Monday, for many it is the first day of the week, that day that we dread. Heading back to work after a weekend of relaxing, spending time with families and friends. However, this Monday, is the day after we have witnessed the empty tomb. On this Monday, we should give some consideration of the events we have witnessed. Through Jesus, God has given us his everlasting covenant, Jesus’s has won our salvation from sin, and in so doing, our redemption with God. Jesus’ resurrection has opened the way for us to follow him into eternal life with him in the garden of life.
On this Monday, let us give some time to consider all that has happened in the past week. Let us give some time to reflect on all that has happened for us. Though Monday’s can be a day that we do not look forward too. But this Monday, we should still find ourselves in awe and wonder in all that Jesus has done for us.
 
Pastor Lisa Chachula
 
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Each week we will post a Monday matters entry, we strongly believe that after Sunday services, it is a good idea to begin the week with looking at it through what we learn on Sunday. We hope you will find this interesting and engaging.

​Each Wednesday, beginning in May, we will  also post a Wednesday scripture study, we invite any and all to comment on the topic we are covering. If you are in the greater Phoenix area, we also welcome you to participate in our Wednesday Woman's Study group. We will post times and location later this month.

Have a wonderful week!

​Pastor Lisa Chachula  

I came from the tomb! He is risen! Our lord Jesus has risen!
All that we have been waiting for has happened, Jesus our Lord and Savior has risen. The Christ which the prophets spoke of has come to free humanity from its sin now and forever. Imagine being Mary on that early morning, finding the tomb empty. As she did not understand what had just happened, imagine the fear and grief that must have enveloped her that morning. Only to be replaced with the joy of seeing the risen Christ.
For all Christians, knowing that Christ has risen is the pinnacle of our faith. It is the moment that we have waited for from the birth of Jesus, through his ministry, through his teachings and acts that showed the power of God within him. It is the fulfillment of the promise of salvation, that we are reconciled with God, it is in Christ’s resurrection that we will be reborn into eternal life with him in the kingdom of God.
Today we must reflect on what God has given to us, what his Son has done for us, and how his spirit will transform us into eternal life. We are given a precious gift on this Easter Sunday, let us all live our lives as our Lord Jesus has shown us, let us extend that life onto all that we meet, so like Christ we are the messengers of peace and love.
Pastor Lisa Chachula  
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While not all Christian traditions view this day as a holy day, but in the Easter story it is an important day. On this day, Christ lay in his tomb. His disciples and followers believing that he had left them forever. The events of the day before were still burned into their minds as they had made a hasty burial as Passover was on them. Saturday, we experience the darkness of the tomb, the emptiness we had before the time of Christ. We experience the silence of the tomb, the four hundred years in which God had not spoken to humanity. We experience the finality of the tomb, as the end, when all we are will fade into the dust from which God created us.
But there is another importance for this day. It is the anticipation of the resurrection of Jesus the following morning. It is the victory over the endlessness of death and the rebirth into everlasting life. it is the end of the silence that we, as sinful people, endured as God had not spoken to us until the time he sent us his son. Saturday is important in that we still believe that death is the end, but that will all change the following morning.
Pastor Lisa Chachula
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Good Friday
Today is the day that Jesus was given up, condemned to death. He was beaten, His body broken. He was nailed to a cross, He was mocked by those who were witness to his death. Jesus cried out seven times, the last time, He gave up his spirit. He was in his humanity, stripped of his dignity, torn was His skin and long was His suffering. He was however, resolute to your will Father, that he be placed on your alter and sacrificed for the forgiveness of our sins.
Jesus today, gives his life that we may find our life. Let us take time this Good Friday to reflect on what he has done. What he has suffered, that we may live, and more so, the resolute obedience he showed for doing the will of the Father.
Pastor Lisa Chachula
 
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Today, Jesus revealed the everlasting covenant, one that was paid for by his body and blood on the cross. Jesus showed us the love God has for his people, so much so, that he sent to us, his only son to be given up as the perfect sacrifice for our salvation. Happy are we to be called to the table of the lord, Jesus. On this day that we honor the gift of our salvation through the covenant that Jesus gave to us, let us remember that, Jesus said  “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6

​God be with you

​Pastor Lisa

 

Palm Sunday has passed, as Christ has come into Jerusalem he set into motion the events of this week that would see him speak of the everlasting covenant that God has given to man through him. He will be given up to those who sought to put an end to his ministry. One which began to change the hearts and minds of all who heard him speak.

​He will be put on the cross this Friday, sheading his blood as the perfect sacrifice to atone for the sin's of humanity. He will be placed into his tomb, an act that all who followed him would believe it was the final time that they would see the Lord. It was the end of his story, it was the loss of a great prophet and a great man with whom God worked though. 

​Place yourself in that time, a time where the people of Israel did not understand all that Jesus had told them. A time when the Sanhedrin, thinking they would put and end to this Jesus of Nazareth. Who threatened their power and influence. For the Romans, it was an end to a potential crisis one the Pilot did not need. Little did they know, that their actions were not their own. But the work of God as told in the prophets who came before Christ's time.

​Place yourself into the darkness of the tomb, the silence of the tomb, waiting for the coming light of fulfillment in Christ's resurrection.

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