Easter is known as ‘Resurrection Day’ around the world. Resurrection gives us hope for the future regardless of our today. When famous scientist Marie Curie, who along with her husband, Pierre, discovered radium, learned that her husband had just died in an accident, she exclaimed, “It is the end of everything, everything, everything!”
When German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer was sentenced to be hanged in 1945 by the Nazis the next morning, he declared, “For me, this is the beginning.”
Do you see death as the end of your existence or the real beginning? That’s where faith comes in.
Tags: death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Easter, Marie Curie, resurrection
Today is Good Friday and the local community service is tonight at New Hope from 7-8PM. I would love to see you here.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) was British Prime Minister during World War 2. He stirred a war-weary people to fight and made international alliances that helped to win the war.
He made some specific requests regarding his funeral service. He asked that it begin with the playing of “Taps”, the traditional military signal played at the end of the day or the end of life. We often hear “Taps” played at graveside services for veterans in our country.
But when Churchill’s funeral service was over, those in attendance were startled to hear trumpets play the familiar strains of “Reveille,” the stirring call that awakens troops at the beginning of a new day. Did Churchill have it backwards, or did he have a keen insight into his own future?
Paul wrote: “We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).
Tags: death, funeral, resurrection, Winston Churchill
Tomorrow is Good Friday, the day we recognize Christ’s death on the cross. Don’t forget about the Good Friday Community Service, hosted at New Hope, from 7-8PM. Pastor David Mathews, of the United Methodist Church, will be speaking.
What do you think about death? Do you see it as a good thing or a bad thing? No one knows for sure what Benjamin Franklin believed about life after death. He remained conspicuously silent about it, except for what he wrote in his own epitaph:
The Body of
B. Franklin, printer,
(like the cover of an old book,
its contents torn out and stripped of its lettering and gilding)
lies here, food for worms.
But the work shall not be lost;
for it will (as he believed)
appear once more,
in a new and more elegant edition,
revised and corrected
by the Author.
This epitaph confirms Paul’s statement in Philippians 3:20-21 that the risen Lord will transform our corruptible bodies, making them like His own glorious body. What will your epitaph say about your hope?
Tags: B. Franklin, body, death, resurrection
Young Jonathan, who had been promised a new puppy for his tenth birthday, had a tough time choosing between a dozen likely candidates at the neighborhood pet shop. Finally he decided upon one nondescript shaggy pup who was wagging his tail furiously. Explained Jonathan, “I want the one with the happy ending.”
Everyone loves a story with a happy ending. Anita and I prefer to watch older movies on TCM because they tend to have a happy ending. I have invested my life in other people because I love seeing happy endings in their lives. Trouble tends to rob our happiness, but standing firm in the faith through those trials brings about the happy ending we desire.
Today is a day when you can help bring about a happy ending in someone else’s life. Speak words of hope to them no matter what they throw back. Show God’s compassion like “Chris” did to the bag lady in our skit last weekend. Don’t take an offense but be a friend to the friendless.
Tags: adoption, Caring, encouragement, resurrection
Two hundred miles northeast of Los Angeles is a baked-out gorge called Death Valley – the lowest place in the United States, dropping 276 feet below sea level. It is also the hottest place in the country, with an official recording of 134°. Streams flow into Death Valley only to disappear, and a scant two and a half inches of rain falls on the barren wasteland each year.
But, several years ago, an amazing thing happened. For nineteen straight days rain fell onto that bone-dry earth. Suddenly all kinds of seed, dormant for years, burst into bloom. In a valley of death there was life!
That is the Easter message. A desert becomes a garden. Beauty transcends the ugly. Love outwits and outlasts hatred. A tomb is emptied. The grim and haunting outline of a cross disappears in the glow of Easter morning. Easter is only three months away; let’s prepare to celebrate.
Tags: death, desert, dry, resurrection
A boy was playing with his pet turtle when all at once the turtle turned blue, fell over on his back and lay motionless. Upset, the boy ran in to tell his father. The father, an award-winning salesman, sized up the situation, put the turtle in a little box, and proceeded to share his faith with his son. He told of the joys of eternal life and the beauty of surrounding the heavenly throne in his most convincing sales manner. He also told about the marvelous wake that they would hold for the late departed turtle, and that the boy could invite his friends over for ice cream and cake.
During the talk the boy gradually brightened up. Seeing this, the father decided to close by inviting the boy out to bury the turtle. When they arrived outside and opened the box there was the turtle walking around as if nothing had happened.
With a cheery glow on his face, the boy looked up at his father and said, “Dad, let’s kill him!”
Tags: celebration, death, humor, resurrection, turtle
First Baptist Church of Manayunk in Philadelphia purchased an old abandoned house next to the church to expand its parking lot back in the late 1960s. For more years than anyone could remember, a bed of Daffodils (Easter Lillies) had bloomed to welcome each new Spring.
The construction company contracted to tear down the building and to pave the new lot did so in the Fall, so no thought was given to the old flower bed which was leveled off and covered over with eight inches of black asphalt or tarmac. A huge roller then came in and compacted the asphalt down to four inches of rock hard pavement. Everyone enjoyed the new parking lot and soon forgot about the old house and garden. That was, they forgot about it until Spring. The first thing noticed was that an area of asphalt was cracking upward and then just in time for Easter, those dormant, buried and forgotten daffodils burst forth, right up through the pavement to bloom and celebrate the Resurrection.
Nothing could hold those daffodils back, nothing could hold Jesus in the grave, and nothing will hinder the resurrection of the dead some day. I’m gonna stay ready.
Tags: daffodils, life, resurrection