Happy Easter!
As I was sharing Easter messages this morning with my friends and family, I thought that it would be appropriate to share my thoughts with this group as well. The message that I chose below was sent to a young teenage man who I have been encouraging in the faith. Having grown up myself in an institutional church and been exposed to all of the truths of the Christian faith, I heard all of the right messages as a kid but never really put it all together until later in life. Perhaps that's because we were taught that our faith was not something to be shared personally but rather corporately through the church and Christian schools that we attended. Anywhere, here's what I said to this young man...
I really want to stress just how important Jesus' resurrection is to the Christian faith. Even though I grew up in a Christian home and have been a Christian most of my life, it wasn't until 2006 at the age of 43 that I'd say that I really discovered Christ in a meaningful way. A friend invited me to a two-day conference on the resurrection and while sitting in one of the sessions it really struck me that Jesus' death and resurrection were real events in history, not just some made-up story or unimportant footnote in the Bible. This is the main theme of Scripture, and without it there would be no salvation for God's people. So as you go through your day today I encourage you think about Christ's real sacrifice on the cross for our sins. And not just for the "sins of the world", but the personal sins that you and I commit every day. It's amazing to think that if everyone else in the world was perfect and I was the only sinner that remained that Jesus would still have endured all of that pain and suffer just for me! Now that is a truly humbling thought
May God bless each and every one of you today.
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Hello dear brother, thank you for another message of encouragement.
For many centuries, the hierarchy-loving planners in the Catholic church devised more and more ways to stretch the limits of the "clergy and laity". The Lord's supper, for example, became a non-meal which could only be served by the non-laity. But that was not enough. The idea was floated that the wine could be transformed into the real blood of Jesus. Thus the Catholic service became a weekly magic show.
With modern chemistry we now know that the chemical state of the grape juice was not changed. So, will the purpretratrors of this myth apologize?
I bring up the subject of chemistry today because in view of Easter and the resurrection, an amazing miraculous chemical transformation really did occur - as Our Lord was brought back from the dead.
Why not? Jesus is the creator-mastermind of all the sciences and their governing laws. For him to control these laws is no challenge whatsoever.
Hallelujah, what a Savior!