Realisation …

 In this last week I have had a realisation. This is that my age is 46 and I am actually genuinely in my mid-late 40s. This all happened after I went to the hairdresser. I really liked my hair cut, but when I got home I thought to myself that I look like I am in my 40s. Well, clearly this is correct, but for some strange reason it surprised me. 

I was watching TV and an advert came on for a kettle. I was fascinated by this kettle, again I am my age, but it was called a calm kettle. I have never heard of a stressed kettle but this kettle boils very quietly and has a soothing light that comes on when it is boiled. I liked the look of this, it looked nice and comforting.

When I looked at the gospel reading for today (John 12:1-8) I thought of comfort. Jesus was at the home of his friends. I always really like to think of the relationship of Jesus with Mary, Martha and Lazarus as the comfort of being with your closest friends. The type of people you can sit and talk with, laugh with, cry with. In the reading today Jesus had an unusual experience but it was one of comfort. Mary anointed him for his burial. 

This may sound like an odd thing for a friend to do, but in this beautiful and intimate moment, Mary prepared Jesus for what would come next. She had heard Jesus talk and she knew what was going to happen to Him at some stage. 

By wiping his feet with her hair she was showing true intimacy. It is a beautiful moment of friendship and love for her Lord. Mary, the friend of Jesus who had sat at His feet listening to Him, now had the chance to do something for Him as she anointed Him and wiped His feet. Rather than telling Jesus that there was no way that He was going to die, she did something wonderful. Mary had a realisation which was that she could help Jesus in a new way as she helped Him on to the next stage of His life.

Judas had another realisation and that was how much the ointment that she used cost. John the writer of the gospel makes it clear for us that he has background information. This was that Judas was a thief and not necessarily a person to be trusted with the money the disciples had. Of course we can see forward in time and we know that Judas was a definite baddie who was going to betray Jesus for money. 

Back to today. It is passion Sunday and there are a number of realisations that we may be arriving at. Firstly, it is only one week to holy week. Secondly, that means our lenten disciplines are nearly at an end. I am thinking that a really good realisation would be like the one that Mary had when she anointed the feet of Jesus. This is that we have a week to prepare for holy week and what might God ask of us in this week ?

Perhaps to prepare ourselves for the continuing journey of lent and as we come towards the end, to start thinking of what have we learnt in this time about God and our relationship with Him and others.

Through my lenten discipline I have realised that I have wasted hours looking at YouTube reels on the internet when I could have been reading. I want to keep reading more after Easter.  

Maybe in the last weeks of lent we could think of something that we might have liked to have done and do it. I used to give up certain behaviour patterns in lent, this went well and I have stuck to the changes. Would it matter if I hadn’t though?

Yes, it would. This is because lent can be a time of transformation. In the reading from the letter to the Philippians (3:4b-14) we heard about the changes that had happened for the apostle Paul. He had been a Jew, and in the letter he was explaining how much he had changed. Not just this, but through this how he had come to the realisation that all the things he had gained and learned were nothing compared to knowing Jesus. 

This is brilliant, Paul knew that he had begun a journey of faith with Jesus and he had not come to the end of it yet. This meant that for him the end goal was heaven and to be with Jesus. However, whilst he was waiting for this, nothing was going to stop him from trying to be more like Jesus.

I am not going to suggest that we live our lives always looking forward to being with Jesus in heaven. However, imagine if the most important thing in our lives was to be more and more like Jesus. This is a challenge that we can all try day by day and it is what we are doing.

The realisation for us must be that as we have been taking time to get closer to God through lent, this is not something that should end. We can continually look to God to change us. 

I know that I am still 46, and I know that one day I may have a calming kettle. I want to know even more that I am trying to be more and more like Jesus every day. If we all did this just imagine how prepared we would be for holy week, Easter and always. 

In the reading from the prophet Isaiah (43:16-21) we heard that God was doing a new thing. I have admitted that I like things to be comfortable, however I do not want to miss out on God doing a new thing in my life and in the world around us. Mary could have just treated Jesus as normal and missed out on the new thing that was going to happen which was that He was going to be executed but then come back to life. Paul could have stayed as he was and missed out on all that God was offering.

I have the realisation that not only is lent not over yet, but that we need to be alert and awake to see what God wants of us, and if He is doing a new thing. May we always be alert to God. AMEN

Know where you’re going ….

