Good morning,
Praise the Lord for the Good News from the Graveyard on Easter Morning. Jesus our Savior, who was crucified and buried, rose again on the Third Day from the grave, victorious and triumphant. The Lord blessed us with a glorious Easter weekend. All of our family came home for Easter: Janice, Jeremy, Micah, and Simeon came in on Thursday afternoon. Jess and Tom arrived Thursday Evening. Sunita and Andy came Friday Evening.
The Lord blessed us with an anointed Good Friday Service. Saturday was a glorious day, brilliant and very bright. Children gathered at Church grounds for an Easter egg hunt on Saturday morning, with 240 eggs hidden around the church grounds. It was a special joy to watch the children as they eagerly raced around, searching for eggs.
Easter Sunday was glorious. It was a wonderful privilege to join the people of the Lord around the world in worshipping the Risen Lord. Praise the Lord for the way He came, He saw, and He conquered death and He is alive for evermore. "We all are raised up in Christ and because of Christ."
A story has been told of an Illinois man who left Chicago for a vacation in Florida. His wife, who was on a business trip, was planning to meet him the next day. When he reached his hotel he decided to send his wife a quick
e-mail. Unable to find the scrap of paper on which he had written her e-mail address, he did his best to type it from memory. Unfortunately, he missed one letter, so his note was directed instead to an elderly preacher’s wife whose husband had passed away only the day before. When the grieving widow checked her e-mail, she took one look at the monitor, let out a piercing scream, and fell to the floor, dead. At the sound, her family rushed into the room and saw this note on the screen:
Dearest Wife,
Just got checked in. Everything prepared for your arrival tomorrow.
Your Loving Husband.
PS: Sure is hot down here.
What could be more powerful than news from the other side of death? Easter is that and more.
It is not an email message, but a living message.
It is not from man, but from God.
It is not from hell, but from heaven.
It is GOOD NEWS !
God’s Word speaks of this hope as “an anchor for the soul.” It is often the unspoken strength that allows us to rise each day and face the uncertainties of life. In the midst of our losses and let downs, we can anchor our souls with divine strength. The hope of Easter is not the hope of a naive fool or nagging optimist, but, rather, it is the hope that meets us in the real world.
The Resurrection, as recorded by John, one of the eye witnesses of the event, BEGAN AT DAWN WHEN IT WAS STILL DARK… It began with an individual, Mary. Perhaps as fascinating and encouraging as anything God chooses to do, He who focuses on the greatest events, (events of cosmic proportions) focuses on ordinary individuals.
Mary was not what you would call a traditionally religious person. She was from the city of Magdala along the sea of Galilee. According to Christian tradition, Mary was a scarlet sinner. She had at one time been oppressed by spiritual powers that bound her within. Jesus had freed her from that horrible oppression. When Mary came to the tomb she came in love, but ALSO IN DARKNESS. It was not just the darkness of the sky, but the darkness of her soul. Her love may have been strong but her hope could not see anything left to hold onto. Jesus was gone and the world without Him was dark. It was dark around her and dark within her.
Easter begins where life on this planet finds us. The world is not always safe, sane, and satisfying. It is, rather, a world where the love of family and friends can fall short and prove frail and fragile. Ours is a world where people we love leave us far too soon. Easter enters just such a world. The love of God is a deep love that seeks us in the darkness, not the love of fairy tales or forced devotion. Rather, it is a love that reaches into the real world.
What Mary saw that Easter morning would change her life forever and it can change ours also. Jesus came to Mary because she needed him. We all need him. He knew better than she did that we all need a risen Savior. “We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain, where Jesus, who went before us, has entered on our behalf.” Hebrews 6:19-20 [NIV]
Murdo Ewen MacDonald, a prisoner of war in Germany and chaplain to American soldiers, told how he learned of the Normandy invasion. Early on D-Day, he was awakened and told that a Scotsman in the British prisoner-of-war camp wanted to see him. MacDonald ran to the barbed wire that separated the two camps. The Scot, who was in touch with the BBC by underground radio, spoke two words in Gaelic, meaning "They have come." MacDonald ran back to the American camp and spread the news: "They have come . . . They have come." And everyone knew the allied troops had landed at Normandy. The reaction was incredible. Men jumped and shouted, hugged each other, even rolled on the ground. Outwardly they were still captives, but inwardly they were free. That’s the hope that changes life !!
Christ is Risen
He is Risen indeed.
In Him,
Brown
Rembrandt van Rijn: Resurrection
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnHksDFHTQI
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