April 17 Newsletter

Beloved Brothers and Sisters:

As we look forward to celebrating Resurrection Sunday this week, take advantage of this special reminder to meditate on the absolutely essential nature of the resurrection of our Lord.  Our faith is unavoidably bound to the supernatural; without the miraculous, without God becoming a man and then being raised from the dead after willingly offering Himself to be brutally murdered, our religion would be worthless (1 Cor 15:13-19).

Since we have been working through the book of Hebrews, I find myself recognizing the importance of the resurrection of Christ in the text we have been studying.  Think about the implications based on where we have been:

Without the resurrection there is no making purification of sins and sitting down and the right hand of the Father (1:2).  Without the resurrection there is no eternal throne (2:8), and we do not see mankind, in its representative head, reigning over creation as it was created to do (2:9).  Without the resurrection there is no victory over death and the hope it brings (2:14-15), and there is no one to offer help to the seed of Abraham (2:16) because there is no one who has endured under every trial (2:18).

Without the resurrection there is no Savior of mankind for us to believe in, no house to be a part of (3:6), no hope of glory on the other end of this present suffering (2:10).  No great High Priest making intercession for us (2:17).  Without the resurrection there is nothing.

Meditating on the resurrection of Christ I cannot help but see the implications of it everywhere in the book of Hebrews.  I cannot imagine there would be anywhere in Scripture we could spend much time meditating upon and not see the implications and necessity of the resurrection.

Wherever you are at in your personal study of the Scriptures, take time this week to meditate upon the implications and necessity of the resurrection as it is presented in the text you study.  Let it fuel your worship as we gather together to celebrate and glory in this truly world changing event.

In Case You Missed It

• Last Sunday we learned about Jesus’ superiority to Moses.  Listen to The Servant and the Son from Hebrews 3:1-6.
• We are wanting to pick up with the testimonies we were hearing every week a while back.  Pray about giving your testimony.
• A number of you have responded to me with updated information for the church directory.  For that  I thank you.  For those of you who have not yet, please get that to me.

• Names and birthdays of everyone in the family
• Phone numbers
• Email Addresses
• Physical Address

• Remember that this Sunday is Easter Sunday, our first Sunday morning service.  The service will be at 10:00 am, and we will be meeting together at 8:30 to enjoy breakfast before the service.  This would be a good occasion to invite the families from Project Christmas to come and join us, or anyone else  from the community that might be willing to come on account of the holiday.