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Singing Scripture
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Messiah – international choirs:
https://renewaljournal.com/2018/04/04/hallelujah-chorus-messiah-international-choirs/
FREE PDF books on the Main Page
See also: Handel’s Messiah Story
See also: Messiah & Hallelujah Chorus
See also: Hallelujah Chorus – International Choirs
See also: Long-playing Worship Music
See also: Wonders of Worship
See also: How Great Thou Art – anthology
See also: Virtual Choirs & Orchestras 2020
See also: Easter Worship
See also: Christmas Worship
See also: 24/7 Worship & Prayer
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Friedrich Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the version of the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer. The music for Messiah was completed in 24 days of swift composition. His servants would often find him in tears as he composed. When he completed “Hallelujah,” he reportedly told his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.” At the end of his manuscript, Handel wrote the letters “SDG”—Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone the glory”.
In Part I the text begins with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only “scene” taken from the Gospels.
In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion and ends with the “Hallelujah” chorus.
In Part III he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christ’s glorification in heaven.
When King George II attended a royal performance of Messiah he stood up for the Hallelujah Chorus in honour of the King of kings. When the king stood everyone in his presence had to stand. So it became the tradition for the audience to stand up when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung, as millions of us have done in honour of the King of kings.
Chorus — Revelation 19:6, 11:15, 19:16
Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth.
The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ;
and He shall reign for ever and ever.
King of kings, and Lord of lords
and He shall reign for ever and ever.
Hallelujah!
While writing the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus Handel’s servant discovered him with tears in his eyes, and he exclaimed, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.”
Lyrics: Holy Bible, Authorised Version, 1611, arranged by Charles Jennens, 1741
Music: George Friedrich Handel, 1741

The Messiah Story – its early impact in history
Concludes with the Hallelujah Chorus


English in America, Gaither Music with Anthony Burger
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English, in America. Over 300 in choir with over 2,000 voices worldwide digitally
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English in South Africa with pianist Anthony Burger and choir and congregation
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English, in London. The Royal Choral Society has sung Messiah on Good Friday at the Royal Albert Hall every year since 1876, this one in 2012 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
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English, in Hong Kong, 2006, Christmas in the Park
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Flashmob Christmas – Hallelujah Chorus
Messiah lyrics with Bible verses and references
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German, by the Vocalensemble Erwitte
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Romanian – Christall Sound quartet


Mandarin Chinese, virtual version of Hallelujah Chorus
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English & Eastern Carnatic, South India
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Toba Batak Northern Sumatra, Indonesia, with Filipinos
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Swahili, in Kenya with a choir from Tanzania
See also combined choirs in Tanzania:

Swahili, in Tanzania
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Messiah – Lyrics with Bible verses and references

Handel from Forté Handbell Quartet
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Brass Bands – instruments only
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Hallelujah Chorus – virtual projection in Barcelona cathedral
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Hallelujah Chorus – Good Friday 2020, Royal Choral Society, London
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Hallelujah Chorus – Royal Albert Hall, London 2020 partial – performed there from 1743
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Hallelujah Chorus from the Columbus Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, USA
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Hallelujah Chorus – Hallelujah for Hope – Grand Rapids Symphony
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Hallelujah Chorus – Easter 2020, First Congregational Church of LA
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Hallelujah Chorus – Easter 2020, Truro Anglican Church, Cornwall, UK
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Hallelujah (Handel) – with Andre Rieu
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Hallelujah Chorus – First Baptist Dallas
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Hallelujah Chorus – 2,000 choristers
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Hallelujah Chorus – Anthony Burger piano and band
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Hallelujah Chorus – Georgia Boys Choir
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Hallelujah Chorus – Royal Choral Society
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He shall reign forevermore & Hallelujah Chorus
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Joy to the World & Hallelujah Chorus selection

