Mighty Resurrection

 

[1]

Matthew 28:2-4 Good News Translation

 ² Suddenly there was a violent earthquake; an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled the stone away, and sat on it. ³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. ⁴ The guards were so afraid that they trembled and became like dead men.

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In our Better Than 50 Club meeting the week before Easter, I asked the members to bring a text they liked about Christ’s death and resurrection.

John Champlin spoke about Abraham’s answer to Isaac’s question about a lamb for the sacrifice. “God will provide Himself a lamb.” He submitted that Abraham knew that God was providing His body as the sacrifice. He understood what God’s purpose to abolish sin would be.

Amongst other responses to the Easter message, I suggested: Satan, with the cooperation of God’s people had successfully killed Christ by the most inhumane method they could think of. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had been assigned Christ’s dead body and had buried it in Joseph’s rock tomb. On Sabbath the high priest and Pilate, the Roman governor, had stationed a hundred tough Roman soldiers around the entrance to the tomb. No human disciples were going to steal His body and circulate the rumor that Christ had risen. Satan posted legions of his most ruthless angels around the whole area. No angel would dare break through their guard! Satan gloated over his victory over the Son of God.

Although He told them numerous times, Christ’s disciples never understood that Christ would rise on the third day. But God did. On the dawn of Easter Sunday, God’s mightiest angel descended directly to the tomb in a blinding flash of lightning. Satan’s legions of angels on guard, scattered in all directions. The flash of light and bolt of thunder caused a great earthquake and the Roman guard to fall as dead men about the tomb. With his little finger the angel flipped away the massive rock covering the tomb.

The angel called in a death-defying voice: “Your Father is calling You!” Christ immediately stood up. The grave clothes fell from his glorified body, and he strode out of the tomb, a conqueror.

The angel sat down on the rock he had flipped aside just as Christ’s devout women followers came up to the tomb, carrying embalming ointment. They peered into the empty tomb and then turned a questioning eye towards the mighty angel.

The angel spoke to the women. ‘You must not be afraid,’ he said. ‘I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. ⁶ He is not here; he has been raised, just as he said. Come here and see the place where he was lying. ⁷ Go quickly now, and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from death, and now he is going to Galilee ahead of you; there you will see him!’ Remember what I have told you.’” (Matthew 28:5-7 GNT)

“The Lord is risen!” Our salvation is sure. Let us rejoice in our glorious future.

Dear Lord, we thank You and praise Your name for Your unconceivable sacrifice and Your marvelous love for us.

 

 

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[1] https://baptistspirituality.org/2014/04/24/the-day-after-easter-fear-and-joy/

By Reason of Strength they be Fourscore

[1]

 

 Psalm 90:10 Contemporary English Version

¹⁰ We can expect seventy years,
or maybe eighty,
    if we are healthy,
but even our best years
    bring trouble and sorrow.
Suddenly our time is up,
    and we disappear

 

James gives a Christian commentary on that verse: “My friends, consider yourselves fortunate when all kinds of trials come your way, or you know that when your faith succeeds in facing such trials, the result is the ability to endure.”[2]

Today is my 81^st birthday. I have now surpassed the four-score point.  I must confess that as I look back over 81 years, I have had my trouble and sorrow.  On the other hand, I have enjoyed life even in the darkest times.  In the past year my prostate cancer has returned but not with a vengeance yet.  I suffered a stroke, and this prompted my oncologist to say, “Now you are no longer fighting cancer, you are fighting to stay alive. So, stop taking…” and he listed most of my cancer medications.

We had a car accident where a semi pushed us sideways down a freeway ramp at ever increasing speeds. When I took the car in to the body shop a few days later, I was told that my insurance would probably total my car because of the damages—even though I was able to drive it home from the accident. My wife and daughter were in the car, yet none of the three of us suffered any injuries. God has been very good!

Sylvia stated, “Our guardian angels were really looking after us!” To which some wag quipped, “If they were looking after you, why didn’t they prevent you from having an accident?”

We took a lovely trip back east this past summer. We escaped some of the relentless 100º (40ºC) weather and attended Sylvia’s family reunion in North Carolina. At each family reunion we noticed that some of our beloved family members have cashed in on “suddenly our time is up and we disappear.”