 

There was once an elderly and slightly forgetful Bishop who was traveling by train to perform a confirmation service. He misplaced his ticket and wasn’t able to produce it when requested by the conductor. "It's quite all right, Bishop, we know who you are. It’s no problem" The bishop replied, "You don't understand - without the ticket, I don't know where I'm going."

Our readings this morning have made it clear that the best way to go in life is towards God, which is very helpful for us !

In our Old Testament reading we heard a call or an invitation to seek the Lord while He may be found. This seems a rather gentle statement from Isaiah who sometimes had harsh words to say as he called people to repentance. However, in this passage he shows the ways that we receive an invitation from God. I really like this. God invites us into relationship with Him.

In the Psalm we were reminded of how when we are spiritually thirsty this is when we can know where to turn and so receive the amazing and life giving love of God. The Psalmists soul clung to God and so does ours when we know where we are going. 

So far so good for encouraging readings but then in the letter to the Corinthians we are reminded that others had turned away from God and gone their own way. A way which sounds rather hair raising and front page tabloid worthy with various displays of bad behaviour. 

There is a call though to be careful reminding people to stand firm. That is to keep knowing where they are going, which is to get closer to God. This is incredible, we are being shown that the right way is always to get closer to God, and if we mess up we are turning to God who invites us, in whom we find our spiritual drink and life and who will not let us be tested beyond all we can bear.

In our gospel reading (Luke 13:1-9) we heard of people going to Jesus with questions. The questions that they asked aren’t that different to the type of questions we might ask Jesus. 

In the reading we heard of people going to Jesus because they were concerned, naturally, that Pilate had killed some Galileans, they were confused it seemed like a senseless attack. But as  people went to Jesus He reminded them that, sadly everyone suffers. To do this He reminded them of the people on whom a tower had fallen.  No one ever deserves to suffer. In all the suffering though we are reminded that God is with us and He loves us. Jesus showed this as He told the story of the fig tree. 

I think that this is the best bit of the gospel reading. 

Now I am no gardener, I remember my Mum in law buying us a beautiful rose plant once, she said we didn’t need to do anything with it, meaning we didn’t need to plant it. So we put it outside the back door and went on holiday. When we got back we discovered that the plant was dead. Apparently putting it under a shelter which stopped it getting wet and not watering it before we went wasn’t a good idea !

Anyway in our gospel reading the man with the fig tree, who had looked after it well was not very happy. He had looked after the fig tree for three years but it had never produced any fruit. For this reason he wanted the Gardener to cut the tree down. The gardener refused to give up and he suggested waiting to see if it would produce fruit one day.

In this story the owner of the fig tree is us and the gardener is God. The man who owned the fig tree had given up. We can all do this. It might be giving up on praying as much as we used to, it might be not reading our Bible as much, it might be us not being as patient with others, it might be us giving up on people who have let us down again and again. The fig tree needed to grow and to do this it needed even more love. It is the same for us and our faith. We need to live more and more like God so we can become more like Him in the ways that we treat others.

The gardener who is the wise one, is as I have said, God. The gardener refused to give up on the tree and wanted to wait and give it another chance. This is how God sees us and forgives us. He gives us chance after chance waiting for us to grow more and more into His likeness.

We love and worship God who sees us as we truly are. Whether we are praying more, or doing more Bible study, being a better person,  at the end of the day in this time of lent we can know that the main thing is to do as we always should. That is to make sure that we know where we are going and that is to God. As we do this we will grow more and more into His likeness.

In lent we are taking time to think more about who we are before God and others. It can be quite an intense time, a time when we don’t think that we match up. Actually it is a time when we remember that God has given us  yet another chance and He will keep doing this. 

I am hopeless with directions and I always blame it on the fact that I don't drive, if there is an easy and obvious direction to go in, I am likely to go around the houses first. It can be like that in our life of faith, we can think that we are doing everything right, but we may have forgotten the most obvious part. This is that God invites us and we can go straight to Him. We can also know that if we lose our way at all, we can keep going to Him for forgiveness and start again.

Back to the Bishop if we know where we are going .... we are more likely to end up there. Where we are going is to grow closer and closer to God. So, may we be ready to turn to God knowing that He will always give us chance after chance and may we keep trying to be more like Him, growing into His likeness. AMEN

Promises

 

Life is full of agreements and promises. From a promise to someone else to a promise to God - our lives are full of promises.

