We hope this podcast will bring you strength, guidance and clarity on certain topics. We’re excited to have you, and we’re beyond excited to bring forth the word to help us all continue the fight, and do as Christ has commanded us. God bless.
Easter comes once a year but the story of the crucifixion is timeless. Steve talks to Johnny/Ashlee Garcia, TJ Watts and James Tramel to find out what the most impactful aspect of Eater was to them.
SPEAKER_04
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Middle of the Fire podcast. My name is Steve. And uh we're gonna go ahead and get started on here, but guys, I gotta apologize to you first. I know it's been quite a quite a dry spell here. I've been um been trying different things, I've been you know, getting halfway done with projects and scrapping it because it's not feeling right, you know.
SPEAKER_03
I think I've just been trying to uh do too much, you know, at once.
SPEAKER_04
Uh and uh it's caused uh caused me a delay. So uh that end I've got some more equipment coming in, so um yeah, all that aside, uh I'm gonna try to uh not have uh breaks like that anymore. Um but trust me, I'm not stopping. Um alright. So today I'm just gonna talk to you simply about Easter. I know it's come and gone. Um but hey, it's a topic that we can discuss 24 7 365. It it's not seasonal, you know. So this is one of those things that is uh a cornerstone, of course, to what Christianity is. Uh it's, you know, our our Savior proving who he was and uh fulfilling his word and and all the prophecies. And uh it's amazing. And so I uh I sat down with a few, well I didn't s sit down, but I did speak with a few of my friends uh at New Life UPC here in Smithville, Tennessee. And I asked them what their favorite part of Easter was, because our pastor had asked that same question and had gone down the the list, you know, of all the different parts of Easter. Um and uh I know that's a weird way to kind of a weird way to put it because it's in one on one side of the coin it's you know one of the the most traumatic events in human history, and then on the other side of the coin it's the you know entire redemption of mankind. So it's it's kind of a weird question to ask, and what should what's the best part of that? But I mean if you break it down, it makes a lot of sense that there would be a part that stands out to each of us individually that would mean the most. So I was able to talk to with my buddies TJ, Ashley, James, and Johnny, and um this is what they thought. Alright, so TJ, the stor the Easter story, what is what about it stands out to you the most or means the most to you personally in your in your walk with God?
SPEAKER_01
You know, I guess it's the freedom of how it's released me from everything I've been bound to in life, and knowing the freedom that comes with it and what it's done for me and my family, and uh the healing, right? The the being bound, the making a way of escape of all these things and uh just knowing that you have the freedom to go to him directly now because of what he done. And like Pastor even mentioned this morning that nobody has to do it for me. You know, that really got to me. I can go directly to him, yeah, and the Lord hears me directly, and I just to know what it's done for me and my family. Um it's really it's really hard to explain how if even thinking of how my family has come through so much and seeing them now. Um it's the salvation that comes from it. It is really hard to explain, and we just we just love the Lord, love everything that this day, as far as Easter stands for, you know, it's so important to us.
SPEAKER_03
Excellent. Thank you.
SPEAKER_04
Alright, actually, Garcia, what about Easter stands out the most to you about the whole thing in your personal walk with God?
SPEAKER_00
So for me, Easter, the big thing about Easter was the victory over death, hell, and the grave. Yeah. Because that set off literally everything that happened afterwards.
SPEAKER_04
This part's too funny. We uh well I kind of blindsided everybody with these questions and uh asked Johnny, bless his heart, you know. He he just got back from Bangladesh, can barely stand up, jet lagged, you know, and all that good stuff, and I asked him this question, he was struggling. And uh I just had to keep the recording intact because it's too funny. Love you, Johnny.
SPEAKER_05
So, what stands out the most to me about Easter? I would have to say um the very fact that Jesus was resurrected, as cliche as that sounds, uh, it is what gives our faith and the story of Jesus anything to stand on. Because without him coming back, there would be no way for us to prove that our religion is any different from a movie or from a storybook that we've read before, but him coming back is the very foundation of what makes our religion truth and how our faith has any basis to be uh supported.
SPEAKER_04
Yeah, Christianity wouldn't exist if he didn't recognize it.
SPEAKER_05
Exactly.
