Bed Frames

In my lifetime I have just about slept on everything. From the floor to army cots to air mattresses ( the ones that lose all their air throughout the night to the ones that hold air well ) to all sizes of beds from twin to California king to water beds. I have done my share of sleeping on couches too....especially when I've been in trouble. I had the opportunity to try a bed of nails in the Philippines once....I opted out of that experience.

If you have a bed, you need a bed frame....that is unless you like that "close to the floor feeling". Frames come in all types, from wood to metal to cement block, if you so choose...but you need one in order to have that "sleeping in a bed off the floor" feeling. I recently learned that you have to have the right kind of frame....if it's metal especially....to fit the right size of mattress. Metal frames are made of different strengths of material to properly hold the appropriate size mattress. Twin and full mattresses don't need a heavy duty bed frame as do queen and larger mattresses do.

I bought a queen mattress set with a light metal frame. It held pretty well for awhile. It squeaked, squawked, and moved a little when I turned over and such but it seemed OK....until two nights ago. Somewhere in the night the middle cross brace at the bottom broke in half and one of the legs buckled under itself putting one corner of my mattress completely to the floor.

This happened while I was asleep dreaming of sugar plums and buffet lines....Now I'm not necessarily a small man but I don't have the body density of the Incredible Hulk either.....
....and I learned something else while waking up face down on the carpeted floor....God never intended man to sleep on an incline! If you roll over, you're gonna keep going. You're gonna end up pulling carpet fibers from your molars because the floor will rudely stop your fall. It's called gravity and it is very unpleasant to experience from a dead sleep!

As I grabbed a pillow and moved to the couch I thought about the verse in Proverbs 16:18. It goes like this, from The Message:
"First pride, then the crash - the bigger the ego, the harder the fall."
Falling from my bed isn't the only crash I have experienced this past week. Lessons from a bed frame can be valuable, especially when we start thinking we're "all that and a bag of chips." Just when I think I have it all together is really the critical time for me to do a heart check, because there's probably a crash coming if I don't. I am putting my life on the right foundation again....hope yours is already there.

Ribs

Sitting in church, squirming in my seat! If my mother were sitting beside me, she would've pinched my thigh to get me to sit still like she used to do when I was a little boy in church. I'm kind of glad she wasn't there....that hurt! I was listening, but I wasn't listening. I was participating, but I wasn't participating. It was like I was viewing everything close from a far off distance; like Sarah Palin who can see Russia from her house in Alaska. I had one thing on my mind.....ribs!!

Two pounds of beef ribs, marinated for 24 hours in spices and liquids sure to enhance their flavor to much higher euphoric qualities. Two pounds of beef ribs lovingly and gently placed in a 6-quart crock pot and slow cooked for 12 tenderizing hours. Ribs! That is what was on my mind as the pastor expounded upon the wonders and majesty of God's Word. I'm a spiritual giant alright!! I couldn't wait to get home....already tying a bib around my neck as I drove out of the church parking lot.

Breaking the speed limit to get home, I noticed that posted speed limit signs are more like suggestions when I'm hungry and on mission to eat. I would've broken the sound barrier if I could've pushed my 6-cylinder, 4-door sedan that fast. Fortunately, the law enforcement fraternity was evidently in coffee and donut shops getting their fill at the time of my travel because the interstate was void of them. Personally I think that was God's grand design....he wanted me to have those ribs too!!

Drooling so heavily at the thought of succulent, marinated, slow-cooked rib meat melting in my mouth, my pant legs were wet when I got out of the car. Bursting through the door of my apartment, I didn't walk up the stairs, I didn't run up the stairs; I cleared them all in one single bound....a feat only Superman could perform....until now. As the lovable canine in the bacon treat commercial keeps repeating, "Bacon, bacon, bacon!"...in his frantic search for the coveted morsels, I kept repeating, "Ribs, ribs, ribs!"

Rushing around the corner of my living room into the kitchen, I stopped briefly to appreciate what seemed to be a heavenly glow around that 6-quart container that was gently caressing "my precious"! It was a sacred pause, a sacred moment. The container "called" to me and I responded by lifting the lid with such force, had I not had a firm grip, it would have flown through my balcony door window like a Frisbee!

