Worthy Is The Lamb

Happy Easter to All  🐰. Blessed Resurrection Weekend 🙏➕. Happy Passover 🐑. Today is a quiet day. It is Good Friday in Barbados. It was never my favourite holiday. Too solemn. Too mournful.

 

                             Were You There - Selah (Source: eliott9697, 2013)

A Time to Rejoice

Then I realised it is not a time to mourn but to rejoice.  In the last few years, I came to an understanding of the nature of the Messiah. For decades, I attended church. I heard sermon after sermon. I believed he died and rose again. But he didn't die. He gave himself as a sacrifice - "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world" (John 1: 29). That's the difference. 

                    Worthy is the Lamb - Hillsong (Source: Worship Videos 24/7, 2012)

The Lamb of God

We see Christ with mortal eyes. He was Emmanuel - "God With Us". He did not die. He gave up his spirit (John 19: 30). He said it himself in John 10: 17-18 that he would lay down his life and take it up again. In Luke 23: 46, he is quoted as saying: "Father into your hands I commit my spirit. Having said this he breathed his last."  He released his body to death. Death did not claim him as it would a mere mortal. In spite of the disfigurement from the whipping, the lack of blood in his body (he shed ALL of it that day) he lived for 6 hours in that state before releasing his body to death. It is an incredible belief and not everyone understands the significance of him "dying" in the way that he did. Listen to Joseph Prince as he ministers on the subject. If you do not know who Joseph Prince is, he is a pastor in Singapore, who wears jeans, leather, even zippered jackets as he ministers. No collars. No robes.  He breaks down the Christ's sacrifice.

              [Calvary Animation Video] What Happened At The Cross - Joseph Prince
                                             (Source: nocturnal 18, 2014) 

The Risen King

I know millions of people see Jesus as a great teacher and healer, but not as God manifested as man or resurrected as the Saviour of the world. Some who go to church, especially young people, may not quite "get it", but gradually insights came for me as I meditated on the Word and even did some formal study, also as I listened to various speakers and certain songs. 

Todd Dulaney's The Anthem reminds me of the victory claimed in this risen king.

The Anthem, Todd Dulaney (Source: ToddDulaneyVEVO, 2015)

Good Friday...the Passover...they are the price of love.

Shalom.

#Wakanda4ever!

Greetings to the reader(s) from the United Arab Emirates, Peru, Brazil, Ukraine and the Phillipines. It is really humbling to know there are people reading my posts from such varied places. Hope you visit this page again.

Now, I don't usually go to the cinema for action movies. I wait and get the DVD. Invariably I enjoy them, but I don't go to see them at the cinema anymore. Even the chic flick, Wonder Woman (which was really good), I waited for the DVD.

Then came The Black Panther, which rocked Barbados, as it did wherever it was shown. The trailer was intriguing enough. Still, I would not have gone to the cinema to see it.

                           Black Panther Trailer 2 (Credit: FilmSelect Trailer, 2017)

However, it is my golden jubilee year and I was blessed with a free ticket for being a good customer! 😀 I could not let it go to waste so off I went and enjoyed it to the max. 

It was so good to see Africa portrayed as a place with superior technological innovation, to see women warriors, to see spectacular vistas, to see Africa portrayed really as the motherland of mankind. 

Actually the way women are portrayed is empowering for women everywhere. We see the Queen Mother, the tech genius of a younger sister, the female General and the all-female warrior guard and the gutsy girlfriend (not a new concept, but Lupita's portrayal is so impressive for the blend of fierce independence and tender loyalty to T'Challa). For many, it seems surprising that women are held in such high esteem in Africa but African society was quite matriarchal traditionally. Patriarchal societies are western cultural traditions, not African. Hear some of its cast on the role of women in the film.

                    Black Panther – The Women of Wakanda  (Credit: Variety 2018)

Then there is the costuming, which was spectacular. I loved everything about this work, from a design perspective.

Still, there is negativity from those who do not understand traditional African culture's reverence for the ancestors, or the shaman tradition. But, the success of this movie is due to the stellar cast, the narrative. It is liberating for everyone as it shows a glimpse of an Africa that escaped colonial rule and the resulting whitewashing of Africa's story.

Here's to Panther Power! #Wakanda4ever!
 

Speak Life...

On pondering my subject for today's post, I realised tonight is the Oscars and the red carpet looks were glamourous and sophisticated.

Anyone who's read certain previous posts know that I love that kind of look. You also know I am trained in fashion design - albeit at junior college level. I got the chance to do fashion writing for a time. I really miss that. So, from time to time I'll feature fashion.

I also saw The Black Panther this weekend and was enraptured by the costume design. I thought of writing about that too. 

But I wanted to share this young man's testimony. This is the song that catapulted him to worldwide acclaim, in which he affirms that "all things are working for my good":  

                     Travis Greene, Intentional (Source: TGreeneVEVO, 2015)

I heard he'd fallen from a building as a child, which was confirmed by this testimony.

                        

Then he came with another inspirational song, "Made A Way", which emerged in the midst of all of the angst being experienced across the United States last year given the rising racial tensions.

 

 Travis Greene, Made A Way (Source: TGreeneVEVO, 2017)

Honestly, I don't know which one I prefer.  Hopefully, someone will be inspired by these songs and his testimony. 

For the sceptics, my Dad said when he was 5 years old, he almost drowned. He recalled feeling like he was floating 20 feet up and he said he sensed that if he floated another five feet it would be too late to reconnect to his body in the water. Then he was plucked out of the water by a teenaged girl - not Christ, unlike Travis. He too lived to tell the tale. If he had died, I would not be here to post this today.

Last year I awoke after about an hour sleeping in bed. I heard my Mother, who lives with me, moving around in the corridor but I couldn't move. I've had a couple of episodes of sleep paralysis before, so I wasn't bothered. Until I began to feel disembodied. Then I went cold all over. My memory verse a couple of weeks before was Psalm 91: 16, "With long life I will satisfy them,/ and show them my salvation." Of course, I replaced "them" and "they" with "me" - but the only version I recalled was one line from Israel Houghton & New Breed's song, "With Long Life" so I recited that alternating with "The Lord is my shepherd" from Psalm 23, the rest of which I also could not remember. Eventually the feeling passed and I've lived to tell that tale. If that was the end of the line for me, I would not have had the chance to share this, in this media. Although it was the month of May and about 24 degrees Celsius (75.2F), after I felt myself again I was so cold I had to wrap myself in a sheet, like a mummy is wrapped up - but with my face out of course.

Here is a lyric version of the Israel & New Breed song that inspired me to speak life into my cold body and there is a link to a live performance.  

 

       Israel & New Breed, "With Long Life" lyric video (Source: The7Meek, 2011)

So there are some of us, who have these unusual experiences. A few live to testify. We can't tell anyone what to believe, but given my firsthand experience I believe there is a part of us that will live on after our physical bodies return to dust or become ashes if cremated. How prepared are you for that?