He is risen!

Today is Easter Sunday (also known as Resurrection Day). Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and three days later (that is, on Easter Sunday), He was resurrected from the dead. He subsequently ascended into heaven and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, making constant intercessions for us. The wounds on the body of Jesus speak volumes to God and are a testimony to what Jesus said in His dying breath at the Cross, "It is finished!". Jesus is our High Priest today and He represents us to God. He holds us dearly in His heart. When God looks at Jesus, He sees us as perfect gemstones, sparkling under the holy radiance of God. He sees us as perfect in the body of Jesus.

When Jesus ascended into heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to be a Helper to us. The Holy Spirit now dwells inside each of us, guiding us in our Christian walk.

Anyone who now tries to earn his way into heaven is essentially saying that Jesus did not do a complete job at the Cross. Jesus' ministry is one of Grace - unearned and undeserved favour. We cannot, by our works, earn our salvation. It is by accepting Jesus into our lives that we have salvation.

Each time we partake of the Holy Communion, it is done in remembrance of Jesus. By His stripes, we have been healed. By the shedding of His blood, all our sins have been washed clean, whiter than snow. We are now righteous because of what Jesus has done at the Cross.

Will knowing that our sins have been forgiven make us want to run out and sin some more? No. On the contrary, it makes us even more grateful to Jesus for His precious sacrifice and makes us want to learn about and love Him more. Thank You, Jesus for Your finished work at the Cross. I am the beloved daughter of God and because of You, God is pleased with me.

I have been having a bad throat since Tuesday, 7 April 2009. It does not seem to be showing signs of recovery and my cough seems to have developed phlegm. I am always concerned when I have a throat infection because it takes me quite some time to get well as I do not get enough rest due to the nature of my work. As I work in the service industry, I cannot afford to have a sore throat because I am in contact with clients throughout the day, either face-to-face or by telephone. This reminds me of a humorous incident several years ago. I had lost my voice then but I went to work because there was a lot of work to be attended to. A client called and insisted that I take the call, even though he was told that I had lost my voice. He requested for me to have a colleague next to me so that I could write down my responses to his queries and my colleague could read out my replies. Goodness me... this was in the old days when electronic mails were not the vogue.

Da and I met my mother, my brother (LG) and LG's girlfriend (ZT) for lunch at Katong Shopping Centre today. We proceeded to our usual haunt - the food court. This food court has a name but people who patronise it tend to remember its former name, that is, "De Castle". I believe that it was previously a restaurant or a cafe by the name of "De Castle".

To simplify the order process, everyone decided to eat chicken rice for lunch. There was also a side order of Chinese rojak (from another stall) but I managed to resist the temptation to eat it.

After lunch, LG went to the hair salon to cut his hair. ZT accompanied him while Da and I gave my mother a lift home en route to church. It normally takes the hairstylist about 2 hours to cut LG's hair because it is very thick and wavy.

Da and I intended to attend the 2.30 pm church service. When we arrived at the car park, it was slightly after 2.30 pm. The car park was full, as always. As we entered the car park, I thanked the Lord that we will find a car park lot easily. Guess what? There happened to be one available car park lot right in front of the entrance leading to the building at the section of the car park that we usually park. How coincidental is that? Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

More miracles awaited us as we walked quickly to church. Expecting the queues outside the church to have vanished (as the churchgoers would have entered the church auditorium by then), we were surprised to see that the queue was still there. We decided to bypass the main auditorium and we proceeded to the overflow room on Level 4. In the end, not only did we have enough time to locate comfortable seats with direct view of the screen, I even had time to say a prayer before the church service started. I felt the love of the Lord. Thank You, Lord for delaying the start of the church service so that Da and I would not miss out on any part of today's awesome church service.

At the end of the church service, while the tithes were being collected, one of the worship leaders sang a worship song on stage. I started to smile when I realised what the song was. The last time that I heard this song being sung in church on an Easter Sunday was in 1995, in a Baptist church in South Carolina, United States of America. Hi JMC, can you remember the song? Yes, it is "Watch the Lamb" by Ray Boltz. As the worship leader sang the song, the screen flashed scenes from "The Passion of The Christ", a movie by Mel Gibson. As the worship leader sang the following verses from the song, the screen showed the scene in the movie where this incident transpired:-

Then someone said, "There's Jesus,"

I scarce believed my eyes

A man so badly beaten

He barely looked alive

Blood poured from His body

From the thorns on His brow

Running down the Cross

And falling to the ground

I watched as He struggled

And I watched Him when He fell

The cross came down upon His back

And the crowd began to yell

In that moment I felt such agony

In that moment I felt such loss

Till the Roman soldier grabbed my arm and screamed,

"You! Carry his cro-----------ss!"

As I watched the screen, tears rolled down my face. Did God have the power to spare His precious Son, Jesus from all this suffering? Yes, He did. However, God is a just God and He hates sin and sickness. Sin has to be punished. As such, He took all our sins and sicknesses and placed them on the body of Jesus. His holy wrath fell on Jesus and He punished Jesus (as our substitute) for our sins (past, present and future). Now, when God looks at the wounds on the body of Jesus, God will never punish us anymore because all our sins have already been punished on the body of Jesus. The work of Jesus at the Cross is finished. Jesus knew that He came to earth to die for us and He willingly went to the Cross for us. Which of us would willingly be punished for the sins of another person and die for him? Jesus did. He came to do the will of God. In the Garden of Gethsemane, on the night that Jesus was betrayed, He asked God to take the cup away from Him if possible. However, He went on to say, "Your will be done". What a precious, precious sacrifice by Jesus. I do not know what I ever did in my life to deserve such a precious gift. I know that it is undeserved, unmerited favour. It is grace.

After church, Da and I went to my mother's home. Boy-Boy's dinner had just been cooked. He had salmon and vegetables with rice for dinner today. It looked and smelt delicious!

As we were deciding what to eat for dinner, I contacted my other brother (LB) and his wife (MF). They had already had their dinner and asked us to go ahead without them. LG suggested the Teochew porridge at Orchard Grand Court hotel and off we went.

Everyone's appetite seemed smaller today. We probably did not do justice to the buffet spread. However, we did have a wonderful time of bonding and fellowship. LG kept us in peals of laughter when he recounted what the hairstylist said to him today when he had finished cutting LG's hair. He told LG, "You do know that your hair is difficult to cut, don't you?".

I give all thanks and praise to our Lord, Jesus Christ. He is my salvation, my healer, my teacher, my prosperity and my everything. There is none like You, Lord.