There was once a little boy who was in trouble with his teacher. The teacher said, ‘Didn’t you promise to behave.’ ‘Yes’, said the little boy. ‘Well,’ said the teacher, ‘What did I promise to do if you misbehaved.’ ‘ you promised to punish me’ said the little boy. The teacher said, ‘ Well then you know what to expect.’ The little boy replied, ‘ well, as I broke my promise I don’t expect you to keep yours.’ 

Promises are great particularly when they are kept. In our readings this morning we have heard about promises and we have also heard about what happens when we don’t trust someone to keep their promise.

In the Old Testament reading (Gen. 15:1-12,17,18) we heard of the great promise from God to Abraham, a promise that God kept of Abraham having a huge number of descendants. 

It is often quite interesting to read about Abraham. He was a man who trusted God but like us, he still had questions. He wasn't convinced that he would have children although God had promised him. God had promised him a wonderful home, but he still wasn't convinced that he would be able to find it.

God had promised Abraham that not only would He protect himk but he would have a great reward and rather than saying thank you - Abraham asked what the reward was. Can you imagine it? A great man of faith was actually a bit cheeky!! 

Perhaps rather than seeing Abraham as cheeky we should see him as someone who can provide us with comfort. After all,  I am sure that even though we follow God and trust Him, there are times when we naturally question Him and try to find out what is going on.

It’s not a lack of trusting God and His promises, it is more to do with wanting those promises to be fulfilled straight away.

After the comfort that it is natural to question God and His promises, we were reminded of the protection that God gives us. We can trust God and His promises because He never lets us down. In the Psalm we were reminded that because God is our light and our salvation and we have no – one to fear. 

That is the same promise that God made to Abraham, he had the protection of God and we do as well. It doesn't mean that bad things won't happen to us, but it does mean that with God as our light and our protection we know that He is always there for us and we can turn to Him, knowing His love for us.

In the epistle reading (Phil. 3:17-4:1) we heard more about promises as we heard of the change that God can make in our lives. Paul the writer of the epistle was bemoaning the people who did not trust God’s promises. That is the people who didn’t turn to God. The people who wanted to rely on small things as a way to experience a better way of life. How many times have we seen people put their trust in things expecting them to be the best thing ever and then for those things  to collapse around them?

Paul in the epistle was pointing out that there is only one thing that we all need. There is only one promise, there is only one offer that will never fail and that offer is the transformation that Jesus brings.  Those who follow Jesus are able to enjoy glory and not humiliation. We have a promise of a life where we can enjoy the glory and love of God both now and in eternity. 

In the gospel reading (Luke 13:31-35) we heard the harsh words of Jesus calling Herod a fox. This is not very nice and not what we would expect from Jesus, however Herod like the Pharisees questioned the mission and work of Jesus and tried to prevent Him from the work He needed to do. That work was to go to Jerusalem and be crucified for us. Jesus had the ultimate promise to fulfil and that promise was for our salvation. In this passage Jesus grieved. You can hear the pain as He talks of Herod being like a fox trying to take His children away from Him. 

Jesus pictures Himself as being like a mother hen protecting her brood. Jesus was protecting people by doing the incredible for them. That incredible was to die for them and for us. This passage comes after a sentence that we only get in the gospel of Luke. This sentence is that Jesus had set His face towards Jerusalem. He knew what was going to happen and nothing was going to deter Him. 

The determination of that sentence is perhaps one of the most humbling sentences we can ever hear. Jesus set His face to Jerusalem and He did it for us.

Regardless of the ways that people turned away from God, regardless of the fact that people didn’t trust the promises of God there was a plan. That plan was to bring us back to God.

In the same way that God had determined to keep His promise to Abraham, as the psalmist saw that God was his light and salvation  so He keeps Hs promises to us. God never leaves us.

Paul saw that we were able to be transformed by the glory of Jesus both now and in eternity.

In our readings we can see the promises God makes to us, promises that always become true. 

God has made a promise to us and that promise is not just that God cares and understands our need for help, but it is also that God wants us to turn to Him like a chick to a mother hen. What a beautiful image.

God loves us and wants to protect us, He is our light, He is our salvation and we do not need to be afraid. How will we show our gratitude? Will we be like those in the epistle who had sought after other things, or will be those who are ready and waiting for the transformation that only God can bring? May we be ready to be transformed as we trust in God’s promises. AMEN

Take a breath.

