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Easter Messages

By Chris Costrini
Venango Community

As I am sure we are all aware, our world has been turned upside down by a virtually invisible virus. I don’t imagine that any of us have seen anything quite like it. People are ordered to stay at home, businesses and schools are shuttered, and churches are not gathering to worship.

Not only have we lost our Sundays, but as social distancing orders have been extended, it seems we will lose Easter too. Easter is the holiest of Christian days, and what we believe about the events of the first Easter is the foundation of the Christian faith. Can it really be that Easter is canceled?

Thankfully, no, Easter isn’t canceled. It may look different than any Easter we have ever had, but it isn’t canceled.

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By Pastor Gary Rahe
Zion Lutheran

Holy Week has arrived. For Christian churches where Lent is a time to focus closely on the passion of Jesus Christ, coronavirus ended midweek worship services and stopped the gathering of the church as family.

Even for churches not practicing a full Lenten program, this week is Holy Week and time for special services for Maunday Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday in preparations for Easter Sunday and the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

However, COVID-19 has changed it all. For the last month, our lives have changed dramatically. We now suffer with a fear of getting coronavirus and dying. Even in our small community, the disease has found us, and even to date without anyone dying, the threat hangs over us like a black cloud.

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By Dan Kafka
Holyoke Church of Christ

The greatest love story ever told is found within the pages of an ancient book, foolish and irrelevant to some, the power of salvation through Jesus Christ to others. This time reminds me of the relentless pursuit of a holy and righteous God for the creation He so loves.

There was no legal, moral or ethical reason for the crucifixion of Jesus. He committed no sin, yet the cross lay ahead, a purposed plan. Could there be another way?

In the garden, the weight of the cup of the wrath of God begins to take its toll on the Son of Man as his prayers are seasoned with the sweat of blood and weight of grief. Memories of another encounter with the Adversary in the wilderness come to mind. Prayer and Scripture were the weapons for that encounter, and prayer would be needed now for what lies ahead.

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By Pastor Ismael López
Vida Abundante

La resurrección de nuestro Señor Jesucristo es uno de los eventos históricos más importantes para el pueblo cristiano, porque representa la victoria de Jesús sobre la muerte y nuestra esperanza de que un día también nosotros seremos resucitados para estar con nuestro Dios por la eternidad. La resurrección de Jesús no solo debe recordarnos su poder, sino darnos poder para vencer las tentaciones y para enfrentar las pruebas que tenemos cada día.

El Apóstol Pablo dice en la Primera carta a los corintios que la victoria de Cristo es también nuestra victoria y que, si Él no hubiera resucitado, los cristianos seríamos dignos de lastima. Yo creo que como cristianos servimos a un Dios vivo que nos ha salvado con el sacrificio de Cristo en la cruz del Calvario y por esa razón, debemos vivir de acuerdo a la nueva vida que recibimos al aceptarlo en arrepentimiento y fe para perdón de pecados.

Si, es verdad que si Cristo no hubiera resucitado seriamos dignos de lástima, pero creo que mas dignos de lástima seríamos si habiendo Cristo resucitado, viviéramos como si nuestro Dios estuviera muerto o como si aun estuviera colgado en la cruz.

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By Paul Brunner
First United Methodist of Holyoke and Pleasant Valley United Methodist

The last two Sundays, for the first time in 30-plus years of ministry, I unlocked the church doors with the full expectation that no one would come in. It was heartbreaking. Worship is the highlight of my week. The gathering of friends and family, the songs old and new, praying, the Word of God, and the Spirit of God, it is what I was called to do. Leading worship into a computer screen, into an empty room isn’t easy, but it is the best we’ve got for now.

If Sunday is the highlight of my week, then Easter is the high point of my year. As a Christian, the empty tomb, the risen Christ, is what we are all about. The victory of life over death, hope over fear and love over all.

