The Gift of Easter

Last March, at the beginning of the Lenten season, I wrote a blog suggesting that my readers find ways to speak the name of Jesus to as many as possible, as a Lenten commitment.  Easter is about the great gift of Jesus that God gave the world.  Acts 4:12 reads:  “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”   I hope that you have found opportunities to share the name of Jesus during these Lenten weeks.

I wrote another blog post about the young boy who found a twenty-dollar bill in the parking lot of a Cracker Barrel.  His dad was killed in Afghanistan shortly after he was born.  The 8-year-old gave his “found money” to another soldier that walked into the restaurant.  I suggested that each of us keep a twenty-dollar bill handy and allow the Lord to show us the person who needed it.

I want you to know that I don’t challenge my readers with things that I don’t also challenge myself with.  I have shared the name of Jesus with several interesting people over these weeks.  Just recently the Lord showed me who needed my twenty-dollar bill.  I was late for an appointment with no time to spare.  Isn’t that ALWAYS the way ministry works?  God usually doesn’t give us time, he asks us to take the time to serve him.  

I was in my car, getting ready to leave a store parking lot when a man approached me.  He kept a safe distance so as not to scare me and there were many other people around.  He said his niece and her baby were in the car and he was out of gas and money.  He was trying to get back home.  He asked if I could please help out, saying that he would appreciate anything I could give.

I’m always cautious at times like this.  We all read the news reports of bad things that can happen.  I usually hesitate to give cash, not knowing if I am enabling an addiction or weakness.  If I had not needed to get to my appointment, I would typically have asked him to follow me to a gas station so I could fill the car with gas.  

But I felt a peaceful sense that God wanted me to help.  I made sure I was safe and looked for my wallet.  I had several ones and thought I would give him those.  But then, I saw the folded twenty and knew I was to give him that instead.  I told him that the Lord wanted him to have it and that I hoped it would be a blessing in his life.  

When he saw the bill, his eyes filled with tears and he ran over to his car.  He pressed the bill against the car window and told his niece, “We are home!”  He then waved and thanked me over and over, looking up to the sky in gratitude.  For me, the gift was not a big thing…but for him – it meant he could go home.

I prayed for the man and his niece as I drove away, praying that they would submit their lives and circumstances to God.

It is Maundy Thursday, the day Jesus sat with his apostles and shared the Passover meal with them.  The New Covenant with mankind was presented when Jesus taught his disciples what he wanted them to “remember” from then on.  The bread and the wine were to be our reminder that Jesus gave his body and his blood for all of us, so that we could receive complete forgiveness for our sins.

Easter is about what we can give, but even more, it is about what God has given.  Who will you share the good news of Easter with before Sunday?  Who will you invite to share your Easter Sunday celebration?  People need to know Jesus, but they need someone to help them know how that is possible.

The commitment to “give” isn’t just about the Lenten season.  Easter Sunday God’s children will celebrate the fact that Jesus is our Savior.  Monday, let’s “remember” that Jesus is also our Lord.

All of us at the Denison Forum wish you a blessed and holy Easter!

Source: Foundations with Janet

Written By: Janet Denison

An Undeserved Gift

When my friend gave me a gift recently, I was surprised. I didn’t think I deserved such a nice present from her. She’d sent it after hearing about some work stress I was experiencing. Yet she was going through just as much stress, if not more, than I was, with an aging parent, challenging children, upheaval at work, and strain on her marriage. I couldn’t believe she had thought of me before herself, and her simple gift brought me to tears.

In truth, we’re all recipients of a gift that we could never deserve. Paul put it this way: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15). Although he “was once a blasphemer and persecutor and a violent man, . . . the grace of our Lord was poured out on [him] abundantly” (vv. 13–14). The risen Jesus gave Paul a deep understanding of the free gift of grace. As a result, he learned what it meant to be an undeserving recipient of that gift and he became a powerful instrument of God’s love and told many people about what He had done for him.

It’s only through His grace that we receive love instead of condemnation, and mercy instead of judgment. Today, let’s celebrate the undeserved grace that God has given and be on the lookout for ways to demonstrate that grace to others.

Source: Our Daily Bread

Written By: Karen Pimpo

Josephine Margaret Bakhita: From Slave to Servant of Christ

Josephine Bakhita died on this day in 1947. She was a remarkable believer who reveled in the love of God and lived her life in service to Him, despite the years she suffered in abusive slavery. Born around the year 1869 in the troubled region of Darfur in Sudan, she was kidnapped by Arab slave traders while still a child, in about 1877. This began a horrific 12-year ordeal as a slave. 

Not only did her captors forcibly convert her to Islam, but they also forcibly marched her 600 miles to the city of El Obeid. She was so traumatized by the kidnapping, she forgot her name. Bakhita was, in fact, a name given to her by her slavers. It means “lucky.” 

