Resurrection Sunday by Theresa Zuber

Fluffy baby chicks in shades of sunny yellow, snow white bunnies with soft pink noses, beautiful baskets filled with pastel eggs and an assortment of other fun surprises including...... Chocolate!!! These are just some of the symbols of Easter - at least symbols to the world.

What are our symbols of Easter?

• The rugged, splintered cross against a stormy sky.
• A crown made of sharp, protruding thorns covered in blood and tangled with strands of hair.
• Spikes - long enough to fasten flesh and bones to wood.
• Tear-stained faces of family and devoted friends; eyes red and swollen from grief and pain.
• A borrowed tomb carved from a rock where they laid his lifeless, battered body - lovingly wrapped in clean linen cloth.
• That same tomb - EMPTY! Our Savior - the sacrificial Lamb - has overcome death and He is alive!!! This is our symbol.

Celebrate our greatest hope this Resurrection Sunday. Jesus is alive, therefore we have hope of eternal life as well. Join us as we worship King Jesus.

(John 11:25-26) "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

As I Raise My Hands by Julie Short

Am I constantly about “My Father’s Business?” So immersed in, focused on, God, not wanting to be distracted by the world. I must not be here on earth for me, living MY life, but be a vessel God can

Use for His Kingdom.

I sometimes raise my hands in church, I thought as a surrender to God.

But, what does surrender mean? Doesn’t it mean giving up one’s self? According to the dictionary: To yield to the possession or power of another.

There have been many times in the last five years that I have said, if I had a white flag I would surrender.

I often wanted to surrender to the pain and agony of death of my daughter Kyra. I wanted to give up

Saying I can’t take the pain anymore.

So am I at a place where I am willing to totally give up myself, my dreams, my wishes, to give up me?

Only then will I be able to receive God when I raise my hands. Yes, this week I heard God say, raise your hands and receive me that I can live through you. Wow, I must be emptied out, I must surrender me, surrender all, only then can I receive God. I now see that we are pipe lines that God can use from heaven to pour out His mercy and grace, pour out His love. But He can only use me if I am empty; if I allow me- selfishness to clog me, the pipe- then God cannot use me. It is only when I surrender all

And receive God and allow Him to flow through me can I truly be what God intended.

I now see that when I raise my hands, I empty myself out and receive God, He then flows through and out into the world for others to see, experience.

My attitude must go,

Attitude according to the dictionary is: a manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing. Tendency or orientation.

Attitude according to God’s Word: Philippians 2:5 Your attitude should be the same as Christ Jesus.

I often find myself thinking and saying I need an “attitude adjustment”

Orient: To adjust with relation to, or bring in due relation to surroundings. To familiarize with new surroundings or circumstances. To direct or position towards a particular object.

I wonder if my attitude is based on my attempt to hold tightly onto myself. I can’t put into words how

The thought of raising my hands to receive God has affected me. Why can’t I give it/me all up and surrender all?

I think there are moments in the last few months that I have. I think it is a continual process; I continually die to self, give up self, surrender self and all to God. Only in those moments can I truly receive God and all He has to pour into and through me.

Why is it so hard to give up myself, it’s not like it has served me well?

Apart from God, I am broken, wretched, so why would I want to hold onto broken and wretched, when I

Can have unfathomable peace and joy?

It’s like I am holding onto me and I am a dead decaying carcass and I am protecting me screaming it’s mine and you can’t have it. Who would want it? God sent Jesus to die so he could remove the dead decaying carcass that is stopping up His pipe. He paid for us to free us to have victory over death. Yet, I continue to hold on. Yuck, what’s up with that?

I wonder if my bad attitude is a reflection of my holding onto a smelly decaying carcass. Would my attitude change if I surrendered the smelly carcass to God?

On Being a Woman by Donna Ensign Woods

No greater role on Earth

Than being a woman of worth.

Walking with God each day

Praying for guidance along the way.

Being a woman is tough !

Filled with duties, trials.....and "stuff"

Heartache....Joy...Delight.......and Fear.

Forever to Christ, we draw near.

On wings of prayer, we lift,

In faith we wait for answer and gift.

Our bodies deliver the next generation

....Each with God breathed destination.

Pray, without ceasing for each child

Who stole our hearts each time they smiled.

So hard to be patient and trust,

In a world filled with evil unjust.

Falling to our knees, we pray...

For each child who has wondered away.

Fighting a battle that can't be won

...Except through the power of God's Holy Son !

Encouraging them, when hearts are breaking...

Even when our own soul is shaking.

Reassuring them with gentle smile

When you are crying on the inside, all the while

Running a multitude of races

Seeing the future...in innocent faces.

It's tough being a Mother

...As we love and encourage each other.

We struggle to guide and teach

...From our "soap box" we often preach !

But, for our children we defend and fight

With a mother bear's vicious might !

God placed tomorrow at our breast

Entrusting us...with His precious best.

We did not give birth in the stable...

But our hands....rock the cradle.....

Wear and Tear by Julie Short

I took the beautiful wrapped box and carefully opened the gift. Inside the wrapping lay a beautiful handmade pillow. I smiled at my Grandma and said “Thank you so much!” I hoped she would know how much I would cherish the pillow she had made with love.

I slept with the pillow every night. I took the pillow with me on all my overnight trips. Many, Many months passed and I went to visit my grandma. I brought my cherished pillow with me. I didn’t understand the look on my Grandmas face when she saw the tattered and torn Pillow. I thought she would be able to tell how much I valued and cherished the pillow by how I used the pillow, but that is not the look my Grandma gave me.

Twenty plus years have passed. I now realize what my Grandma may have thought when she saw the tattered and torn pillow. I now understand the disappointed questioning look on my grandma’s face as she stared at the pillow. “Why didn’t you cherish my gift? Why didn’t you take care of the pillow keeping it clean and protecting it from daily ware?

Oh how I wish I could tell her “Grandma I did cherish the pillow, I loved it that is why I used it.” If we cherish, value a gift what do we do with it? Do we use it or put it away? How do we cherish God’s word? Do we put the bible up, careful not to allow wear and tear to touch the precious gift? Do we use it every day, carry it with us always and strive to live by God’s spoken word?

Sometimes I feel tattered and torn. I often look at my life like grandma did my pillow. I question why such wear and tear, why such hardship? Why was I not cherished?

Now I finally see:

“Oh how God loves and cherishes me!”

“Oh how God Loves and cherishes you!”

All for the glory of God our Father!