“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay.”
Matthew chapter 28, verse 6
New International Version
PHOTO BY PISIT HENG ON
What is The Salvation Army?
The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian Church.
Vision Statement
Wherever there is hardship or injustice, Salvos will live, love and fight alongside others to transform Australia one life at a time with the love of Jesus.
Mission Statement
The Salvation Army is a Christian movement dedicated to sharing the love of Jesus by:
• Caring for people
• Creating faith pathways
• Building healthy communities
• Working for justice
The Salvation Army Australia acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land on which we meet and work and pay our respect to Elders, past, present, and future. We value and include people of all cultures, languages, abilities, sexual orientations, gender identities, gender expressions, and intersex status. We are committed to providing programs that are fully inclusive. We are committed to the safety and wellbeing of people of all ages, particularly children.
Unchanging love
Easter is one of those special times of year when many take advantage of the extra holidays to relax with families and friends or get away for a few days. It’s generally more relaxed than Christmas, and gives people a breathing space in a hurried and hassled world.
Too many, though, will spend the holidays alone, struggling, and without hope.
Easter is significant for millions around the world because it offers the reality of hope through God’s unshakeable love and a radically new life. Having hope and experiencing the deep joy of love, forgiveness and spiritual freedom can seem beyond our reach as we face personal challenges and global upheavals, and just try to get on with our lives.
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Founders: William and Catherine Booth
Salvation Army World Leaders: General Lyndon and Commissioner Bronwyn
Buckingham
Territorial Leader: Commissioner Miriam Gluyas
Secretary for Communications and Editor-In-Chief: Lieut-Colonel Paul Hateley
Printed and published for The Salvation Army by Commissioner Miriam Gluyas at Focus Print Group, Chester Hill, NSW, Darug Nation lands.
And yet God offers this all to us freely. The invitation is always open.
In this edition, we tell the story of Easter – how Jesus changed the world, and can change our lives today through his ongoing work of liberation, restoration and healing.
To learn more about Easter or to connect with the Salvos, go to salvationarmy. org.au/our-faith/easter. Happy Easter!
Simone Worthing Editor
Radical new life
Because Jesus lives, our story can begin again
God’s story has always been one of love. A love we see in the story of Jesus. His compassion, his teaching, his healing to all people without discrimination.
But Easter reminds us that Jesus’ greatest act of love was yet to come. On the cross, he took our brokenness, taking the punishment for every wrong thing we have done or will ever do, offering his life so we could be set free from the things that hold us back from being all we can be.
IMAGES COURTESY VICTORIA WU, SALVOS STUDIOS.
His sacrifice brings salvation as a free gift to all who believe in him, renewing us and restoring us to a perfect relationship with God. When God looks
at us, he sees us as forgiven because our wrongdoings have been paid for by Jesus. We can now have peace with God through faith in Jesus.
After his crucifixion, when Jesus came back to life, hope rose. Jesus defeated death, offering new life for all. Because Jesus lives, our story can begin again. We have a
new life in which we depend on, and live in relationship with, the God who loves us absolutely.
This Easter, may the hope of Jesus bloom in your life.
IMAGES COURTESY VICTORIA WU, SALVOS STUDIOS.
Celebrate Easter with the Salvos
Everyone is welcome
Every year at Easter, Christians commemorate and celebrate Jesus’ death on the cross and his rising back to life (resurrection). The Bible says that through Jesus we are offered salvation, hope and peace.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John chapter 3, verse 16).
While Jesus lived on Earth, he shared the message of God’s love with people from all walks of life. This included people considered outcasts or unworthy –people society would often overlook or reject. Jesus welcomed them all, and his message is the same today.
Regardless of your journey or situation, Jesus wants to give you “gladness instead of sorrow ... victory, joy and praise instead of depression and sadness” (Isaiah chapter 61, verse 3) The Voice Bible translation.
At the Salvos, we are motivated to love others the way Jesus loves us. We invite you to connect with your local Salvos or attend an Easter gathering to experience this unshakeable love for yourself.
