) together which is a symbol of Christ's future ministry of glorification, and finally, we take the bread and the cup, symbolizing Christ's past ministry of justification. We have music, our pastors and elders read scriptures, provide explanation and pray with the group, and we have an opportunity to share a testimony of what God is doing in our hearts and lives. I know that some of you are thinking that this whole celebration would be "too much" or "over the top" for you, and at one time I might have had those thoughts myself. But it is an incredible experience, and I have never felt so close to Heaven as I do during the three-fold communion ceremony.
We just had our three-fold communion on Thursday, and I enjoyed every single second of the almost 3-hour ceremony. It may seem like a long time, but it went so quickly and had there not been a clock in the room, I would never have guessed we'd been at church for that long. Having communion that night really set my mind's focus on Easter, what my Jesus did for me, and how important my faith is to my life.
I encourage each of you to take a few moments today to reflect on the true meaning of Easter either by yourself or with your families. What a Glorious day, what a Glorious Savior!
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