However, we are laying concrete plans for a trip to Africa this year and a trip to see a total solar eclipse next year. In the meantime, we may suddenly disappear.

At this point I can only say,

 Thank You, Lord, for a good life and many happy years!

[3]

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[1] https://biblepic.com/psalms/90-10.htm

[2] James 1: 2-3 GNT

[3] https://www.irish-folk-songs.com/three-score-and-ten-lyrics-chords-and-sheet-music.html

Bonds Fall From Prisoners

[1]

Acts 12:9-11 Good News Translation

⁹ Peter followed him out of the prison, not knowing, however, if what the angel was doing was real; he thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ They passed by the first guard station and then the second, and came at last to the iron gate that opens into the city. The gate opened for them by itself, and they went out. They walked down a street, and suddenly the angel left Peter.

¹¹ Then Peter realized what had happened to him, and said, “Now I know that it is really true! The Lord sent his angel to rescue me from Herod's power and from everything the Jewish people expected to happen.”

 

You may not remember the first time you heard this story. I don’t. I encourage you to read it again in Acts 12.

Herod Agrippa, son of Herod the Great who slaughtered the babies in Bethlehem after Christ was born, was as conniving as his father. The Herods were descendants of Esau, not Jacob. So, they were not Jews. This made the extremely nationalistic Jews hate them. The Herods always felt insecure in their position as rulers over the Jews.

Agrippa sensed the hatred the Jews felt towards the followers of Christ, so he arrested James, the brother of John, and in a public execution he killed James. For once the Jews applauded his action. Being no dummy, he arrested Peter and planned a great festival to kill Peter. On the day of Peter’s execution, Agrippa sent his men to fetch Peter and bring him before the huge crowd gathered for the spectacle. They came back empty handed. The standard Roman penalty for losing a prisoner was death. Agrippa was disgraced, and for revenge he ended up killing four quaternions of guards—16 guards. This did not, of course, increase his favor in front of the Jews.

How did Peter escape? Was there magic involved? The Angel materialized in the inner dungeon where Peter was. Chains fell off of Peter, and he walked out of the prison. For an analogy consider a two-dimensional maze like the one above. The object is to draw a crooked line that enters the maze at the red arrow and exits the maze at the green arrow without crossing any of the black lines. However, if you were to cover the maze with a thin strip of transparent plastic, you could simply draw a straight line from the red arrow to the green arrow on the plastic and it would not touch any of the black lines. What just happened? Since you are three-dimensional, not two dimensional, you simply made a line above the paper. This line is out of the two dimensions of the paper—the black lines no longer existed. It was extremely close to the paper, but didn’t touch the paper except at the arrows.

If angels are in four-dimensional space, they could be as close to Peter—in the 4^th-dimension—as a thin sheet of transparent plastic, yet be totally undetectable by Peter and unrestricted by the prison walls and doors. The angel would simply slide Peter out of his three dimensions onto this miniscule thickness of the plastic sheet. He would not slide Peter’s bonds with him, so they would no longer be around his wrists, neck, and ankles, and they would fall to the floor. The bonds and walls and guards are now gone. The four guards in Peter’s cell with him might hear the chains fall and see Peter disappear, but they would be so shocked, they couldn’t respond immediately. Peter was simply there one instant and had totally disappeared the next. The other guards would be completely oblivious to Peter and the angel. Even Peter would be mystified: he “thought he was seeing a vision.” Peter follows the angel out onto the street, and suddenly he’s back in his own three-dimensions, and the angel has effectively disappeared.

I’ll let you fill in the details. How did you imagine this event happening? Again, this whole scenario as I have described it may be totally wrong. There may be no fourth dimension. We need to re-examine the whole concept of our existence. It may be that the angel drugged the guards into a deep sleep like we see in movies, but this would not explain how the bonds fell off or the locked doors opened. 

Thank You, Lord, that You have ways of providing for us that are totally beyond our ken.

 

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Maze_simple.svg

The Gethsemane Battle

 

[1]

1 John 4:9

Good News Translation

⁹ And God showed his love for us by sending his only Son into the world, so that we might have life through him.

