April Newsletter Column

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
When “we breathe our last” – it will not be our last. We will be born again. We will not come to an end of life – we will arrive at a new beginning. We will not die; we will fall asleep and wake up in our new home. We will not be buried in a cemetery – we will be planted in a garden.

I AM THE RESURRECTION AND THE LIFE.
My hope is that you will live in this hope. We do not, we cannot, work for it, be good enough for it, earn it, or deserve it. We merely accept it. Receive it. Rejoice in it. Give thanks for it. This is the new life Christ longs to give us. When we receive it, we are living “in Christ.” We are becoming a new creation.

The good news gets even better. We will not have to endure death before resurrected life begins. “I am the resurrection and the life”, Jesus says, not “I will be the resurrection and the life.” A new heaven has come down to us, we will not go “up there.” Marva Dawn is an inspiring theologian who memorably proclaimed, “We do not go to church – we are the church wherever we go.” We will not go to heaven. We take heaven wherever we go. This is the good news of the gospel.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

Can those who "read" your life tell? Go in the power of the resurrection to live as Easter people in a Good Friday world. Trusting that God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit -- always goes with you. 

​Pastor Michael