Connect locally
Good Friday and Easter Sunday church services (and more) are held in communities around Australia. Just as Jesus welcomed people from all walks of
life to spend time with him, everyone is welcome to an Easter worship service or activity at their local Salvation Army.
Whether you’re looking to build connections in your community, learn more about Easter or start a spiritual journey, please get in touch or come along to an event.
This year, Easter Sunday is celebrated on 5 April and Good Friday on 3 April.
Easter celebrations
Easter is a very significant event on the Christian calendar, so, as a Christian church, The Salvation Army will host faith gatherings across the weekend. Each gathering will be different, as it responds to the needs of the community in which it is based.
On Good Friday – to reflect on the death of Jesus – some Salvos will host contemplative church services, decorate their halls with candles and crosses for quiet prayer services, host hot cross bun morning teas or march through the street with a cross.
On Easter Sunday – to celebrate Jesus coming back to life – churches will host upbeat, celebratory services, dawn services in outdoor settings or Easter egg hunts.
Some ask whether they have to be religious to attend.
Absolutely not! The Salvation Army welcomes people from all backgrounds to come and celebrate Easter with us. Whether you grew up in a religious or Christian environment or have never heard of Jesus, your local Salvos would love to see you at Easter – or any time.
If you’re looking for a place to connect with your community, our Salvation Army locations also host various
informal gatherings throughout the year, including playgroups, women’s outings, seniors’ groups, small group spiritual chats and more.
Scan here for more information and contact details.
Church services, warm hospitality and family-friendly activities are part of celebrating Easter with the Salvos.
God’s unshakeable love
The
message at the heart of
by Miriam Gluyas
Easter
A love that still stands firm today when so much around us feels unstable.
Sometimes life feels overwhelming. The future feels uncertain. And some days, just getting through takes everything we have.
That’s why Easter matters. On Good Friday, when Jesus died on a cross, everything looked like it had fallen apart. His friends felt crushed. Their hope felt shaken.
But that wasn’t the end. Because on Easter Sunday, Jesus came back to life.
And suddenly, everything changed. Fear turned into courage. Grief turned into hope.
That’s the heart of Easter. God’s unshakeable love. A love that fear and even death, could not overcome. A love that took frightened, broken-hearted friends and sent them out with courage to help change the world. A love that still stands firm today when so much around us feels unstable.
Now, the Bible puts it beautifully: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life ... neither the present nor the future nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord,” (Romans chapter 8, verses 38-39).
And that changes everything. That is why we believe in good. It means when life feels fragile, God’s love is still our firm foundation. It means when the road ahead feels uncertain, his peace still holds us steady.
This Easter, my prayer for you is simple – that you would discover God’s unshakeable love for yourself. A rocksolid love that is completely, faithfully, and forever reliable.
Discover God’s unshakeable love this Easter with the Salvos.
Commissioner Miriam Gluyas is the leader of The Salvation Army in Australia
Love that never lets go
Easter changes everything for Greg
by Naomi Singlehurst
Growing up in New South Wales, Greg was the eldest of six children in a busy home with Indian and Pakistani parents. From an early age, he learned the value of hard work and caring for others. He spoke no English when he started school but picked it up quickly.
Life on the family farm was simple, happy and demanding.
“Dad would give us a plot of land and say, ‘You can grow whatever you want’,” Greg says. “We’d plant, harvest, then take the vegetables into town and sell them. I’d slash with the tractor and help Dad grub lantana.”
Learning and determination
School was a joy for Greg. “I loved learning, loved my friends, and I always wanted to understand how people did well in life. I knew Mum and Dad had come here for a better life. There was no way I was going to fail Mum, Dad, my siblings or myself.”
That determination carried into his working life. Greg finished school on a Friday in 1977 and started work the following Monday, beginning a 30-year career with a major supermarket chain.
Faith becomes personal
Greg’s parents, believers in Hindu traditions, still encouraged their children to attend Christian Sunday school and church.
At 20, Greg had a profound spiritual
experience in a church service. When a preacher invited people forward to accept Jesus, Greg felt as though invisible hands lifted and carried him forward.
