Easter: time to put aside secular for spiritual
By Jenni Ingram
Gantt Baptist Church
As Easter approaches I think about all the secular events this season encompasses: the arrival of spring, planting of gardens, anticipation of my granddaughter getting out of school for the summer, shorts, flip-flops and barbeques.
I also think about how easy it is to get “lost” from fellowshipping with our church family and remembering the reason for Easter.
Easter is not about hunting eggs or bunnies or finally being able to wear white shoes. Easter is about the foundation of our faith. It is about the resurrection of Jesus.
Let me tell you about the year I wondered if Jesus was real.
I was 17 years old and my baby had just died. I had prayed and prayed that Jesus would rescue us, but this time His answer was no.
In my immature mind I didn’t understand why I was unworthy for Him to grant my prayer. I went to church every time the doors were open. I said my prayers dutifully. I even went to a high school where religion was taught every day. What more did He want from me?
It took me many years of pain and growing up to realize that He wanted from me the same thing He wants from all of us every day — our repentance, our acceptance of Him as our Savior, our admission that we are nothing without Him and our firm belief and confession that He is Lord.
He wants us to read and re-read His love letter to us — the Holy Bible. He wants us to study His Word. He wants a close, personal relationship with us.
When Jesus was in the garden before His arrest He knew the pain He was about to suffer. He knew so much detail in fact that His intense anxiety produced sweat like “drops of blood” (Luke 22:44). He did so much for us because of His all-
encompassing love.
As we celebrate His resurrection this Easter let us put aside the secular things and concentrate on the spiritual — Jesus’ love.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jenni Ingram is a frequent contributor to “My Jesus Story,” a regular feature of The Alabama Baptist.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Fair trade benefits all
Recently I went on a missions trip to Peru and came home with an early birthday present — a cooking pot made by a local community member.
The process of making these pots starts with one family spending a day of extremely hard labor crushing rocks into powder to form the clay base. The pots are dried in a homemade kiln. Handles are added and a glaze is applied.
We saw people from three families involved in the process. For their work families will get about $.33 for each pot they sell to a middle man who markets their products in Lima.
No one likes a bargain more than I, but not when it comes at the expense of those in poverty. God’s word says in Proverbs 14:31, “Whoever oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.”
Helping the poor is a common theme throughout the Bible. More than 2,000 WorldCrafts artisans worldwide depend on WorldCrafts orders to provide shelter for their families, purchase food and pay medical bills and school fees.
For gifts you need on any occasion consider WorldCrafts. You will honor the gift receiver. You will honor the artisans. You will honor God.
—Sandy Wisdom-Martin
EDITOR’S NOTE — Sandy Wisdom-Martin is executive director of national Woman’s Missionary Union.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Letters to the Editor
An atheist group from Wisconsin called the Freedom from Religion Foundation (FFRF) has threatened to sue more than 40 Alabama school systems, local governments and elected officials in recent years over what they claim are violations of the Constitution’s ban on the establishment of religion.
The organization is often successful. Many give in after calculating potential attorney fees and the uncertain outcome of drawn out lawsuits.
But perhaps it’s time Alabamians recall our state motto and “Dare Defend Our Rights” by standing up to some of the more frivolous of these challenges.
We have a common culture in Alabama. Central to our culture is a Judeo-Christian heritage that’s often, and without harm, reflected in many of the traditions that buttress our public gatherings and official symbols.
To completely ban these traditions and symbols from the public square doesn’t separate church from state as much as it separates citizen from culture.
That’s not good.
There are bullies on both sides of this issue, pushing and shoving us around, either wanting to make people feel like outcasts or wanting to burn our traditions to the ground.
The reasonable among us must stand against these bullies. And the best way to deal with bullies … is to push back.
J. Pepper Bryars
Senior fellow, Alabama Policy Institute
_____________________________________________________________________________
A majority of practicing Christians (76 percent) believes they have offered unconditional, joyful forgiveness to another person who had hurt, upset or sinned against them (or someone they love). Nearly one in six (15 percent) says they have never offered this level of forgiveness.
