Life is so busy for most of us, the last thing we need is a rambling account of someone else’s business, so I’ll be brief.  Looking back over the last two months in brief, I led four memorial services, eight bible studies, I married a couple in their 80s, we went to four opera performances and the beach several times, I preached six times and did multiple services through Holy week. After all that, and much more that I skipped writing, what really is worth thinking about?

Resurrection

There is no question about it, it has to be Christ’s death and resurrection. That event in time where Christ reversed the works of Satan and offered himself for mankind to have a path back into relationship with God. An axis point, from which, God starts to call the church body back to himself. The mustard seed was sown and it is still growing, although if you did not know Christian lingo, Easter would seem more about bunny rabbits, eggs and all things sweet. How did we get here? How do we arrive at the ‘Holiday of Easter’, over shadowing  the meaning of Christ’s death and resurrection?

How did we arrive at where we find ourselves now? That question is applicable to so many areas of the contemporary world, not only about Easter. The political conflicts and climate changes we see developing in our world leave huge issues for us to deal with.

However, all of these issues are undergirded by a spiritual failure: the spiritual failure Jesus Christ came to save us from. Christ highlighted this on his last discourse to the disciples as recorded in John 13:34 
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.“

This was more than He had been commanding before, that we love ‘others as ourselves’, the bar rose, to we are to love ‘others as Jesus loved us’, a much higher standard.

God has used prophets through the years to direct people’s attention to where they now stand and what they are now facing. Their message always comes with a call to action and warning.  As Christians we are to address these huge issues touched on above, with the love Christ has shown to us, and to stand firm in loving those in need. Ephesians 2:4-5 reminds us of where we have come from and our call to demonstrate God’s grace.

^” But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,  even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—” 

We would be giving much sweeter gifts, if along with chocolate Easter eggs we were explaining the full story of God’s grace by Christ’s death and resurrection. A small explanation of the cost of love by Christ, will go a long way towards salvation. Michael

Christine: Amen!

And gratitude for the immensity of All that God has given us is key to living in the joy and life that the Resurrection brings. It is unfathomable, the many plans of God to save and redeem human kind. From the subsiding of the flood waters and the saving of Noah and all the animals, to the parting of the Red Sea, it is humbling to really take in how very much God loves us and wants us to be cleansed of sin and in HIs saving embrace.

When I was a little girl, on Easter Saturday early evening, we would take baths, wash hair, get into clean pajamas and go to bed excited for Sunday to come. We would wear our new Easter outfits to Church, and to me that symbolized a new life in Christ, clean and joyous and grateful!

And I am very grateful for all the opportunities God is giving me to share my work with others. I have a large exhibition at All Angels Church on Long Boat Key that will be up for two months, and various other icons and paintings on view in galleries in Sarasota. Here is a link to a recent newspaper article about the Icon exhibit:

We know your lives are probably full as well, and we are so grateful for each one of you. At the end of the day, what matters is the God we love and the people we love.

Please do keep us in your prayers, as you are in ours,

Much love,

Christine and Michael

Michael’s Photography Christine’s Paintings