An important Post- Why is Easter a day of celebration

Hello everyone and Happy Easter. Hope you all have a good one, or had one depending on when you read this. It is a little late. 

Some of you may remember that I post a Christmas and Easter greeting every year. This is this year's Easter post. It gets kinda of serious but explains why Easter is so important to Christians-in case any here on G+, Facebook and my blog doesn't know, or forgets in the excitement or bummer of a day. 

 It is Easter or The Resurrection Day. We, in our society, have added eggs, rabbits, baby ducks and such to the celebration, for good reasons and bad but they are a side party. The main point is Forgiveness and Hope and that God the Creator Loves us when He didn’t have to. 

We celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus because it was what we needed. The whole Easter event-Good Friday happenings and the Sunday Happening we needed.  

The day we celebrate the most important day for Christians and for mankind. It is the resurrection-the full raising of Jesus physically from the dead for it that shows we are forgiven.     

      Christmas is a good day. It shows that God is with us and that God Loves Each of us. Jesus did a lot of good things while he lived: healings, deliverances and teachings. But His main purpose was what happened on Good Friday. His Death as a sinless man. A man who knew perfection from the moment of his birth until His last breath. Yet He chose to die as a sinner-as a man who had disobeyed God in every way possible. And this was not an ordinary death, but a horrible execution with torture and ridicule as part of it. Yet He did it on purpose, He did this to prove of God’s Love for us, and so we could be forgiven-have right standing with God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that none might perish or by judged. God showed His great love toward us while we were yet sinners Christ died for us, in our place. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit.

    And then He rose Jesus from the dead, as I said, to show His Forgiveness and to show His power over death and sin. We are now totally forgiven-one hundred percent-there is nothing left to forgive. I have said this before and I will say it more. It matters not what you have done, how many times you done it, what you have not done or what has been done to you. God will forgive you because God Loves You. All sin is pretty much the same to Him, even though to us some are a whole lot worse than others. But God has to forgive it all or none because we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God. God is perfect and each sin is more than treason toward Him and we would be destroyed in His presence because of one sin. Yet as I said God Showed His great love toward us in that while we were yet sinners-disobedient-treasonous  Jesus died for us. And for the same reason Jesus rose from the dead on Easter. Because of His great love toward us. Because that is what we needed.  

Now, we can have Hope, Joy, right standing with God, Peace of heart and mind and a Relationship with God. That is what Christianity really is about. It’s not a religion but a relationship with God made possible by Jesus’ death and Resurrection. 

That is a great thing-a life changing thing-a hope thing.

One that isn’t that hard either:

Romans 10: 9,10    “That if you will confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

10For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”  That’s it. Jesus did the hard part, you can do the easy. 

Everyone “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

The why of Christmas Words:Joy, Peace, Hope, Love

Christmas is almost upon us which makes it time for my yearly note on Christmas. The last couple of years I have talked about why Christmas and the fact of a relationship with Jesus. This year I decided to talk about some of the words associated with Christmas. In most Christmas displays and books on Christmas you see some certain words: Joy, Peace, Hope, Love. 

    Love comes from the fact that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten-or born-son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And that God showed His great love toward us while we were yet enemies of God Christ died for us. The Just for the Unjust. God is Love and even though we-each one of us-blew it and became separated from God, He still wants us back and decided to do whatever it took to allow us the choice of forgiveness and a right relationship with Him.

   Hope comes from the fact that God loves each one of us. It matters not what we have done, how many times we have done it, or what was done to us. God is good at wiping away tears and healing our inner hurts and emotional issues. Again it doesn’t matter who we are, what we have done-or not done. God, The Creator, Loves You. He proved it in a simple way everyone can see and understand. And God gives us second chances in our lives. There is a judgement coming for He is the perfect Judge, but He has given us a way to be declared innocent and to skip the judgement. God is Love and will heal and forgive you. 

   Peace. Jesus said that He will gives us a peace that goes beyond understanding. It is there at all times and in all situations. God is there with you and is able to help in any situation. He is powerful, caring, all knowing and able to heal and help. He knows what we need, He knows our hearts and He is with us. That last is part of the Christmas message. God with us. As a people-as humankind, but also He is with us individually. Once we have the forgiveness for our sins He offers, we can know His peace and Know He Is With Us.

