Oguaa marks Easter with church services and conventions

Sector Head of the South West Sector of the Ghana Baptist Convention, Reverend Dr Isaac Mills-Owoo described as “a shame” the failure of people in all leadership positions to apply Christian virtues for the benefit of the country.

“Both religious and circular leaders rather promote and seek their selfish ambitions”, he said adding that it was a challenge for those who claim to be Christians to endeavour to live their lives in conformity with their faith to make life better for all.

Rev Mills-Owoo, who is also the head Pastor of the Redemption Baptist Church in Cape Coast, was delivering the sermon on the theme, “the significance of the life, death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ” to conclude the three-day convention of the Cape Coast Association of the Ghana Baptist Convention.

“For Christians, Easter is a celebration of true freedom from the rule of Satan and sin”, which means an end to spiritual death as well as any lack of fulfillment in life.

He said Jesus declared the purpose for His death was to enable humanity experience better life - - life abundant and therefore the whole historical fact about the life, death and Resurrection of Jesus “can be summed up as redeeming humanity and afterward granting them the power to love and be able to deal with the evils of society”.

Rev Mills-Owoo said Ghana is blessed in every way and if its citizens decide to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ there will be true liberation for every Ghanaian.

He prayed for God’s continued blessings for the country and asked all Ghanaians to use the occasion to re-dedicate themselves to be more patriotic and work harder for a better living.

At the Cape Coast Family Sanctuary of the Victory Bible Church International (VBCI), the Head Pastor, Reverend Richard Ampadu-Duku, said the eradication of poverty was one of the major items on the “resurrection agenda”.

He said the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was to secure a better quality life for all Christians not only in heaven but on earth also, “salvation is not only about heaven but about having good living on earth”.

He enumerated a number of scriptures to buttress his point that poverty is a bad situation in life that renders its victims worthless, voiceless, and vulnerable, exposing them to exploitation and manipulation.

Rev Ampadu-Duku said the resurrection of Christ was to liberate mankind from poverty and therefore Christians should take full advantage of the comprehensive package of blessing that salvation offers in order to live fulfilled lives on earth.

At the Breakthrough Family Chapel, Pastor Emmanuel Sackey, who preached on the theme “Saved to save others”, reminded Christians that salvation was to enable God draw His people close to him.

He said the importance of salvation is to transform man from his position of sin into the image of Christ and added that every person have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God but the death and resurrection of Christ saved all who believed.

Pastor Sackey said salvation was necessary because it saved one’s soul from sin and the wrath of God on judgement day and advised unbelievers to accept the message.

At the St. John the Baptist Catholic church at Pedu, Rev Father Mathias Nketsia preached on the importance of the resurrection of Christ stressing that, the death and resurrection saved mankind from their sins.

He said every believer and unbeliever should use the life of Mary Magdalene as example because even though she was not a believer, when she found out that Christ has risen from the death she believed it and had a change of mind by becoming part of the children of God.

Father Nketia appealed to Christians to desist from the act of living unholy lives, draw closer to God and win more souls into the kingdom of God.

At the International Central Gospel Church (I.C.G.C) in Cape Coast all the members were clad in white attires with some waving white flags, scarf's and handkerchiefs to symbolize the victory of Christ over death.

Rev Ruben Obeng, head Pastor in a sermon, admonished Christians to be calm and not be dismayed because his resurrection has made them anew.

"Jesus’s resurrection has paid for your sins by rising from the dead (Romans 6:4)”, he said, adding that once they had decided to become Christians, no matter their sins, God's grace was abundant and sufficient to cleanse them.

He cautioned them against putting their trust in human beings because they can fail them but to solely depend on God because with Him all things are possible.

Rev Obeng also reminded Christians on the need to avoid being blinded by the things of the world but rather seek spiritual things that will bring them closer to God and his kingdom.