The senseless violence continues in Pakistan as a suicide bomber exploded a device near a children’s playground in Gulshan-e-Iqbal park in Lahore on Easter Sunday evening, targeting Christian families out celebrating Easter.
The BBC is reporting 70 people killed including 23 children and many more injured in the attack. For latest news please visit BBC News website
A state of emergency has been declared in Lahore and three days of mourning. School and markets are closed.
Thank you to all those who have sent messages to support for Hammad and family. Hammad had left Lahore on 22 March and his family are all safe – thank God. We continue to pray for all those who have lost loved ones and those injured in the attack. Please pray for the security forces in Pakistan that they will act quickly and decisively to defeat the terrorists who appear to operate freely in Pakistan. May God’s justice and mercy rule in this nation.
This track was original written in Urdu by Prof. Rehmat Baily (Hammad’s father). An English version was later written by Sally Baily (nee Everett) from Jesus words on the cross as recorded in the Bible.
lyrics
Eloi Eloi (Sally Baily)
Chorus
Crucify, crucify the King of the Jews
Eloi, Eloi, lama shabach-thani
“Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Why do they mock Him, the King of the Jews?
Don’t they know He came to save us from death,
Taking our sins when He died set us free.
Chorus
Hung on three crosses all day long,
Two criminals and God’s Son who will die.
One knows the truth that He’s done nothing wrong,
“Today, you’ll be with me in paradise.”
Chorus
“Father, why have you left me here to die?”
Just like a criminal He was crucified.
For our sins He died because He is your Son,
So Jesus says, “Your will not mine be done.”
This track is on the Serving Album and can be purchased from our Band Camp site
Sally is joining a local band Liturgical Journey comprised of musicians from churches across Chesham to bring the Easter story alive through music in the Broadway, Chesham on Saturday 26th March from 10.30am. You will find them playing on the green opposite Café Nero near the war memorial. At 11am the URC Choir will be performing on the steps of the URC church and then Liturgical Journey will perform again at 12 noon.
Feedback after event: You guys and girls all rocked today and so lovely that people stopped and listened, when the weather was not so good. The bread man on the market said it sounded fantastic and that people were talking to him about the lyrics we were singing. So our songs are a great evangelical tool to get people talking / thinking. He said you could hear it down at the clock tower! The cafe Nero staff really enjoyed what they heard. An elderly lady at the bus stop was raving about our rendition of “how great thou art”. She loved it ! So all was cool today 🙂 Well done everybody ! Love Jay
On Good Friday, 25h March, there is a united service for Churches Together for Chesham at Broadway Baptist Church at 10.15am.
This is followed by a walk of witness through the pedestrian area of the town centre. Sally will then be leading the first half hour of the Good Friday meditation at St Mary’s Chesham which starts at 12 noon. The first session looks at The Last Supper and how Jesus prepares the disciples for what is to come. A dramatized reading of Luke 22: 7-38 brings the story of the Last Supper alive and is followed by a meditation on Broken for me, broken for you.
Each half hour until 3pm is led by one of the 6 churches in the parish of Great Chesham and people are invited to arrive or leave during the song at the end of each half hour.
Featured image painting by Jeremy Total Phoenix Arizona USA
On 13th March Sally gave a talk on Jesus being mocked and insulted and explained the significance of the Suffering Servant prophecy from Isaiah 53. The relevant scripture verses are shown below:
Luke 22:63-65(NIVUK) The guards mock Jesus
63 The men who were guarding Jesus began mocking and beating him. 64 They blindfolded him and demanded, ‘Prophesy! Who hit you?’ 65 And they said many other insulting things to him.
Isaiah 52:13-53:12 (NIVUK) The suffering and glory of the servant
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him – his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness – 15 so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.
53 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.
4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand. 11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Our Serving Album released for Easter 2006 is now available to listen to and download from our website. You can listen to each track up to 3 times before you have to buy it. You could add a donation to your payment to support our mission in Pakistan.
May you be blessed as you listen and prepare for Easter.
I was privileged to attend the New Wine Leaders Conference last week in Harrogate and hear the Archbishop Justin Welby speak on the challenges facing us today and how church leaders should respond. You too can listen below thanks to the New Wine YouTube Channel.
Hammad will be performing a concert for The River of Life Ministries organised by Pastor David Rehmat on Saturday 19th March 2016. The venue is Gohawa Village, off the Lahore Ring Road close to the airport, Lahore. For more details contact the local organiser on 0092 322 4308927.
Please pray for the safety of all those attending this event and that people will be blessed and their faith strengthen through an experience of uplifting worship.
