hope

 

 

Well my dear ones,

 

 

I hope you had an awesome Resurrection Day!

 

That’s what Easter actually means;

it’s a day of hope,

hope that as the walls of death

were broken for Jesus by Jesus,

so shall they be for us.

 

I’m not big on religion;

I have little time for such things;

(as my buddy Drew likes to say,

 “religion kills people,”

while a relationship with God is life)

I like to study the history of it,

but I’m more concerned with having

a right relationship with God,

like one that really matters.

 

As someone much smarter than me put it:

 

“Pure and undefiled religion before God

and the Father is this:

to visit orphans and widows in their trouble,

and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”

 

Yes, it was Jesus’ own bro, James,

who wrote that a couple thousand years ago,

back when he was running the church in Rome.

 

The funny thing is, while Jesus was alive,

and running around healing people,

even to the point of raising the dead,

James didn’t believe in him.

 

But after Jesus died,

James was running a church.

What’s up with that?

 

The Resurrection.

 

The word of hope didn’t come from

The Sermon on the Mount,

or from some cute fuzzy stuff Jesus said;

The word spread because after he

came out of the tomb,

Jesus hung around for over a month

and met and talked with over 500 people.

 

That’s why the apostle Paul says

hey, if you don’t believe what I’m saying

then go and talk to one of the 500 people

who met with Jesus after the Resurrection;

they’re still around (i.e. at the time

he was writing).

 

The word of hope spread because those 500

went out and spoke to others

of what they had seen first hand,

one who had conquered sin

and broken the law of death.

 

As Jesus said,

“Because I live, you also will live.”

(John 14:9 NIV)

 

As my friend, Jason puts it:

 

“That is why the message of Easter

can be summed up in one word...hope.

 

“Jesus didn’t rise to give us a holiday.

 He rose to give up hope.”

 

 

 

Have a great week. =)

 

grace, peace, and love to you,

dave