Wide-eyed with excitement, still drooling everywhere, I peered inside the pot anticipating a culinary treasure even Emeril would envy. To my horror, I found my ribs in such a state I had to turn my head in utter disgust. All of those succulent morsels of flavor had become encased in the translucent goo of the fat that surrounded them. As the Man of War jellyfish ensnares its prey, so this repulsive fat had ensnared the morsels of meat I was greedily getting ready to devour.

There was a sudden loss of appetite and a fighting back of the gag reflex that so desperately wanted to take control. Looking at rancid hamburger would've been more palatable than this offensive conglomeration of YUCK! After the shock and disappointment wore off, I put an oven mitt on one hand and wrapped the other in a towel. I lifted the hot clay pot out of its cooking element and slowly walked down the stairs to discard the contents of "my precious" in the trash. I felt like a dead man walking and I fought back tears with each step.

After discarding the inedible ribs in the dumpster, a thought from scripture popped into my head...

"We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like Autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind." - Isa. 64:6 NLT

For all the hours of thawing, marinating, and slow-cooking....those ribs ended up on the dumpster floor, a feast for flies, worms, and other unmentionable creepy crawlers. My best efforts weren't enough to keep the end result from disaster and disappointment.

Then I thought of my life....for all the things I do, the people I help, and the difference I attempt to make in this world for good....those things are no better than the inedible ribs on a dumpster floor when done on my own. My righteous acts the Bible says are as filthy rags. I realized just in the thought of that verse, I needed a righteousness that went far beyond me, a righteousness not my own. With gratitude, I also realized that I have that....for I have the righteousness of Christ. It is his righteousness in me that makes my deeds top-shelf.... What he does in and through me is the only righteousness that counts and the Bible teaches when we come to him, he clothes us in it. All of him, none of me. What eternal good I do, he does through me. It is to his credit, not to mine.
It is to his glory, not to mine.

Even though I didn't listen much in church; and even though I settled for a tuna fish sandwich and potato chips, God was still teaching me....through ribs!

Shipwrecked

"Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences, as a result their faith has been shipwrecked." -I Tim. 1:19 NLT

"People never crumble in a day....it's a slow fade."
Phrase from the song, "Slow Fade", as sung by Casting Crowns

Adrift! Floating in the middle of the ocean at the mercy of wherever the waves and tide carry me. It seems the more I kick in one direction, the waves carry me in another. No land in sight. Nothing but horizons of waves in all directions. Hungry....thirsty....exhausted....weak....fighting giving up, fighting hopelessness....fighting letting go and letting the ocean carry me to the bottom.

I don't remember how I got here. Everything prior to the crash is a blur. Even the crash itself is absent of specific details. All I know is that at one moment I was sunning by the pool, drinking a nice cold glass of fruity tea, and the next moment I am desperately hanging on to a piece of the ship to stay above water. Looking around I see no one else. Am I the only survivor? I scream out for help in vain effort to hear a reply from another living life. My screams are returned with a discouraging echo of my own voice. I hear nothing but the sound of turning waves.

Waves are getting bigger as the wind blows harder. They hit me ever more violently, determined to free me from my only hope of staying afloat. I can't go on, I can't hold on. One more hit, one final blow. As the last stone drops a martyr to his knees, I am shaken free from my lifeline. Arms too tired to tread the choppy sea....I sink...gulping down ocean water with each descending meter toward bottom....I am lost, hopelessly lost!

A dream!...no, a nightmare!! I shoot straight up in bed to discover I had been swimming in a pool of my own sweat. No ocean, no violent waves, no brutal wind, no wreckage, no death at the bottom. Just a nightmare. On the one hand, I breathe a sigh of relief; on the other hand, I immediately, almost instinctively, start taking an inventory of my life. I don't like what I find.

My conscience, that internal GPS, if you will, was broken. When it broke, I have no idea. One small compromise after another eventually prohibited my GPS being useful as I navigated between the territories of Right and Wrong. No longer effective, the lines between these two lands became blurred....so blurred in fact, I could no longer see them. I eventually traveled between the two with ease, without passport or visa. Because my GPS was not functioning, I could no longer tell which land I was in. I crashed and didn't know it. How tragic! The only sure vision I had was what I saw looking back....nothing but a string of wreckage. Some was repairable, some wasn't...but it was wreckage and it was massive.

I had become the frog boiled to death under a low heat. Happily swimming around at first, then lethargic...just floating....no movement, then death at the bottom....bloated and weighted from massive intakes of water. Like the frog, I didn't know a crash was coming. It came. The fallout from my nightmare shook me awake....truly awake! Perhaps it wasn't too late for me to go in for repair...perhaps it wasn't too late for me to change.

