March 1991
Worship The Lord Together
Praise His Holy Name!
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March 31 will be Easter. On that day millions of little boys and girls will bound out of their beds in search of Easter baskets filled with candy. Easter egg hunts will be held in parks all over our country. Baby chicks and bunnies will be given as gifts. In churches, sunrise services will be held complete with song services and prayers. Special breakfasts and luncheons will be planned.Young ladies will put on their new Easter dresses and bonnet's , while the fellows break out their best suit one more time. Auditorium platforms will be filled with Easter lilies, while auditorium pews are filled not only with the regulars, but also with those who feel a certain obligation to attend the Lord's house on "special days", pastors will preach a message on the resurrection. At noon, closing prayers will be said, the door will open, and for many, Easter will be over for another year.
Perhaps the greatest tragedy of religious holidays is that for many individuals, the spiritual significance of those holidays is confined to the particular day. The message "For unto us a child is born", is forgotten by New Years Day, and Christ's message of "I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live", is all but a fleeting memory by the time folks head to work on Monday morning. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of our beliefs. If He did not rise, then He was not God, for He could not defeat death and corruption. If He was not God, then He cannot have been a worthy sacrifice for the sins of the world. If His sacrifice is not sufficient, then we have no salvation. As Paul writes in I Cor. 15:19, "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable." But, praise the Lord, Christ did rise from the dead! He proved His Deity, and he worthiness of His blood sacrifice on the cross of Calvary. He provided a way of salvation for us through repentance and belief in Him and has given us the victory not only for eternity, but in this life as well. In light of all this, how can we confine our thanks, praise and worship of Him to a brief one or two hour period on a Sunday morning? This year,, let's not only be sure to have our priorities right on Easter Sunday, but let's remember what Christ did for us as we travel each day down life's road. As one man has said, "The greatest message the world ever heard came from a graveyard in Jerusalem:
HE IS RISEN!"
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