Easter Blessing

1 Peter 1:3 3 "Praise be to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..."

HE IS RISEN. CHRIST JESUS IS RISEN INDEED. 

Lord God, You loved this world so much, that you gave your one and only Son, that we might be called your children too. Lord, help us to live in the gladness and grace of Easter Sunday, everyday.

Let us have hearts of thankfulness for your sacrifice. Let us have eyes that look upon Your grace and rejoice in our salvation. Help us to walk in that mighty grace and tell your good news to the world.  All for your glory do we pray, Lord, Amen.

And now....

May the glory and the promise of this joyous time of year bring peace and happiness to you and those you hold most dear. And may Christ, Our Risen Savior, always be there by your side to bless you most abundantly and be your loving guide , in your journey of prosperity, in your job, your health, your family and your walk with Jesus. Amen. 

Why the "Good" in Good Friday? : Pastor Rajiv's Good Friday Message

 

Who Killed Jesus? : Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflection

 I DID

YOU DID

   WE ALL DID. 

The Pass Over promises: Our Daily Reflections

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor" 

Please read the complete  Exodus Chapter 12 

The Passover or Pascha as it is called in Judaism, dates back thousands of years, but is as true today as it was then. At that time, the blood of the sacrificed lamb was used to identify Jewish households and spare them the agony of death.

It is as true today because we who believe in Christ, know that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb to spare us the horrors of a second death, the death of our spirit. This Passover was fulfilled in Christ, whose blood was shed to free humanity from bondage to sin and death.

The first Passover held three important lessons for us today:

1. The way to freedom is through the blood of the Passover lamb, our Jesus Christ.

2. We must be ready at all times to flee from our slavery to sin.

3. Gods promise of sparing believers is as true today as was then, with the scarification of Jesus.

4. Jesus (the sacrificial lamb) is personal as well as communal to be shared with people who do not have Him in their life. 

Furthermore, we need to remember that the Passover is all about Jesus! He came as the Lamb of God. His blood redeems us. By His death, judgment was turned away and the power of the enemy was broken. We were released from bondage and oppression. We were set free to enter into God’s promise. Everything in Passover is a picture of Jesus! Every element points to Jesus!

What is the connection between the Pasha and Easter? If Passover is largely about Egypt, Easter is largely about Passover. The Passover is a reminder of Gods promise, which He kept through Jesus. Easter is about our ressurected life. The Passover is communal, while Easter is personal. R R Reno in the Wall Street Journal has this to say

"I have come to see that Christianity’s most important day recapitulates Passover. Both days (Passover and Easter) face head-on the daunting power of death—and both announce God’s greater power of life"

Let us prepare today to celebrate life, our new life, gifted to us by our Lord Jesus Christ. Let us thank God for this covenant and Jesus Christ for this redemption. Lets remember the people who brought us to Him. Let us remember and thank mentors who explained Him, the Pastors who talked about Him Sunday after Sunday and all those, in whose life we saw His work.

Easter week Day 3: The beginning of the end - Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

Matthew 24:21 "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will".

Please Read Matthew 24 and 25 - The Olivet discourse.

As we trace the 7 days of Easter in the last few days of Jesus's earthly life, we will understand how important these days were in terms of various messages our Lord left for us. 

Today, the third day, Jesus decided to share Gods vision for the future of mankind. He did this through what we know as the Olivet discourse. Jesus knew that 3 days later He would be physically dead. He wanted His disciples to look beyond His death, to Gods vision and things to come. He wanted his disciples to have a common vision of where they were heading, as ambassadors and apostles of Christ.

The Olivet discourse is just that. Here Jesus talks about and prophesies events and signs which will pave the way to His return. It's very important for Christians to know and understand this so that our vision, our view of our life as followers of Christ is clear, allowing us to have a shared vision with Christ.

We will be covering the discourse using notes from Pastor Rajiv's various messages. You can read them here.

Day 2 - Was Jesus in a bad mood? : Pastor Rajiv's daily reflection

The Monday after Palm Sunday.  was Jesus in a bad mood?

One story in the New Testament sticks out like a sore thumb and that is the Fig Tree episode. It can be found at Matthew 21 verses 18 and 19

18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered.

Why would Jesus curse that tree? It was in full foliage but with no fruit as it was not the season. So  was it the trees fault that it had no fruit? Why curse it?

I think Jesus used it as an example of people who promise a lot but deliver nothing. The non seasonal green foliage of the fig tree held out a promise of fruit but there was none. Complete hypocrisy!

This symbolism today extends to all believers, demonstrating that genuine faith is more than just outward religiosity; true, living faith must bear spiritual fruit in a person's life.

This was further underlined by His reaction in the temple that Monday, when He threw out the tradesmen operating on the temple premises.

Many of us today can learn a lesson from that fig tree and the temple cleansing. Jesus's anger was righteous anger knowing that 4 days later He would be sacrificed for these very people who were hypocrites, defiling Gods House and pretending to be God fearing and God loving. Knowing that the very people who welcomed Him yesterday, would be baying for His blood. Knowing His sacrifice was seemingly in vain.

How sad and broken would Jesus have been Knowing that?

2200 years later that question is still valid: We need to ask ourselves this Monday, are we making Jesus angry and sad or making Him smile?

7 days to Easter, 7 things to learn: Pastor Rajiv's Daily Reflections

The Donkey and the Horse. 

Matthew 21:10 "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?"

Yesterday we talked about how we view Jesus Christ. Today we take that up a notch.

For Israelites who thought Jesus was a conqueror of the Romans, it must have been a disappointment to see him enter Jerusalem on a donkey! A king should be riding on a horse. The donkey on the other hand signifies peace. Jesus clearly demonstrated that He came in peace.  

Secondly, He came, not to rule over people and nations but to rule their hearts.

Simon the zealot exhorted Jesus to pronounce a rebellion, but was gently put down by Jesus.

There must have so many who would have been disappointed in Jesus, because He wasn't what they thought He was.  Maybe that is why the crowds turned against Him.

Today Jesus is not entering Jerusalem. He is entering our hearts. Our welcome will be pretty much decided by how we view Him. As a savior, what does He mean to us? . Provider, Brother, God, Helper, Teacher...? How do we view Jesus? Will we hail him one day and betray him the next or will we keep Him alive in our resurrected hearts?