"Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.".... And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, "Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." --- John 10:17, 18; 20:26-29
This is being posted a day early due to the fact that come tomorrow morning Jean and I will be off to a rather early start. We will journey 27 miles to the church we have been working with for over 8 years in Gipsy PA. If you want to take a look at it plus some other things we have posted there, slip on over to Gipsy Christian Church -- a Musings of a Maverick link is there to bring you back here.
We will be having an Easter Sunrise service at 7:00 AM. After that we will be having an Easter fellowship breakfast in our newly acquired church hall just across the parking lot from the church. We do more than the cinnamon rolls and coffee thing -- our men do eggs, potatoes, sausage, pancakes, toast with all the trimmings! Yes, there are some doughnuts too! So we have a great time of fellowship -- it's just like family!
Then we will go back to the church for our regular worship time at about 9:30 AM for more celebrating.
Our celebration involves the greatest victory ever won in the history of the human race. It was won by the Lord Jesus Christ over the human enemies of sin, death, Satanic forces, and Hell!
A gang of people thought they had finally gotten rid of Jesus that day 2,000 years ago when they saw Him die on a Roman cross -- bunch of blind fools! Three days later He came out of the tomb alive! What does it all mean?
By virtue of our true repentance from our sins -- the receiving of Him into our lives as our personal Savior and Lord we have not only victory over sin, Satan, death and Hell, but the "fringe benefits" which are a part of all that:
- His promised living presence with us always (Note this in the Great Commission statement in Matthew 28).
- His promised peace to give rock solid assurance as we continue our journey in this perilous world -- while the storms swirl around us, within is that still small voice saying, "Peace, be still!" Also, a reminder from out of the Psalms, "Be still and know that I am God!" (Also note His reference to peace in John 14 & 16).
- His promised power as imparted by the Holy Spirit (Note this in the opening portion of the book of Acts).
- His promised provision for the meeting of our needs as mentioned by Paul in Philippians 4.
- His promise of a prepared place -- so special in so many ways including the fact that it is totally free from all corruption, pollution, conflict, pain and sorrow. Something great to look forward to when our journey here on earth has ended, is it not? (Note this in John 14 and further details in Revelation 21).
Unfortunately over the decades past there has been the infiltration of one of the most deadly heresies within the ranks of the church ever perpetrated in the history of the human race -- those "scholars," theologians, professors of theology and pastors who say/teach that Jesus did not literally come back from the dead! Mention is made somewhere on the vast acreage of Circuit Rider's Range of a seminary student who was very excited about entering the ministry and while in seminary he had a professor who did not believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. This charlatan seemed dedicated to convincing students in his class that this was so. The student in question could not handle that -- dropped out of seminary -- abandoned what he believed had been a call to the ministry and his life ended up a disaster!
For a few of us -- let the skeptics, inside the church as well as out in the world, rave on in their blindness and their first magnitude ignorance that Jesus is still in the grave -- we know better, do we not? After all when you are in conversation and fellowship with Him each day you know that more than a corpse is necessary for such experiences!
I do often sort out the human race by using such terms as "few" vs. "many" -- the reason? Because that's how Jesus often did it when referring to humanity -- separated into two categories -- "few" and "many!" But more about that at a later time.
I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today; I know that He is living, whatever men may say......He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives, He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives? He lives within my heart. --- from song, He Lives, written by Alfred H. Ackley
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