Easter Sunday: Death Has Lost

Alleluia!

Original painting by Randy Friemel © 2013

Christ has risen from the dead! Death has lost it's sting and now we are all free because of the great love that Christ has for us. The message for us is that death has been defeated, defeated by Christ, and that it can also be defeated by us. There is hope this Easter Sunday, because by the resurrection of Christ the message becomes clear to us that even we can defeat death. We can rise up from our sleep, our sin, and our distress and overcome the grave that has once kept us tied up and bound from becoming all that we can be. Paul in Corinthians tells us that we are all made alive in Christ, in his life and death. (1 Cor 15:22) This Easter should be a message for our hope, hope to overcome, hope to be better, and hope to seek a new life in Christ everyday that we are alive. The debt has been paid, and we are no longer hostages to sin because God in his immeasurable love for us would come down to die on a cross and be raised to pay the price for all our sin. Death has lost, and we are brought to new life because of it.

So Rejoice my friends, Rejoice. Happy Easters.

To see more of paintings by Randy Friemel you can visit his website at www.randyfriemel.com

Joy: a New Motive

Whoever said life was a roller coaster was not lying. There are so many up and downs in our lives that sometimes it might be so hard to keep up and even "hang on". There might be stages of having no motivation to do anything, no desire to speak or even get out of bed. It's like we want joy an we want peace but there's a distraction before all of it. For a college campus like this its everywhere and it leads us to depression and sadness. All of this and it seems like your in a rut with no way out, its like a hole that we dug underneath our feet and we forget to jump out. The tool being used to dig is in fact our very sin. Since sin is a distraction and hinders our relationship with Christ, it also separates us and breaks that natural link of sanctifying grace that is placed within us constantly. It makes perfect sense that in this break between man and God, sin can also break our relationship between man and creation, therefore keeping us from what we can fully be! Even Saint Irenaeus said it himself when he said that glory of God is man is fully alive. We are called to be fully alive, enduring sin, and resisting what hurts. If this is you, unable to move with no desire to get anything done, no motivation to get up out of bed I think the answer is very simple. For me its the people and the very creation of God. Besides prayer with a desire to rebuild that relationship with Christ, just talking to people and enjoying what they have to give you can be a relief. In my experience it gives joy and true happiness. The joy that is found, comes from the people and from God indirectly. Talk to your friends and peers talk to your co-workers, jump outside the box an forget the childhood rule that says "don't talk to strangers". Lent is the season of our joy an it can help bring you up an give you peace. Since we as a humanity have an obligation to each other, to build each other up and be a light for others, we are our brother's keeper and we should rely not only on our friends and peers to bring us up in speech, but also God who sustains all of us while granting a never-ending grace that unites us all together as one.

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