APRIL 2 -Hope

“He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever” - Revelation 21:4

If the resurrection of Jesus was a hoax. If He didn't come back from the grave, alive, that Easter morning, our lives, and the lives of our loved ones who have died, would be meaningless. All we could look forward to is eternal death.

The heart rending pain of saying “goodbye” to loved ones is familiar to us all. Over the Christmas season, the last of my brothers, a neice, and a nephew died, all in six brief weeks. Like all who mourn for lost loved ones, we long for the time when we shall see them again. The events of that Easter long ago, is our assurance. The death and resurrection of Jesus is our hope that life is not in vain – there is a purpose beyond the troubles, pain and partings of the seventy/eighty odd years of our lives. Let us take comfort that the way of the cross leads to God -

'He carried the cross to Calvary,

Carried it's burden for you and me,

There on the cross He was crucified

And, because He suffered and bled and died,

We know that whatever “OUR CROSS” may be,

It leads to GOD and ETERNITY....

For who can hope for a “crown of stars”

Unless it is earned with suffering and scars,

For how could we face the risen Lord

And rightfully claim His promised reward

If we have not carried our cross of care

And tasted the cup of bitter despair....

Let those who yearn for the pleasures of life,

And long to escape all suffering and strife,

Rush recklessly on to an “empty goal”

With never a thought of the spirit and soul....

But if you are searching to find the way

To life everlasting and eternal day -

With Faith in your heart take the path He trod

For the WAY OF THE CROSS is the WAY TO GOD.'

Helen Steiner Rice

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.

For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord” 1 Thessalonians 4:14-17 New King James Version (NKJV)

The promise of Easter is true, sure and certain – “....if it were not so I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and.... I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” (John 14:1-3)

Larnell Harris and Sandy Patti are singing for us today - “Then Came the Morning.”