Welcome to Bronte on Our Lord’s day! When we think about service and witnessing our faith, we often imagine going away, leaving our comfort zone, or being uprooted. However, service and witnessing starts here – in our neighbourhood, at the workplace, in the community, at church, and where our circle of life leads us. The operative key to witnessing as a Christian is influence. The eloquence of our life speaks louder than the eloquence of our words. We don’t have to “preach”, but instead let His light shine through us by doing a kind gesture, sharing a word of hope/cheer, or lending a helping hand. Jesus says in Matthew 5:13-16…

“You are the salt of the earth… you are the light of the world… Let your light shine before [people] that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

Let’s ask for God’s grace, seasoned with love, to help us be the salt that adds flavour and be the light that dispels the darkness within our circle of life, all for our Father’s glory!

Change is here!!!  Are you seeing the changes all around you?  Are you experiencing a change in clothes, weather, and life?  We see the falling and changing of the leaves with its various hues and coloration.  We see what was once green transition to brown-orange-reddish shades.  Seasons come and seasons go.  We having “fallen” into the Fall season and with it comes change.  It signals a new season and also preparation for the next season.  Change is inevitable.  We are confronted by change.  However, change is never easy.  We either accept or reject it.  Embracing change in a positive way that helps us to grow, mature or develop is the best way to approach it.  And such is life…we change…our bodies, our careers, our goals, our dreams, our families, our children, and our perspective.  Hopefully, we look for the positives that change brings and accept those things we cannot change.  Through it all, we need to live life with resonance!  Choose to change for the better, the change that enhances our lives, the change that improves us, the change that is acceptable despite our circumstances!  As people of hope, we believe that there is a greater change coming.  We live in a world where not all change is good, happy or positive, but we can hold on to the fact that when God is at the centre of our lives, He makes changes for our good.  The Bible says that “all things work together for good to then that love him…” Romans 8:28.  We also know that though everything on this side of eternity may not seem to change for the better but one day an ultimate change is coming that which if for our eternal good.  1 Corinthians 15:31 says, “Behold, I show you a mystery…but we shall all be changed…” that change will be permanent, perfect, and perpetual.  The things we lost, the changes that affected us adversely, will all be changed once and for all for the better because that change will restore everything and that season will never end.  Walk toward and wait till your change comes!

Today we celebrate Easter weekend.  What’s the hype and hoopla?  What’s the big deal?  What does Easter eggs, bunnies and choclate have to do with it?  Really?  Really nothing…if the truth be told.  It actually has a historical connection to an old pagan ritual tracing its origins to the Babylonian godess of fertility named Ishtar.  At least the literal term “Easter,” however, because of the integration of the culture, customs, and religion of the day this season adopted the term during the Roman Empire and it is recorded in Acts 12:4 to refer to the “passover.”  We even refer to it as the “passion of Christ.”  Well, we know this special time of the year many people focus on two things – Jesus dying on the cross and Him arising to join Our Father in Heaven. However, may we especially emphasize the underlying powerful meaning of Easter weekend – Jesus’ broken body and His spilled blood paid the ultimate sacrifice for our sins. His promise, made with a peaceful heart and a contented mind, gave us something we sometimes forget – hope. “We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield.” (Psalm 33:20, NIV).

We receive the greatest gift ever given to anyone; he gave us His life and through Him we might be saved.  We called that salvation.  Yet, by extension to receive this gifts we first receive His forgiveness, somewhat like a prerequisite!  His forgiveness is part of the the greatest gift and we find rest, peace, freedom from guilt, and assurance of eternal life, starting right now, right here, if we believe.  Recently, a movie was released entitled, “Do You Believe,” which portrays how important it is to answer this question.  Most people just are aware of Easter or the Passion but it means nothing to them other than another holiday and time for a getaway or a good party.  Yet, when we take a moment, to behold Christ and the Cross of Calvary, we like the Roman Governor, Pilate, in Jesus’ time asks, “What is Truth?”  He was truly seeking and asking as many people are today.  However, at the end of the day, we make a choice either to believe or not to believe.

Our Lord took an incredible yet painstaking journey of love for you and me and the world.  No other word can describe what He did for us but only in the expression of love.  In the words of Roy Lessin:

He had you in mind; You were on His heart

When He left His home in heaven, He saw you;

When He became a man on earth, He was seeking you;

when He stretched out His hands upon the cross, He was reaching out to you;

When He returned to His Father, He was preparing a place for you…You are the one He calls His own.

Let us spread this joyful message of hope to others so they may come to know the wonderful truths of Jesus. May God bless us all for an inspiring, reflective, and uplifting Easter and may we all remember its true meaning throughout the week and beyond.