Easter

NCFI Cares: Easter Blessing for You

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My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

I feel compelled this Easter to send each of you an Easter blessing! What better way then an amazing video/song entitled “Easter Song” by Keith Green, 1977. The song’s tempo, lyrics and meaning will have you dancing in worship like David!

Easter Song with lyrics

Keith Green live singing Easter Song

Here are the lyrics, if you are unable to view the video and/or hear the song:

Hear the bells ringing
They’re singing that you can be born again
Hear the bells ringing
They’re singing Christ is risen from the dead

The angel up on the tombstone
Said He has risen, just as He said
Quickly now, go tell his disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Joy to the word, He has risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah

Hear the bells ringing
They’re singing that you can be healed right now
Hear the bells ringing, they’re singing
Christ, He will reveal it now

The angels, they all surround us
And they are ministering Jesus’ power
Quickly now, reach out and receive it
For this could be your glorious hour

Joy to the world, He has risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah, hallelujah

The angel up on the tombstone
Said He has risen, just as He said
Quickly now, go tell his disciples
That Jesus Christ is no longer dead

Joy to the world, He has risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
He’s risen, hallelujah
Hallelujah

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NCFI Cares: 40 Days of Kindness

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Depending on your
faith tradition, you may mark the 40 day Lenten season by fasting from food or
refraining from a specific pleasurable activity (no chocolate, no watching,
t.v, etc). At the same time, when we seek to somehow impart the love and grace
of Christ louder during this season, the sacrifice of doing something positive
can impact our colleagues and patients. In fact, these simple acts of kindness
with purposeful presence exemplify the living Christ (Ephesians 5:1). Thus,
instead of just sacrificing our personal pleasures, lets reach-out daily for
the work of Christ during Lent.
The
following are suggestions to be done daily–choose one!
  • simple
    acts of kindness to your colleagues (helping, completing a task, buying a
    coffee or tea, etc…)
  • a
    private prayer for every patients, students, colleagues in your care
  • pray for
    NCFI daily OR pray for one person in your region every day!
  • use
    social media, texting, email, etc to share/send a kind word
  • say a
    kind word to someone (let the Holy Spirit bring them to you!)

      The above list is just a sampling, thus feel free to do
something else. These acts are also, not a substitute for how you participate
in the Lenten season through your church. Instead, it is a way to open our
heart to new ways the Lord works in our lives while sacrificing personal
comfort (Lamentations 3:22-23)

Grace & Peace,

Carrie

NCFI Cares: Easter Message

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1Who believes what we’ve heard and seen?

Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?

2-6The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed.
We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost. We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong, on him, on him.

 

7-9He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn’t say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he’d never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn’t true.

10 Still, it’s what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he’d see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God’s plan will deeply prosper through him.

11-12 Out of that terrible travail of soul, he’ll see that it’s worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many “righteous ones,”
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.

Therefore I’ll reward him extravagantly—the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because, he looked death in the face and didn’t flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

Isaiah 53

“Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.”