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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2003
From the Pastor
Easter Morning
I cannot imagine living with uncertainty without a faith that exists independent of circumstances. That faith for me is in Jesus Christ. His word is not of time but speaks that which is eternal. In Christ we know a reality beyond this time. In Christ we are connected to what is eternal.
We address the heavens and are answered back. We are not alone in the cosmos. God hears our cries and sends us Christ. To look on Christ is to look on the Eternal. Especially now do we need to fix our gaze upon Him. We dare not take our eyes off of Him. We keep believing no matter what.
Three times in chapters 8, 9, and 10 of Mark’s Gospel Jesus tells his disciples he is going to die. He says, I am going to undergo great suffering, be rejected by everyone, and be killed.
Darkness will cover the face of the earth. Blood will be shed. A sword will pierce his side. All the resources of evil descend upon Him. We will see in the crucified Christ the outcome of a fallen world, the end to which all sin leads.
I will die, Jesus says. And in His death we will know what the world would be without God. In the crucified Jesus, lifeless upon the cross, we see what the end would be if there was nothing beyond our selves.
But, Jesus then says, and after three days I will rise again. This word can only be spoken if God is, for it is God who will raise Jesus from the dead.
On Easter all of us need to hear again, these triumphant words of Jesus, I will rise again. We need a restored faith in God who leads us to believe that the end of all things is not destruction and war but justice and peace. In times of war we need to keep believing in the triumph of peace. We need to keep believing that beyond the veil of death is eternal life.
This faith should live in us just as it lived in Jesus. In this faith we pray for our soldiers, we pray for all innocent citizens in war torn areas, and we pray for that day when war will no longer be necessary and the word “death” will be the only thing that dies.
This isn’t an empty universe. This isn’t a lonely planet. This is God’s world and God has spoken in Jesus Christ.
I hope our churches will be filled on Easter Sunday morning. It is a time to reaffirm our faith. It is a time to look to God. It is a time to exclaim, “Christ The Lord is Risen!”
It is not that we are pretending in something that isn’t real. It is that in the most dire of circumstances we are reaffirming our faith in that which is most real to us - our faith in the Living, Resurrected Jesus Christ.
Our Military Personnel
Nancy Kary - daughter of Jane Kary
Tony Like - brother of Krista Pelland
Pat Grames - son of Lynn Senger and grandson of Norma Harrison
Chris Mawer - grandson of Bob & Gigi Mawer and Robert & Lois Jean Warstler
Amanda Smith - granddaughter of Robert & Lois Jean Warstler
Damian Christopher - nephew of David & Sharon Andersen
Dr. David W. Andersen
           
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