The only prayer I could pray was: "Jesus, help me!"....the prayer of a desperate man sinking to the bottom of the ocean of his own compromise. No one but Jesus Christ could help me...no one but him could pull me from this death. I did come to realize that a life of compromise is no life at all. Jesus was willing to rescue and praise God he did! When he rescued, he did so completely. Apart from him, nothing else would have worked.

The verse above says to "cling to your faith in Christ". The word "cling" conjures up the mental picture of hanging onto something or someone for dear life, as if your life depended on it. That's what we must do, cling to Christ in faith if we are to navigate successfully between the territories of Right and Wrong. It is the surest way, the only way, we can keep our consciences clear....our GPS's working properly.

If you're adrift....cling to him...he is sure to rescue! Only he can fix what is broken in your life. What he did for me, he will do for you!! Blessings!

Aftermath

Preface
Some of this story is me. Some of it is not me, it's fiction. My hope and prayer is that it will meld together to demonstrate the power of God when He invades a life with His mercy and grace. I hope it will encourage just one to believe that God wants to, can, and will change a dead life to a new life no matter how despicable that life has become. The cross and empty tomb point the way...they point the way to Jesus Christ....He and He alone.


Aftermath
Peering in and steaming up the small windows in the doors that led to the sanctuary, I nervously wrung my sweating hands....waiting....asking myself what on God's earth was I doing in such a place! I didn't go in until after everyone was finished greeting each other with handshakes, hugs, and smiles. I didn't want to be touched by anyone for fear the dirt, filth, and yuck of my miserable life would rub off. To keep them away I wondered if I should enter shouting, "Unclean! Unclean!" like the lepers had to do in biblical times as they navigated through the masses. I felt as a single drop of black, polluted oil in a pool of pure, clean water....as a convicted criminal on the run hiding in a crowd of people with squeaky clean records....feeling severely out of my element. And would my dismal presence contaminate what was going on inside that holy place?

I sat in the very back, in the far corner of a pew that no one else was in. I didn't want to be noticed and I certainly didn't want to be recognized. In that room full of people I sat there in my isolation. And I sat with my head down, staring at the patterns in the carpet so hard they began to move. I dared not even look up, make eye contact. My hands, still sweating, were now shaking almost uncontrollably. I clasped them together with such a grip it looked as if my knuckles would burst through the skin. I didn't belong there....but then I didn't belong anywhere. At one point I almost got up to leave and in that instant was strangely drawn to stay. What could it hurt anyway? Perhaps I could get some reprieve from the thoughts that constantly tormented me. Yes, just some rest, if just but a brief escape from a life littered with losses, shame, regrets, and hopelessness. I sat there....still...motionless.....staring at the moving patterns of the carpet.

I never intended my life to end up as it did. As a young boy my dreams for myself were lofty, noble, respectable, and had purpose. My upbringing wasn't harsh. My parents were good parents. They showed me love at every turn, even in their discipline. I lacked for nothing. I was supported and encouraged to go conquer whatever corner of the world I was placed. I was taught to consider others before myself, to love the unlovable, to be merciful, kind-hearted, and caring toward my fellow man.

I grew up in church. I wasn't a total stranger to places like the one I was sitting in. At one time, I even felt comfortable in such places. I knew the bible. I learned it from my Sunday School and pastor at church and from my parents at home. I saw my mom and dad live out in daily life what they confessed they believed. I had such deep respect for them because of that. In crisis their first thought was always prayer to and faith in a God who cared and acted on their behalf. I had good friends...some of my closest friends went to the church I did. I remember a better past with more pleasant memories....they were faint memories....but I remembered them.

I grew up....life happened....circumstances I didn't want or ask for happened to me. I got angry and then bitter....and what was once a life headed for success became a downward spiral of bad decisions. I didn't want to hear from anyone...not from my parents, siblings, children, friends, and certainly not from God. I ignored all those caring voices until I could no longer hear them at all. To cope....I drank. The more difficulty I invited into my life....the more I drank to cope. I lost all. On the outside it was job after job, driving privileges, apartments, marriages, financial stability, upward mobility, and tragically...friends. That network of love and support was gone. On the inside it was self-respect, vision, hope, contentment, peace, joy, and even the will to live. I became the shame and embarrassment of family and friends. No one wanted me around. I had successfully managed to remove myself from any hope of recovery. When the bottle was no longer enough to numb my depression, sense of failure, self judgment, and other hellish torments in my mind, the last answer of true escape was death.

