Easter Sunday : He Is Risen Indeed

I hope you are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus today with your family and friends.  He is risen indeed!

We are headed to our older son's church this morning, then back to his house to cook out and spend the afternoon together.

If you can't make it to church, here is a wonderful sermon by John Piper, both text and audio.

Scripture:  1 Peter 1: 3-9



The Power of Hope

...That's how a 2,000-year-old resurrection reaches my heart and begets hope: it certifies to me that because Jesus bore my sins on the cross, God is for me and not against me; and it declares that this Jesus who loved me and gave himself for me is alive and present and caring at every moment of my life. Thank you, Jesus!...

Music:  The Power of the Cross

Have a blessed Easter Day with your loved ones and family.
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I'm a huge fan of Elisabeth Elliot and I had never read this poem by her:

Easter by Elizabeth Elliot

When the chief priests, temple officers, and elders came

to the Garden of Gethsemane

to arrest

Jesus,

they succeeded

only because a

sovereign God

permitted them to succeed.

Jesus pointed out that He was teaching daily in the Temple, yet

they never laid a finger on Him then.

Now they were after Him with swords and staves.

"But this is your hour, and the power of darkness is yours" (Lk 22:53 JBP).

Who gave them that hour?

Who allowed them the power to capture Him?

It was God,

without whose leave not even a

sparrow can fall to the ground.

God is omnipotent,

never slumbering,

just,

righteous, and

forever in control.

He was not taken by

surprise.

All was working then, as it is always working, into a pattern for good.

Our own difficulties often appear to be

random.

Our tragedies look wildly

uncontrolled.

They are not.

They are subject.

Limits are set.

God is quietly at work,

standing in the shadows,

ceaselessly watching over

His children.

"The light shines on in the dark, and the darkness has never mastered it" (Jn l:5 NEB).

Elisabeth Elliot, 1926 –

revised