Last week 8^th. April 2007, we, together with the Church Universal celebrated Easter joyously for our victory over sin which Jesus Christ paid for with his own life to enable us to be reconciled with our God Almighty.

Let us be present and visualize the scenes at the cross, at the burial of Jesus and the Saturday that followed with the close friends of Jesus and his disciples. Their hopes have been shattered, the teacher and leader they believed in was dead and buried. They were hiding in fear of the Jews.

But Sunday morning the ladies went to the tomb and what a discovery was in store for them. They found tomb empty, Jesus had risen from the death. He had been resurrected as he had told them. The angels were there to tell them of this news and to direct them as to where they could see Jesus.

On reflection the disciples had their minds jogged to see what Jesus had been teaching them for the past three and have years he had been with them. He had come so that they may come to know the heart of God. He was the Son of God and the Son of Man the same time. When the time was right he will have to die and pay the ransom for the deliverance of the people from their sin of disobedience. This knowledge transformed them from men of fear to fearless men, bold men to declare that there is no name under heaven, by which men can be saved, other than the name of Jesus.

Peppered right through the Bible we find, that God has a plan to reclaim his people. God gives us new life, eternal life through Jesus. Let us in the coming weeks discover this new life given to us in His Son Jesus Christ.

Let us read John Chapter 10:14-18 to discover and reflect on what Jesus is saying.

On the first Easter Day, God in His love and mercy ransomed us and gave us the new abundant life in Jesus and he continues do so till the end of time when He shall come to judge the world.

Jesus who is alive today, calls us in Rev.3:20-22

To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear! what the Spirit tells to the churches.

The following questions may help us in our reflection.

1. How does resurrection of Jesus affect my life now?

2. How do I understand Jesus’ statement "You must be born again."

3. How can I be transformed?

Prayer is the breath of your life which gives you freedom to go and stay where you wish and to find the many signs which point out the way to a new land,

Praying is not simply some necessary compartment in the daily schedule of a Christian or a source of support in time of need, nor is it restricted to Sunday morning or as a frame to surround mealtimes.

Praying is living.

--Henri J.M. Nouwen

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Jesus spent time in prayer and his disciples had watched him. He was in touch with his Father in prayer. So it was not strange for the disciples to ask Jesus to teach them how to pray.

So Jesus taught them the prayer we call the Lord’s Prayer, which in fact is a list of headings of what we need to cover in our prayers. But through the years we taught our children to memorize these headings and use them alone and/or the end of our personal prayers.

Communication is vital if we desire to make known our needs to God and to hear his responses to our petitions and prayers and to hear his advice through the words in the Bible. It is prayer to our Father in heaven that makes this possible.

So in the Lord’s prayer, we address our God in heaven as our Father in heaven in very personal terms and acknowledge his holiness, our desire that his kingdom come into our life and that his will be done on earth as it is in heaven. We cannot make decisions for others, but we can and are capable of making decisions on our behalf.

In the words "Give us this day our daily bread." We bring before God our daily needs. We trust that God will help us use the talents he has given us to provide for our needs.

In the words "Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," we pray and affirm that God’s forgiveness depends on our forgiveness to others for the trespasses committed against us. We need to be aware of our readiness to forgive others if we desire God to forgive our sins.

We always face temptations that will lead us away from the presence of God. In the words "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil", we pray that God in his grace and mercy will lead or guide us away from the temptations we face, and deliver us from evil.

The Church has added the words "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. We use these words to acknowledge the power and honor God and to close our prayers.

For a sincere practicing Christian, prayer is the most important and vital for this brings him in contact with God daily in his quiet time which he sets aside to learn and grow in fellowship with his creator and sustainer. The Lord’s prayer comprehensively covers the most important parts of private prayer

Anon

Prayer request:

Let us pray for all those who are ill, that God in His love and mercy will be near them to comfort them in their illness.

Prayer request:

Let us pray for all those who are ill, that God in His love and mercy will be near them to comfort them in their illness.

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