That is where I found myself...sitting in that pew with my head down....a dead man walking. My life had sunk so low I saw death as my only hope. Death was the only way to be truly released of this excruciating misery. Imagine the irony....my only hope being death. There I was sitting in that pew with all hell breaking loose on the inside of me.

I noticed though, even with my head down, I was listening. Listening to what was being said and what was being sung. I didn't realize until it was mentioned.....I entered that sanctuary on Easter Sunday. That revelation made me think of last Easter....I was so drunk I couldn't get myself dressed to go anywhere. Last Easter I sat in my Lazy Boy, drinking vodka and Coke, trying to numb the overwhelming hopelessness that had invaded my life and taken control. It was like I was drinking to get the hopelessness drunk so it would loosen its grip on me for just a little while and give my weary brain some rest.

The pastor, an elderly, distinguished looking gentleman with the kindest eyes, walked forward and read from the bible these verses: "...But God is so rich in mercy, and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God's grace that you have been saved!)" -Eph. 2:4,5 When I heard those words I raised my head and really started listening. Hearing that I was dead, which I was....or at least felt like I was, but could be given life again intrigued me. This wonderful preacher began to tell of Gods' grace and mercy that spanned the centuries starting in the Garden of Eden and culminating in the death, burial, and resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ. He said God did what he did though history to establish again relationship with his creation that was broken in the Garden. Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, his death, and resurrection ushered in a means whereby we might be restored completely in relationship with God once and for all.

I began wondering how this could be done. What did I have to do? I was desperate, my whole being cried out for relief. Suddenly within me was a thirst for something more. I actually was beginning to hope for something more.....not an assured hope, but a "hope so"; that somehow what was being said could happen to me. Perhaps the downward spiral of my life could be turned around. The preacher continued to say that my sins were nailed to the cross of Christ . He took upon himself my sin that I might live in a new life. He spoke of the hideousness of the cross. He painted such a picture of Christs' blood soaked body being broken for me that I could see him hanging there, dying, staining the cross with his blood and covering the cross with my sin. It moved me someone could love so much. It moved me deeper still someone could love me so much. Lastly, the preacher spoke of Jesus' victory over death and that because of that victory death no longer had a choke hold on those whose faith is in him. Wow!.. death no longer my only hope of escape? Instead of that dead man walking I was seeing hope in a dead man coming alive through this life preached about. But how?

The preacher sat down and the choir stood up. Music started playing and the choir started singing the words to the song, "Hallelujah! Praise the Lamb". Intently I listened....still wondering how....how can I go from walking death to life? As that little country choir sang in that little country church, I became overwhelmed with such a deep appreciation of Gods' great love for me! I bristled because I felt the words of that song were speaking directly to me:

From the moment man first disobeyed the Father
We were then held captured by our sin
The law of God demanded a sacrifice
Restoring to himself His own again

So the Lamb, His Son so freely offered,
Atonement for our sins forever made.
The innocent and holy still God and God only
Would ransom and redeem us back again

So to the cross they carried Him
With all our guilt and all our sin
The Lamb of God was slain for our transgressions
And on the cross those nail pierced hands

Reached up to God and now to man
And just as if I'd never sinned
He took me in His arms
Embracing me he willingly forgave

For mercy, grace, and love that knows no bounds
Though guilty and condemned I now am free
Forever I'm forgiven for Christ the Lord has risen
And risen with Him we shall one day be

Hallelujah praise the Lamb
Hallelujah praise the Lamb
My heart sings His praise again
Hallelujah praise the Lamb

I began to weep as I saw all that Christ did....for me. Me-the three time loser in love; Me-the failure as a son, brother, father, and friend; Me-the loser of jobs; Me-the drunk. His great love for me moved him to leave eternity and enter time and history. He left riches, royalty, and majesty and took upon himself the weakness and frailty of human flesh. For me-he bore my sin that I might be clean and have relationship. Me-this outcast was drawn near and made a son because of him. Me-once homeless, living out of my car, he gave a home in heaven.

