Easter can be a super cute holiday to decorate your house in cute little bunnies, pastels, and beautiful Easter eggs that you have had fun dipping and dying. I am loving all of the cute Pinterest ideas for creating a cute home for Easter and truthfully if I had enough time, I would probably be dying eggs and enjoying decorating them with cool patterns, polka dots, and cute sayings.
But this time is a very busy time for me as a musician and I have not had any extra time to dream of cute bunnies and Pastel eggs displayed in a cute vase with beautiful flowers… Ok, maybe I have 🙂 but I haven’t had any time to create it! I am currently writing backstage at James River Assembly as we rehearse for the Easter services on Saturday and Sunday. I have been so blessed in Springfield to have such a great network of musicians, orchestras and gigs. God has really opened up the doors for me here!
So in one of my earlier blogs, I wrote about moments and how we should enjoy the big and small moments of life. Now there are times that due to our busy schedules, we forget to be within those moments, and instead go on “auto-pilot”. As much as I hate to even admit what I am about to admit, I think it is good for us as Christians to encourage and uplift each other and maybe you are going through the same thing as me, and you just needed to hear it from someone else. Here it is: I have gotten into the mindset that it is just another performance and Easter and Christmas have become just another day that I perform. I have been playing for services for so many years, that sometimes I don’t allow myself to really reflect on what the choirs or vocals are singing about or what I am playing. I get into my auto-pilot of performing the music with dynamics and all of the marks, and while I may play it beautiful and perfect… does it really matter if my heart is not in the right place? Of course it does.
This is what I am currently reflecting on. I don’t want this weekend to just be another show… I want to remember what Christ did for me and how much He loves me and you. I want to think about the pain, the agony, the beating that he took for me, so that I could know Him and be saved. I want to think on the miracle of the grave!!!! He is not dead, the grave could not keep him down!!!! He is alive!!! There is no other name by which man can be saved, and what other god in any other culture is alive???!!! Known! I serve a living God, who died and rose again on the 3rd day!
Read the good news:
“Then the soldiers of the govenor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying,” Hail, King of the Jews!” And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
As they went out, they found a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. They compelled this man to carry his cross. And when they came to a place called Golgotha (Place of the Skull), they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. And when they crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots. Then they sat down and kept watch over him there. And over his head they put the charge against him, which read, “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”
… Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying ” Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani? (“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is call Elijah.” And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink… And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit. And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split…
Here is the miracle!!!!
Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”
He is risen, He is risen indeed!
I am praying for this Sunday that all of the churches and services will bring glory to God! That they will speak the good news to those that may have never heard or may have not heard in a long while. I am praying that I will soak in God’s goodness and while I play that I will be inward focused and dwell on the true meaning of Easter. I can live in Victory because He lives within me! I am praying that you get a new revelation this Easter and that the beautiful story would bring new joy to your life!
So this Sunday, although you may be having a beautiful dinner at your place and your mind may be consumed with the thoughts of who is bringing what items to the dinner, what you will wear, and all of the other things that may draw your focus away, STOP AND REFLECT on the goodness of our Lord… STOP AND REFLECT on his Love for you…. STOP AND REFLECT on the beauty of the cross and that our GOD IS ALIVE!!!!
HAPPY EASTER EVERYONE!