Messiah – 1:35 hours lively (2020) Academy of Ancient Music (3 million views, Hallelujah at 1:07)
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Messiah – Fantastic 2:17 hours (10 million views, Hallelujah at 1.36 & 2.13 hrs)
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Messiah, Sydney Opera House – 2:23 hrs (4.5 milion views, Hallelujah at 1:54)
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Messiah, Grace Cathedral, San Francisco with lyrics & texts – 2:26 hrs (3.5 million views, Hallelujah at 1:44)
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Messiah – 2:38 hours (2 million views, Hallelujah at 1:54 hrs) with commentary
London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Colin Davis
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College Professor’s Near Death Experience –
he saw two portals leading to heaven and hell
By Dr. Steven Long, edited by Ben Godwin —

Only 12 percent of people who experience cardiac arrest outside a hospital live to tell about it. Miraculously, Dr. Steven Long was in that number. He and his wife Vicky are co-founders of Global Champions, an organization that teaches young people life skills and character development in schools and businesses in several countries.
Steven’s heart attack struck during a ministry trip to Taiwan. On May 1, 2014, the air was so humid Steven felt like he was inhaling hot water. He had just finished two exhausting weeks of speaking engagements, with sleepless nights, back-to-back meetings and a full agenda of ministry.
That fateful morning, when the heart attack began he fell to the bathroom floor and passed out. When he awakened, he took a nitroglycerin tablet hoping to prevent death and called 911. Somehow, he managed to open the apartment door to let paramedics in.
An ambulance rushed him to the nearest hospital, but his heart would not keep beating. It flat-lined six times in route, so the EMTs kept him alive by defibrillation.
The paramedics called the hospital’s top-rated heart surgeon to meet them at the ER. Though he was headed home after a long day at the hospital, he returned to treat Steven (surely an act of divine providence). God was in control of everything.
Steven was rushed into emergency, triple bypass, open heart surgery. His heart was defibrillated three more times during the operation, resulting in burns on his back from the electrodes.
Unaware of Steven’s heart attack, his wife, Vicky, boarded a pre-planned 12-hour flight from San Francisco to Taiwan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Global Champions. A leadership team met her at the airport, informed her of Steven’s dire condition, and rushed her to see him in the ICU.
After she arrived, the doctor lowered the medication, so he could regain consciousness and to see if he could recognize her voice. Vicky’s tender voice awakened him, “Hi Steve, it’s Vicky. I love you. I am here now, and everything is going to be OK.”
He opened his eyes, recognized her and tried to speak, but with all the tubes in his mouth and nose, he couldn’t talk. He looked frightened and his only words sounded like “Die” and “Help me.”
During his 23-day hospitalization, Steven had several near-death and out-of-body experiences, which he documents in his book Evading Death’s Grip.
“Standing next to the bed, I saw two hateful-eyed, wicked, nasty, mean, malignant beings who strangely appeared to be human,” he recounts in the book. “They looked like hospital workers, but I knew instinctively they were death’s emissaries.
“One stood next to me glowering with bloody, red eyes. He looked like a Chinese man, dressed in a blue zippered jacket with five Chinese characters written on the back, 死亡的幽灵 (loose translation—“spirit of death”). Next to him was a seven-plus-foot-tall, skinny Asian woman dressed in black.
“Who were they? Were they real people trying to kill me, hallucinations or possibly actual demonic beings? Why were they allowed in the ICU and who let them in? All I knew was that they were in my hospital room and their intentions were evil.
“I thought to myself, Their eyes look like those of demons I’ve seen and even cast out in the past in the name of Jesus, but how could this be since they were also seemingly human?
“I quickly discovered that I could not simply speak and make them leave, as I had done in the past. Various tubes protruded from my mouth and nose, and I was not able to talk. I was convinced that there were people trying to kill me. Paranoid, I thought there was poison in the IVs and kept pulling them out from the back of my hands, arms, and even feet, while the staff kept finding new places to put fluids and medicine into my body.
“I was not able to physically fight them and seemed to be frozen and unable to move. I could feel the restraints on my arms and legs tying me down to the bed which kept me from resisting. Another reason I was restrained was I could not distinguish the doctors and nurses from these two uninvited and unwanted visitors and would strike out at the staff or doctors or kick them if they approached me.
“I remembered a statement I’d heard people say over the years, ‘When in trouble, call on the name of Jesus.’ So, I started weakly doing that; I would exhale a whisper, ‘Jesus’ and inhale, ‘Is my Lord’ with every breath. I had so little strength, but it was enough.
“Soon, supernatural strength filled me, and I could literally feel something like electricity flowing into my body. Somehow, I knew I needed to address the attackers. So, I stated, ‘In the name of Jesus, stop!’
“At the mention of the name of Jesus, they stopped, glared at me, turned and quickly left the room. The Bible instructs us to ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7) and it really worked!”
In another out-of-body experience while in the hospital, Steven saw a brilliant white room containing a window-like portal on the floor and the earth suspended in it. He watched as two paths shot out from the earth: one extended out into darkness that was so pitch black it could be felt, the other path stretched toward an amazingly brilliant light.

