He lives!
We survived the last supper, the crucifixion, the waiting period, and it is here…the day of resurrection…Easter Sunday!
It has been said before and is worth repeating:
It is not that Jesus lived and died but that He died and lives! Happy Easter.
“Why is it called good Friday when it commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus?”
This is a question asked over and over again.
Indeed, though the deed itself was an ugly one, some two thousand plus years ago, it was the promise of His return that held out hope and made it almost bearable to bear.
It is that hope that so many of us cling to that gives such meaning to the Easter season and all seasons before and after.
It is that hope, that some day we will see Him face to face, as His disciples did after that heartbreaking Friday. That hope carries us through to Easter Sunday.
You know how some days can have that extra special zip? Well, my Sunday was like that. It started out in church even before the service began. Three people came down the aisle to the front row; a mother in her wheelchair wheeled by her son, followed by her daughter-in-law. The man and wife were in their very early mid years; the mother probably in her late eighties. It was touching to see how, with great care, the young man eased his mother out of the wheel chair.. she trembling with the effort to stand…and guided her to the pew where his wife waited to put her arm around her mother-in-law. The whole scene was one of gentleness, love and dedication. Wow!
The second “wow” came in the sermon, “How Small is Small?” This included the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13:31-35). I’m not about to print the sermon or try to preach one, but I can tell you I know of five scriptures written about the mustard seed. My favorite is Matthew 17:20 from which stems my own faith. People who know me know that I once had a store which I named, “The Mustard Seed Gift Shop”. My car licence plate is MSTD SD. So, yes, the sermon was another “wow”.
See this dot . ? It represents the mustard seed.
The third “WOW” came in the form of my ninth great-grandchild; a beautiful, perfectly healthy baby girl, Violet Madison. She was born into my world on Sunday also. How wonderful to have the opportunity to say with great conviction and heartfelt love, “Wow! What a Day!” TYG
(You can read more about the mustard seed in Mark 4:30-32, Luke 13:18-19, and Luke 17:5-6. “).
Do Not Worry – Matthew 6:25-27 NIV
25“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?
Reading the above scripture led me to repost the following formula for easy living. Happy Sunday.
Drink the living water – (John 4:10)
Eat the bread of life – (John 6:35)
Wear the full armor of God – (Ephesians 6:11)
Rest in Jesus – (Matthew 11:28)
Breathe in the Holy Spirit – (John 20:22)
Give up the worry habit – (Matthew 6:25) (This one really taught me a lot!)
Laugh often – (Proverbs 17:22)
Every once in awhile a song comes along that can move us to tears…joyful or otherwise…in my opinion this is one of them. How fitting for this time of Lent. How wonderful to believe. Thank you, Jesus.
My claim to Christianity suffers much in my day to day life of trying to live up to the ideals of this religion. However, when it comes to the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, I am in awe.
Did Jesus die on a Friday? Does anyone really know? The scholars do, I’m sure, but I am not among the scholarly, and so, because I believe my early teachings, I accept that Friday it was. But what is so good about Good Friday if that was the day Jesus died his atoning death…because it was a brutal death…not good by any stretch of the imagination?
The good comes in looking forward to Easter Sunday, the day of Resurrection, that promised third day when life is restored to Jesus, the one who restored so many lives in bygone days, and died to restore so many more. What Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20: “You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives” comes to my mind when I think of that dreadful day of crucifixion. God intended it for good. Hence…Good Friday, the precursor to Easter Sunday.
God Bless and Happy Easter.
Dear Lord, I need more energy and strength.
I seem drained and tired.
I do not seem to possess what it takes to do all that I must do.
I know that the wrong kind of thoughts can make one tired.
Change my thoughts that they may be in harmony with your power. Amen.
Norman Vincent Peale
Just another Sunday prayer.
Somewhere around 2006 I took part in a Bible study, called The Mustard Seed group (which is why I joined it). The question came up about the Triune or Trinity, the Three in One. The person who posed the question was of a scientific mind, and could not quite “get it”. Admittedly it is a difficult concept to understand, and I struggled with it for a long time until a thought entered my mind that helped me see it in a different light. And here is that thought.
God gave us our minds to use, as the free will he also gave us, dictates. But his greatest wish is for us to acknowledge and believe his word and that of his Son, Jesus; and to love him with all our heart, and soul, and mind; whether it be a brilliant mind, a scientific mind, an average mind, or a simple mind.
Albert Einstein had a scientific mind and here is a clip from Wikipedia’s Religious Views of Albert Einstein:
For Einstein, “science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.”[40] He continued:
a person who is religiously enlightened appears to me to be one who has, to the best of his ability, liberated himself from the fetters of his selfish desires and is preoccupied with thoughts, feelings and aspirations to which he clings because of their super-personal value. It seems to me that what is important is the force of this superpersonal content … regardless of whether any attempt is made to unite this content with a Divine Being, for otherwise it would not be possible to count Buddha and Spinoza as religious personalities. Accordingly a religious person is devout in the sense that he has no doubt of the significance of those super-personal objects and goals which neither require nor are capable of rational foundation … In this sense religion is the age-old endeavor of mankind to become clearly and completely conscious of these values and goals and constantly to strengthen and extend their effect. If one conceives of religion and science according to these definitions then a conflict between them appears impossible. For science can only ascertain what is, but not what should be…[40]
And then there’s Sir Isaac Newton: (from the Internet’s Evidence for God)
Doctors have scientific minds, and I know of some of these gifted people who have very strong beliefs in God. I’ve heard of surgeons who wouldn’t consider beginning an operation without first praying.
God, himself, has a scientific mind. How else do we explain the perfection of the universe? In my opinion, the Big Bang Theory is not an option unless we rewrite Genesis 1:1 to read: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth with a big bang!
No random explosion can cause that kind of perfection, and every seeking mind, being open to the possibility that with God, all things are possible, may realize that as an apple, within its core, contains a seed, contains a tree; and as an atom contains electrons, protons and neutrons; so God contains his Son and his Spirit, each a separate entity contained in the whole.
That’s the way I see it.
Comments/feedback always welcome.
My Precious Life 