Easter - a time for reappraisal

Easter is a well celebrated holiday, right there with Christmas in terms of church attendance and social holiday. Of course, most people know the story of Easter, the cross and the resurrection. Many know the resurrected Jesus and His power unto salvation. We know a lot about the Easter story, but it is helpful if we reflect on Easter as His Story and maybe even rethink a lot about ourselves in doing so.

I heard a sermon this morning at an Easter sunrise service on top of Glassy Mountain in a beautiful, quaint little chapel. I will have to say that the lure of going was the beauty of the surroundings. I wasn't expecting much from the service except that the choral group from North Greenville University is always a blessing.

Much to my surprise, a lady pastor from a mainstream denomination delivered one of the most impressive messages on Easter that i have ever heard. The sermon text was Isaiah 62:4, "No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. But you will be called Hephzibah, and your land Beulah; for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married."  You might be thinking as I was, what a strange passage for Easter.

This word from God through Isiah focuses on names, especially the name that God has for us in contrast with the name others may have for us or worse yet, the name we have for ourself. God says thru His prophet, no longer are you alone, rejected, forsaken. You are now Hephzibah, which means the one in whom I delight. And then he says (using land as a reference to us, His people) we are Beulah, which means beautiful. He goes even further and compares His delight and our beauty in his eyes to that of a groom, watching his bride come down the aisle. God is reminding us that this is who we are, this is how we are viewed by Him.

Easter is the celebration of the work of redemption, the transforming power to take us from an ugly, desolate, deserted existence to a child in whom a Holy King of the universe knocks Himself out over. Whose face glows beyond imagination in His pursuit of us as His bride.

That is the message of Easter, the transforming power of Grace .... for me ..... and for you .... 

WE ARE NO LONGER DESOLATE