Blog Easter--it's our day of hope

We live in a time of fear and hopelessness as many are losing hope that getting back to “normal” will ever happen again. What we forget along the way is fear is no way to live. When we fear, we stop thinking and acting rationally.

Fear and Easter do not mix. In fact, Easter is all about freedom from fear. Easter is the culmination of a very special plan for humankind. We are the creation of a loving being, that chose to give those created a very special gift. Instead of making robots who slavishly did whatever the Creator demanded, the Creator created human beings with minds and hearts and gave those humans the gift of choice.

Since the Creator wished to have a real relationship with those created, the Creator included the choice to say no. Being able to say, “No,” meant humans early on made devasting choices that separated them from the loving God who created them. They began to quarrel and fight and steal and kill as they turned their backs on the very one who had a better plan—one of caring, peace, and hope.

Yet, some strove to follow, even when following proved difficult, even when it meant suffering. The life and love they found in their Creator were worth anything. But these humans only had a glimpse of God’s plan, one that looked forward to a day when the Creator would be revealed as Someone very special. That person was and is Jesus.

Jesus didn’t come simply to show His power but instead came not as a king, but as a servant. He showed how to reach out to care, heal and set free those held captive in pain and hurt and bad choices.

For His actions and teachings, the government and religious leaders hated Him and eventually executed Him. They had no idea Jesus came for that very purpose. He did no wrong. Yet took on Himself all the mistakes, flaws and fears that burden and destroy those He’d created. Jesus died that we might live and proved His power to do so by rising again, as attested to even by the secular sources of the day.

Our Creator is not dead. In power and purpose and love He lives, interacting with and changing lives for the better from that time to this. The cross has become a symbol, not of evil and suffering, but of salvation, peace, and hope. I John 4:18 (NASB) reads, There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Love casts out fear when we allow our Creator to become our savior. John 3:16-17 is the key to life, love, hope, and Easter. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.”

Get rid of fear? Remember love and peace, as well as fear, is a choice. Ask Jesus to show you a love that doesn’t change with circumstances; a love that casts out fear as Easter morning dawns in your heart.

Happy Easter!

© 2021 Carolyn R Scheidies

Published in Kearney Hub 3/29/2021
Feel free to share

Blog Jesus Values Each Life—Do I?

Our society has gone from valuing the individual to valuing what each individual can contribute. The further our culture moves away from its Judeo-Christian foundation, the more it tends to devalue human life.

After all, as evolutionists point out, we are merely the product of evolutionary processes with little or no intrinsic value. Some even question whether a human is of more value than a horse or a cow or an endangered tree.

But this nation, and this people, was founded on the belief that we do matter; that God created a world in which every human life has meaning, and each person, regardless of size, age, or physical abilities, has the right to be alive and free.

Over the last couple of decades, human life has become more and more expendable. The news media has reported stories of parents killing their own handicapped children instead of loving and caring for them as long as they live. Others have taken the life of another when they considered the person to be suffering too much. Still others have taken their own life when they could not face life without all their abilities. Life itself seems to be of little value.

What would have happened if these people had given up or society decided they weren’t worth keeping alive and decided for them?

A husband and wife with serious health problems are expecting another child, yet three of their four children also have serious health problems. Today, many would have suggested abortion for this latest pregnancy. But, if that baby had been aborted, generations would never have been inspired by the music of composer Ludwig von Beethoven.

What about a poor, thirteen-year-old black child carrying the product of rape? Surely, this baby should be aborted. What possible future would there be for this child? The future was Ethel Waters who inspired millions by her story, her acting and her blues and gospel music, which included “Stormy Weather” and “His Eye is on the Sparrow.”

Polio paralyzed Walt Davis when he was nine years old. If his parents had decided his “quality of life” meant they should let him die, he never would have become the Olympic high jump champion in 1952, inspiring many.

Often, it is those who have risen above almost insurmountable odds that give us the greatest encouragement and provide motivation to live life to the fullest.

Often it is someone who cares about another with a disability that has led to scientific breakthroughs that end up benefiting any number of people.

Only a people that cares and protects the most vulnerable citizens, will continue to grow because they understand the fundamental truth of being a human—compassion.

Each person is unique and special and should be treated with dignity and worth--regardless of age, location, or health. It is time we stop playing God and realize we don’t know what the future holds for any one of us. It is time we protect the most vulnerable among us by, once more, valuing each human life.

Easter is all about the intrinsic value of life. Jesus believed each of us is so valuable that He came to earth, lived, allowed Himself to be tortured and murdered for us, and rose again to offer us new life. What a different perspective faith in Jesus offers. How can we not follow the One who created and loved us so much He died for you and me?

Happy Easter!

© 2003, 2020 Carolyn R. Scheidies

Feel free to share