Curious, he put his foot on the path leading to darkness and was immediately overwhelmed by feelings of being completely lost. He felt loneliness and despair like never before in a blackness that kept intensifying and coming closer by the second. He could hear the terrifying groans and screams of lost people stumbling around in the dark, falling over one another. Other sounds were horrific beyond one’s imagination.
As this eerie darkness enveloped him, he removed his foot from that path and placed his other foot on the path leading toward the brilliant light. It contained a far greater spectrum of light than we have on earth. The dazzling colors were heavenly and standing way off in the distance at the end of the path, was a silhouette of a person.
He knew intuitively that it must be Jesus; His majestic white hair and beard and His fiery eyes were the same as he’d read about in the Bible (Rev. 1:13-15). A tidal wave of love washed over him. He was overwhelmed by the penetrating light and the purest love and knew that God was embracing him and welcoming him into heaven.
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:5-7, NKJV).
Steven was given a glimpse into both ends of the paths that our lives can follow. We all choose one path or the other.
Later, a physical therapist asked Steven, “Is it OK to wait until we get to the point of death to make the God-decision?”
“I believe I was given the vision/experience of the two paths to provide a greater understanding,” Steven replied. “We need to decide what path we will walk on before we enter death and our soul is separated from our body.”
“Paul urged his readers to decide to serve God without delay, ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’” (2 Cor. 6:2, NKJV)
Dr. Steven Long fully recovered from his 2014 heart attack and surgery and has increased his ministry efforts. Since that pivotal point in his life, Dr. Long has researched over 1,500 sources of near-death and out-of-body experiences and has become an expert in this intriguing field of study.
Many of his findings are included in his book in which he cites several documented cases that prove there is indeed life after death. Steven personally walked through the portal of death and returned to tell the world about the path that truly leads to eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ. Steven is more than a cardiac arrest survivor—he’s a walking miracle and an eyewitness of the unseen spiritual realm that awaits us beyond time and into eternity.
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
Dr. Steven Long serves as an assistant professor of leadership and financial freedom via distance learning in two universities in Taiwan. His book is available at evadingdeathsgrip.com, deeperrevelationbooks.org, and amazon.com. He and his wife, Victoria, live in California.
Source: God Reports, March 2018
The Death and Resurrection of Jesus
3 books in 1 volume
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Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection
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Holy Week – PDF
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This summary follows the outline in Mark’s Gospel.
This is an approximation:
Palm Sunday – Day of Demonstration – Mark 11:1-11 (Zech 9:9) – Jesus enters Jerusalem
Monday – Day of Authority – Mark 11:12-19 – fig tree, temple cleansed
Tuesday – Day of Conflict – Mark 11:20 – 13:36 – debates with leaders
Wednesday – Day of Preparation – Mark 14:1-11 – anointed at Bethany
Thursday – Day of Farewell – Mark 14:12-42 – last supper
Good Friday – Day of Crucifixion – Mark 14:43 – 15:47 – trials and death
Saturday – Day of Sabbath – Mark 15:46-47 – tomb sealed
Easter Sunday – Day of Resurrection – Mark 16:1-18 – resurrection appearances
It is finished – It is accomplished
Appendix 1 – alternate chronology
Appendix 2 – the shroud of Turin
A Retelling of the Last Supper
Christian Passover Service – PDF
Preface
A Mysterious Month
Resurrection Sunday
Forty Days
Photos from the longer version
Addendum: The Old City of Jerusalem
Appendix 1 – alternate chronology
Appendix 2 – the shroud of Turin
Part 1: A Mysterious Month, gives the full eye-witness accounts of 12 resurrection appearances. The contents of RISEN – shorter version – now also included in this book,
Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection.
Part 2: Our Month in Israel, gives my reflections on walking where Jesus walked, with photos of those locations. Not included in Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection.

