I wonder how many times Good Friday and the first day of spring have been on the same day?  It really makes for a neat combination.  The renewal of the plants and trees for another year and the renewal of our faith.  Just as the trees and plants lie dormant over the fall and appear dead, my Savior died on a Friday and appeared dead but rose back to life again on a Sunday that we now call Easter. 

I want to invite you, again, to the Easter music program at Believer’s church.  I can’t wait to go!  Call us if you need directions.  It begins tonight at 7PM.

I also want to share this from my Guideposts Daily Devotional book.  It always amazes me how something written months ago to meet a publishing deadline can be so perfect for the date it is meant to be read.  Our economy and country were in MUCH better shape when this was written…and there wasn’t $150 million of tornado damage in Atlanta and flooding going on…ect., ect.

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, into your hands I commit My Spirit.” and having said this, He breathed His last.  Luke 23:46

The inevitable finally happened:  Jesus was arrested on the night of Passover, interrogated, brutally tortured and then condemned to the most shameful of deaths–crucifixion.  Hanging on the Cross in shock and pain, He gradually slipped into a coma.  On the edge of the chasm between life and death, He felt rejection and despair and , according to Mark’s gospel, shrieked, “My God, My God, Why have You forsaken me?  (15:34 NAS).

William Barclay wonders if perhaps, in His final moments, as His vision blurred and His lungs could no longer breathe, Jesus gazed at his Mother, standing at the foot of the Cross, and remembered the bedtime prayer, echoing Psalm 31:5, that every Jewish mother taught her child to pray, “Into Your hands I commit my spirit.”

Sometimes when confronted with the monstrous evil and destruction in our world, it’s hard for me to believe that I haven’t been abandoned.  It’s difficult to believe that LOVE will conquer evil and that goodness will prevail.  But in these very moments, I must whisper with childlike faith, “Father, into Your hands I commit my Spirit.”

Dear Father, please teach me, Your child, to pray in the words of Jesus uttered on the Cross.—–  Scott Walker

I hope Good Friday and Easter are wonderful for you and your family this year.  While hunting for the prize egg, take a second and think about the blessings you and your family have already experienced in 2008. 

Wishing you the best Easter ever!!!