Guilty of One, Guilty Of All - James 2:10

   
 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.- James 2:10

    Probably the most oft-repeated objection to believing in God that I hear is the opinion that He is a deliberately cruel and harsh God if He insists that His definition of sin must be ours. Notice that the objection isn’t based on the supremacy of God’s moral position. You understand, after all, that He is God and we’re not? It is based upon our personal choices and attitudes toward what should or should not be a sin. We have decided against traditional Christian moral values in favor of our desires and predilections and chosen things long considered to be sinful, to be the new paradigm of right behavior. “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.” - Isaiah 5:20.
    As we can see, this practice isn’t anything new. We’ve been doing this since time began. Those who adhere to this convoluted sense of ethics seldom refer to it as ‘morality’. I believe the reason they avoid the word is that they inherently know the things they think, say, and do are not moral by any stretch. So their immediate counter in nearly every confrontation is that no one has the right to tell them what is right and what is wrong. You’ve heard it yourself: “What’s right for you may not be what’s right for me.” The attitude has long been the subject of judgment calls. “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.” - Judges 21:25. You can see how this could quickly lead to ill-advised thinking and behavior. Shame has forever been as crucial a warning sign in our lives as has been pain. They are both words describing a feeling that something is wrong. Shame comes from an emotionally sick and damaged heart; pain comes from a physically sick or damaged body. Both should be heeded to prevent further harm.
    “It’s not that we shouldn’t have a somewhat stable standard for moral behavior,” they say; “but it must be a ‘floating standard,’ rather than one that is rigidly defined and maintained. It must be a standard that can ‘evolve’ with circumstances.” That is not God’s plan. “You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the Lord your God.’” - Leviticus 24:22. While this particular passage was directed more toward unequally apportioned justice, it serves well to show the law should be recognized the same way by everyone. What is right for me IS right for you; the inverse is true as well.
    How many times have we heard the adage - “If it’s right, it’s right even if no one does it and if it’s wrong, it’s wrong even if everyone does it.” We just can’t have conflicting ideas about right and wrong when we have a clear-cut and long time set of moral values that are so easily identifiable. Even if your sin has become the “in-sin” for the times and the culture, it is still sin! Popular culture is the last thing we want to rely upon to represent the moral compass of our lives! By God’s standard, if it wasn’t acceptable behavior yesterday, it isn’t acceptable behavior today, and it will not be acceptable behavior tomorrow. God’s laws are as unchanging as He is - “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God will stand forever.” - Isaiah 40:8.
    When a rare occasion takes place and the idea of a defined standard for behavior is recognized, the excuse for sinning then is deftly deflected as an acceptable gaffe. “It was only once. It’s my only weakness. After all, I behave in every other way.” It the tired old excuse - “Basically, I’m a pretty good person.” But as the title passage states - even if we keep all the laws except for one, we are still guilty of breaking the law. Our sin is still with us and we are without excuse. This is why it is essential that we understand our thoughts, words, and works can never help us gain salvation. All they have the power to do is further emphasize our guilt as sinners. And suggesting that God is somehow the villain in all this is not only sinful in its self but slavishly evil. Mankind’s evil is the antithesis of God’s holiness. And we dare to opine that we can determine for ourselves what is sin and what is not?
    The only way to maintain such an erroneous belief is to deny the sovereignty of God, His Word, and His very being. This is the very essence of the “unforgivable sin,” the calloused and shameless failure to repent of our sins. Rest assured; this is not the position we want to be in on Judgment Day. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.” - 2 Corinthians 5:10. What each of us believes will be what each of us receives.