Expanded contents of RISEN! – the longer version
with more details and photos of Jerusalem in Part 2.
Blog: Holy Week – the greatest week in history
*

The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – Blog
The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – PDF

Crucified and Risen – Blog
Crucified & Risen – PDF

Alternate Chronology – 3 days & nights

(4) The Death of Jesus – Blog
The Death of Jesus – PDF
Medical-Forensic Explanation of the Shroud of Turin
English translation of Model of the wounded Shroud of Turin image
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Mysterious Month
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Mysterious Month:
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Mysterious Month: A month that changed the world, and
Our Month in Israel: We walked where Jesus walked
Part 1: Mysterious Month, gives the full eye-witness accounts of 12 resurrection appearances of Jesus.
Part 2: Our Month in Israel, gives my reflections on walking where Jesus walked, with photos of those locations.
eBook – Kindle link for your computer, tablet, or phone

The angel’s quote on the door of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem
A Mysterious Month
Most people who were involved at the beginning of that mysterious month thought the unbelievable rumours were impossible and said so. Loudly.
Only a few, very few at first, thought it may have happened. Even after a month some still doubted that it actually happened: “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted” (Matthew 28:16-17).
They saw the awful, brutal execution. Jesus had been severely flogged and tortured early that morning before his execution. The conquering Romans made sure their victims suffered maximum agony and humiliation on thousands of crosses, suffering publicly and slowly in excruciating pain to their last agonized breath. That’s how we got our English words excruciate (ex-crux – out of the cross) and agony from the Greek word agon (struggle or contest).
Romans crucified their victims along the main road just outside a town or village. They lopped trees and their victims carried the crossbar to the dreadful execution site where they were nailed to the crossbar and hoisted onto a tree trunk or stake. Peter later wrote that Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). The execution place just outside Jerusalem’s city wall was called the place of the skull, with graves nearby. There are many tombs and graves just outside that city wall even today.
Eye-witnesses saw and heard the horrendous spectacle, a few like John from nearby. Spectators taunted the central victim: And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ (Luke 23:35-37)
The three struggling victims gasped out brief cries, one with angry accusations: One of the criminals hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ (Luke 23:39).
Soldiers divided the victims’ clothes among themselves, gambling for some. Eventually, they smashed the legs of the two victims still alive so they died quickly, no longer able to push up from their spiked feet to gasp more breath. Religious leaders wanted them off the crosses before the Sabbath began at sunset.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)
And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things (John 19:33-35; Luke 23:48-49).
The mystery deepened rapidly. Matthew, the disciple who had been a despised tax collector for Rome, reported that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people (Matthew 27:51-52).

Model of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time, Temple Mount left (east), Pool of Bethesda (sheep pool) and Antonia Fortress alongside, Herod’s Palace right (west), Golgotha just outside.


