Poem for Easter

For You,

I turned water into wine, purified in the veins

of My own body. I climbed mountains, healed

crowds of hunger, warmed a leper’s skin. For

you I chastised leaders, halted stones, wrote on

the ground each word contained in Love.

I overturned unfair prices and low wages, tabled

discussions about who’s first or last, and enjoyed

the most unlikely company.

Before My execution, I tamed a donkey, became

your beast of burden, then bled from every pore.

Once for all, I buried death, and, when I arose,

some saw Me. Some heard Me as I broke through

the veil, cloaking time and eternity, and, yes,

for you, I’d do it all again.

Amen.

Mary Harwell Sayler from book A Gathering of Poems

Where are we on the Cross?

As we head toward Good Friday and the crucifixion of Jesus, the biblical command to “take up your cross and follow Christ” comes to mind. Sadly, we might think this means carrying heavy weights or generally being miserable throughout our lives when, actually, it’s the opposite!

Taking up our cross and following Christ is meant to be freeing, not burdensome. It’s meant to exchange our self-will for the will of God.

God gave us free will, so the decision to follow the Lord is ours to make. However, this doesn’t mean, literally, to take up our own crucifixion or other human sacrifice. As you’ll recall, the Bible consistently reminds us that God the Father prohibited human sacrifice as the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22 clearly demonstrates.

The only time God the Father required a human sacrifice was of Himself in His fullness as Jesus the Son of God and the son of Mary.

So how do we go about obeying the Lord’s command to take up our cross and follow Him as a living sacrifice? Doesn't it mean to exchange our free will for the will of God and our old selves for new life – new spiritual birth in Christ?

Searching key words and phrases on the Bible Gateway website helps to clarify. For example:

“We know that our old self [our human nature without the Holy Spirit] was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin,” Romans 6:6, Amplified Bible (AMP.)

or to put it another way:

“This is what we know: the person that we used to be was crucified with him in order to get rid of the corpse that had been controlled by sin. That way we wouldn’t be slaves to sin anymore,” Romans 6:6, Common English Bible (CEB.)

Crucifixion means death, but when we take up His cross as our cross, we can follow Christ Jesus into His resurrection life – His life in the Spirit – beginning now!

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:20, King James Version (KJV.)

In other words:

“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” Galatians 2:20, New Living Translation (NLT.)

Therefore:

“So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus,” Romans 6:11, English Standard Version (ESV.)

Praise the Lord for His life, death, and resurrection in us!

May we wear our Lord’s Easter clothing as we follow Christ, now and forever, into the resurrected life.

 

Mary Harwell Sayler

…

Giving up or adding up: Lent

My first acquaintance with Lent brought the idea of giving up something - usually a pleasure of some kind. My thought, then and now, is that giving up something harmful is a good idea year round, but giving up pleasure for piety’s sake might make us proud or, worse, unappreciative of the good gifts God lavishes upon us!

The whole idea seems somewhat irrelevant to me (maybe irreverent!), assuming I understand the true purpose behind Lent: to draw closer to God and prepare ourselves for the joyful celebration of Easter.

If that’s the case, the question is: Is there an obstacle such as overly busyness I can give up in order to spend more time with God? Or, would I get closer to the Lord by adding a daily devotional reading, a longer or more frequent prayer time, a service to others less fortunate, a regular attendance to worship, a stronger participation in church activities, or _________________ (fill in the blank with whatever God puts on your mind, heart, and spirit)?

Since I grew up being part of Sunday School classes and, later, Bible study groups in almost every church denomination, I’ve had the privilege of studying all sorts of Bible topics, verse, and books of the Bible. These opportunities to plunge deeply into God’s Word help us to broaden our understanding of scripture and the diverse interpretations Christians find.

Studying the Bible only in bits and pieces, however, can prevent us from seeing the enormous view God has of us, the world, and our relationship with the Lord, ourselves, and one another. Therefore, my Lent challenge became the goal of reading the whole Bible, cover to cover, during the 40 days before Easter.

To do this meant putting aside my study Bibles for Lent and finding a contemporary reader’s edition with no commentary or other additions that might (okay, inevitably will!) distract me from the biblical text.

Studying, discussing, and applying the Bible throughout the year is an ongoing blessing, but for Lent, I highly recommend reading the Bible straight through as you would with any beautiful, blessed book. The difference is, the Word of God gives you the Mind of Christ and the sweeping view of God’s compelling purpose and ongoing love.

