Easter Sunday

We've grown to love these incredibly, wonderful people in the short time we've lived here in London. Jano's debut album is almost ready for distribution, Gloria and Alwyn have a new grand daughter (Grace was born to Esther and Tom on March 5th!), and we are stronger Christians for knowing them. Jan, Gloria, and Alwyn join their team in Israel the day after Easter, so this is our last Sunday to see them. I can't even begin to describe how deeply they have touched my heart and inspired my walk with Jesus. Yes, I'm incredibly sad.

If you have questions about the truth of Jesus or you need encouragement in His resurrection, please listen to Alwyn's
Easter Sunday teaching from yesterday.

One of the many things I was caught numb with is how eleven of His disciples denied and abandoned Jesus while He was alive, but after His resurrection, each and every one of them devoted the rest of their lives to tell everyone they could find about Him. They didn't just "preach it", but each one endured continuous torturing, ridicule, mocking, and horrible deaths because they verbalized JESUS IS GOD! I would hope I would not deny Jesus if I were dragged behind a horse tied to a rope, sawn in pieces with a wooden sword whilst still alive, skinned alive before hung on a cross - hanging still alive, or demand to be hung upside down because I'm not worthy to be crucified in the same way Jesus was crucified.

It is very powerful to consider why these men would not admit Jesus was God whilst He was alive, but would endure horrible lives after His death because as much as they'd like to deny Jesus is God, they could no longer. Even Jesus' half-brother admitted Jesus is God. He stopped being concerned how the rest of the world viewed him and told everyone how he was wrong and his half-brother was telling the truth all along.

Why would all eleven men live the rest of their lives in torture for something they made up? a lie? a joke?
They wouldn't.
They didn't.

I just came from a friend of a friend of a friend's blog and had to add it to my own!
"In Michigan, the landscape is covered with a clean white snow in March on Easter weekend! I was thinking of the verse in Isaiah where it says, "Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow." I am in awe of a creator who can remove that unremovable stain of sin. A senior citizen of the Kingdom, Jacki"

Isn't that so brilliant!?! The fact that it snowed on Easter Sunday has even more meaning for me now. Thanks Jacki!