Amazing Love, YOU ARE My KING!

I'm forgiven, because you were forsaken

I'm accepted you were condemned

And I'm alive and well your spirit is within me

Because you died and rose again

Amazing Love how can it be

That you my king have died for me

Amazing Love I know its true

And its my joy to honor you

In all I do, I honor you

You are my king, you are my king ,Jesus you are my king

Jesus you are my king

Easter (Crucifixion)

He loved and died
When He was being beaten and spat upon
When His flesh was being torn by the whip
When His back was scourged,
Then He saw me being baptized
and so He permitted them to do so.

When the crown was crushed into His head
When He tasted His own blood
When the thorns pierced His flesh,
Then He saw me praying
and so He killed them not.

When His cross was so heavy that he fell
When He carried wood on His torn flesh
When He wished simply to move no more,
Then He saw me in confession,
and so He got up and walked on.

When His hands were being pierced
When He hung from a cross
When His side was bleeding,
Then He said I love YOU.
and so He died.

Maundy Thursday

Last night we attended the Living Last Supper... a drama which really brought home the reality of what Leonardo Da Vinci was trying to express in his famous painting...the story told from the disciples point of view regarding the betrayal of Jesus on that fateful night..
Holy week for us is a time of reflection, remembering exactly what Jesus' death and resurrection truly means to us. Praise the Lord, that He conquered death, and reclaimed what was lost in the garden.... oh, the cost, though, the horrible suffering that Jesus had to bear....that you and I might be reconciled to God.

Just in case you missed it!

92,000 eggs! Now that is dedication!

Check here for the full story!

Our Easter...

started at 6:30 this morning when we wrapped up in our winter coats and headed out to the sunrise service on Mill Mountain. It was 40 degrees and I should have packed a warm blanket, but just didnt think.... Even the moon looked cold in the early morning sky.

This service was a multi-racial collaboration on the tiptop of the mountain right behind the Mill Mountain Star which stands sentinel over our fair city. The sun had already peaked over the horizon on our zigzaggy trek up the mountain.

About 100 folks had already assembled ~some dressed in their Easter finery, other smarter ones bundled under blankets in their wintery togs, for a bitter wind tossed many a hair out of it's shapely style and do!

Even so, there was a marvelous sense of brotherly love and community as we huddled there together lifting our praises to God for the power Christ exhibited when He raised Himself from the dead! Precious time of worship among hungry people seeking to know and love God more!

Following the service we felt curiously warmed by the Holy Spirit and so we ventured out on the overlook to view the majesty of God's light falling over our lovely city on Easter morn!

By 7:45 the sun was well up and shining on the beautiful beacon that gives us the unique title of the Star City of the South!

We had time to stop in for a warm breakfast at a favorite local restaurant and go home to jump into our Easter duds just in time to make it to Sunday School. Because there were so many expected today we worshipped in the family life center by way of the big screen, while Pastor Chip preached from the auditorium upstairs!

Our hearts were so full I came home fully expecting all the flowers and trees to be praising God in all their glory.

But....

not yet...maybe next week!

But....

and this is for Amanda....

I came home with a new friend!!!

and I am asking Amanda to think really hard to come up with the perfect name for him!

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He is not here! He is risen, indeed!

Alleluia!

I miss Dr. D. James Kennedy so much. What a marvelous expositor of the Word and a watchman on the wall for this nation.

These are some points of one of his Resurrection Sunday sermons.

The resurrection is a message of hope.
The church was built upon the message of an empty tomb.
The resurrection is a message of love.
It is an unspeakable love that God should send his son to die for us.

The resurrection is a message of grace.
The wages of sin were paid in full with the blood of Christ.
Conclusion:
You can experience a spiritual resurrection.
Those who trust in Christ shall never die.

Here's a breathtaking picture fitting for Good Friday

"The NASA/ESA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of NGC 7049, a mysterious looking galaxy on the border between spiral and elliptical galaxies. The swirling rings of dust lanes around its ancient core has been dubbed the "Crown of Thorns." (Photo Credit: NASA, ESA and W. Harris McMaster University, Ontario, Canada) According to the European Space Agency, NGC 7049 is found in the constellation of Indus, and is the brightest of a cluster of galaxies, a so-called Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG). Typical BCGs are some of the oldest and most massive galaxies. They provide excellent opportunities for astronomers to study the elusive globular clusters lurking within.
The image was taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on Hubble, which is optimized to hunt for galaxies and galaxy clusters "in the remote and ancient Universe."

For the whole article click here.