Tetelestai: It Is Finished - John 19:30

  
When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. - John 19:30

    Whenever I hear talk of good works leading to salvation I cannot help but recall the final words of Jesus on the cross. When He said, “It is finished,” He was referring to all the work that He had come to do in the name of God. He was talking about fulfilling all the Old Testament prophecies about Himself. He was talking about conquering sin and death itself! “For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous.” - Romans 5:17-19.
    Why do thoughts of good works bring me recollections of Jesus’ last words? Because with those words, ‘It is finished,’ or‘ consummatum est,’ in Latin, Christ revealed to us that, as Calvin states, “All of salvation is contained in Him.” The Genevan reformer went on to say that all other sacrifices are now moot, all that was necessary to be done has been done through Christ, and His death upon the cross gives the Christian ‘peace and tranquility of conscience. In other words; nothing else needs to be done to affect our eternal salvation except for us to put all our uncompromising faith in Christ. “Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.” - Galatians 2:16.
    It is finished! We need to add nothing to the sacrificial and atoning death of Christ Jesus. Nothing. No weekly tithing, no good works, no draconian fasts or personal sacrifices, and no bizarre syncretic rituals, nothing. Jesus has done it all and it is finished. Now are tithing and good works sinful in this respect? No, they are marks of a Christian’s faith, the fruit of true saving faith, but not the cause of that faith. “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” - James 2:18.
    In a real sense, Christ’s death upon the cross is the greatest gift God has ever bestowed upon us. It is the primary reason Jesus came into the world as a man; to save mankind from its sins. “She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” - Matthew 1:21.
    Scripture is constantly referring to sin as death. Mortality was not part of God’s original plan for mankind in the sense that had Adam and Eve not sinned in the Garden of Eden, they would have lived forever. The original Covenant of Works was not something that mankind was able to adhere to. Adam failed and in so doing cursed his progeny for all time. Works righteousness has never been a human strength, so someone had to fulfill God’s plan for obedience to His decrees. It was Jesus Who did so. “And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” - Philippians 2:8. Christ did it, for all of us and because He did we now have our salvation assured through Him and not through any good works of our own.
    It is the human inability to wrap our heads around this theological doctrine that frustrates us. We feel that somehow we must be able to affect our eternal salvation. We cannot. There seems as though there is something we must be able to do. There isn’t. Only Jesus could do it upon completing His task on earth and fulfilling all the prophecies concerning Him. We must learn to trust the word of God Himself; when He says “it is finished,” it is truly finished. Celebrate it! Through Jesus Christ alone -  it is finished.

This Is Real Love - Mark 10:21-22

And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. - Mark 10:21-22

    The account of the young ruler illustrates one of the most common contemporary problems of coming to Christ in the modern world. As we recall, the young man, who was very wealthy by all accounts, asked Jesus what he must do to gain eternal life. Jesus responded - “You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” - Mark 10:19. Clearly, Christ was referring to keeping the Ten Commandments because this young man asked Him ‘what must I do?’ The erroneous idea that we can somehow ‘work or way’ into heaven has been with us even from time before Jesus. It is indeed the basis for every religion other than Christianity. So He put the ball in the young man’s court. As expected, the young man told Christ that he had kept all the Commandments since his youth. The young man may have been most civil in his dealings with others; however, we know that to follow all the Commandments to the letter of the law is impossible. No one is able to keep the whole law. “For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” - James 2:10.  Jesus knew it as well. Expecting this response, Jesus then lowered the boom as we read in our title passage.
    This was an extraordinary command, even from Jesus, as far as the young man was concerned. “I have followed every rule,” he thought, “and still it is not enough? Well, I’ll not give away all to follow Him.” He was so distressed by Christ’s words that he simply turned in his consternation and walked away. Many of us believe we’re ‘basically good human beings’ and that God will grade us on a curve. Here’s the bad news: we aren’t and He won’t!   
    Still, today many ask the question, “Why did Jesus answer the man this way, knowing that he would never be able to comply with the command to simply give everything away and follow Him.” To paraphrase it another way, many today question the command with the same disheartened attitude. Some even with a bitter and calcified arrogance. “Why should I give up everything I’ve achieved and obtained to follow Christ.?” The answer to that question if rife within the Holy Scripture but I will reference just one. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” - Mark 8:36. We are, after all, talking about trading off a worldly disposition for one of eternal significance.
    So why did Jesus respond to the young ruler’s question the way He did? Love. Which of us would calmly sit by as someone we loved was going to deliberately place his or her hand into a fire? Who would stand back and watch as someone we loved runs into a bustling traffic-jammed roadway? Which of us would dispassionately sit by while our loved one chose a lifestyle of chemical addiction and not say a word?
    When our approach is stern or heavy-handed, it is not because we are hateful or are being malicious; it is because love demands we take a strident and solid stand. Love simply doesn’t encourage or advocate for wrong or dangerous behavior. Love is intolerant of accepting a loved one’s unsound and spurious behavior. Love demands we speak out against error in such thinking and action.  Just as Jesus gave the young man an ultimatum, love demands we do the same for anyone perilously close to perdition.
    We can just as easily overlook or ignore the mistakes and deliberate errors of someone we care for. And some of them would prefer that we did. “Stay out of my road,” they will say. But love, true and effectual Christian love, challenges us to step into that roadway and speak the truth that they do not want to hear. “Give away all the worldliness that is in your heart, turn to Jesus, and you will have treasure in heaven.” Speak these words boldly for this is real love.
   

