Matthew captures the events of this most amazing Sunday morning:
"After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb. Look, there was a great earthquake, for an angel from the Lord came down from heaven. Coming to the stone, he rolled it away and sat on it. Now his face was like lightning and his clothes as white as snow. The guards were so terrified of him that they shook with fear and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He isn’t here, because he’s been raised from the dead, just as he said. Come, see the place where they laid him. Now hurry, go and tell his disciples, ‘He’s been raised from the dead. He’s going on ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there.’ I’ve given the message to you."
It takes a thief ...
Charles Wendell 'Chuck' Colson served as Special Counsel to President Richard Nixon from 1969 to 1973. Once known as President Nixon's 'hatchet man', Colson gained notoriety at the height of the Watergate scandal, for being named as one of the Watergate Seven, and pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for attempting to defame Pentagon Papers defendant Daniel Ellsberg. In 1974, he served seven months in the federal Maxwell Prison in Alabama as the first member of the Nixon administration to be incarcerated for Watergate-related charges.
Of Easter Sunday Chuck Colson says:
"I know the resurrection is a fact, and Watergate proved it to me. How? Because 12 men testified they had seen Jesus raised from the dead, then they proclaimed that truth for 40 years, never once denying it. Every one was beaten, tortured, stoned and put in prison. They would not have endured that if it weren't true. Watergate embroiled 12 of the most powerful men in the world - and they couldn't keep a lie for three weeks. Your'e telling me 12 apostles could keep a lie for 40 years? Absolutely impossible."
Colson became a Christian in 1973. His mid-life conversion to Christianity sparked a radical life change that led to the founding of his non-profit ministry Prison Fellowship and, three years later, Prison Fellowship International, to a focus on Christian worldview teaching and training around the world.
Only by grace can we enter ...
John wrote in his Gospel - 'God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.' John was capturing the real essence of the story about Jesus. Throughout the writing of the Bible one message is clear 'God loves everything that he created and will stop at nothing to be reunited with humankind.' The Gospel writers make it clear that God uses gentle persuasion and invitation to draw people to him, and he provides everyone with his grace to commence an intimate relationship with him. There's not anything we have to do, or even can do, to earn such love and grace. All we need to do is stop, sit down and receive it.
Let the events of this day fill your heart and mind with an everlasting joy and fullness.