 Well we are in Lent and the first Sunday of it.  Lent is one of the great seasons in the Church when we take time to take stock of our lives, to consider where we stand with God and other people. 

Lent is traditionally the time when we give something up and take something up. This means we give up anything that takes us away from God and take up something which will bring us closer to God. 

I remember in one Church where we worked a teenage girl explained to me that she was finding lent really hard. She had given up chocolate and had done so for two weeks, she asked me in a very exasperated way when lent was due to end. I had to explain to her that it wasn’t due to start for another two weeks !! 

Anyway, we are definitely in lent and you can tell this because we haven’t said the Gloria and the reason is that we are getting ready for Easter. It is a somber time. I once asked a friend the best way that I could describe this time and he said, it is like taking a deep breath.

He said when you are about to sing really loudly you take a deep breath. He said not saying the Gloria or using the word Alleluia during lent is like taking a deep breath ready to rejoice at Easter.

I loved the idea of lent as being a time to take a deep breath. This morning in our gospel reading (Luke 4:1-13) we heard of the temptations of Jesus. Straight after His baptism Jesus went into the wilderness to take time, to reflect before He entered into His public ministry. 

Jesus took time, He took a breath and this is what we are doing as well. Jesus was then tempted by all the things that would take Him away from God the Father, all that would stop Him trusting, all that would take Him away from His mission to bring us salvation.

Jesus took a breath and in taking a breath He was tempted but He stayed strong and He did it for us. He was tempted into an easier life, He was tempted into a life that would make Him seem more popular with everyone and not just His followers. He was tempted to trust in worldly power and authority. He refused and He did it by showing that His way was better. 

We are taking a deep breath and in our time of taking a deep breath, we are taking time to reflect on our relationship with God. 

In our readings today we have heard about the type of things we can do as we take our deep breath both during Lent and always. In the reading from Deuteronomy we heard about the need to remember. In that reading written to a people who had been freed from slavery in Egypt by God, we heard of the people being reminded to remember.

It sounds strange that they were being reminded of the need to remember. When the people left Egypt they kept wandering for over 40 years until they got to the land that God had promised. By the time they had reached the land families looked quite different as some members had died and new members had been born. The people who settled into the new land were living on the memory passed down from others about how they had been freed from slavery by God. 

This is another reason why they needed to be reminded to remember.

In the reading from the letter to the Romans we heard about remembering again. This time all you needed to remember was that Jesus Is Lord and He had been raised from the dead. You were also to say this when asked, and it was to be your belief. This is quite an easy one for us I think. 

In the gospel reading we heard of Jesus being tempted in the desert by Satan. Each of the Temptations made to Jesus were biblical, and he of course, responded with biblical answers.  Each one of the Temptations came from the book of Deuteronomy. This is an interesting fact as our Old Testament reading was also from Deuteronomy. 

In the gospel of Luke, as I said earlier, the account before this was of Jesus’s baptism. A moment of rejoicing when Jesus was blessed by the holy spirit. Jesus had received strength and this led him to the desert. I think this is how Jesus although fully God but also fully human was able to stand against the temptation set before him by Satan. Obviously, Jesus could stand against anything, after all He is God. But I like to think that it is by our own time spent in prayer asking for the strength of the holy spirit that we are able to stand against temptation.

I am not saying that we will that we will find ourselves in a desert, but each day we can be tempted in all sorts of ways. I’m not just talking about what we eat but more about what we say and how we act. Imagine if Jesus walked up to us right now, will we be able to say that we are never tempted to do or say something that’s not quite right. This is why we confess, no one is perfect.

Lent is a great time for us to grow closer to God and to each other as we think more about him and how he changes our lives and helps us in how we relate to each other.

It’s a little like an extreme exercise time. I have never done one of these for my physical health. However, it does sound brave to say that we can do this for our spiritual life. 

Back to remembering, how about if this lent we saw all we do as a way to give thanks to God for all he has done for us. It doesn’t sound very scary and also it is the perfect way to live.  As we take our deep breath may our  praises be to God both now and always. AMEN

To doubt or not to doubt.

Life is full of moments of excitement and anticipation. There are so many times when something so brilliant has happened that we can’t help but be excited.  Holidays, new jobs, nice meals out, seeing family and friends you haven’t seen for a while can all be moments that we look forward to. Maybe even get excited about. 