SPEAKER_04
Fantastic.
SPEAKER_02
That's what I was gonna say.
SPEAKER_04
There's no ditto. There's no ditto. No, this is one.
SPEAKER_02
This is this is Brother Garcia. Let's see what he has to say. This is long. All right, a missionary from Bangladesh.
SPEAKER_05
He's just like Bangladesh. Bangladesh.
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I think I w now that I'm my wheels are turning a little bit more, I would say the moment Jesus is same, um, it is finished. I think he he says quite a few things in the Bible, but at this point he says this in a strategically said a mark of completion, but also a beginning. And we see that in the continuation of um as the days pass and he resurrects and comes back and he reveals himself, and in Pentecost the spirit's poured out. But I think it was the beginning of the end. And as people struggle today and they fight things, their sinf sinful nature, they fight the enemy, we point back to that. Since that moment we've been walking in victory. And I think that's huge. And I think we forget that. Um we are a victorious church. They don't feel like it. They don't feel like it when we're depressed, when we're torn down, when we're broken, when we're barely struggling to hold on to serve in our capacities that we've been called to serve in, to be Christians, to be faithful husbands, sons, fathers. Um but we point back to that and say Jesus already won. And so if we don't have any other reason to live or to walk in victory, I said we should point back to that. Enemy thought it was defeat. Little did he know it was his downfall.
SPEAKER_03
All those excellent points.
SPEAKER_04
And uh that's the great thing about this, is that you can have whatever view you want to on it, and you won't be wrong because it's all of course it all culminates into the greatest story ever told, so but for for me personally, um I think it's the veil. The veil being torn in uh the temple after Jesus gave up the ghost, the veil was rent, and the earth did quake. Uh as says here in Matthew chapter twenty-seven, verse fifty and fifty-one, Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost, and behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom, and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent. Amazing. And um those of us who know the significance of it know it know it is significant because that veil is what separated the Holy of Holies from the rest of the temple. It was the representation of the presence of God is where the presence of God uh resided in the temple. And uh once a year the high priest would go in, roll back those sins, sins of the people for another year. Um but the amazing thing about that is, of course, it being torn means that there's no more separation between us and the Spirit of God. We are able to approach him whenever we want, and no longer are our sins rolled back, they are completely forgiven and forgotten. And um it's just amazing.
SPEAKER_03
Um But going back to that veil, you know.
SPEAKER_04
Whenever you just think about it, you think of a curtain, right? And you're like, big deal, it's a curtain. Well, no, it's a really big curtain. No, on top of that, it's a really enormously huge curtain. Um it's not really a curtain, it's a tapestry, but you get what I'm saying. Um I uh I asked the the uh the AI machine uh about uh the specs on this uh this veil, and it's it's quite impressive. So this is what it says. The temple veil at the time of Jesus was a massive, four inch thick curtain of blue, scarlet, and purple fine linen, often described as having cherubim embroidered on it. It was a monumental ornate Babylonian tapestry made by skilled workers and according to ribanic tradition, woven by eighty-two young girls. Alright. So uh some of the key details of the veil were that it was roughly forty to sixty feet high, four inches thick, and twenty to thirty feet wide, requiring three hundred priests to move or clean it. Estimates vary, but it is speculated to have weighed well over six thousand pounds.
SPEAKER_03
Just amazing. Astronomically huge.
SPEAKER_04
Alright, apologies. Apologies about that scream. Bellamy, my four-year-old, she just stepped on a Lego. So we can all relate. Oh my lanta. We can all relate to that pain.
SPEAKER_03
Oh boy. So anyway. Back to the veil. This thing was immense. Four inches thick.
SPEAKER_04
Man, six thousand pounds at least. Unbelievable. And so the fact that this thing was torn from top to bottom in one action. Not a word spoken by God. He it just happened. Amazing. Amazing. And of course, giving us that unrestricted access to the Spirit of God. So yeah, that to me is the aspect of Easter that that stands out the most. Um I mean, of course, you know, every individual aspect of it, every drop of blood stands out on its own. But uh anyway, that's all I got for today, guys. Thank you so much for listening. And uh may God richly bless you, and I will see you again on the next episode.