   Joy. This comes from a personal relationship with God. Jesus was born on the day we celebrate as Christmas, a very important event worthy of celebration. But He came to live as a perfect Human-He put aside His God powers and walked as a man. He then not only taught us about God and did wonderful things, but He died as an innocent man in our place. Each of our places. This wonderful gift brings Joy unspeakable. I have experienced this Joy and know how much above happiness it is. It is good to be happy, but this is above that. You can have this Joy in any circumstances, even in hurt, and trouble. It comes from Hope which I mentioned already, from knowing God is with us and from Jesus Himself. He promised to give us Joy and He keeps His promises.    

    The promise of Christmas is great and wonderful. Love for the whole world-love for each of us individually makes it fantastic. The promise that God is with us makes live worth living even if we feel the opposite. The promise, that came later, that Jesus would die for us thereby showing His great Love and allowing us forgiveness of sin and right standing with God gives us Hope. For salvation but for a changed live and healing also. Joy and Peace follow those like puppy dogs can follow their master. 

It is easy to believe this even if we think it isn’t. You really are one step away from this forgiveness and right standing with God and a healing relationship with Jesus. Tell God what you want, tell Him of your doubts, of your pain, of your sin. Even of your anger. He is a big God and knows how to deal with that too. 

There are churches, web sites, and individual people who can tell you more. The Bible is good for that too. 

Below are two places online where you can talk to people but there are a huge number of other places. 

Valley Christian Center 

A prayer for salvation

A Christmas message from Billy Graham    

A new podcast dealing with why Salvation through Jesus

This new podcast is from my pastor Bill Cheney. In it he discusses the reasons we need Jesus and he  shows Christians how to tell others about Jesus and the Hope that brings. Jesus is healing, hope, joy, peace and more importantly salvation or being right with God the Creator, He is not bad or just one of many. He is unique. This is a relationship with God the Creator not rituals or religious observances. He did the hard part. So anyone, no matter what  you have done, how many times you have done it or what was done to you, can know God, can know His love.

This podcast has good stuff, done with humor, logic and good explanations


In one spot toward the end a women comes out onto the platform wearing a long white smock over her clothes. It's strained all over with what looks like grey paint. Bill leads her over to a man height cross in one corner. As he explains what is happening he takes off the smock, nails it to the cross, then places a purple robe with gold trim around her shoulders. All to show what Jesus did for us, including the fact that someone did it for her, she didn't have to do anything except allow it.

If you are a Christian the final bit with the envelope is a good, simple way to show the Good News of Jesus.

Podcast

A four part series taught at my Church on "Science, The Stars and The son of God"

This is a four part series of podcasts recorded at my church- Valley Christian Center by one of our pastors, a Rene M. Charest
They were designed to help christians have the confidence to share Jesus in this modern world.
“To equip Christians with confidence to regain their voice in presenting the Good News to a lost world”

“To show the connection of man’s increasing knowledge of the natural world with the Word of God to reveal the unmistakable conclusion that everything from the Magnificently Large to the Infinitesimally Small points toward a God of Purpose and a Plan of redemption”

Pastor Rene uses humor, transparency, logic and facts to get his points across.

The first message subtitled "How Science Points Toward God" started with a mini video. The video showed various pics of scientific discoveries-including a launch of a shuttle-intermixed with a young man building a violin from scratch. Among other things a voice over explained how knowing how God created everything did not distract from Him doing it. The violin maker was a great illustration of that. You can study how each part worked and the process it took to make each part but yet still be amazed at watching a master craftsman put one together and than listening to how the various parts worked together.


The second message has a unique and light hearted yet serious method of explaining the difference of Astrology and Astronomy.

The third message was good 
as was the personal tale he begins number four with isn’t just humorous but it has an important point.

Number one

Number two 

Number three 

Number four

They are all worth listening to and the last one can give you ideas of how to tell others the Good News of Jesus or if you don't know Jesus, it gives you ideas of why you should get to know Jesus and to be saved. Good Stuff in either case

Reasoning behind the events of what we call Easter

I had one post explaining Good Friday and Easter-Resurrection Day-and this one is a message from my pastor on why of Good Friday and what we now call Easter,

 

An Easter message, but it is worth a listen to any day. It breaks down each phrase in John 3:16 to explain the Reasoning behind the events of the day most now call Easter.

Bill Chaney uses humor, down to earth illustrations and logic to show what it all means. He is clear in his explanations and examples which is why I say it's worth listening to.

And you can download a sermon outline PDF that you can fill out and keep. 

The link to the podcast is here.

Happy listening 

One last Christmas post about God's Greatest Gifts

One last bit of Christmas.

"God's Greatest Gifts" to us

This message was delivered by my pastor the week before Christmas but it was just recently added to the church's podcast website. The message is good all year because God gives us good things all year. There is a lot of good stuff here and a message we could use for joy peace and hope which is all a part of Christmas.
The message is delivered with humor, common sense and some transparency so it is worth listening to. 
  
