Category: Christmas and Easter

Who Did Jesus Resurrect on Easter Sunday?

Posted on by Elissa Anne

The whole of humanity

Every

Single

One

Christ died for all therefore all died

And were raised again

In Christ

As new creations

Holy and blameless

With no more cancerous-sin

No more capacity to cease to exist

Now we will live forever

He resurrected the Christians

The Muslims

The Satanists

The Atheists

Every religion

Every denomination

Every race

This will become our reality

When we exit this earth

And move on to the afterlife

We will receive new bodies

Renewed souls

Resurrected spirits

Without the entanglements of this life

And when we see Jesus

Face to face

Whether we knew him on earth or not

We shall be saved

Whether we like it or not

I find it hard to believe that anyone wouldn’t like it

 

What Did Jesus do on Easter Weekend

Posted on by Elissa Anne

He went to visit spirits

In the realm of the dead

And he preached the gospel to them

People who died during Noah’s flood

And presumably all the other souls

That died in Old Testament times

They were asleep

Jesus came to wake them up

From the dead

And he proclaimed them alive in spirit

Saved!

So he took them to heaven to be with him

People who used to be evil

People who died in their sins

People who never heard the gospel

He saved them too

There is no one outside of his reach!

1 Peter 3:19-22 & 4:6

 

 

Why Did Jesus Die on Easter Friday?

Posted on by Elissa Anne

The world was dying
We were all dying
Completely dead
Dead as a doornail
We were going to cease to exist
But God said “No!
I will not let you die!
I will rescue you!”
So God became human
Being human, it meant he could die
Being also triune, meant the Holy Spirit would resurrect Jesus
And us!
How?
It is something of a mystery
But the Bible describes it this way:
“One died for all
Therefore all died”
You died today
Easter, 1982 years ago – or thereabouts
You died in Christ
And Christ swallowed up death
In the power of the Holy Spirit
Jesus also came to save us from sin
Sin is like brain-cancer
It makes us believe we are wrong/bad/evil
So then we behave in wrong/bad/evil ways
It makes us believe we deserve to die
And so we die
Jesus came to heal us from the lies
From the disease of sin
From the death that sin causes
So that we can be whole again
Free of sin and free of death
Jesus did not die to save us from hell
Hell was created by God for a purpose
And its purpose will be fulfilled in all our lives
There is no saving from hell
There is only a journey through hell
Through the refiner’s fire
For all of us
Jesus also did not die as an act of punishment from God
Sin is its own punishment
Believing in lies that destroy us
And dying as a consequence
Jesus came to save us from the punishment of sin
Not save us from the punishment of God
That’s just silly
Jesus is God
God was in Christ
Tri-unified
And we were in Christ
Humanity and God
Together as one
Being reconciled
That’s why Jesus died on Easter Friday.

The Busy Season?

Posted on by Elissa Anne

There was a time in my life when being busy was the “in” thing for me and other Christians around me. It was cool to be busy going to Bible study groups, worship practise, church, family functions, work and/or studying hard and basically not having a moment to spare. I guess I looked at it as being productive for God…or something.

Nowadays, I hate saying “I’m busy.” But I have felt fairly busy and stressed since arriving back from my wedding and honeymoon in Hawaii 3.5 weeks ago. There is just so much to do at Christmas time – right?! I’ve been Christmas shopping and spent an entire day online designing and ordering a bunch of Christmas presents. JD & I have looked around at Christmas lights in the nearby suburbs and the lights Spectacular at Imagine Nations Church. We’ve been to family, work and neighbourhood Christmas parties, caught up with friends and even watched a few Christmas movies.

Then there’s the less Christmassy, more regular busyness. I’ve had 10 working days in the last 3 weeks before finishing up teaching for summer holidays, but before even arriving back from Hawaii, summer school began and I commenced two 14-week subjects that I’m trying to cram into 9 weeks – that’s about 25-30 hours of study per week.

And then there are all the things my heart really wants to get done this summer that I’m concerned I may not have time for, like reading an ordinary novel, compiling, editing and elaborating on the book I’ve been writing this year, setting goals for my writing next year and getting the ball rolling on those. I miss writing…

I want to read the entire Bible in Greek (before I die), but so far I’ve only read about 4 chapters in 3 weeks. I want to clean my apartment so that JD and I have more space, but at the moment it’s full of Christmas presents, Hawaiian souvenirs and piles of mail or other documents that need sorting out.

I hate this feeling that I don’t have enough time. It’s been on my mind all year because frankly it has been the busiest year that I’ve had since the days of being “busy for God.” I want to trust God that he has given me all the time I need and that if I actually slow down, prioritise and even spend a little time with him, the world isn’t going to fall off its axis. Everything will be okay.

I mean, it’s Christmas in two days for heaven’s sake! Every year we blink and another Christmas comes and goes, and some years it doesn’t even feel like we had a Christmas because there’s just. So. Much. To do…

So I’m opening my heart right now and I’m saying, I don’t want to forget about Jesus this Christmas. It doesn’t have to be “The Busy Season” but it IS the Christ-mas season. Christ-mass. Mass in the Catholic Church means partaking of the body and blood of Jesus: The Lord’s supper / Communion / Eucharist. So Christmas is a celebration of both the life and the death of Jesus. It celebrates our common-union (communion) with Christ.

God became human. What better way for God to heal us from the disease of sin and resurrect our decaying bodies from the dead than by becoming one of us?! Then, because we were first created IN him (think of it as being in the womb of God), what happens to his humanity happens to ours. He was resurrected and recreated and all of humanity with him.

I want to slow down this Christmas and this summer and spend some time communing with Jesus. I want to let go of my frenzy to get everything done “in time,” and remember that I am secure in the love of God. He is able to make all grace abound to me (2 Cor 9:8) and I believe this includes an abundance of time. I’m not “running out of time.” I don’t have to be busy! Have you ever noticed that you are often more productive when you feel relaxed and are working at your own pace, than when you rush and push yourself? I am determined to retrain my brain in this area and to trust God with my time.

I don’t want to blink and miss out on my very first Christmas as a married woman with my husband in the same country! I want to breathe deep and listen to my heart where Jesus abides and shares his love with me … and with my husband … and with our family and friends … and with the whole human race.

Happy Christmas Everyone.

<3 <3 <3