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Religious: A peculiar Easter people
Lay Minister Joseph L'Heureux.
for South Peace News
Happy Easter everyone! Let’s not forget our Good Friday celebration!
This week we celebrate the greatest feast the world has ever known, the redemption of mankind.
Did you know you have been chosen as a “Peculiar People”, or as some Bible interpretations say, “A treasured possession”?
Not all wish to be considered peculiar. Why? Because “we have been washed clean by the blood of the lamb.”
Yes, as it says in the Old Testament (Deuteronomy 7:6) our Jewish brothers were first chosen as a “peculiar people” to reveal God’s laws and His love. They were to keep His Commandments (Ten Majors), keeping the Sabbath holy, not abusing His name or their neighbours, honouring parents, not stealing, or killing each other or coveting each other’s spouses and possessions and making sacrifices to reveal their love for God and neighbours.
This would make them a “peculiar people”, different from other nations and God would protect and deliver them from such problems as plagues, addictions, defeat and slavery to other nations; i.e. Their delivery from Egypt by Moses, which they would in turn honour with a perpetual celebration called Passover (Leviticus 23:5) until the coming of their promised Messiah. They were washed in the Red Sea.
Yes, Jesus Christ, their long-awaited Messiah came to fulfill these laws and over 300 prophecies building upon the foundation of Passover. As prophesied, He was misunderstood and rejected, hung on a cross to deliver all, repeat all, from the consequences of sin and death; all those who would keep His Commandments and believe in Him whom the Father and Creator had sent.
This is the Passover lamb for Jews and Good Friday feast and Easter Resurrection that Christians have celebrated for 3,500 and 2,000 years respectively. This is what makes Jews and Christians a “Peculiar People”.
Christianity is the only religion whose God came to Earth, “to become a sacrificial lamb”; took upon Himself our sins, and was nailed to a tree, to purge and to deliver us of those sins. By making Himself the “scapegoat” for all of us, He delivered us from death and gave us eternal life. This is our Good Friday Feast! No wonder this gory scene is a celebration!
The Easter Sunday celebration is how we know we have eternal life, because He rose on the third day and appeared to His disciples eight times over the next 40 days.
We are told this by over 500 witnesses in all four Gospels, the book of Acts and St. Paul recaps this in 1st Corinthians Chapter 15:1-8.
In his letter to the Hebrews, St. Paul says, “He has made His appearance ‘once’ and for all,. . .to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Since man dies only ‘once’, after that to face judgment.” (Hebrews 9:26-27)
We are also told in both the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed that “Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.”
The Gospel of Matthew (27:51-53) tells us at Jesus’ death “the Earth shook and the rocks split. The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died rose to life. . .They came out of their tombs and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.”
Now these people were those who God considered righteous and Holy, those who died before the coming of Jesus Christ. However Jesus Himself said, “I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.” (Matthew 9:12-13 and Mark 2:17 and Luke 5:32) “For it is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. . .whom I call to repentance. . .for the Kingdom of God is at hand.”
So there is hope for us who have fallen short of the glory of God, not kept His Commandments and missed His perpetual feast days he set up for us to honour Him. We can turn, change and claim the blood of the lamb, Jesus.
Now we have all heard the expression “only a mother could love him/her”. The Prophet Isaiah had one too.
“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget I will not forget you:” (Isaiah 49:1)
Well, God Loves us even more than our mothers and has not forgotten us. So He sends His mother, Mary, our spiritual heavenly mother, to call us “sinners” to repentance, stop, turn, change and conform to a more productive way of life.
For almost 29 years, she has appeared daily in Medjugorge, Croatia and other places to warn us and call us home. The town of Medjugorge changed and was not touched during the Balkans war.
Jesus gave us this prophecy in a parable: “If they do not listen to Moses (the Commandments) they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.” (Luke 16:31)
With Mary’s apparitions this is happening before our very eyes.
“Blessed are the ‘peculiar people’ who hear, obey, and (teach) the word written in the scriptures.” (Luke 11:28) “Woe to those ‘peculiar people’ who ignore and teach others to ignore their basic roots.”
Blessed are the peculiar-treasured possessions.
Have a blessed Good Friday and Easter!
Next week the Ministerial column will be submitted by Pastor Eric Kregel of High Prairie Bethel Baptist Church
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