| Author | Message | ||
| Pegg Registered user Username: Pegg Post Number: 75 Registered: 2-2006 |
This is my third Easter Season since I was given a new Family of God. Easter was not a spiritual experience for me while I was in SDA. Easter was white lilies and bunnies, colored eggs and marshmallow chicks. My new Family of God has patiently introduced me to the spiritual celebration of Easter. Today I look forward with anticipation to the climax of joy that Easter represents. I love the season of Lent, as we take special time to become immersed in the wonder of God. This year our study group engaged on a study of prayer in support of faith-sharing. Our study guide, (Unbinding Your Heart, Martha Grace Reese) Provided daily Scripture devotions and prayer assignments, along with room for journaling. One morning last week our devotion led us to Psalm 136. In this psalm an anonymous psalmist remembers the leading of the Lord for His children, Israel. My Bible notes that this was a song the COI would sing as they ascended to Jerusalem at feast time. Our prayer exercise asked us to think back and identify the hand of God in our lives. From those thoughts I wrote this loose personal paraphrase of that psalm. Some of you may have seen this, as I have posted it on CARM. Today I wanted to celebrate the Goodness of God with the rest of my friends here. I Hope You Will Find A Blessing and Be Inspired To Revel In The Leading Of God In Your Own Life. A personal paraphrase of Psalm 136 My God chose me from the foundations of the earth. His love is eternal! He gave me a Christian family and nurtured me all of my life. His love is eternal! Yet I despised Him. He nagged me and begged me to be His, but for years I held back. His love is eternal! I thought I didn’t like Him. I thought Him tyrannical, demanding and rude. His love is eternal! Then one day He called my name out loud. Try as I might I could not dissuade Him. His love is eternal! He insisted that if I knew Him, I would love Him. His love is eternal! At last He made me curious. “Just try me,” He said. “I have Living Water. It is yours. I have paid the price. It is Free!” His love is eternal! “Okay then,” I said, “I’ll get to work.” “No!” He told me, “You Rest.” His love is eternal! “Whatever do you mean,” I asked, “surely I must work? Surely I must do something!” But He replied to me, “My child, the work is all mine and it is finished.” His love is eternal! “I’ve done it all. I bought your soul before you existed. I adopted you. You are my child. You are family. There are no requirements for my love.” His love is eternal! “You can Rest in Me. Your inheritance is secure. I have forgotten your wrong-doings and I will remember your sin no more. I have come to live with you now and I will use you. Go and tell others --- My love is eternal.” Pegg  | ||
| Gcfrankie Registered user Username: Gcfrankie Post Number: 374 Registered: 1-2007 |
Pegg, All I can say is WOW! I got goose bumps and my heart fluttered. Thank-you for sharing. In fact I am going to run it off and hang it in my office. Gail | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 9625 Registered: 12-2003  |
Pegg, that is beautiful. Thank you. Colleen | ||
| Jennyclarinet Registered user Username: Jennyclarinet Post Number: 38 Registered: 10-2007  |
Lent and Easter are my favorite times of the Christian year as well. I think it's very sad that the Adventists I know don't really seem to celebrate Easter. I'm assuming that they are trying so hard to keep with their Sabbath and not worship on Sunday that they skip it, though I'm sure they do some Easter observances on the Sabbath before Easter. I have heard from several of my Methodist pastors that each Sunday is like a little Easter...we celebrate the resurrection every Sunday, and we remember that we are an Easter people. When I've asked them their take on Sunday worship, they've always mentioned that Sunday was the day of the resurrection. It seems obvious to me that the resurrection is a more important event for Christians to commemorate than the Sabbath of the ancient pre-Christ Israelites. Every year, I remind my boyfriend of the meaning of Lent, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter. He seems to enjoy hearing about it. This year, he is playing his classical guitar at a United Church of Christ's Easter service, and I am praying that he will be touched by the service. Jenny | ||
| Akweavers Registered user Username: Akweavers Post Number: 121 Registered: 8-2008 |
This will be our first Easter since we left sda. I don't think we fully "get it" yet, which is sad I know. I remember, that in our family at least, the religious side of Easter was really downplayed. It was like, "If we acknowledge this at all we are just wandering after the beast." It was a Catholic holiday that meant nothing and that was the end of it. Let me see, I think my grandparents said it something like this, "We aren't told to celebrate the resurrection, and satan has made it's celebration a distraction from God's real day of rest and celebration, the Sabbath". Yesterday the preacher was talking about Lent, it felt Catholic and I am not even sure what it means..lol, I guess I am stupid. Anyway, I will attend my first ever sunrise service and I hope I can get past the sda brainwashing stuff and enjoy it. | ||
| Angelcat Registered user Username: Angelcat Post Number: 105 Registered: 11-2008 |
