Celebrate Easter Sunday

Tonight at our church Bible study, we spent about a half hour organizing our Easter service.

Tonight was unique and revealing.

I was honored to be a part of this group of believers that are unified in love and grounded in the faith.

Besides spending time praying that God would draw hearts to Himself during the Easter service, we also had a time of open discourse where God's people expressed observations and offered input on how we could better serve during this Easter service.

For instance:

One of our church Elders suggested we celebrate communion during the Easter service. YES -- that was such an amazing suggestion I am going to implement it every year.

One of our church Elders observed that since I am preaching John 3:16 with a Salvation theme, it would be useful to offer an Alter Call.

There we spent about 15 minutes discussing the special dynamics involved with an Alter Call in a 1 room church.

There were other suggestions and observations made that will all be implemented.

Suddenly it dawned on me that this Easter service was a joint effort of a group of believers that were unified in a desire to please God.

All around the world, pastor's are planning and organizing their Easter service.
Not Garden Valley Community Church -- it was planned and organized by the congregation. At no time did it cross my mind to solicit feedback on how to conduct the service. In all my pastoral college classes and discussions with other pastors, I have never heard anyone suggest that the church join in planning one of the most sacred celebrations of the whole year. Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

John chapter 20 records the resurrection story.
The last 2 verses conclude with this remarkable statement:

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs
in addition to the ones recorded in this book.
But these are written so that you may continue to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God,
and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
John 20:30-31

This is our spiritual take-away from this blog.

My God given desire for this Easter Sunday is that YOU will
continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of God,
and that by believing in Him
you will have life by the power of His name.