Good morning! Grace and peace to you as you serve the Lord today and this week.
There’s a short list of Kindle deals to look at today.
(Yesterday on the blog: To the Mourner)
“Jesus and Resurrection? What’s This Babbler Trying to Say?”
“Babbling. Lots of talk is just that: babbling. Babbling, of course, is babbled by babblers. There’s no need to pay attention. It’s all just gas.”
A Murderer Finds Resurrection Life
This is a neat testimony to God’s grace. “Our family’s relationship with our next-door neighbor had always been friendly: smiling and waving from driveways, conversations about lawn upkeep or the weather, watching our kids play together in the cul-de-sac. But one day that spring I walked out of my house to find Martin pacing anxiously between our homes, tears streaming down his face, muttering unintelligibly under his breath.”
What if the Resurrection Never Happened?
“So enthralled (rightly) are we by the cross of Christ that we can, if we’re not careful, inadvertently underplay what happened on Easter—the bodily, literal resurrection of Jesus. After all, without Easter Sunday, Good Friday is just another Friday.”
The Church Is Still The Bride Of Christ
I think you can tell where this one is going: “Imagine turning up at a wedding, heading towards the groom and telling him he was a great mate, a general all round good guy and your favourite friend. Then after a short pause you tell him ‘but your bride is a hideous troll isn’t she. Can’t stand her mate.’ A few minutes later you find yourself ejected out of the wedding, not sure what has gone wrong. You don’t understand why your mate responded the way he did. After all, you had told him how much you liked him.”
Show Up!
This is a good reminder of the centrality of the local church. “Folks attending the membership class at our church are often surprised at the emphasis we place on attending our Lord’s Day gathering. However gifted someone might be at talking to teenagers or working on the website, we insist their presence at corporate worship is a far more essential and significant way to serve the flock. This priority isn’t just a particular quirk of our church; it should be a biblical priority for every church.”
When Reality Crashes In
“Times like these quickly bathe my heart in soberness. I am reminded, once again, of the brevity of life and how my well-ordered days, my future plans and the well-being of those I love so dearly can be permanently changed in an instant. I am reminded of the uncertainty of life which keeps me clinging to a God who most certainly has planned and ordained each day.”
Flashback: Christ Our Hope In Life and Death
Unless Jesus returns first, we will all die. To find comfort in life, we must know how we can face death. Hope comes only in trusting the one who died to take the curse of death and who crushed the power of death by His resurrection.
The stone was rolled away from the tomb, not to let Jesus out, but to let the world in.
—Steven Lawson
