Today on Good Friday, World Olivet Assembly (WOA) churches around the world have started off local and regional Easter retreats to commemorate the path of Jesus Christ to the cross, his sacrificial death and then his resurrection to life on the third day - Easter Sunday.
Marked by worship, prayer and a series of Bible lectures, the retreats provide an opportunity for congregations to reflect more deeply on the meaning of the cross and the resurrection for their personal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, as well as the turning point it represented in God's history of salvation for mankind.
As the Apostle Paul expresses in the letter to the believers in Rome:
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. [...] You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. [...] Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. - Romans 5:1-2/6-8/18-19 (NIV)
May the Easter retreats overflow with grace as the grief of the cross turns into the joy of the resurrection. (John 16:20b)
WOA Churches Commence Easter Retreats Commemorating Christ's Death and Resurrection
