The Tribune

By Rev Angela C Bosfield Palacious

In Exodus 12:26, the Israelites are told to be able to explain to their children what the Passover is all about when approached with the question: "What does this ceremony mean to you?"

Let me put the same question to you: "What does the weekend of Good Friday and Easter mean to you?"

How has your life changed as a result of your experience? Sometimes it is a matter of not knowing and continuing in ignorance of what God's true plan is for our lives, at other times it is a matter of knowing better but not doing better. The best approach is to seek truth, apply it, and obey it faithfully.

Our Sunday worship is another area where we need to examine how genuine and sincere our actions are and when we are paying lip service or merely going through the motions. For those of us who celebrate the Eucharist daily or weekly, it provides an opportunity to remember, re-enact and personally experience the real presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ on the night of his passion.

What does your life mean to you? What are you doing with the short time you have on this earth? What are your primary relationships like and is God pleased with your attitude to family, friends, colleagues and strangers?

Ponder these verses from 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12: "We constantly pray for you, that our God may count you worthy of his calling and that by his power he may fulfil every good purpose of yours and every act prompted by your faith. We pray this so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ."

What a difference it would make if this were to be the meaning that we had as to our calling and purpose in life. Imagine talking to your children about a faith that has you on fire for the Lord every day. Is it possible that they are losing interest in Christianity because we are too often mediocre in our response? Is it possible that our inability to explain the meaning of words and actions in our services has left them feeling detached and even disillusioned?

Let Paul's prayer be our prayer for one another: "I always thank my God for you because of his grace given you in Christ Jesus. For in him you have been enriched in every way--with all kinds of speech and with all knowledge -- God thus confirming our testimony about Christ among you. Therefore you do not lack any spiritual gift as you eagerly wait for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed. He will also keep you firm to the end, so that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, who has called you into fellowship with his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.(1 Corinthians 1:4-9).

I hope that all of us will make the time and effort to spend time with the Lord during the weeks before Pentecost to come into a more intimate relationship with Him, and to study so that we have a clearer understanding of what we truly believe and why. We cannot teach what we do not know, and we cannot fake knowledge of God for very long. I pray that loving, worshipping and serving God will come to mean everything to each one of us.