Yesterday with Spring Break in the air Deb and I took the kids up US 50 into the hills to just mess around as a family. We found some remaining snow drifts above 5000 feet and almost instantly engaged in WWIII snow ball fights, Hinton Style. After everyone’s hands were half frozen we headed for some snacks and back down into the Sacramento valley. One of the tunes that I listened to on the way home caught my attention anew. It was In Christ Alone. by the Newsboys. Some of the highlighted lyrics were:
There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ
No guilt of life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
I heard those words and replayed the song really mediating on them, especially those last ones. “No guilt of life, no fear in death!” Wow, that’s what Easter is all about. Jesus rose from the grave 2000 years ago and that makes all the difference. Yeh, I’m thankful for Easter and looking forward to Sunday. What about you?
The Western church celebrates Easter is just two weeks and I’m really getting excited about it. Thought we don’t know the exact date when Jesus rose from the dead, we do know that it happened. I’ve found that most often when folks scoff at the notion of Christ coming back to life after the crucifixion, it’s not because they have examined the evidence and found it lacking, but rather they have a personal agenda to not accept it. The proofs of the resurrection of Christ are enormous. It is because of that resurrection that we can know Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was sufficient for us. Our sins can be forgiven. But in addition to that, we can live a new life in the here and now. I’m reminded that Jesus once said that he came, “that they may have life, and have it to the full.” 
This past week I had the pleasure of hearing 
Yup, I’m turning 40 this week and I’m not sure what to think of it all. On one hand, I’m thinking things like: “ugh, that means I’m 10 years away from being 50” and “I know people who have gone to heaven before turning 80, so that means that I’m at mid point if not over the hill.” But on the other hand, I’ve also had “mature” friends refer to the 40s as being the “Productive” years. That kind of makes sense as you’ve got a whole lot more wisdom than prior generations and much more strength than the latter years. But one thing for sure is that this has caused me to stop and think some things over. Which seems to be the point of the Psalmist when he prayed, “Teach me to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” Ps. 90:12. So, I’m looking forward to the next half of life on this end of eternity with a lot of great things to come.
This past Sunday we took a brief survey regarding the possibility of our young church moving into a building with a lease option. One of the main reasons why we are considering this is because lease properties in industrial areas are much cheaper these days. While we’re all coming to understand that the church is not a “Building” but a body of believers, the prospect of being able to secure a facility where we would have 24/7 access is exciting. Though such an option would enable us to do a lot more, that was not the most exciting thing for me when the survey results came back. 
Well the big news today seems to be that our new President is going to allow federal taxpayer dollars to fund significantly broader research into embryonic stem cell research because “medical miracles do not happen simply by accident”. Accident? But yet President Obama believes in Evolution, which is all about our being the product of accident rather than design. Hmm, isn’t there some contradiction there? Ok, I’m not trying to start a shout match here, but the central piece of this whole debate really all comes down to the nature of who we are as human beings and I just wish folks would be honest about that. 