I was thinking about this when I looked at the gospel for this morning. The disciples had been through the mill. They must have had such a mix of emotions and in such a short time. They had followed Jesus, they had trusted Him, He had died but then He had risen from the dead. It was all a bit confusing to say the least. The disciples had moved from apprehension to sadness to joy to confusion and as they waited to see what would happen next they must have felt a mixture of anticipation and excitement. 

The disciples were waiting to see Jesus. It isn’t easy but try and put yourselves in the disciples shoes for a moment. How would you have felt on seeing Jesus? Maybe you would have thought immediately of questions such as ‘What is going to happen next ? Is there going to be a new start for Jesus’ ministry? Are we going to go to the Temple and overthrow the people who killed Jesus? Maybe we are going to watch Jesus take over the political power in the world and rule himself?’ 

Jesus who had been through so much with and for the very friends that he was speaking to – Jesus, who had confounded their expectations by rising up from the grave – Jesus, who was now standing amongst them confounded them again by offering the simple words… ‘peace be with you’

Incredible, no immediate ideas for the future, no action plans to discuss! Amidst all the excitement and anticipation, the wonder of what might happen next Jesus stood and said ‘peace be with you’ and the disciples could have been forgiven for thinking ‘what else do you want to say to us?’ 

After all the emotional turmoil, and now full of excitement the disciples may have felt a bit let down to be honest. 

But then Jesus said something more, He told the disciples that they had work to do. He did this by saying,‘ As the Father has sent me, so I send you’.

Jesus, through His victory over death, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that would come to all his followers at Pentecost was handing over the earthly ministry to those followers – as they received the peace of Christ, so they were to share it with others. They were to do as Jesus did. In the same way that He had been sent so He was sending them out to make a difference to the lives of others. To help people to find their way to a relationship with God. To know healing, to know the way that lives can be changed. Jesus was giving them a job to do that was, that they were to go out and they were to proclaim peace. 

As we begin to put Easter behind us, as we finish off the easter eggs and chocolate it’s time to get back to some sort of normality – no more Lent disciplines for this year, no drama of Holy Week services in Church – but what there is remains a reminder of the celebration of the risen Lord Jesus. Because of that first Easter Day we are different, our lives have been transformed, and each Easter Day is a wonderful reminder of that fact, but it is also a commissioning to live transformed lives, to go out from here and share the peace of Christ with others…. ‘As the Father sends me, so I send you…’ we are in on the action plan !

In our gospel reading we also heard of Thomas. Poor Thomas, I often feel sorry for Thomas, who will forever be known as doubting Thomas. But put yourself in his shoes, maybe you wouldn’t have been swept away with all the excitement and anticipation of the others, maybe you would have wanted to step back for a moment and be sure.  Maybe, that would seem to be the most natural thing to do. We are all different and maybe we would have wanted to calm everyone down and be sure, maybe we would want convincing because we had been hurt once and we didn’t want that to happen again.

I remember being in a service once when the preacher decided to preach a long sermon about Thomas. It was a historical type of sermon, and at the end of the service a little boy who was 4 went up to the preacher looked at him very seriously and said, “Thomas is a train not a man.” 

Back to the disciple Thomas, and not the tank engine.  Maybe Thomas with his doubts is perhaps one of the most comforting disciples. After all, the reaction of Jesus to Thomas and his doubts reminds us that in times of doubt, times of questioning, times when things don’t seem to make perfect sense, Jesus is there waiting for us to approach him, and we can know from Thomas and Jesus that whatever we may have done to Jesus, or not done to him or for him, he waits with open arms to welcome us back.

Thomas is the inspiration that reminds us that the peace of Christ is a peace that passes all understanding, and a peace that is always available to us.

Just as those early disciples must have stood before the risen Jesus and wondered what comes next, so we can stand, firm in our faith, wondering what comes next, but knowing that God is with us, and assuring us of his peace.

We can remember that in all things and at all times we have been redeemed by a Saviour who offers to each one of us in all circumstances the simple words, ‘Peace be with you’. We can also remember that as often as we remember that Jesus died for us so we  can remember that Jesus rose again for us so that we can know His peace, and this is so that we can go out and share that peace and the difference that God makes in our lives with others. May we share the peace of God in all that we think and do and say. AMEN

Jesus is Alive.

