Dear Friends,
Greetings to you in the powerful name of Jesus the Christ!
“And then they remembered”. Luke 24: 8
So how is your memory? It seems that there are some days that I have no problem remembering people’s names, appointments, special dates and so forth. But I have noticed as time marches on and more gray hair appears on my head that remembering has become more challenging.
This is the season to remember! It is time to pause and realize that God does not forget like you and me. God has acted once and for all by raising Jesus from the dead. He lives! The tomb is empty!
Yet this fulfilled Easter promise seemed hard for those early followers of Jesus to believe. Death is death! They saw him carry the cross out to Golgotha to be crucified! They saw the soldiers nail his hands and feet to that cross! They saw the spear go into the side of Christ! They saw him breath his last. So it is understandable that on that Easter morning it was going to take some time before this truth would sink in and they would remember. They would remember what Jesus said to Mary and Martha as they grieved the death of Lazarus – “I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in me though he die yet shall he live. And who ever lives and believes in me shall never die.” They would remember that Jesus said he would rebuild the temple in three days. They would remember that Jesus had come for just this reason.
Yet – like the disciples we seem to live as though we have forgotten the promise of Easter morning. We live as though death has the final word and that is that. We seem to live as though seeing is believing. Well, I am here to say that believing is seeing. I believe that the tomb is empty and that truth changes the way I live today! I believe that Jesus is the resurrection & the life! I believe not because I see but because of what God promised!
We live at a time that seems to be driven by fear and not by hope. It is time that we as people of faith start to remember! Recall what Paul wrote in Romans 6 – “Don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” WOW!! A New Life!
Do you want to know what that New Life in Christ is like? Then come and join us as we explore together “A LIFE WORTH LIVING”. We will explore together how it is possible to live the Christian Life positively, practically and joyfully. It is time to remember what Jesus said and did! It is time to REMEMBER!!
In Christ,
Pastor Jim Gerth
