A little girl called out one night;  "Da-a-a-dy, I need to go to the bathroom."  The daddy got up and carried her like a limp cotton doll to the bathroom; and he thought, some day we can talk about this night when she is grown, and she didn't want to put her feel on the cold floor.  But as he tucked her back in bed, it struck him:  She want remember this midnight closeness, because she was asleep the whole time I was holding her.

    Has our society gone to sleep like the little girl, and only cry out "Abba - Abba, Daddy" in our time of need.  Our thought of God is sometime terrifying.  "O God, Easter is a reminder of the many times You have took us in Your loving arms and comforted us;  those time when Jesus is trying to wake us to experience God's love once more."

    The great Easter truth is not that we are to live newly after death,  but that we are to be new here and now by the power of His resurrection.   Easter means, that the claims of Jesus are true.  Easter means what it has always meant to most Christians,  "That God raised Jesus from the dead;  that I can trust the promises of Jesus;  that the teachings of Jesus is eternally right.

    Easter means to me; "Roy,  don't depend on what Christ was, but who He is.  Not simply on what He did, but on what He does.  It is not because He lived, but because He lives, that we have life - eternal life. To me Easter is a truth about God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead,  "He is not here, for He is risen."

    Easter means the tomb was empty, and the empty tomb proclaims that Jesus is God and God only is great - "HE IS RISEN!  HALLELUJAH!  Easter means Jesus awoke of His own accord and by His own power.   There was no voice calling, "Jesus, come forth."  No one stretched out upon him like Elisha on the Shunammite's son.  Lazarus and the boy had life restored, but it was given, not taken back by their own power.

     The empty tomb offers hope of eternal life; it proclaims to all who will listen that death is not the final event,   only the gateway to a larger, more beautiful life.  We are not living in a world that God has desterted,  we are not living in a world in which God is powerless or helpless.  We are living in a world where God has the final word.  God has spoke an eternal word,  expressed in Easter: "For me to live is Christ.  That is Easter."

"Comfort Zone" friends,  Set an example in speech, in conversation and conduct; for our speech will reflect our heart, and our life reflects our walk with God.   Go to church with your family - don't send the children - take them and they will remember dad and mom when to church with me;  and walked with them up the sidewalk, even when it is cold - raining- etc.    You will be glad you did.

I wish for all a blessed "Lenten Season."  In "HIS" service,

Roy