“For we live by faith, not by sight”. 2 Corinthians 5:7

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.  

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” -Matthew 28:19-20a.

The Day the Son of God Died

I can picture His mother crying
As she stands at the foot of the cross.
Blinded by grief, trembling with fear,
All hope for his life is now lost.
His disciples are staring up at the cross
Tear-stained faces stark with confusion.
Stunned by the loss, they ponder the future
Still hoping this was all an illusion.
The crowd, gleefully, cheers for His death.
Until they feel the ground start to shake.
Suddenly quiet, their glee becomes fear
At the proclamation He makes.
“It is finished.” He says. What does that mean?
They urgently ask one another.
Then when it’s clear no one has answers,
They turn to implore of his mother.
Quickly, she sees the fear that is building
It brings an actual chill to the air.
And as she wonders what she should do,
The fear is turning to terror.
Suddenly the afternoon sky starts to darken,
Quickly the day becomes dark as night.
Some stand still watching in wonder
While others, give in to fear and take flight.
Outside the city, tombstones roll open
The dead come alive; reborn.
In the Holy of Holies, the priest looks on 
As the veil in the temple is torn.
After they killed the son of God,
Crucified a savior they could not see as real,
Did they wonder what would become of their lives,
Stunned by what the resurrection revealed?
Did they ever understand the forgiveness of God
Or understand they had a choice to face?
When they learned salvation laid with He whom they killed,
Were they able to conceive of God’s grace?
Were they ever reconciled by the Savior of the world
To a life with their honor and humanity restored?
I’d like to think they chose to live their lives in peace
By choosing Jesus Christ as their Lord?
Linda Troxell © November 12, 2019

Holy Week

Here we are at the end of another Holy Week spent in the time of COVID. Here in California most churches have resumed in person services. Some relegate them to outdoors, masks optional distance mandatory.

Others prefer inside with masks and the distancing of 6 feet mandatory. This necessarily means fewer worshipers then the church provides for.

For some this probably isn’t a problem as they rarely filled the pews anyway. For others, it makes for a first come first serve situation.

Most churches have established live streaming of their services. Some were doing so before the pandemic, but most community churches were pushed to live stream due to COVID.

It seems, however, that almost everyone likes the availability of live stream services. You know, for those Sunday mornings we just can’t get out of bed? Now we don’t have to and there is no guilt attached.

Although it’s the second Easter we have had to navigate the pandemic, live streaming church is still something fairly new this Easter season.

Many of our churches got a slow start because they believed the President when he said we would all be back in church that first Easter of COVID.

But Holy Week came and went, and we were unable to go to church to celebrate.

In comparison, the original Holy Week was jam packed for Jesus and the apostles. On Palm Sunday Jesus’ raucously entered into Jerusalem as a hero.

On Monday He ran the money changers out of the temple. Tuesday found Him at the Mount of Olives teaching about the end times and His second coming,

Midweek, on Wednesday, the scholars differ on what took place. Some say it was a simple a rest day and others say it was the day Judas negotiated the deal to betray Jesus. No one seems to be sure.

Thursday, however, was without doubt, the Passover feast. It was followed by Jesus’ prayer to the Father at Gethsemane that caused Him to sweat blood. And of course the betrayal of Jesus and His capture.

And then came the darkest day of the week, as on Friday Jesus carried His cross up the hill to His death at Calvary. As He stumbled and fell, He was whipped, kicked and spit on.

All of those who loved Him were sure He would save Himself in the end. But when He didn’t they were heartbroken. Their savior was gone without a fight or even a protest.

Saturday must have been a long and sad Sabbath. Not even any work to do to distract them and no one to comfort them in their grief. But His apostles probably could not conceive of ever being comforted again.

Then finally Sunday, the day of joy when Jesus rose from the dead leaving an empty tomb with grave clothes behind.

As Christians, we celebrate all of Holy Week even though it is not all joyful. But, for us, the crucifixion of the Christ is a joyful event because we know what it brings in the end.

So we gather as a church community to share the joy of the risen Christ and the finished work of the cross.

The celebration of Holy week last year, restricted by COVID, caused us as Christians to stretch beyond our traditional ways to celebrate.

We had to come up with new ways to be together as a community, new ways to be with our families and new ways to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and savior.

And it looks like for some of us there will be the same new ways again

While we, in the church, have had to change much because of COVID, the predictable online articles, YouTube videos, and “news” stories investigating the truth of the resurrection have not changed at all.

I understand, that in the world’s scientific view there is just no way to resurrect someone who is dead. Therefore, in their minds it cannot be true.

However, I’m confused. They are convinced it’s a hoax because it’s impossible within natural laws. But isn’t the definition of a miracle, something that happens outside natural laws?  

