TOGETHER:
Only God offers victory over death
___Allow me to take the drawstrings of your mind and heart and loosen them a bit so that the reality of Christ's Easter sacrifice can be dropped into your consciousness and there burn and give light.
___He was a very young man when it all came to pass. Most say he could have been no more than 33.
___But as God, he was bot
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CHARLES WADE
Executive Director
BGCT Executive Board
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h very old and very young. He was from the beginning; before time began to be measured. Too old to count. And he was and is the I Am, the Eternal Present, always young (John 1:1-14, Hebrews 13:8, Revelation 1:8).
___And there at the crossroads of Israel's life where Roman occupation and Jewish religious life intersected, they killed him. They said it was because he was a blasphemer, claiming to be God. The Romans hardly knew what to do with that kind of religious devotion, but they wanted no troubles. They turned their heads away and sent a few soldiers to carry out the execution.
___He died in agony, but he didn't linger long. They had no way of knowing the burden he was carrying in his heart was far heavier than the loads carried by the ships that sailed the Great Sea, and that it was that crushing weight that pressed the life out of him. Since that moment, God's forgiveness of sin has been available to all who will come to the cross and look on him, be broken in repentance and ask him to give new life.
___What changed because of the presence of Christ in the world?
___People who were being manipulated and bullied by their religious leaders found a defender in Jesus. Your religious authorities "tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them" (Matthew 23:4).
___People who were helpless, sick and left alone found in Jesus' words dignity, comfort and healing. Jesus declared: "The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor" (Matthew 11:4).
___People found a new way to understand the heart of God. God is like a father who welcomes home his wayward son, like a shepherd who will not rest until he finds the last one of his sheep, like a woman who searches for her treasured coin and rejoices with her friends when she finds it (Luke 15).
___People found a new way to pray and give, a new way to understand the temple and Sabbath, a new way to treat sinners. They found that they mattered to God (Matthew 6, 12:1-14, John 4:21-24, 8:1-11).
___And they found the way to heaven. Jesus invited them to follow him, and he would be the way there. Death lost its sting (John 14:6, 3:16-17).
___When they walked away from the cross and left him hanging there, they thought it was all done. But God was not finished with Jesus. Buried, God raised up his Son and emptied the grave. That victory over death is the victory God gives to all who place themselves in the heart of Jesus and ask for his gracious salvation to include them.
___Please be sure you do.
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