Easter Reflections

I know that it’s a little late for Easter reflections, considering Easter happened about a month ago, and as a result you'll be tempted to chortle at my sporadic and futile attempts to keep this blog updated... but resist that little indulgent laugh! At least I'm posting...

One of my favorite things about Easter was the fact that my church intentionally and thoughtfully took action to reach out to the community. It’s an area of growth for our church to think of widely and boldly placing themselves in the paths of people they don’t know in order to further the gospel and build up our body – me included! I’m loving growing alongside them in this area.

I read a statistic this morning that the greater Delhi area (including Gurgaon) has 100 malls and 300 malls proposed or in progress. One soon to be completed mall near our home boasts 1 km of shopping per floor with at least 8 floors. (Honestly the only benefit I see to that complex – and I’ve thought long and hard about this, believe me – is that one could have an indoor, air-conditioned training area for a marathon. But don’t tell any shopping fanatics I said so.) Before you think I’m digressing, the point: loads of people come to a strip of road in Gurgaon that boasts the 5 most popular malls, international eateries, and upscale shops, facilitating a perfect meet & greet with the greater Gurgaon population.

So on the Saturday before Easter a group of us spread out on that mall permeated road armed with 4,000 invitations to our Easter service the next morning. The sheer mass of people, the way they took the invite without looking or cut me off mid- “I’d like to invite you to…” made me a little wary of hoping for any real results from our “campaign”. That and the fact that the people who did stop and talk to me usually said something to the effect of, “what is Easter?” It both broke my heart and exhilarated me to answer their question and hand them an invitation; broke my heart because I was reminded of how lost people are, exhilarated me to introduce them to the idea of Christ’s resurrection and to a church.

The next morning, after a sweet sunrise service with a smaller bit of our body, we crowded into our church basement (the only portion completed in our current building project). And crowded is a good way to put it – the church was packed to the brim! Imagine my joy when the first two people I saw coming down the stairs were a husband and wife that I had handed an invitation to! I was able to welcome them and get to know them. But they weren’t the only ones: almost 40 guests inundated our church service that morning; as a result of the clear, compelling gospel message several professed faith or wanted to know more. God, make me more quick to trust in your power and sovereignty to work and bring people to places and to believers that you will then use to share your Word!

The song that has been running through my head since Easter (a most likely cause being that I’ve had Kenny’s Music of the Spheres CD on repeat since then) has been the simple, “Thank You For Saving Me”. Here are the words:

Thank You For Saving Me

Thank you for saving me, what can I say?
You are my everything, I will sing your praise.
You shed your blood for me, what can I say?
You took my sin and shame,
a sinner called by name.

Great is the Lord,
Great is the Lord,
For we know your truth has set us free,
You've set your hope in me.

Mercy and grace are mine, forgiven is my sin,
Jesus my only hope, the Saviour of the world.
"Great is the Lord" we cry,
God let your kingdom come,
Your word has let me see,
thank you for saving me!


Pretty simple song; profound truth. Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrated his own love for us in this; while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” I walked away from Easter so excited, as I said above, that the church was mobilizing to share the gospel with the very needy neighborhood. I also walked away from Easter encouraged by the gospel itself and the fact that I’ve experienced/ am experiencing the power of salvation by faith in Christ. What joy!

“In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying Abba! Father! So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” As I focused on the greatness of God in salvation and my own relationship with the Lord, I was struck by the number of areas in my life where I don’t seem to apply the gospel truth. Meaning, I’m an adopted child who sometimes acts as if I’m still an orphan. How silly it would seem if an adopted child, provided with three meals a day, was to continue to hoard or steal food. But often that does happen because the child – who in some ways has been transported to a whole new way of life – doesn’t understand the full ramifications of their sonship.

In light of this I’ve been trying to meditate on and think more intentionally about what it looks like for me to live a life worthy of the calling of the gospel, viz., living under the gospel and in the power of the gospel. It’s been a good reminder time for me, and has been stirring in me an even greater desire to share the joy, significance, and grace of the gospel with others.

Please pray with me that many more will come to our church and be introduced to Christ; praise God with me for the blessing of our salvation!

With love,
Your sister through Christ’s blood,

Karisa…

(P.S. I’ve got some pictures posted of Easter and other recent events under “The Happenings” section of my picture blog. Just click on the link on the right).