Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president

Reading the dictionary is most likely not on the top of your reading list.

It certainly isn’t on my stack of books to read. However, let’s take a look at two words that are instructive for this week.

Commemoration: a ceremony or celebration in which a person or event is remembered.

Easter weekend is usually filled with many events that are a commemoration of the death and resurrection of Jesus. It is a time when churches are filled with people coming to worship, remember, and give thanks. As you think of your own church and your neighbors, take time to invite someone who needs a friend or needs community to come to church. If that is not an option or they are uncomfortable with church, invite them to your home and take the time to have a commemoration of some kind where people can see the beauty of Jesus in your own life.

Contemplation: the action of looking thoughtfully at something for a long time. 

As the Christian community thinks about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it is good for each of us to spend time this week and all throughout the year to think of the most amazing event in the history of the world:

Jesus coming forth from the tomb a risen Lord and Savior.

Luke 24 shares an important question for us to contemplate when the angels asked the first people to the tomb.

We should always seek how to live every day in the assurance of the resurrection, contemplating how the risen Lord affects our lives today. This thoughtful contemplation will continue to instruct us on how to live in Christ each day.

These two words are really instructive for us as we—along with much of the world—both commemorate and contemplate all that Jesus has done for us. This troubled world needs the message of a living Lord and we have been given a great mission to share the story of this living Jesus to those in our sphere of influence.

This week take some time to both commemorate and contemplate Jesus and ask Him to show you how to live in a dying world and to invite others to come into a fellowship with Jesus so that they will not be among the dead but among those living in Him both now and throughout all eternity.