The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – Blog
The Life of Jesus: History’s Great Love Story – PDF

Risen! – 12 Resurrection Appearances – Blog
Risen! –_PDF
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Risen! – 12 Resurrection Appearances – Blog
Risen –_PDF
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Part 1 of the longer books
Available on Amazon & Kindle – Look inside
Link to Amazon & Kindle

Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection – Blog
Alternate Chronology of the Crucifixion
Medical-Forensic Explanation of the Shroud of Turin
English translation of Model of the wounded Shroud of Turin image
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Balab woke up before sunlight broke through the morning sky. Other believers in
his village had to do the same. Balab dipped his bucket in the public well and
trudged home. He needed water for his family but couldn’t be caught in the act
of collecting it—he and the other Christians were banned from the public
water source.
Before Balab, his wife and five children met Jesus, they were often sick. Malaria,
typhoid and jaundice frequently plagued their family, and there seemed to be no
end to it. With little income and many doctor visits and treatments, Balab started
selling off his land, cattle and even trees to pay for the expenses. As sicknesses
continued, the bills did too, and Balab had to take out loans from his friends and
family members.
Poverty took hold of their lives in more ways than one. Balab and his family were
poor in spirit and discouraged. Peace had left their home, and there seemed no
hope of help for their family.

But one day, GFA-supported pastor Salm met Balab, and the two men began to talk.
Over the course of their conversation, Balab shared with Pastor Salm about his
family and their deep discouragement. Balab learned about the hope Salm had
in God’s Word and listened to the pastor as he prayed for him and his family.
Pastor Salm visited Balab and his family once a week and saw with his own eyes
the struggles they faced. Moved with compassion and hope in Jesus, Pastor Salm
earnestly prayed for them. Slowly he witnessed how the Lord answered his
consistent prayers.
Balab and his family began to heal, and joy entered their lives. Instead of sorrow,
peace came into their home, and they began to go to church. They had experienced
Jesus and now nothing would take that hope away from them—not even opposition.
When the villagers saw that Balab and his family had begun to follow Christ, they
beat them and prohibited them from getting water from the village well or pond.
Balab and his family had to wake up early in order to gather water without being
harmed. If they didn’t secretly go to the forbidden well, they had to travel nearly
a mile and a half to get water from the river.
Pastor Salm saw this struggle, so he requested a Jesus Well to be drilled in this
village. By God’s grace, a Jesus Well was installed, and the village had a new source
of water for everyone to use. The villager’s hearts began to change toward the
believers as they, too, pumped water from the new, good well.
As the villagers experienced the tender compassion of Jesus, they began to take
literature from Pastor Salm. They even started asking him for prayer from time
to time, and one young man decided to embrace the love of Christ for himself.
Balab and his family continue to stand strong in the Lord and are prominent members
of the church. Through their struggles, God brought healing and hope for their village.
Their well carries with it the powerful words spoken by Jesus more than 2,000 years
ago to the Samaritan woman at a well:
“Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again,
but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water
springing up into everlasting life.’” —John 4:13–14
Find out how a Jesus Well impacted villagers who had to travel two miles for water
each day.
A message outline you may like to use or adapt
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The Meaning of Easter: https://renewaljournal.com/2018/03/08/the-meaning-of-easter/
Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival: www.renewaljournal.com
Message Outline, 4 March 2018 – by Nick Kikuchi, Riverlife Baptist Church, Brisbane.
Message given at the Easy English service for overseas visitors.

