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On Easter morning, I’ll keep it simple and just share the four Gospel accounts of that first Easter morning. (feel free to just read one of them 🙂 )

Matthew 28 vv 1-10
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The guards were so afraid of him that they shook and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you. So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. Greetings, he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshipped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.

Mark 16 vv 1-11
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb? But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away. As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. Don’t be alarmed, he said. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ Trembling and bewildered, the women went out and fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid. When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.

Luke 24 vv 1-12
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’ Then they remembered his words. When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

John 20 vv 1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him! So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)
Then the disciples went back to their homes, but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, Woman, why are you crying? They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don’t know where they have put him. At this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realise that it was Jesus. Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for? Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni! (which means Teacher). Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: I have seen the Lord! And she told them that he had said these things to her.

I thought I’d share with you all one of my favourite Psalms.
This week’s been getting pretty stressful the more the week goes on, but this afternoon this just came to mind.

I challenge you to read through it, but not to rush. Read it a line at a time, reflect on each sentence, or even each part of each sentence… isn’t our God incredible?
Who are we to worry?!

I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.

He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.

The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

At the moment at church we’re going through a series on Revelation 2-3, the letters to the seven churches, and our prayer meetings each week are reflective on what we’ve heard on the Sunday. Last Sunday we looked specifically at Chapter 2 verses 18-19, the beginning of the letter to the church at Thyatira, and we’ve really been looking at love. Love for others, love for God, but all in all, how He loved us first, that’s the only way we can love! Outstanding.

But what I wanted to share was what I heard at this week’s prayer meeting. There was a bit of focus on sacrificial love, but that wasn’t the bit that really stood out to me.

Sometimes I get annoyed by people, they might do something that I find irritating, and especially if it’s something recurring. There, I’ve said it, I admit it. I know it’s not right, but that’s where I am (at the moment!)
With that in mind, the verses that stood out for me were:

• “If anyone says, I love God, yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” – 1 John 4 v 19
• “[Love] is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.” – 1 Corinthians 13 v 5
• “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” – Colossians 3 v 13
• “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? Jesus answered, I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” – Matthew 18 vv 21-11

You may see a theme there. There are people I struggle with, and I think the attitude I ended up on was one of “Well if I’m not rude to them but just minimise interaction with them, then surely that’s enough”. The thing is, while I may think that, I’m still simmering, there’s still “a hint of bitterness”, and frustration.

Actually, I’m still called to forgive these people when they hurt me, and what’s more, to love them! As God forgives me! And for those I feel I’ve forgiven a million times, that doesn’t mean I should stop and give up. The “seventy seven” in the last verse isn’t literal, in some places it translates as “seventy times seven”, and according to the footnotes in my bible, means “times without number”.

One phrase I’ve found helpful with this is that it’s possible to love someone but not like them. If there’s someone I don’t like, that’s ok, as long as I still act in love towards them. – Wow, that’s tough isn’t it!

Now that’s a big ask! This is going to take some work and prayer…. How do you deal with the people you struggle with? Hopefully it’s not just me!

When I was little, (we’re talking probably infant/junior school age) the idea of heaven used to totally freak me out. I’ll be honest, it still does from time to time (or even most of the time?!). I literally used to sit up at night crying and calling for my mum because I just could not comprehend the idea that heaven went on for-ev-er, like, has no end, just keeps going and going, and then, when you think it might just be about time to come to an end, there’s another day! It’s definitely a thought that can consume your mind if you let it!

When I was a little older, I got massively into the C.S. Lewis’ “The Chronicles of Narnia”. Each night I used to listen to one side of a cassette tape (which I should add, came in a lovely little cardboard wardrobe!). Each book was two tapes and there are seven books, so every 28 days I listened to the stories again, and got to know them pretty well!

#spoileralert: In “The Last Battle”, which is the last book in the series, we end up in Aslan’s Country, which maps to Heaven in “our world”. The last two paragraphs are incredible and moving:

Most memorably, I remember a man coming to Bath CU to speak, and as he read this to us, he was choking back tears. I’m fairly sure that if I were to attempt it aloud then I would too.

The story was referenced again at church on Sunday, so I came home, picked up the book and read it through again, it’s lovely.

The idea of heaven can be scary, but actually, the bible tells us it’s gonna be pretty incredible. There’s an amazing description of it in Revelation 21. I’d paste it here except it’s pretty long! But one of my favourite bit’s is when it tells us there’ll be “no more death or mourning or crying or pain”.

And the *really* good news is that God has prepared a place there for each of us!

The two biggest events in the Christian calendar are easily Christmas and Easter. I don’t know about you, but the way I always saw it was that Christmas is a lovely story about Jesus coming to us in love, whereas Easter was more traumatic, centring on Jesus death for us (but still in love).

But I don’t think the story in the bible is all as beautiful and candlelit “no crying He makes” as we like to picture it. And it’s not just that He was born in a smelly stable, or laid in an animals feeding trough.

God’s son was sent from heaven to earth with the purpose of dying for us at Easter, you can’t have one without the other. And while we know that Easter was a massive massive sacrifice, a couple of years ago in my housegroup we started to realise that actually, the transition from the perfection of heaven to this sinful earth and realising that that’s a sacrifice too! Not in the same way as the sacrifice we remember at Easter of course, as that’s when Christ took the sin of the world on Himself, that was the ultimate.

Wasn’t Christmas a sacrifice for Christ too?

[Disclaimer: I’m not very good at words or structuring sentences, so if I’ve said anything theologically inaccurate it may not be intentional, just badly put, so my apologies!]
[I like to think of my blog as the beginning of a thought that could probably do with some refining and rewriting a bit later – maybe I should put that somewhere!]

Happy Christmas 🙂

I’ve finally managed to sit down and watch the first episode of “Fry’s Planet Word”, which is a five part documentry with the marvellous Stephen Fry all about language. I’d tell you more about it, but so far I’m only 15 minutes into the first episode!

(It turns out this episode is only available on iPlayer til 9pm tonight, but can also be found here.)

What’s really struck me is a piece near the beginning (around 10min in) about a monkey called Lana. She’s been taught to make sentences on a machine: things like “please machine give piece of apple fullstop” and “please machine give chocolate fullstop”. Fry tells us that while this is clever it’s not using language like a human does. Lana can construct a basic sentence, but can’t initiate conversation. She just request things; tries to get what she wants.

Fry says that this is different to humans, and a lot of the time that’s completely the case. But I think there are times we can, unintentionally, be just like this! Maybe it’s just me, but when I pray, sometimes it’s so easy to just focus on what I want. It might be asking for something selfishly, or it might be something as well-meaning as asking for healing for a friend, but either way, it’s so easy to come to God with a shopping list of requests, and not be focussing on developing a relationship with our God as our Lord and Friend.

Sometimes, in prayer, our language skills can be very chimp like indeed!

(As an aside, I’m now 45min in and there’s a fascinating sign language segment – very worth watching!)