12. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

"You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since we now have been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through Him! For if, when we were still God's enemies, we were reconciled to Him through the death of His Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through His life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Romans 5:6-11

These are the verses I read this morning. Praise God for His love. Even while we were still in sin, disobedient and rebellious, Christ died for us! For me. For you. His death and resurrection provided the only way for us to be reconciled to God, to have a perfect relationship with God...the kind that Adam and Eve had before the fall. They walked with Him, talked with Him and had an intimate relationship with the Creator God. Then they disobeyed. The perfect relationship was broken; they were separated from God. Their new destiny: death.

We all fall short of God's glory. We all sin and, therefore, we all face death. But, Jesus came. The perfect, sinless sacrifice. Beaten, ridiculed, mocked and murdered. All for love. To reconcile us to God. To free us from sin and death. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. Only through Jesus can we have a right relationship with God. "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved...for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.'" (Romans 10:9,13)

I pray that each of you knows this as truth and already have a right relationship with God through Jesus. If not, I pray that you will ask God to show you truth. He will only show you Jesus.

Moving on...

I heart Easter!! What a great time it is to share with friends, family and neighbors who don't know about the One, True God.

We had a great day. It began with a little Jesus time and then a gift from the Easter bunny (also known as Reba's mom...have a told you how wonderful it is to have a mother in the house?).

special delivery

Then, we attended an Easter church service. Afterwards, we began to set up and prepare for the Easter celebration we hosted in our home for our neighbors.

First, the kids came over. They heard the Easter story through resurrection eggs (google it). We had cake and played a few games. They were so fun and so attentive to the Easter story. They asked great questions. We pray that they will hide the things they have heard in their little learning hearts and one day follow Him. Here are some pictures.





Afterwards, the women and older kids came over for a viewing of The Passion of the Christ (sorry, I didn't get any photos). Boy, was it powerful. I sobbed and sobbed, of course. I hadn't seen it since I watched it in the theater. All the women were very moved and asked a few questions. Some of them had seen it before, but it was the first time for many. We are asking for fruit and hoping to see even more interest from them in days to come. It got late, and we didn't get a good chance to have a discussion. Our plan is to go by our friends' homes individually to talk to them about the movie and what they saw.

As we sat around tonight talking about the day, the one thing we all talked about as being so amazing and such a privilege is that we have been the first to tell them Truth. Awesome.