Love Declared · Love Demonstrated – The Meaning of Easter
Easter Today
* Easter is one of the two biggest Western festivities, along with Christmas.
* Pagan (non-christian religions) celebration of re-birth of the earth in the spring was combined into Easter Festivities. (like bunnies and eggs)
* Lots of celebrations and even non-christian celebration. (egg hunt, Easter Bunny)
* Easter is a Christian Festival and it celebrates the Resurrection (come back to life) of Jesus after His death on the cross.
Easter is Related to the Jewish Festival of Passover
* Passover is the most important Jewish festival.
Jesus celebrated Passover every year. Jesus died on Passover weekend.
* History of Passover (Exodus 1-12)
1. Slavery (bondage) of Israelites in Egypt in 1700BC.
2. Moses’ job to free Israelites from Egypt and God’s ten disasters to Egypt. (Exodus 7-11)
3. Tenth disaster (different from others) – the death of the firstborn (Exodus 12:5-14) and an act of faith was needed by Israelites.
(a) Free from bondage needed a substitution of payment.
(b) Unblemished (perfect) lamb to be sacrificed (killed) and blood to be put on the pillars of entry. (Exodus 12:5-7)
(c) They feasted on roasted lamb, herbs and hard bread.
(d) Anticipate the liberty and be ready to leave. (Exodus 12:11)
(e) Angels of death passed over the entry ways marked with blood of lamb. (Exocus 12:12-13)
(f) People celebrated passing over and being free.
(g) It became a festival, remembering this great day. (Exodus 12:14)
4. It was a model of Great Salvation to all human beings.
5. Passover showed that substitute Death is needed for salvation.
What Happened in the original Easter Week? (2000 years ago – AD30)
* Jesus celebrated Passover.
*The last year of His life, the last Passover (Matthew 26-27)
1. He taught disciples extensive teaching.
I am going away but believe in me. (John 15)
2. He had the Last Supper and told them to do this in memory of Jesus.
(Matthew 26:26-31)
3. Jesus lived a sinless life. (1 John 3:5-6)
4. Jesus was killed on the cross and His blood was placed on the
cross.
5. Whoever believed in Jesus’ blood on the cross (that He is God in Man to die on the cross for our sin and his death will save us from God’s wrath) will be saved. (1 John 1:7; John 3:16)
* He came back to life (Matthew 28:6) to prove He won against sin and death. Proof that He is God, who has power to save us. (Romans 6:9)
* We celebrate His resurrection because Jesus has done it all. We don’t have to do anything. We are saved if we believe He is our personal Saviour.
God’s Master Plan to Save Humans from Sin and Death
* Passover was a model to show what is to come. (Hebrews 10:11)
* Easter Passion Week – death of Jesus on the cross was the real substitute death that lambs in the past have represented.
* Similarity:
1. Unblemished lamb vs sinless man (God in Him – Lamb of God).
2. Both killed.
3. Blood on the door pole vs blood on the cross.
4. Believing gave liberation from slavery vs believing gives liberation from the slavery and curse of sin and death.
5. Israel became a nation of God to bless other nations vs Christian became saved people to give Good News to the world.
* Key Points
1. Jesus is God in human body (incarnated God).
2. Jesus lived a sinless life.
3. Jesus died for our sins to pay the sin’s debt and came back to life to guarantee it.
4. Jesus is offering His guarantees to anyone who believes in Him our Saviour and Lord.
Discussion Questions
1. What are the similarities between Christmas and Easter?
2. What is the meaning of Passover?
3. What are the similarities and the differences between Passover and
Easter?
4. What does Easter mean to you?