Barna Research
Barna.com
An authentic Christian is someone who understands you can be holy without being holier-than-thou, righteous without being self-righteous, authentic without being arrogant. 1 John 3:1–10 #TheRealDeal
Rob Paul
robpaul.net
Sometimes the road we travel can seem like the worst possible path we could have taken. That is unless God wants to do the miraculous on our journey!
Diane Mann
leanintojesus.com
In this age of individualism, men and women are doubly compelled to tune in to the gospel’s corporate call.
Bronwyn Lea
bronlea.com
Why do people burn black churches?
Christina Edmondson
Dean for Intercultural Student Development at Calvin College
Few things in life are more needed but more neglected than the power of fervent prayer. Prayer changes things. At its core, prayer is intimate communion with our Almighty Creator who is the one true God. Great movements of God are preceded by fervent prayer. As believers, we should practice the spiritual discipline of fervent prayer often and with others.
Pastor Bill Wilks
NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, Alabama
Can people have meaningful Facebook conversations? I think the simple answer is no, or at least only rarely. Think about it. How many times have you changed your political, religious or an ethical position because of a Facebook meme, diatribe or a shared news or opinion article? … Online conversation is limited. More than ever, we need face-to-face conversations that humanize one another.
Alan Rudnick
Associate executive minister, DeWitt Community Church, Syracuse, New York
The prosperity gospel is alive and well in sub-Saharan Africa as is Islam and African traditional religions, animism. … To see Ugandan Christ followers being equipped to challenge those false teachings … helped me know that we’re on the right path here.
Paul Chitwood
IMB president
Writing is an exhausting endeavor and we cannot do it effectively when the well is dry. We also can’t do it when our focus is on the wrong things. So how do we fill the well and sharpen our focus? I do it by moving closer to God.
Edie Melson
Author
Often I struggle in prayer. These things seem to help:
- Write my prayer in a journal.
- Take a walk or jog outside.
- Pray the psalms.
- Sit in a chair and think.
- Lay face down in my closet.
- Listen to a worship song (or read a hymn) and pray the lyrics.
Jeremy Morton
FBC Woodstock (Georgia)
_____________________________________________________________________________
From the Twitterverse
@gracefortheroad
When it comes to prayer, “there is not one magic bullet but a thousand pinpricks that draw us into a spiritual journey or pilgrimage.” Don’t hunt for a feeling. Just get to know God a little more all the time. @_PaulEMiller
@dukekwondc
Let’s be clear: We will be judged on the last day according to our care of the hungry/stranger (Matt 25), yet not “as the foundation of a new justification to be obtained then, but as signs, marks and effects of our true faith and of our justification solely by it” (Turretin).
@harold_fanning
There are many churches spending precious time searching for some way to fill the old wine skins of past tradition with the new wine of modern change. It’s amazing how some churches are attempting to power the space shuttle with a Model-T engine!
@DrStevenJLawson
Jesus calls. Jesus redeems. Jesus reconciles. Jesus propitiates. Jesus rescues. Jesus saves. Jesus satisfies. Jesus transforms. Jesus preserves.
@SEBTS
When you wrap your mind around the fact that your ministry is a gift from God, you can give it away and don’t care who gets the credit as long as Jesus gets the glory. @tctaylor711 #SEchapel
@bshelburne
Talked to @SenCamWard about fixing Alabama prisons. Why is this so hard in our state? “It’s a tough on crime mindset, regardless of the outcome,” he said. “I would say this. We profess to be a strong Christian state. The Bible tells us a lot about caring for those inside of prisons, even those who are not perfect, even those who have fallen, those who need the love of man. Justice should include punishment but also love of fellow man and rehabilitation.” #cjreform #prisonreform
@RevKevDeYoung
There’s a kind of doubt that looks for answers, and a kind of doubt that never stops looking for questions.
@plattdavid
God, help us to choose life and to spread life for the glory of Jesus Christ. May we learn from the foolishness of those who have gone before us. #praytheword
Share with others: