He has risen!!
I have always loved Easter time. The remembrance of our Savior's sacrifice and His love for us always gets me. I also love the way that it brings the church together as a body of believers. In the Three Towns, each night in the Holy week is marked by a different church holding a service. Members of all different congregations gather together to worship that Lord. On Sunday morning, a group from all of the churches met on top of the main hill in town and worshiped the Lord before regular services began. What a remind it was to me, that no matter where I go there is the body of Christ. I can always find a home among believers.
Talking about a home among believers, a few weeks ago I got the lovely opportunity to travel to Belfast, N. Ireland for District Assembly. Dr. J.K. Warrick was there. It was so good to hear a familiar voice :) One of the sermons that was preached during this weekend was by Jim Richie, the pastor in Perth, about prayer. He offered up challenging words to the preachers about our prayer lives and encouraged us to seek steadfast after the Lord's heart. It reminded me of a passage out of Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. John states, "
"And after years of hearing the heart-cry of women, I am convinced beyond
a doubt of this:God wants to be loved. He wants to be a priority to
someone. How could we have missed this? From cover to cover, from
beginning to end, the cry of God's heart is, "Why won't you choose Me?"
It is amazing to me how humble, how vulnerable God is on this
point. "You will . . . find me," says the Lord, "when you seek me with
all your heart" (Jer. 29:13). In other words, "Look for me, pursue me --
I want you to pursue me." Amazing. As Tozer says, "God waits to be
wanted.”
What an honor, after looking back on the sacrifice that we all just celebrated, that we have been chosen by God to desire to be with Him and to choose God. As I look around the community that I have been placed in and I see all of the hurting people around me, I ponder what changes could happen through our churches and within the communities if we would chase after God. What would happen if we allowed ourselves to be changed and fully accept the grace that God has offered us? What would our communities look like if we spent time with God? Would they finally see that something is difference about us? Would we have joy that would shine out despite our circumstances? I'm not fully sure what would happen, but I do know that something would be different if we were to chase after Him like He chases after us.
