The Grinch and Easter - April 6, 2020 - Pastor Den

 By Pastor Den Hussey

I love the Grinch. 

No, we haven’t been quarantined so long that it’s already Christmas. I was thinking this week of how we’re about to have Easter together online, and it reminded me of something the Grinch realized after he took all the trees, toys, and food from Whoville.

“He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming! It came! Somehow or other, it came just the same!”

The Grinch did everything in his power to stop Christmas. But he couldn’t stop it from coming at all. I think this relates to the situation we find ourselves in during the COVID-19 pandemic.

It seems like the enemy is trying to steal Easter from us in 2020.  

Some of us have attended church on Easter Sunday most of our lives. Bonnie and I both can recall going to church those weekends even though our families didn’t attend very often. We rarely missed an Easter Sunday at church. It makes me wonder if attending church on Easter Sunday has become so familiar that we do it now out of obligation rather than devotion.  

Don’t get me wrong, I love going to church! I love seeing people, I love everything about it. I’ve been asking myself during this season if I’ve taken The Church for granted. For me? The answer is yes. As much as I hate to admit it, church is a habit. It’s not always devotion.

I understand that every commitment requires action that we don’t always enjoy. We do things because we know we should. That’s called discipline. But church should be more than discipline. It should flow from and deepen my devotion to the one Easter is all about. 

I have a new appreciation of church and Easter this year. 

I told you at the beginning that I believe the enemy is trying to steal Easter from us this year. I believe that strategy is about to blow up in his face and be almost as a great a failure as that first Easter weekend was for him.  

Think about it. He – at least he thought it was him – had Jesus killed.  He believed he had silenced God’s Son and killed God’s plan for the redemption of mankind. Early Sunday morning, that plan disintegrated quickly.  

The same thing is going to happen this Easter Sunday.

Jesus isn’t going to rise from the grave again as He resides in Heaven with our Father, but Jesus is going to overcome the plan of the enemy. His attempt to steal Easter from us by limiting our ability to gather together is actually going to cause people to celebrate Easter in a more meaningful way from their homes with those they love closest to their sides!

Just like the Grinch tried to stop Christmas and failed, the enemy is again trying to stop Easter. Let’s make sure he doesn’t do that. We have a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pull our immediate families together and celebrate what Easter means to us personally, prayerfully, and I believe powerfully!  

Let’s do that! 

I’ll be leading a devotion through the last week of Jesus’ life every day through the YouVersion Bible App plans. I’ll also be sharing a short video devotion about the events that happened each day that week from Palm Sunday through the resurrection. 

We’ll celebrate communion at home Good Friday at 3:00 p.m. I believe this will be the best Easter on record for all of us!  And, maybe like the Grinch:

“Our hearts will all grow three sizes that day!”

The Good Shepherd - April 1, 2020 - Pastor Kayla

By Kayla Marcantonio

While unfortunate, it’s true for many believers – the longer we study the Bible, the least likely we are to revisit passages popularly taught. You don’t have to give me the side eye! I’m not here to point my finger at you. In fact, I’m the one with my hand raised in confession first. This is something I’ve been guilty of before. 

Sometimes it is to convince ourselves that we’ve already learned the lesson that applies with certain verses. We can come to view Scriptures as one-sided, as one-and-done notches to put on our spiritual belt.

“I already know the principle there. Let me study something fresh and new.”

Take for instance this widely known passage where Jesus introduces himself as The Good Shepherd in John 10:

“I tell you the truth, anyone who sneaks over the wall of a sheepfold, rather than going through the gate, must surely be a thief and a robber! But the one who enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep recognize his voice and come to him. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. After he has gathered his own flock, he walks ahead of them, and they follow him because they know his voice. They won’t follow a stranger; they will run from him because they don’t know his voice.” John 10:1-5

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at this passage starting from when I was a child. In recently doing a devotional, the author prompted us to study these words of Jesus once again. I have to be honest – I was tempted to stick to the same application I always have: When you spend time knowing Jesus’ voice (studying the Word and prayer), you’ll be able to distinguish His voice from anyone else. Case closed.

This particular morning though, I didn’t follow my immediate temptation. Instead, I begrudgingly forced myself to read the passage again. Unexpectedly, a question popped into my head that had never formed before.

“Can sheep even see well?”

Sometimes we can be drawn to think these questions come from our own intelligence. My leaning is to believe God’s Spirit prompts our minds with questions and direction to oil up our thought process and bring us somewhere new. We can see this in Job when God asks the rhetorical question, “Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?”

Obviously, it’s Him.

Back to the question. 

Curious, I pull out my phone and google that question – “Can sheep see well?” Several responses popped up with the same answer. Apparently, sheep have excellent vision and have almost 360-degree peripheral sight. 

In fact, a sheep can see almost directly behind themselves several feet. Still, sheep have terrible vision right in front of their faces. What they see right in front of them is usually indistinguishable.

After reading this, I just about ran around my house in excitement. This is no exaggeration! I couldn’t contain this new revelation. You’re probably already trekking there with me.

Jesus wasn’t solely teaching about following His commands and knowing His voice. He was proclaiming the promise and the arrival of the Holy Spirit who would be available to every believer. 

In paraphrase, Jesus told His disciples, “You won’t be able to see me or the direction I’m going. This will be new. These times will be blurry, but follow My Voice. Follow my Holy Spirit. You can trust it’s still me, even though you won’t see my physical body in front of you.”

I challenge you to go back and dust off some of the verses, passages, and stories in the Bible you feel you’ve already conquered and checked off. Remember, Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God is alive.

When I speak to my husband or my friends and family, I never expect to have the same conversation every time we talk. That’s because they are alive! They have feelings, emotions, thoughts, and opinions. I can expect something familiar and something new each time we communicate. 

The word of God is alive as well. How beautiful that we can expect something new from the Holy Spirit each time we pause to read and listen.