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Crucified and Risen – Blog
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The Easter Story
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3 books in 1
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Christian Passover Service
A Retelling of the Last Supper
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Iran: How two women brought hope in Tehran’s brutal Evin Prison
Podcast:
Nicky Gumble with Maryam and Marziyeh at Holy Trinity Brompton church, London – a personal interview – 40 min.
Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh knew they were putting their lives on the line. Born and raised as Muslims, both women grew unsatisfied with the teachings of the Koran and converted to Christianity after personal encounters with Jesus. Though Islamic laws in Iran forbade them from sharing their Christian beliefs, in three years they’d covertly put New Testaments into the hands of twenty thousand of their countrymen. They’d started two secret house churches, including one for prostitutes – many of them women who had been abandoned by their husbands and had no other way to support themselves and their children.
“We both had the same vision from God for evangelizing Iranian people by distributing Bibles. God showed me how Iran is like a land that needs seed. He told me, ‘I will raise and grow this.’ Maryam also had a dream about this, so we became sure it was God’s will,” explains Marziyeh. “We decided to cover all parts of Tehran. We usually went at night and distributed Bibles into mailboxes. Every day we went shopping or to restaurants and talked to people, often handing them a New Testament. We also started a house church for young people and another for prostitutes. All of this is illegal and dangerous because no one is allowed to talk about any religion except Islam. During this time, we could see God’s miracles every day. We have many stories of how God protected us.”
But finally – perhaps inevitably – in 2009, the two young women were arrested. For some reason in the months before that, they were unable to hand out Bibles, as the Holy Spirit took away their desire to evangelize. “We knew something would happen, that there would be a change in our lives. Only after we got released we heard from one of the security police that they were watching us for two months before arresting us. But they couldn’t prove we were handing people Bibles. We believed it was God’s protection for us.”
“After hours of praying and singing, we felt God’s peace in our hearts.”
The two women were held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, a place where inmates are routinely tortured, and executions are swift and sudden.
“Our first night in prison, we both were so scared,” recalls Maryam. “We had no power to speak. The first thing the security police tried was physical torture. They put us in a dark, cold cell and said they would come to torture us. We just hugged each other and said goodbye, thinking it was the last day for us. We began to pray for each other. After hours of praying and singing, we could feel God’s peace in our hearts. But it was not easy. Every day was mental torture. In interrogation they threatened our families, which was even worse than hearing about execution.”
“One day they invited a university professor in to convince us to deny our faith. He told me that if I was one of his family members he wouldn’t wait for the court’s decision – he would have killed me himself,” says Maryam. “We went to something like 10 courts, and in each court the judges would threaten us with execution,” says Marziyeh. “But the hardest part was the execution of other prisoners. I never experienced such a difficult thing. After the execution, there was this spirit of sorrow and death everywhere, and sometimes we couldn’t say anything. Everyone was under pressure.”
But in the face of chilling interrogations and intimidation, something remarkable happened: instead of succumbing to fear, they chose to take the radical – and dangerous – step of sharing their faith inside the very walls of the government stronghold that was meant to silence them. They found the prison being fertile ground for the gospel.
“Prison was like a church every day. We gathered and prayed.”
“Prison is the place where most people are hopeless,” Marziyeh says. “They all need someone to save them. The prisoners were open to hear about Jesus and many were asking us to pray for them. Before we were imprisoned, we would ask God to show us whoever he chose, and that we would be able to talk to those people. But detention and prison increased those opportunities, since it was like a church every day. We gathered and prayed. It was easier to evangelize because we were already in prison.” “We just tried to love them,” Maryam says. “This had a great affect on most prisoners and even the guards.”
“Prayer was the only thing that helped us, strengthened us,” says Marziyeh. “Sometimes we couldn’t even pray in Farsi, our language. We didn’t even know how. Many times we were praying in tongues. We witnessed power in prayers, especially in difficulties. We could see the miracles of God every day and it made our faith stronger. We didn’t have a Bible with us in prison, but every day we could touch God. We could touch Bible verses inside the prison because we were living them. We learned how to forgive our enemies. We remembered how Jesus forgives our sins and how he suffered for us.”
After international pressure from the United Nations, Amnesty International, and other human rights groups, the women were released. They left Iran to continue ministry through writing and speaking in the United States. In their book ‘Captive in Iran’, Maryam and Marziyeh recount how God used their 259 days in Evin Prison to bring about a miraculous reversal: shining light into one of the world’s darkest places, giving hope to those who had lost everything, and showing love to those in despair.
Source: Joel News International 861, May 22, 2013

In 2009 in Iran, Maryam and Marziyeh were imprisoned and sentenced to death because of their Christian faith. Maryam and Marziyeh were born into Muslim families but converted to Christianity and began to share the Gospel with those around them. They were arrested in March 2009 after being accused of evangelism and apostasy. After 259 days in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison they were released. This is their story.
https://www.alpha.org/blog/leadership-conversations-with-nicky-gumbel-podcast-maryam-marziyeh/

Their book of their story. You can read the first 19 pages on Look inside.
Barnabas Fund www.barnabasfund.org
Voice of the Martyrs www.persecution.com.au
The Open Doors www.opendoors.org.au
Revival PDF books on the Main Page
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