I guess you might expect someone who has been a preacher for a long time to have  a lot to say in a blog on Easter Sunday. Actually I don’t feel led to share too much. I just want to say two things.

Firstly, It may  be that this is the day when you need to tell all your fears, anxieties , etc.,  that, “He is Risen!” I can only assume that what I used to experience as the leading of the Spirit in preparing a sermon is now happening as I prepare my blogs for you to read.  Just as hopefully in a sermon there is something for everyone, but a particular sermon may be God’s almost personalised word for somebody, well, I guess the same happens in blogging. Whatever, I found myself wanting to address the subject of fear or fears plural. According to what Paul said to Timothy, a spirit of fear does not come from the Lord. It is not something that your Heavenly Father wants for you or for me.

I have discovered over the years that because we are linked body soul and spirit, what we actually do or express physically can affect us in other ways too. I think I have to tell you, it is time for some of you to shout at your fears in the Name of the Risen Christ, and tell them, “Christ is Risen.” I can imagine some of you who may be feeling a bit embarrassed for me and are thinking, “Kenny, has lost the plot, poor thing!” I can imagine others asking, “Do you mean I have to actually say that out loud, or do you mean I am just to believe it and tell myself?” Well, I am actually telling you to frighten your fears in the name of Jesus!  Find a place you can do this physically! It may be that you can do it right where you are. It may be that you fear the effect on others on your household if you do it without warning! Perhaps you should go out in your car. That is where I do a lot of shouting to the Lord and against the things that are oppressing me. Perhaps you  can go for a  walk. Though the sheep may get a shock, in the deepest sense Creation wont be alarmed, for it is waiting for that day when it itself will be liberated. Your shout will help Creation remember that day is coming! It is  day nearer than yesterday, for “Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!”

So wherever you feel you can do this, I want to be there beside you at least in spirit through this blog and say to you “Christ is Risen!” May something deep within respond, reply and shout, “He is risen indeed!”

Second thing for today:  At a time when I needed to know the Lord’s risen help and presence not long ago, I stumbled across this old fashioned American country style song ,“Gone!” I found myself  laughing with the joy and the fun of this indisputable fact that Jesus is alive! As well as shouting this day, you perhaps have become too serious in the wrong way in your relationship with the Lord. This guy made me smile and laugh each time I replayed  the song! Maybe you need to just enjoy the fun of  its somewhat out-dated style too!  Imagine that you were coming to the tomb of Jesus and someone told you “He’s gone!” Perhaps if this song makes you laugh, that may be the most appropriate response you will ever have to the wonderful new of Easter. I remember an evening service when the Spirit was poured out when I was a minister in Thurso. One of the effects was that someone who I later discovered had a dreadful life story to tell, collapsed on the floor and started to laugh. It offended me. You just don’t do that sort of thing in a church service! In fact I believe I heard The Lord asking me, “Kenny, Does this offend you?” I said, “Yes, Lord.” He said, “Well you had better get used to it!” Then He said this, “Do you realise that there are some people whose experience of life means that they have never laughed from their belly?” What has happened in the church when it has come to the point that if we see someone in  tears we think the Spirit is at work, but if someone were to laugh in church, well, we are more likely to believe it is the devil! May God bless those of you who have never laughed from your belly with the joy of Easter!

So quite a simple prayer behind this blog today. May this day be filled with the shouting, the joy, the laughter of God’s people all over the globe! May a ripple of`Easter laughter invade this dark world and by the grace of God swell to a mighty wave that can bring down strongholds of dark oppression and injustice and brutality, the things with which religion of one guise or another has often joined hands and still does.  Here is the link…

https://youtu.be/QqbAst4S5h4

(If it doesn’t work just search Youtube for Jessy Dixon, “Gone!”)

PS – You are very welcome to enjoy these blogs and to share them  with anyone “without money or price!” However, if you ever feel grateful for these blogs and are able to do so, then please make a donation to Open Doors, Scotland. Their website is

http://www.opendoorsuk.org/scotland

In case you have not heard of them, Open Doors works to help our persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.