My miserable life was flooded with hope! I was still wondering how to leave this death I was living and move into that new life, when that wise and loving pastor got up again. He answered my question with two other verses from the bible: "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved." -Rom. 10:9,10 That was it?! No training? No college work? No special certifications? No written recommendations from city officials? No elaborate monetary gifts to the church? No installment payments? No pain? It seemed so easy it couldn't be true! Surely after what Christ did on the cross, I would have to go through some suffering of my own in order to qualify even becoming a candidate for this new life! The pastor said this new life was a gift simply to be received. Nothing in me that I could offer would make a worthy trade for this life. God gave it because he loved me and for no other reason. So I confessed and I believed. I prayed right there in that pew....and his grace and mercy through Christ's love overtook me as a tidal wave!

The aftermath of a tidal wave usually is remembered for the vast amounts of damage, the millions of dollars required to repair the damage, and sometimes the tragic loss of life. This tidal wave was different. My life was already damaged; my life was already tragic. This tidal wave swept over me and transformed my sense of worthlessness into something of value. I may not have been a person of worth in the eyes of many, or even in my own eyes, but in God's eyes I was....I was worth redeeming to him....and he spared no expense to make that happen.

In the aftermath of this tidal wave hopelessness was turned to hope, and not just a "hope so" like I thought earlier....but an assured hope. Hope in him, a knowing that he had invaded the deepest parts of me and eradicated the last bastion of hopelessness....his great love for me routed that life taker completely. And how can a man truly live without a real hope, a right hope....how can man truly live without God?

Isolation was replaced with the hunger for fellowship. I now wanted to receive the handshakes, hugs, and smiles I adamantly avoided in the beginning....I wanted to give them too! I wanted to forgive those who hurt me and I wanted to seek forgiveness from those I hurt. I wanted to love again....everyone! I who had become unlovable wanted to love again!! I was amazed at these things....all happening inside me the moment I confessed and believed....I was new instantly....there was no waiting period. When Christ became mine and I became his, everything that made me...me....changed! I left that holy place different than when I entered it. I still didn't know how my life would turn out, but I knew the Author of my life hadn't finished writing my story....there were still many chapters ahead for me. I had an assured hope of a happy ending. I didn't have to be a slave any longer to hurts, addictions, and failures. I was free....truly free!! I found that freedom in Christ and him alone. All because of Jesus....what a wonderful Savior....praise to his glorious name!!!

Bunnies and Eggs

The season of spring enters our lives in March....on the calendar anyway. But for many, spring isn't officially realized until the "season" of Easter is upon us.....that's in early April for those who may be date challenged. The chains of a cold winter are shaken loose and we walk into the freedom and pleasure of a warmer sun and brighter skies. We transition from hibernating in our caves to stepping outside to enjoy greening grass, budding trees, blooming flowers, and we marvel at a sleeping earth waking up to a newness of life once more.
Easter, as I have observed, is celebrated by the masses much in the same manner as Christmas is celebrated. At least there are parallels. Christmas trees with all their decorated splendor of brightly colored ornaments and flickering lights transition to Easter trees filled with brightly colored eggs, bunnies, and chicks.....and flickering lights. Gifts under the Christmas tree transition to Easter baskets filled with goodies, toys, and often an eclectic special treasure or two. I know of a loving wife who thoughtfully made an Easter basket for her husband that contained a Braun cordless shaver.....among other things....it was the one thing he requested for Christmas and didn't get.
At my house these gift and goodie laden baskets were set at the foot of my children's beds the night before Easter Sunday morning. They would wake up in excitement and anticipation of what the Easter Bunny brought them just in the same way they would wake up Christmas morning to see what Santa Claus brought them. And didn't I relish the bright smiles on their faces and the happiness in their eyes as they tore through those baskets "oohing and awing" at each item discovered....just like Christmas, as I would watch them tear open each gift with the same "oohs and awes".
The music of the holiday transitions from "Here Comes Santa Claus" to "Here Comes Peter Cottontail". The colors of our dress transition from the deep reds and greens of the "Holley and the Ivy" to the light and bright pastels of newly blooming flowers, the colors of spring. Even that classic Charlie Brown Christmas cartoon transitions to an Easter theme entitled "The Easter Beagle". In fact, animated Christmas specials about Santa and Rudolph transition to animated Easter specials about Peter Rabbit.
Easter does have a few frivolous traditions of its own however. I should like to point out two. We don't color eggs at Christmas, nor do we hunt them at Christmas...we do that only at Easter. I remember, as a boy growing up in a pastor's house, sitting at the table with wild-eyed joy as my mom prepared all the colors in the Paas egg coloring kit so me and my siblings could color the eggs for the hunt the following day. Preparing the eggs in many ways was more fun than hunting them ....and what makes it memorable for me today is the laughter, love, and togetherness of it all. My brothers and sister all making a wonderful mess of color at the table having the time of our lives....such memories are priceless....and I treasure them. My older brother and I were always given the honor of hiding the eggs for my two younger siblings. They would stay in the house as we tried our best to position each egg in an impossible to find place....but baby brother and sis found them....maybe with a little help...but they found them. Ah, such wonderful memories!
In a more somber vein, Easter brings with it the same gnawing question Christmas does. To quote that beloved Charlie Brown, disillusioned by the Christmas holiday being so commercialized, he cries out from his anguished heart, "Can someone tell me what Christmas is all about?!". Easter cries out with the same question,"Can someone tell me what Easter is all about?!". A relevant question I think. Like Christmas, Easter has gotten commercialized. Retailers market Easter Sunday attire on their racks well before Valentines Day merchandise has a chance to sell. We hunt for that one unique dress that will set off a flurry of compliments from others who participated in the same hunt. Sometimes I wonder if Easter Sunday worship is more about comparing and contrasting what each is wearing and pridefully answering questions like, "Wherever did you find such a beautiful dress?" or "Your kids (or grand kids) just look adorable in their Easter clothes." Other questions asked at church on Easter Sunday may include,"What are you doing after, going out to eat somewhere special or staying home?" "We're having brunch at such and such, you know those tickets were $50.00 a piece!" "Hello Mr. so and so, haven't seen you here since the Christmas musical."
If the true meaning of Easter were nothing but bunnies and eggs, there wouldn't be a point redeemable in any of it. Easter would be just an excuse to dress up and look our best, provide fun and entertainment for our children, and gather with family members after church for an Easter feast. I am glad Easter is so much more than that.....