Mary Harwell Sayler, ©2017

P.S. This year I’ve chosen the CSB Giant Print Reference Bible from Holman to read for Lent. For other options, see my reviews of the many amazing translations available to us on the Bible Reviewer blog. May God bless and guide you in all you’re to do and be in Jesus’ Name.

…

Jesus Christ is Risen indeed!

Hallelujah! Hallelujah!

Christ our Lord
is risen
in each of us each day,
and neither gravity
nor a cruel grave
can keep us down.

by Mary Harwell Sayler, © 2017, from her book of prayers, poems, and contemporary psalms, PRAISE! published by Cladach Publishing
…

The Goodness in Good Friday

Resurrection
by Mary Harwell Sayler

It was finished.

There was nothing left to do
but take down Jesus' body
and hide it quickly
from mind, from view.

The terror of the tomb
closed the matter,
once for all,
wrapping sin
for its descent
into down-falling darkness
where never light had been.

Even from the Upper Room
no one had known our own
souls would be exhumed.

But Christ arose.

And with Him angels rolled
away the tombstone,
shroud,
and doubt –
releasing all
who wanted out.



© 1983, 2014, Mary Harwell Sayler, all rights reserved. ...

Holy Week makes an ideal time to visit churches, inconspicuously!

Christians may still be in the majority in the U.S.A., but church pews do not reflect this very well! With attendance dropping dramatically from year to year, smaller churches have become in danger of closing. These trends seem particularly worrisome in a climate building toward religious intolerance of Protestant, Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and other Christian denominations.

What if all of our churches closed?

or

What if our churches embrace one another in Christ and work together to re-unite, rather than dis-member, the Body of Christ?

For many years, my family and I had a variety of work-related moves around the country that gave us the blessing of being part of almost every major denomination. Therefore, I consider myself an ecumenical part of all! That’s not an experience Christians commonly have, however, so I want to let you know what I found to be true in every denomination of every church of every size:

People get their feelings hurt and stop attending their home church.

New pastors, priests, and rectors come and go, sometimes changing things too quickly for church members to accept and adapt to the changes, and so they pull away.

Christians who grew up in the church their parents picked might be familiar with that denomination but might not choose it for themselves!

Many people seem afraid to search for another denomination, perhaps because their families might not approve or they’re timid about attending an unfamiliar service without an invitation from someone who can accompany them and explain the order of worship.

But then, many Christians seem shy about inviting others to church for fear they will be rebuffed or thought of as a religious fanatic!

Other reasons cause declining interest, too, but what do we do about what we know?

We can let the situation slide until the whole church backslides into an ineffectual influence at a time when the power of Christ is surely needed!

or

We can pray about the problem and see what God brings to mind. For example, some workable solutions might be to:

Invite friends, family, or neighbors to attend a worship service with you.

Consider visiting a church denomination you have never attended.

Look for the official website for the headquarters of every denomination that interests you, and also visit sites of denominations you think you would never consider joining!

Research the mission statement, creed, or general information about each denomination.

Especially, notice the mutual beliefs important to you.

For example, if you believe in baptism by immersion, check out the official websites for Southern Baptist, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, and Roman Catholics, the latter of whom lets you choose immersion if you desire. That assumes, though, that you have not already been baptized in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit since that is considered a valid baptism by Catholics, Episcopalians, and many other denominations.

With a little online research, you can find out whatever you want to know, but here’s what I found that’s important to me:

Most Christians in most denominations love God and the Bible.

Most denominations have the same basic tenets of faith, for example, believing in God as the Father of Jesus, Mary as the Virgin Mother, Jesus the Christ as Savior, and the Holy Spirit as our advocate and spiritual guide.

Most churches also welcome visitors – with open arms anytime, but if you want to be inconspicuous, that’s most likely to happen during Easter (or Christmas) as people return to church worship, recalling the reasons to come together and celebrate:

Jesus Christ has come!
Christ has forgiven you!
Christ has died for your sins!
Christ has risen!
Christ lives in you and in the church Body of Christ.

What Good News to celebrate with each other in the churches of our choice! What Good News to write about in our poems, devotionals, books, stories, articles, letters, emails, tweets, text-messages, blogs, and love notes throughout the year!


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© 2012, Mary Sayler, all rights reserved. For articles on a variety of Bible topics, follow Blogs by Mary.May God bless your Holy Week and your church search in Jesus’ Name.
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