Akweavers, i can so relate. This is my 1st Easter since leaving too. I am oding the more secualr stuff with my almsot 4 yr old for the first time too, as well as explaing the chistian part of it. So, we'll have an early morning easter egg hunt, then off to church. I didn't even know what palm sunday was until part way thru the church service yesterday. I mean I knew it was some religious thing, btu I didn't know what. Still no idea what Maundy Thursday is. I might take in a Good Friday church service, not sure yet. Might not really have time, as Rachel's dad is visiting that day too. I remember once,I think I was about 7, and was visiting my grandparents. A neighbour came over to play, and said he was sad since it was Good Friday. He had to explain why, as I'd never heard of Good Friday. Don't think I'd even heard of Easter at that point. So I'm mostly excited about Easter. My parents kow I am going to church Easter Sunday, and they haven't said anything, but I know as far as they are concerned, I may as well be joining a coven. It's possible they'd prefer that. | ||
| Akweavers Registered user Username: Akweavers Post Number: 123 Registered: 8-2008 |
I got to wondering if maybe my family was more strange about Easter than other sda, so I looked up some stuff. I think this link says it all. It is the essence of my entire life thoughts on Easter until this year. http://biblicalresearch.gc.adventist.org/documents/easter.htm I see how insane it seems now.. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 6743 Registered: 3-2004  |
Ak, growing up adventists, we heard nothing about the resurrection except in passing. It was insane. Diana L | ||
| Pegg Registered user Username: Pegg Post Number: 77 Registered: 2-2006 |
Thank you for your kind words, Gail and Coleen. I'm happy that you were blessed. God has been especially good to me. I cannot fault even one step of the journey of life that He has taken me on. Jenny, I also pray that Our Great God will touch your friend with the mystery of His love this Easter. AK - I remember my confusion that first Easter season. I was all curiosity to find out what the big fuss was about in my New Family. I'm so glad you're going to Easter Sunrise Service. That first year, just as we sang, "He lives," the sun burst forth over the river. It was an awesome experience. I cried. God Bless You! Pegg | ||
| Pegg Registered user Username: Pegg Post Number: 78 Registered: 2-2006 |
Our church celebrates communion with joy every week. I love this time! It seems that the more one celebrates, the richer the meaning becomes. As we approach Christmas, Easter and then Pentecost the depth of meaning grows - if that is possible! Here are my notes from the Communion Meditation from this past week. Communion MeditationBlessings! Pegg | ||
| Pegg Registered user Username: Pegg Post Number: 80 Registered: 2-2006 |
Angelcat! I just noticed the part about your 4-year old. If you have a Christian Book Store near you, you need to go and get a book called Benjamin's Box, by Melody Carlson, and a box of Resurrection Eggs to go with it. This is a wonderful story of a little boy (the grandson of one of the Christmas shepherds), who discovers Jesus, watches Him die and rejoices in the resurrection. The set of 12 plastic Easter eggs each contain a memento of the last week of Jesus life. They go along with the pages of the book, as the child collects these "treasures" to keep in his grandfather's treasure box that contains a bit of hay from the bed of the king who was born in a barn. It's a bit of a long read for a 4-year old, but with the eggs to go along with each page, my granddaughter did all right with it last year. We read it twice while she was here last weekend, then she wanted to open the eggs and tell me the story by herself. God Bless! Pegg | ||
| Angelcat Registered user Username: Angelcat Post Number: 106 Registered: 11-2008 |
Thank you for the suggestion. I will go look for it tomorrow. I think she would love that. | ||
| 8thday Registered user Username: 8thday Post Number: 821 Registered: 11-2007  |
Last year was our first "real" Easter. I never got what the big deal was before! ha. But Easter is where we live NOW - every day. Recently an sda classmate from academy sent me one of those email survey things.. For favorite day of the year I put "Resurrection Sunday." How can you deny the celebration of the resurrection just to avoid being "Catholic"??!!! It now seems so ludicrous to me now - to ignore this! I was recently sent a sermon by an sda relative pastor on "Who is Jesus." Nowhere in the entire sermon is the resurrection mentioned. Everything else is there - but it seemed so amazing to me you could even leave that out. But if all you have is the 7th day, you never get past the tomb and the silence of death - to the LIFE of the 8th day. I guess ya'll can see why I chose my username. Still blown away by it all and don't know how I could have possibly missed it for so long. Sondra | ||
| Tkmommy Registered user Username: Tkmommy Post Number: 104 Registered: 1-2007 |
Sondra, that is so true with adventism, the only thing that is pointed out about the resurrection is that Jesus "rested in the tomb" on sabbath. That is guaranteed to be pointed out by any sda if the topic of resurrection comes up. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 6749 Registered: 3-2004 |
This is my fourth year celebrating Easter. Each year the significance sinks in and it means more to me. Jesus resurrected himself and is now in heaven. I have some difficulty understanding the love that motivated Him. I will never understand that until I am there with Him. Diana L |