During the march, Bakhita was bought and sold twice. Afterward, she was sold a third time to a wealthy Arab merchant who assigned her as a maid to his two daughters. For the most part, they liked her and treated her well, though at one point, when she accidentally broke a vase, the merchant’s son beat her so badly that she could not leave her bed for days. 

Bakhita was then sold to a Turkish general, tasked with serving his mother-in-law and wife. Both treated Bakhita with extreme cruelty. They whipped her daily and scarred her body with deep razor lines, even rubbing salt into them. The abuse left 114 scars on Bakhita’s body. 

In the 1870s, Muhammad Ahmad, a Muslim cleric in Sudan, began to agitate for religious renewal and freedom from foreign control. He led a major revolt against the Turks and declared himself the Mahdi, essentially a Muslim Messiah. As the Mahdists were closing in on El Obeid, Bakhita was sold for a fifth time. Unlike her previous masters, Italian Vice Consul Callisto Legnani treated her kindly. When the Mahdists besieged Khartoum, Legnani slipped out of the city, bringing Bakhita with him at her request. Along with Legnani’s friend Augusto Michieli, they traveled 450 miles to the port city of Suakin. There, the party set sail and arrived in Genoa in 1885. Legnani gave Bakhita to Michieli’s wife as a gift. 

Bakhita’s primary job was to be a nanny to Michieli’s daughter. While arrangements were being made to move the family to Sudan, Bakhita and the daughter were sent to the convent of the Canossian sisters in Venice. There, Bakhita learned of a different Master, who was flogged on her behalf, who created her, knew her, and loved her. Bakhita had longed to know the Creator, and now she had found Him. She placed her hope in Christ. 

When Michieli’s wife returned, Bakhita refused to leave the convent. In fact, the convent went to court to protect Bakhita. The court ruled that since slavery had been outlawed in Sudan before Bakhita’s birth and was illegal in Italy, Bakhita had never legally been a slave and thus was not the property of the Michieli family. Bakhita stayed in the convent, was baptized, took Communion, and was confirmed by Archbishop Sarto, the Cardinal Patriarch of Venice and future Pope Pius X. Eventually, she took the names Josephine Margaret and Fortunata (Latin for “Bakhita,” or “Lucky”). 

Bakhita became a Canossian sister and was assigned to the convent at Schio in Vicenza. She was so kind and gentle that she was regarded to be a living saint. The townspeople even thought her presence would protect them during World War II. As it turns out, Schio was bombed but suffered no loss of life during the war. 

From 1935-1939, Bakhita was sent to Milan to help prepare sisters to be missionaries to Africa. According to her biographer, “her mind was always on God, and her heart in Africa.” 

Bakhita died on February 8, 1947, and was canonized on October 1, 2000. Today, the anniversary of her death, also her feast day according to Roman Catholic practice, has become the International Day of Prayer to Stop Human Trafficking. When asked what she would say to her captors if given the chance, Josephine replied, “If I were to meet those who kidnapped me, and even those who tortured me, I would kneel and kiss their hands. For, if these things had not happened, I would not have been a Christian and a [Canossian] today.” 

Written By: John Stonestreet and Glenn Sunshine

Source: Breakpoint

Self-Control in God's Strength

A 1972 study known as the “marshmallow test” was developed to gauge children’s ability to delay gratification of their desires. The kids were each offered a single marshmallow to enjoy but were told if they could refrain from eating it for ten minutes, they’d be given a second one. About a third of the children were able to hold out for the larger reward. Another third gobbled it up within thirty seconds!

We might struggle to show self-control when offered something we desire, even if we know it would benefit us more in the future to wait. Yet Peter urged us to “add to [our] faith” many important virtues, including self-control (2 Peter 1:5–6). Having laid hold of faith in Jesus, Peter encouraged his readers, and us, to continue to grow in goodness, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, affection, and love “in increasing measure” as evidence of that faith (vv. 5–8).

While these virtues don’t earn us God’s favor nor secure our place in heaven, they demonstrate—to ourselves as well as to all those with whom we interact—our need to exercise self-control as God provides the wisdom and strength to do so. And, best of all, He’s “given us everything we need [to live] a godly life,” one that pleases Him, through the power of the Holy Spirit (v. 3).

Source: Our Daily Bread

Written By: Kirsten Holmberg

Faithfulness in All Things

Christian faithfulness, especially at a time of cultural chaos, isn’t really about trying to do great things for God. In a tweet, my friend Katy Faust of Them Before Us explained:   

Afraid for the nation? Buy a house. Plant a garden. Get married. Have lots of babies. Help your children marry well, be great grandparents. You needn’t run for office, start a podcast or lead a thinktank. The most powerful & countercultural work happens in your home.  

Amen. She then cited Jeremiah 29:5-6, in which God told the exiles of Judah to “build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce.”  

It can be easy to equate “greatness” with fame or followers or something loud and big. But God asks for faithfulness in whatever our hand finds to do. That was true for the exiles in Babylon, and it’s still true today.

Written By: John Stonestreet and Kasey Leander

Source: Breakpoint