“Becoming a Christian at 20 was the best decision I ever made,” he says. “Knowing I had God in my life to help me navigate adulthood gave me confidence that everything would be okay.”
Greg met Jane in Gladstone. They married in 1986 and moved wherever his work required.
“Jane has been my rock,” he says. “She’s strong, committed and passionate. I could never have done what I did without her support.” Together they raised two dearly loved sons, Luke and Casey.
Greg also became deeply involved with God’s Sports Arena (GSA) — a Salvos community church and place of connection founded by his close friend, Bill Hunter, in Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast.
A cancer journey
Some of the deepest moments in Greg’s walk with God have come in his darkest seasons. In 2017, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer. Over seven years, he underwent more than 60 treatments.
“My last chance before having my bladder removed was six treatments of a special chemotherapy drug,” he shares. “I managed two. The third was unbearable. I couldn’t continue.”
Surgeons later removed his bladder and other affected tissue. Greg is still recovering and now does some part-time consultancy work – primarily to support his mental health.
Even alone in a hospital room, screaming in pain, Greg clung to what never changes – God’s unshakeable love. “I can honestly say I’ve never found anything too difficult with God on my side,” he says. “Physically, it’s been excruciating at times. But mentally, I’ve always known he is with me and that everything would be okay. There was always hope.”
Unshakeable love
For Greg, Easter is deeply meaningful. “The sacrifice Jesus made means everything to me. Through his death on the cross and his coming back to life, we see a love that never lets go. I will never take the events of Easter for granted. God’s love, shown through Jesus, is unshakeable.”
Greg has a message for all who may be struggling: “You are not alone. God’s love is real, it is reliable and it never lets go. Everything will be okay.”
Much of this interview with Greg is courtesy Major Bryce Davies’ Stories of Hope podcasts. For Greg’s full story and other interviews, go to salvationarmy. org.au/storiesofhope
Greg is now confident about his future, wherever it leads
Greg’s faith is strong, despite ongoing challenges.
Greg and his wife Jane, who he describes as his “rock”.
�� Easter bread and butter pudding
Ingredients
300ml milk, 300ml cream, 5 eggs, 1 tsp allspice, 1 tsp cinnamon, ½ cup sugar, 10 hot cross buns, 150g butter, ice cream for serving Method
In a large jug, whisk together milk, cream, eggs, allspice, cinnamon and sugar.
Cut hot cross buns horizontally into three sections. Spread butter underside of the top of the buns, and both sides of the other two sections.
In a casserole dish, place the bun pieces flat in the base, with the top of the buns placed on top.
Pour over the milk and egg mixture. Place in the fridge while the buns soak up the liquid.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Bake for 45 minutes.
Serve hot with ice cream.
☺ Believe in Good: Tips
“In Christ alone my hope is found, he is my light, my strength, my song; this cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm. What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ I stand.”
In Christ Alone (modern Christian hymn)
– Keith Getty and Stuart Townend
Quiz
1. How much chocolate does the average Australian consume annually?
2. How much does the average Australian spend on Easter chocolate each year?
3. Sales of chocolate at Easter time account for what percentage of annual sales?
4. Which country in the world eats the most chocolate?
5. The scientific name for chocolate is theobroma cacao, which translates to what?
Tum-Tum
On which page of this week’s Salvos Magazine is Tum-Tum hiding?
Did you know?
The platypus and echidna are the only two mammals in the world that lay eggs.
Australia is home to 21 of the world’s 25 most venomous snakes.
Western Australia has naturally pink lakes caused by a mix of algae and bacteria.
The Dingo Fence stretches over 5600km, making it longer than the Great Wall of China.
Answers
�� Sudoku
Fill in the grid so that every row, every column and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 to 9.
�� Have a laugh
Why don’t rabbits get hot in the summer?
They have hare conditioning
What is a rabbit’s favourite game?
What is a rabbit’s favourite type of dance?
Why did the rabbit like the action movie?
It was hare-raising
“God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on.”
1 Peter chapter 1, verse 3 Contemporary English Version
PHOTO BY MICHAEL JERRARD ON UNSPLASH
“From death came life, from sorrow came joy; this is the hope of Easter.”
