wahlau's online hut

today is Easter. we had two services, one at 5am (yes, 5am) and the other at 10am. the former was together with the choir, and the choir sang during the service. The latter was with our regular church.

The 5am service was nice and interesting. This year seemed to bring more impact than the one we had last year. Perhaps we were more awake this round :) It start short after 5, in darkness with a sketch: a court where the death and resurrection of Jesus wwe as judged. Different witnesses were called: Pontius Pilate, Saul (and Paul), Maria Magdalene and Simon Peter. Pretty creative way to talk about what happened years ago as Jesus resurrected.

later it was then liturgy, singing, and message from the reverend. In the service we also had a baby baptised. The parents wanted their child to be baptised during Easter, as some believe baptism was always held during Easter in the early churches. We had also holy communian together. The service is kind of long - around 2.5 hours but it was a blessing to us, at least. It brought us to thoughts - Jesus, his death and resurrection, our lives and etc...

at the end of the service all were invited to have breakfast together. The fellowship was good. Simple breakfast, nothing to shout about. But everyone brought something to share with others. We brought toast bread, and of course together with our toaster :) so at least some can have something not so german ;) The people here would actually first go for "Broetchen", their favourite and common bread roll for breakfast or snack. Someone told me "well, some will take the toasts later, when we run out of bread rolls" :) I can perhaps guess the reason - bread rolls are filling. Toasts when compared are really like snacks where you have tons of them until you feel full.

The second service was kind of surprise... first a church member decided to take a break from the church, so we are missing him now. second the service was so short, and the pastor told us he was not gonna preach long today. Though i respect pastors that he can decide and plan their sermon as creative as God can instruct them, but to waste such a wonderful chance to share with congregation on Jesus' resurrection is something i cannot understand. I'd hope to hear something more about Easter-related sermon, and would be delighted if it would be helpful to everyone's life. The decision of him only to speak briefly (about 10+ minutes) kind of left me waiting for more. Good thing we have heard something in the first sermon... but what about others who came? i wonder whether were they fulfiled or just have left  empty handed?

anyhow, resurrection is still something you and i must take time to think about.  Without resurrection, there would be no Easter, no point for Christian to exist, and perhaps no hope in life. It gives hope - Jesus did something that put us back on track. Without victory over death, we are still cut off from God. We are still blind and know nothing about our condition and will never be able to do something about it. It is because of such a plan, a lamb that was slain for you and i to replace our place for judgement. This set you and i free.

wish you that you would take this time to seek and read a little more about Easter and its origin. It is not coincident that you read this, or we just actually had another event to celebrate or to remember. Some one is in control, all the time, and He wants you to know something important.

happy Easter.