With You Always!

Tomorrow is Easter! Our church, Celebration Church of Georgetown, Texas is preparing for an amazing day celebrating our Risen Lord, Jesus Christ!! We're expecting thousands and thousands of people to join us. Our special guest speaker is NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow who will share his testimony, his faith and his hope in Jesus Christ. It's going to be a powerful time on the Hill tomorrow!! I can't wait to be part of it!

Today, however, I can't help but think about the reality of Easter and what took place on a hill called Golgotha. Two-thousand-plus-years ago Jesus hung on a cross on my behalf. He took my sins upon himself and was willingly brutalized and finally murdered. Why? Because of his great, amazing love for me! For the world! It is a love that I honestly can't fully understand but am so very, very grateful for! It was all part of a great plan. A plan that allows you and me and anyone who will believe access to God! Eternity with God! Truly, truly amazing grace!

We have a couple of really large nails sitting on our mantle. One is mine and one is hubby's. They were given to us at a one-day seminar our church offers several times a year called "Encounter." It's a day filled with learning, prayer and going deeper in our walk with Jesus. During one of the prayer sessions, each person is encouraged to write out something they've been carrying around with them -- whether it's a sin or a shame or whatever -- and then place the paper in water where it dissolves away to nothing. Afterward you're given a nail to remind you that you nailed that issue to the cross and, like the paper, it's gone.

Thinking of how Jesus was nailed to the cross for my sins, I took one of those nails the other day and  pressed the point firmly into my hand. It hurt! Tears flooded my eyes thinking of the pain Jesus bore that day for me. For you. He'd told his disciples it would happen, yet they didn't understand. I have the benefit of having been raised to know the Easter story from the time I was a child, so I do understand it. And the older I get, the more the truth of it touches my very soul.

Tomorrow is not about bunnies or eggs or even Tim Tebow. It's about Jesus Christ! He lived. He died. And He lives again! He did not stay dead in the grave nor was his dead body stolen away to make it look like he'd been resurrected. Jesus is alive! And he made us a promise I will leave with you. A promise filled with love and hope!

"And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." ~JESUS in Matthew 28:20

God bless each of you. He is Risen! He is risen INDEED!

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This week's Prayer Shout Out countries are:
USA, United Kingdom, Sweden, China, Poland, Russia, Philippines, South Africa, India