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Sunday, April 4

The Final Words of Jesus: Part 5
The Blinders Come Off

“Jesus, remember me”…
“Today you will be with me in paradise.” —Luke 23:42,43

Part of the message of Easter is that you can choose not to be entombed or trapped in our fears, or past failures or disappointments. There is a rabbi’s story about the escape of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. They were in a desperate situation: Pharaoh and his army racing after them, while ahead was the turbulent water of the Red Sea. They were trapped.
They stopped to decide what to do. Four groups offered advice to Moses. The first said, “Well, we did the best we could. But there’s no hope. Let us plunge into the sea and die.”
The second group had different advice. They said, “Let’s go back into slavery. Maybe the Egyptians will take us back and allow us to live.”
The third group said, “I think we need to protest to God and say, “God, why are You allowing this to happen to us?”
And there was a fourth group. They said, “We will not plunge into the sea and die. We will not return into slavery. We will not waste our energy in a protest to God. What we will do is, with faith, proceed toward the Promised Land.”
God honoured the advice of the fourth group, and said, “Go forth to the Promised Land.” And they went forward. When they got to the Red Sea, God parted the waters and they went forward to freedom and the Promised Land.
We are also people of faith. There is no circumstance that’s going to stop you if you don’t want it to. Proceed forward to your Promised Land, letting the real you finally, fully exist.
We humans have The Power of Choice. There is so much in our life that we can choose — attitude, direction, response, determination. Roll away the stone. Let the angel help you. Go forth. Choose that you are going to be the person you are intended to be — your better self; your best self.
When the two Marys were at the empty tomb, they asked the angel, “Where is Jesus? Where’s our Lord?” And the angel replied, “He has gone ahead of you into Galilee. Go there and you will meet Him.”
Send Jesus ahead of you as well. This is a suggestion I often give people facing difficult situations who ask me to pray for them. “Yes,” I’ll say, “I’ll pray; but I’m going to ask you to do something for yourself. Send Jesus into that room ahead of you.” And time and again they’ll say afterwards, “Orville, I did that. It works.
It really makes a difference.” Send Jesus ahead. Nobody has yet said to me it hasn’t made a difference. Think about it.
With love, ORVILLE

Wellington Square United Church

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Sunday, April 4

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