 If I was to describe today it would be a celebration. We have journeyed with Jesus to the cross and now we arrive at the most joyous moment. The moment when we celebrate that Jesus is alive. Death has been conquered. We are now able to live forever when we go to our home in heaven.

Jesus is alive and because He is alive we know that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Every Easter I have to apologise, because I get very excited about the day. I always feel that out of kindness to everyone I know, I should be muffled ! My favourite day of the year, the day when we celebrate that God loved and loves us so much that He not only died for us but He showed that He is almighty as He rose from the dead.

Jesus is alive and so we can celebrate. There is a problem with lots of rejoicing and that is that people don’t always feel like rejoicing, because life continues for us and the pains that we had on Good Friday, the hurts that we hold are still here today. 

The difference is that because we know Jesus is alive, we know that He loves us and understands when we don’t feel completely like celebrating. It doesn’t mean that the resurrection of Jesus means any less to us. 

In our gospel reading today (John 20:1-18) we heard of Mary seeing Jesus resurrected. To be honest, when I was a child I never understood how she didn’t recognise Jesus. Except now I get it, because when you see someone in a different place to normal you take longer than you normally would to recognise them. For Mary she had seen Jesus die, she was going to the tomb to do all that she could now do for Jesus by looking after His body. She would hardly have expected to see Him alive. 

Mary recognised Jesus eventually, when she heard Him calling her name. There can be something so amazing when someone calls your name. It can be a really special moment. 

When I was a teenager I was at an international Anglican youth conference. We had been taken to a reception with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, I had met him and had a quick chat, then I had gone and got a piece of chocolate cake. There I was happily enjoying my chocolate cake when I heard a voice say, “Helen, is Welsh. Helen please come and join in a photograph with other people from Wales.” The voice was the Archbishop, it was a pretty brilliant feeling. I did finish my chocolate cake quickly first.

If that is how I felt, imagine this rather beautiful moment for Mary. She was in despair and doing the best that she could do for Jesus when all of a sudden she realised that she was talking to Him. Not only that but she realised it was Him when He called her name.

Jesus is alive and He calls our name. He looks at each one of us with love and He knows our name. He knows how we are feeling, He knows that we love Him and He looks at us and sees someone He loves.

Back to Mary, rather understandably she didn’t want to let Jesus go. Jesus almost pushed her away, but it was only so that she could go and tell the others this amazing news. This news that changed not only her life but the life for all the other followers of Jesus. The news that changes us and our lives. 

We all have times when Jesus seems so close  to us that we went to tell everyone about Him. We have seen the Lord. Mary went and shouted to the others, I have seen the Lord. Can you imagine how excited she must have been and what a great feeling ? A feeling of complete joy and happiness. A huge moment of celebration. 

Before Mary saw Jesus she had been in shock and distress believing that someone had taken Jesus’ body away. She went and got Peter and another disciple and they followed her in distress running to see what had happened. There was no joy for them, just the pain and indignity that not only had their Lord, the one who was to save the world, been crucified, now His body had been stolen. 

They rushed off to see what to do next. Mary stayed and ended up being the first person to see Jesus alive. I wonder if afterwards Peter and the other disciple were thinking, “that’s not fair, we didn’t wait and we missed out.”

This happens to us too, we can see other people having a great time and wonder why we are missing out. Today is a day of celebration and it is a day when we can celebrate not only that God loves us and knows us by name but also that we don’t miss out. We don’t miss out because God is always with us, life can be tough but God never leaves us. 

Jesus is alive and we can be changed. Changed into more and more the person God would have us be. That is more and more like Him. God loves you, just because you are you and He wants you to know that He will be with you always. He will help you to be transformed constantly into His likeness. 

You see, God loves us and He understands that we love Him but sometimes we don’t feel like celebrating. God loves us and He understands that sometimes, like Mary, at first we don’t see what He has done for us and that He calls us His own. God loves us and He understands that sometimes we feel like we have missed out and that everyone else is better than us and more worthy. God loves us and He understands when we want to shout how good He is and what He has done for us. 

Most of all God loves you because you are His child. A child for whom He suffered death and was raised to life so that death would no longer be the end. We can rejoice, loudly or quietly, because God has set us free, free to be in a relationship with Him, a relationship with our creator. The best place for us to be. AMEN