 

After many years, last night I again read the chapter in The Desire of Ages entitled “Gethsemane”. In eloquent and deeply emotional prose, Ellen White describes how Christ wrestled with God. He knew that He had come to earth for exactly one purpose—to save the world and its inhabitants from sin. I have seen many definitions of sin: some glorify it, some condemn it, some try to lay out boundaries for it. But in the end, sin is only one thing—rebellion against God. Sin declares puny man’s attempt to deny his Creator and become independent from the only Source of Life.

In the Garden of Gethsemane Christ’s divine nature headed steadfastly forward to the only possible act of redemption for rebellious man. Christ’s human nature, however, sensed the presence of every sin in the world. It felt the eternal separation from God, the terror and despair of inevitable annihilation, the horror of the wrath of God. It buckled and crumbled under this huge weight. His human nature pled with God to find another way of salvation. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me!” a cry wrenched from His very heart. Then in total submission to the divine within Him, He gave way to divinity: “Never the less, not My will but Thine be done!” Three times he sought reprieve but then acquiesced to His great love for sinners.

To His human view, (that was all that He could see at this point in the struggle), all mankind had turned their backs on Him. Even His chosen disciples had fallen asleep when He asked them to pray for Him. His chosen race, His favored people were bent on His destruction. Why? He had taught them, healed them, encouraged them, blessed their children, even fed them and raised their dead. He had expressed His love to them in every action. Was this why they turned away?

Of course not! When sin comes in touch with purity, divinity, perfection, it has but one response—rebellion. This rebellion was the only thing Christ sensed. Fortunately for us, His vast, unending love drove Him on to yield to the divine will and rescue His creatures in spite of their absolute rejection of Him.

When it became completely obvious that Christ was going through literal hell for us, the mightiest angel in Heaven materialized at His side, driving away all the demons that were clustered around Him and crushing out His very life. The angel strengthened Him for this, the greatest battle of the universe.

Thank You, Jesus, for fighting the battle for me, the battle that I had no hope of winning without You. I love You.

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[1] https://www.deseret.com/2019/6/12/20675446/taylor-halverson-why-did-jesus-suffer-in-an-olive-garden-called-gethsemane#olive-trees-in-the-gethsemane-garden-at-the-foot-of-the-mount-of-olives-in-jerusalem

 

Survive the Pandemic

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Psalm 91:1-2 

Good News Translation (GNT)

91 Whoever goes to the Lord for safety,
    whoever remains under the protection of the Almighty,
² can say to him,
    “You are my defender and protector.
    You are my God; in you I trust.”

We are confined to our own homes. We are not to visit our friends or our kids. The only reason to leave the safety of our own home is to buy necessary groceries or for medical attention. I have arranged to consult my oncologist by phone.

The number of known cases of COVID-19 in California is over 1,500 as I write this. The number of deaths in California attributed to it is 27, and in Riverside County it is 5. Each number is rising—Exponentially. The uncle of a friend and neighbor has tested positive. We are voluntarily confining ourselves to isolation in the hopes of starving the virus. Will it work?

Are we worried? No, not really. Will we get it? Only the Good Lord knows. He has given us this mighty Psalm 91. I urge you to read it again. I know you have lost count of how many times you have read it. This time read it and put yourself in as the recipient of these great promises.

Verse 3: He will keep you safe from all deadly diseases.

Verses 4&5: You need not fear the plagues that strike in the dark.

Verse 7: 1,000 may fall at your side and 10,000 fall all around you, you will not be harmed.

Verse 10: No disaster will strike you.

Verse 11: God will put His angels in charge of you.

Verse 12: They will hold you up with their hands.

Verse 14: God will save you who love Him.

Verse 15: When you call on Me, I will answer you.

Verse 16: I will reward you with long life.

These promises are written for you. Go to the Lord for safety. Remain under the protection of the Almighty. You may get tired of staying under that protection—stay there anyway. Don’t do anything brash or stupid—just stay there. Have faith that what God has promised, He will do. His promises are trustworthy. Let others do the worrying. Should He decide that now is my time, I still trust His protection.

We spread out this psalm daily to You, Lord. We claim it because we believe that You mean exactly what You say here! 

  

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[i] https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Psalms-91-1_Inspirational_Image/