 Church is Valley Christian Center of Fresno CA and the pastor is Bill Chaney.  For more information you can go to vccfresno.org 


God's Greatest Gifts 

Time for my Christmas post for '15 Why Christmas: He is with us. He is love, the first step for grace

 Time for my yearly post about what Christmas is all about. To new readers: I have done this for something like five years. I usually deal with the fact that Jesus being born was a sign that God is with Us. Not only Us as in all of humanity but Us as in individually. God the Creator of the universe is with us. That idea can create Hope in every situation. God can deal with and heal your situations, issues, hurts and actions. He is also there to hold you through it all too. Or to help you become an even better person.  

      Christmas is also a sign and is evidence of God’s love. That is Jesus’ birth was and still is a definite sign of the fact that God is love. Again not only humanity as a whole but you individually. No matter what hurts, hangups, habits you have. No matter what you have done or not done God the Creator loves you. All peoples groups, all races, all nationalities, all of us-yes, that last was redundant but there was a purpose to the redundancy. A solid point I wanted to make. 

     So Christmas-Jesus being born in a stable to a simple girl, placed in a manger, the shepherds, the angel announcement, the whole thing. There have been plenty of pictures, real displays, movie scenes that show this moment. It doesn’t matter if there was snow outside the stable or if, as some think, it was a cave or a very simple structure, the important thing is that He was born. And that not only is that moment being a show of God’s love and that it is God with us, as I stated already, but it was also the first step in God’s plan of Grace. He had to be born, had to grow up, had to teach and show miracles, had to have temptations and had to die and had to be resurrected so that we-as in you and me-can be forgiven and thereby can know God. Sin was a big problem and it had to be dealt with as in completely done away with in our lives. He showed we could not live up to a series of rituals and commandments, that our own efforts got us no closer to God. Yet He still loved us and to prove that love He sent His only Begotten Son so that whoever believes in Him should not perish-should not die separated from God. He also showed His great love toward us in that while we were yet sinners God sent Jesus to die for us. That is the part of the Christmas story that is Love. God Sent us His Son, born of a woman. That is Love! That is why we rejoice over Christmas; not only is God with us in a way He hadn’t been before, not only does it show His Love for all of us but it is His gift to us. Grace is unmerited favor-we don’t earn it or deserve it. We are saved by grace so that no one can boost. That is why Joy and Peace are a part of Christmas as well as love-hope should be too for Jesus is the hope creator. Noel is another word for Christmas and could come from a word that meant birth. It has become a short way to say celebrate Jesus was born. 

As with any gift we have to receive it. God still allows the free will He made us with, so it is your choice to receive it or not. Good things come with receiving it: most important total forgiveness of your sins-they are done away with-but also healing of hurts, hangups and habits, plus Joy so good it is unspeakable and peace that passes understanding and a love that is terrific. Yes, there are changes which can be rough but over all it is definitely worth it.

If you choose it, tell God, tell someone else, read the Bible. Just talk to God as you would anyone you know. He knows you need it and He knows your pains and hurts and your sins so agree with Him-say it. He understands pain, plain talk and if you are not totally sure about this. 

If you need or want more info you can contact me or my church even at VCC or their contact page 

To explain more about Christmas here is a link to what was Billy Graham’s Advent Devotional week one. This was back from Nov 29, there are now two more weeks of devotionals.

right here

And these steps to salvation, Here  with two buttons at the bottom for more information.

EASTER '15 : The why of it and the Forgiveness, Hope, joy, peace it can bring

    This is my yearly Easter-Resurrection day post. I’ve done one for-I think-three years now. A couple of you may have read the earlier ones, if so you may see something similar in this one.  I do them for two reasons. To get the word out what Easter is really all about-That Jesus really rose from the dead, God’s Mercy and Love-and at the same time to give people hope and to let them know their past can be forgiven; no matter what they have done, not done, or what was done to them or even if they are near perfect. And that Joy, Peace and Love comes along with Salvation.

      Easter, or as some like to call it Resurrection Day, is the time we set aside to celebrate the physical Resurrection of Jesus Christ after a very painful death in our place. That death which we talk about on Good Friday took hours to accomplish. He not only was whipped close to death but he had to hang from a boards that His hands were nailed to. As I understand it after a while his lungs would stop working in that position so he basically suffocated. More happened to Jesus during His death but He went through all of it for you. The Bible and life is clear that no one is perfect-we all have blown it one way or another. Some a whole lot more than others. This imperfection or sin causes many hurts build up in our lives. Some don’t seem all that bad while others are devastating to us personally and to others. Some hurts are caused by the sin of others but they all can be healed. His Resurrection showed his victory over the devil, death the grave and that His sacrifice was accepted. So now “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved”.