Isn’t that simply supernatural? And isn’t the supernatural a miracle? So why isn’t the resurrection a miracle?  

By the same token, I guess the scientific folks can’t understand why they can’t prove to Christians that the resurrection is impossible.

They don’t understand that they can’t prove the resurrection didn’t happen because we believe by faith and not by sight.

If it could be proven by natural laws, why would we need faith? “For we live by faith, not by sight”. 2 Corinthians 5:7

I have to admit, however, that I was once one of those scientific folks. And like most of them I believed in some kind of amorphous God; an undefinable something bigger than myself. A higher power, if you will.

Now, when I think of having such a vague belief, I find it confusing; just as I found belief in a personal God confusing back then.

When I was a believer in the scientific explanation for life, I often heard or read Christians say that they believed it took more faith to believe in the big bang theory and evolution than to believe in a creator God.

I thought they were being sarcastic, not once did I think they really meant it. Until I really meant it myself.

I also heard often that the more technology evolved the more able science will become to definitively explain life and its origins.

However, it seems to me that the more technology evolves, the more questions regarding life are being posed that cannot be answered by science.

The truth is, for me, and I believe hundreds of millions like me, as the complexity of human life is revealed, e.g. 15 trillion cells, each containing 100 trillion atoms, the less likely evolution seems a plausible hypothesis.

What is it Hoyle’s Fallacy says? Something to the effect of believing in evolutionary biology, is like believing there is a chance that a tornado can sweep through a junkyard and assemble a Boeing 747.

Can you see why I understand it takes more faith to believe in evolution than to believe in the creator God? Even the scientist who was in charge of the human genome mapping believes in God as the creator.

I don’t have any hope that this science vs God disagreement will be settled soon. I don’t think a true believer from either side is seriously open to considering the basic truths of the other.

But when there is a change of view, it’s most likely to come from science to religion. I think growing older makes us consider faith more seriously.

But, let’s talk about the eve of the Crucifixion, a most important, and joyous, day for Christians. It is the time to spread the Good News of the Gospel.

That news being that Jesus is the son of God who came to earth in human form, led a sinless life and then was sacrificed on the cross and raised from the dead on the third day.

He did this to redeem the sins of the world so that mankind could be reconciled to God.

And the one and only price of the irrevocable admission to Christianity is that you believe that you are saved by grace through faith. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God not by works, so that no one can boast. Ephesians 2:8-9.  

Anyone who simply declares with their mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believes in their heart that God raised him from the dead, will be saved.  

Christian Apologetics exists as an important tool for sharing and defending Christianity. As Christians, we are commanded to do that.  

Jesus commissioned all of us to go out and spread the Good News. “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” -Matthew 28:19-20a.

But that’s not the only reason we share the gospel. We share because the Gospel is so critical to all of us. We, Christians, want to save our fellow man from being separated from God for eternity.

We try so hard to convince others of the truth of what we believe because we also believe they will be lost in hell for eternity if we don’t convince them. So, there is a logic to how hard we try to “sell our religion”.

We don’t really enjoy the look on your face when we begin to tell you about God, but God demands it of us. However, for the life of me, I can’t understand why it is so important to atheists to try to prove Christianity isn’t true.

Why do they care if we believe something that they believe will ultimately prove untrue?  After all, if we are mistaken all it means is that we had a nice life trying to spread love to everyone, believing in a loving God, and were disappointed in the end that there is no heaven. On the other hand, what if they’re wrong?

Let’s Pray

Father we come before you with joyful hearts, on this day your son died to save us from sin and death. And we look forward with love to Sunday, the day commemorating His resurrection from the grave. Many people try during this time each year to convince us that the resurrection makes no sense. And we fully agree that it makes no worldly sense. But they don’t seem to understand that we live by Kingdom sense. A sense that says we have a loving God who made us and will carry us through whatever challenges the world can put in our way.  A sense that says that Jesus is our savior, who intercedes with the Father on our behalf. A sense that says that we have the Holy Spirit living in us, and He leads us to wisdom and truth. And, Lord, we want to thank you for choosing each and every one of us for this privilege before the foundation of the world. And we thank you, Lord, that we will be with you in eternity safe in your loving arms. God we ask that you speak to the hearts of those who don’t believe you exist, those who are risking all of eternity believing in the non- sense of the world. Help them to understand the urgency of accepting your son to obtain their eternal salvation.

We pray this in the holy name of Jesus Amen.

Point for Pondering and Prayer

                   Or

Perhaps to Put Pen to Paper

Has COVID diminished your celebration of Holy week?

If it has what might you change before resurrection day to make that experience all it should be?

Have you been attending church by live stream?  If yes, has it given you what you need from church?

If not, what have you done to stay faithful to God?

Do you think you will continue live streaming from time to time when you can go back to church?