The Rock
The Newsletter of Alum Rock United Methodist Church
THE HOPE of Your Life!
The Easter season is almost complete; this is my favorite time of the year. I am an Easter person. Christmas I can take or leave. Although, I do like the music and the pageantry of it all. But Easter, on the other hand, really gets my blood going. The hope we find in this holiday is beyond compare. It’s no wonder every year Easter wanders around the calendar near spring. New life, renewal, and resurrection just all fit together so nicely.
Sometimes—my humanity keeps me so focused on my needs that I need Christ to lift my eyes to the hills (from where comes my strength). Our weakness keeps us so focused on our deficits that we need Christ to help us see we must reach out to others in order to make sense of our own lives (love one another as I have loved you).
Our pain keeps us so closed down that we can’t reach one another without Jesus’ help (I am the great Healer). Why Jesus? Because when we ask Him into our being, we are reborn and our birthday present on this glorious day of rebirth is the knowledge that we have been given not only eternity with Him, but also the supercharge He gives us to look up, reach out, and love. It’s not a ZAP like lightning; rather, it is a process of understanding and redefining our values, living our lives differently than before, and being cognizant of our need for reliance on His wisdom.
This means that unless we truly LEAN on Him and believe he supplies our daily bread (as we pray He will), we will simply add “Christian” to our belt of self-help aids and we will fall away, never to understand the richness of His grace. May this Easter season be your time to re-affirm Jesus not just in your life, but of your life.
If you failed today to say the right thing or do His prompting because of your choices, be assured you have tomorrow to turn it around. If you took His name in vain, confess your sin and ask for forgiveness. If you struggle with pride or a strong ego, or you detest someone, gather around you the robe of consolation (that you are not alone in your tests) and put on the armor of His protection so you can bravely face tomorrow with hope. And thank the God of amazing grace that He cares so much that a part of Him died for us more than two thousand years ago.
That’s Why Jesus. THE HOPE of Your Life!
Pastor Stephen