     Not only is God—thanks to Jesus’ death and Resurrection—willing and able to forgive us completely of Every wrong we have done, but He is more than willing to heal those hurts. He can, He created us. That is the double Hope of Easter.  Being right with God-having a relationship with Jesus our new best friend as my pastor likes to say and that we can be healed. He doesn’t leave us as He finds us. Some of that takes time as He deals with us but it is accomplished no matter what. 

     There is more that could be said. Jesus offers us a Peace that goes beyond understanding, a Joy unspeakable and a Love that goes beyond anything else. He showed His Great love in that we were yet sinners—even if we flipped Him off by our actions—He sent Jesus to die for us.  As a verse a good portion of you may know says.  or “But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”   For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He didn’t have to send Jesus for that and Jesus didn’t have to go through with it all. Hebrews 12:2 (KJV)

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.  We are that Joy. No matter what we have done not done or has been done to us, or if we think we are near perfect. 

     

That is why we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ every year but it shows God’s great Mercy and Love and because of it we can be right with the Creator and have all of our sine forgiven and receive His gifts of Hope, joy, peace at the same time. 

If you would like to know more leave a note, send an E-mail or contact my church-Valley Christian Center- Here

Happy New Year All And......

Happy New Year

May you have a really good Year, including one with hope and Joy and Peace.  Whether you had a great '14, a bad one, one with both good and bad, or even a mediocre one without any Great joys nor Bad pains remember ’15 can be a year of change or an even better life.  Jesus Christ said that He would leave us Peace that goes beyond understanding and He would not leave us alone in this world. The Holy Spirit can be with us while we face The Good, The Bad or the In-between. Hope is there for us too because God is with us--as we learned with Christmas-and He knows what He is doing. Nothing takes Him by surprise or by hook or crook. He can’t be conned either. 

I am talking about a relationship with that Jesus of the Bible, not just going to church, or not just reading the Bible. And the person of Jesus in our lives: with us as we live our lives. He loves you enough to make a difference in your live now and Heaven later on. 

He is more on Hope; a Billy Graham video. 

And a second one dealing with the Cross. Why it is important to us now. 

And a link how to contact my church if you would like more info on Jesus-hope-salvation, Juts put what info you need in the header,  or leave a comment here. 

New Year 2014--Joy, Hope, New Start

Now a few words about the New Year.

As the title of this says this post is about new beginnings along with Joy and Hope. Not everyone needs this but it’s still something I wanted to say.

Jesus Christ offers us all three of those things and more. God doesn’t hate any of use nor is He waiting to bash us over the head when we do wrong. My last post talks about how Christmas shows His love, followed by what we call Easter. His death and resurrection shows us His love and that He can be counted on.  And that He is the supplier of the fresh start many of us need.  

That is what the term Born Again is about. Starting new, starting fresh with right standing with God the Creator and with inner Joy and Hope. 

Here are links to three songs that share this idea in different ways. There are some ads either at the beginning or at the bottom, but you can ignore them and turn them off. 

Third Day  NewsBoys  Leon Patillo

There are many fine songs that explain this event but I didn’t want to get too carried away with song links so these three and this one that talks about how nothing can separate us from the love of God are ones that I thought would add to what I wanted to say here.

Chris Tomlin

God gives us all a second and even third and fourth chances. Failure isn’t good-it’s down right rotten-but it’s not the end either. God-Jesus-won’t stop loving us, won’t abandoned us, won’t turn His back, is there to help and save us. He wants to fill us with enough Joy to start dancing and Hope to know we can do it--we can live our lives with Him who saved us from sin and who we need to serve. 

Hope is there because God can not fail, turn from who He is and nothing can separate us from His love. Not death, angels, demons, or anything we do, or anything done to us. And He will be there for us. A big part of Christmas was God is with us. He is with us to help us change from the inside out, to guide us and to help Joy and Hope grow in us. Tell Him what you want and need, ask Him to be that for you to save you and to be with you. 

There is much more I could say but I hope this all gives you something to think about. 

One more link to a message by the pastor of my church Bill Chaney. It’s Rekindling the Radical Spirit of Foursquare part ten- it should be highlighted. The message if 49 minutes long but he talks about Joy what produces it and how to keep it among other stuff. 

About Joy