Easter/anzac day

No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. John 15:13

The Easter event could easily be forgotten in the flow on today as we reflect on Anzac Day, yet in the tension of this our thoughts can be of the ultimate sacrifice of Christ and the sacrifice of thousands of men and women in war for their countries.

I reflect on my experience when I visited the Somme a few years ago. Heart breaking, numbing, emotional,utter grief and disbelief at the thousands upon thousands of lives lost, yet there was a spirit of peace that hovered over the Somme. Its almost sacred, indeed it is sacred ground.

I truly felt that day, as I looked at 10,000 names of soldiers who had no known grave, of hundreds of cemeteries scattered along the road sides, that Christ was deeply present. He knows our sacrifice, he knows our suffering, he knows our grief, our desire for peace and he is forever in it.

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

Good Friday.

So Jesus came out wearing a crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them. 'Here is the man.' John 18: 5

Let our minds transport us back to a part of the world that throbs with the words and wonders of Jesus himself.

In the 1800's William How wrote this hymn:

It is a thing most wonderful , almost too wonderful to be true

That God's own Son should come from heaven, and die to save a child like me.

I sometimes think upon the cross and shut my eyes to try and see

The cruel nails and crown of thorns and Jesus, crucified for me.

Let us gaze on the wonders of the day and see Jesus pinned to the cruel tree, not by nails, but by love for you and for me.

Peace.

Anne

inclussion..........for Jesus sake.

'And I will raise them up, I will raise them up at the last day. (TIS 535)

There is a growing sense of thoughtfulness around issues of those who gather and worship with us at church who have a disability. I have been so blessed this season of Lent as I have worked with the disability group at church preparing for Easter. There have been sessions of colouring in and cutting out, creating and making, talking and singing...............all about the Easter story.......not just to hear and learn the story but to serve the congregation in such a way that all are include, all are blessed. This Palm Sunday the activity of the Disability group JAFFA was the centre of reflection in the sanctuary. What a blessed moment, what a humble moment as people reflected on the seasonal focus point, and reflected on the hands that had created it.

Inclusion is the key to life........isn't that the gospel message?

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

Jesus loves me

' Jesus said: People who are well don't need a doctor, but only those who are sick. I have come not to call respectable people, but outcasts. ' Mark 2:17

Have you ever broken something precious and then arduously tried to put it back together gluing each piece bit by bit?

I was attempting to glue a broken chip back onto a much loved ornament and as I worked at it (sometimes with frustration) I thought of how God must labour over the lives of broken individuals...............you know, the ones that society casts aside...........broken, hurting, unloved people...............God's people.

Then I reflect on how on how God can change lives and how he can use us to be his hands, his voice and his feet, his advocates. Who of the unloved are you going to love today..........in the name of Christ.

The Easter message is that God can change prostitutes like Magdalene into disciples and broken reeds like Simon Peter into rocks...... (Fulton Sheen)

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

' resurrection'

' I am the resurrection and the life, says the Lord.' John 11:25.

There is something so special about the autumn. God brings a sense of freshness, of quiet, of colour and emptiness, of fog and mist, of perfect reflections on still waters, a beauty so deep.

I think in every season we can see the Glory of the Lord if we are looking. Multiple layers of life and death.................all seeming to die, before it lives....................resurrection 'stuff' that brings to mind the Easter message.

Take a moment..................just a moment and marvel at a tree in colour, then look again in a little while at its emptiness and then in spring look again........................and see layer upon layer of the Glory of the Lord'

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

open their eyes

' I was born blind but now I see.' ( John 9)

How many times do we hear but we don't see. The penny doesn't drop then one day, we suddenly see what we have been hearing. Over and over I kept 'seeing' the face of this blind man as suddenly the revelation hit him...................the man who gave him sight was JESUS, Saviour of the world ................what a spiritual revelation what an epiphany for him.

I think of us all as we set about our day and wonder about the people God will put in our path that are blind, that perhaps hear but don't see. I know that I set about a day with passion and desire, a passion and desire to serve the Lord, to help the blind to see.................to see not just the light of day, but the light of Christ.

We are Christ centred, healing people to a hurting world.....................through Christ we can open the eyes of the blind.

With dignity and integrity I want to add.....................go get them!

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne

God is in his house.

' let all the world, in every corner sing: my God and King. TIS 105

The early morning autumn mist hovered over the summer grass with haunting beauty and trees, sentinel like seemed to have no base in the fog, just towering upward from the mist,

still,

quiet,

peaceful,

slowly moving.

The gentle, fresh breeze rippled across the grass and onto my face , refreshing like the Spirit of God.

Lord, I care not about position in heaven. Let all those bent on having power rule as they may. Give me only a small place close enough to see your face. (Calvin Miller)

Grace and peace from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Anne