This year I will call into the sanctuary, “He is Risen!” And on my computer screen, the replies will come one at a time, “He is Risen indeed!” The strains of the great Charles Wesley hymn, “Christ the Lord is Risen Today,” will be played on the church organ, but the alleluias will not shake the rafters as in years past. I honestly hope I can hold it together.

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People People People
By Bryan Kroeger
Cornerstone Ministries

So much going on in our world right now! Fear, anxiety of the what ifs and the how comes.

Guess what though ... The Creator of the Universe, God is still in control no matter what. God’s heartbeat is People People People.

Romans 5:8 says, “But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that yet while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” Hear the pulse? People People People.

He cares for you and me so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross for each and every one of us so we wouldn’t have to spend eternity in Hell.

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Darkness Turned to Joy
By Pastor Don Lopes Jr.
Seventh-Day Adventist

After Jesus died, we find the disciples locked in the upper room. To them it felt like the whole world had come crashing down. They had spent the last three and a half years with Jesus and had left everything to follow Him.

They had great visions of Jesus setting up His kingdom and the Jewish people once again being their own nation. They had seen Him work many miracles and heard His teachings.

“How could He have died if He really was God?” they thought. “Did we just waste the last three years of our lives? Maybe He wasn’t the Son of God at all.”

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By Mike Brown
First Christian

When I was younger, I thought of Easter as this holiday that was like Christmas. Except that it was in the spring and that I didn’t get any toys. I did get a few baskets full of candy, chocolate bunnies and plastic grass that I could make noises with. We had Easter egg hunts and huge lunches. We had fun spending time with friends and family.

Honestly, I didn’t really get what the holiday was about back then. Back then, I heard that Easter had something to do with Jesus, but I couldn’t figure out how bunnies, baskets, colored eggs and Jesus were all connected. I still can’t.

I did learn more about Jesus, though. I learned that Jesus was a perfectly innocent man who was executed in a gruesome way. We celebrate that day as Good Friday, but then I had more questions like why was Jesus’ dying good? It didn’t make sense that we would celebrate the death of a good guy like Jesus.

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By Jim Crist
Fairfield Covenant

He is Risen Indeed!

There is no question, we are living in perilous times, facing days of constant flux and uncertainty.

In times like these, we may be tempted to give in to fear and/or anxiety. We must be diligent to resist such temptations. For doing so will rob us of the peace and the joy that God has promised us.

Two thousand years ago, the early church found themselves in times that challenged their faith. They watched as Jesus of Nazareth, their Messiah, was nailed to the cross and placed in the tomb. All hope seemed lost.

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By Pastor Jay Littlefield
Holyoke Assembly of God

Starting in October of each year, sometimes even before Halloween, red and green items start appearing in some retail stores. For the next 8-10 weeks, these objects increase. Trees and lights and decorations flood the minds and sights of individuals. Chaos overwhelms the closer a certain date in December looms.

A very diminutive amount of this hustle and bustle is to observe the genesis of Christmas. Christmas, the time designated to celebrate the birth of a baby born to a young virgin … this baby born in obscurity who would become the Savior of the world.

This child would grow and learn the trade of His earthly father. At the same time, He was learning and living to know the will of His Heavenly Father.

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Easter Greetings
By Father Jerry Rohr

St. Patrick, Holyoke; Christ the King, Haxtun; St. Peter the Apostle, Fleming

I suppose it seems we began this season 40 million years ago, not 40 days ago. Forty days ago, we took the time to place ashes on our foreheads as a reminder that our days are, indeed, numbered; no matter the cause that our end might be.

And yet, on this day of all that is fresh and new, we peer into the empty tomb and, like Peter, we scratch our heads and wonder what it can mean. We want to place our human understanding as a mantle over this astounding thing.

Someone risen from the dead?

Our logical minds offer a distinct “no.” We rush past quickly all the events we can recall — the temptations in the desert; the revealing of the divinity of Jesus on the mountaintop; the woman who, in her thirst satisfied, left her water jar behind; a blind man who sees more clearly than others; a friend who breathes once again.

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