"But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die

for us while we were still sinners. And since we have been made

right in God's sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save

us from God's condemnation. For since our friendship with God

was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies,

we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son." -Rom.5:8-10 NLT

As Linus, that wise old sage and friend of Charlie Browns', quoted from the book of Luke to explain the true meaning of Christmas, here, in the book of Romans...Paul summarizes the true meaning of Easter. Easter has two distinctive parts that make up one miraculous whole. One: Christ died on a cross....that cross was stained with his blood and covered with our sin. Two: Christ rose again from the dead....revealed by an empty tomb and verified by many witnesses who saw and conversed with him after.

In considering these facts, I wonder what it means for us.....here are a few thoughts:

1. God had to take initiative to restore a relationship with us that was broken in the Garden. He sent his Son to dwell among us. God pitched his tent through Jesus smack in the middle of all humanity.

2. This initiative speaks of God's desire for that relationship with us. He spared no expense to close the gap between him and us. Sparing not even his only Son.

3. There is nothing in us that merits his friendship. Paul even says that while we were God's enemies, he provided a means by which we could relate rightly to and with him.

4. It speaks of his deep love for us....in that while we were still sinners (separated from him), Christ died for us..a death we deserved to die...the bible says.

5. Christ became our sin on the cross and suffered God's rejection at the moment he did. No greater love in all of history has ever been demonstrated, nor ever will be.

6. Jesus' victory over death is our assurance of the same victory. We have hope of something so much more than just the ups and downs of this life.

7. Because of his death, burial, and resurrection, temporary life becomes eternal and death no longer carries any finality but ushers in a new beginning.

Standing on my own good deeds is not enough.....even my good deeds are dirty in the sight of a holy God. However, clothed in Christ's blood, that robe of righteousness (Christs' righteousness, not mine), I can stand before this holy God who now has become Father and he sees me as a child, his child. I come to him with nothing to offer that earns me an audience....I come to him with Christ's clothes on and become family. This strips me of my tendency to want to earn my own way, chart my own course. All I can do is receive in faith this wonderful gift. And that is all that is required. In Christ and Christ alone do I find a peace that goes beyond my own understanding.

Easter is a time to rejoice in these things, and Easter is so much more. I write this feeling inadequate to do so. Who am I to expound upon the glories of Gods rich and deep love for us and the grace he demonstrated toward us through his Son? I simply know I have life eternal because of this wonderful God who spared no expense for my redemption. I weep with gratitude and awe that all of this was done for the likes of us.

May you and yours discover the real Easter, the one that goes way beyond bunnies and eggs!