Of Rituals Real & Imagined - Isaiah 1:11

“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? says the Lord; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats.” - Isaiah 1:11

    Our current pandemic is bringing out the worst in people in many cases. From hoarding to civil disobedience to the apparent madness of someone who would deliberately cough or sneeze on grocery items, the unruliness and disregard of people can still astound us at times. But the irrationality has also seeped into varying religions and faiths around the world; however, I want to focus on one - the Saturday 4/11/2020 call by a Catholic Archbishop for a ‘mass of exorcism’ against the plague.
    God has made it perfectly clear as to what He desires from us, and what He does not want. “Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations— I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them.” - Isaiah 113-14. The ritual of exorcism is a man-made routine with absolutely no Biblical support.
    When Jesus exorcized demons, He did so by His mere word. “Be silent, and come out of him.”- Mark 1:25. There were no quasi-magical tools used nor was there any lengthy contrived petition. Jesus merely spoke the demons out. In fact, there are only two Christian rituals that Christ Himself instituted - baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Any other rituals have come into practice by the imagination and machinations of man.
    David knew what God wanted rather than ritualized sacrifice when push finally came to shove - “For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” - Psalm 51:16-17.
    The prophet Jeremiah told us what God wanted - “But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’” - Jeremiah 7:23.
    God has made it clear throughout the ages what His chief passion for us is - “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” - Hosea 6:6.
    Consider the following: if God has forbidden the worship of carved images or such images in general, and He has, why would He grant us the spiritual power to ‘bless’ or otherwise assign to these images an undeserved stature of holiness? These images are made of wood, paper, plastic, glass, metal, or stone! They have in themselves no inherent sanctity and a contrived magical ritual to make them so does not imbue them with any spiritual power.
We have not been authorized by God to manufacture ‘worship relics,’ nor are we to use them in the proper worship of our Lord. In other words, you may have an image of Jesus or a crucifix on your wall . . . you just can’t use it as a worship tool.
“Take care, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God, which he made with you, and make a carved image, the form of anything that the Lord your God has forbidden you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” - Deuteronomy 4:23-24. And, “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me . . .” - Deuteronomy 5:8-9.
    These are the things God wants from us, not rituals that could just as conceivably issue from a Santeria or voodoo ceremony, with all the bells, bangles, and feathers. We are not to bow before any totem. However, we must be careful not to assign sin to a mere representation of ‘the cross’, images of our Savior, or otherwise innocent portrayals for the mere use of viewing them, as long as we do not use them as objects of worship!
       All our merciful God expects from us are a broken and contrite heart, obedience, love, and the knowledge of Himself and belief in His Son, Jesus Christ. “And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” - Acts 4:12.
    Ritual for deliverance? No, God isn’t interested in rituals. The greatest deliverance ritual that was ever performed was that which took place on Golgotha with the death of Jesus Christ. Therein He delivered us from condemnation and God’s righteous wrath. No greater ritual could ever be, let alone provide deliverance for us sinners.
     We don’t require or need a ritualized ‘exorcism’ to divinely end our current pandemic and we are not instructed or advised by Scripture to attempt any such ‘magical ceremony.’ We have a greater hope; we have the promise of God that He will indeed grant us deliverance from our tribulations. “Now therefore mend your ways and your deeds, and obey the voice of the Lord your God, and the Lord will relent of the disaster that he has pronounced against you.” - Jeremiah 26:13.

COVID-19 Foretold? - Revelation 18:21-23

Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying,
“So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more; and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more, and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more, and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more,  and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.” - Revelation 18:21-23

    For fear of extrapolating more than I should from Revelation 18, let me suffice to say that it does, in its own prophetic manner, paint a picture eerily similar to what the world is currently facing in this pandemic.
    For example, verses 11 through 14 describe the economic downturn to the lack of cash-flow due to the inadequate supplies of necessary goods, including food. “And the merchants of the earth (men who make profits from sales) weep and mourn for her, since no one buys their cargo anymore, cargo of gold, silver, jewels, pearls, fine linen, purple cloth, silk, scarlet cloth, all kinds of scented wood, all kinds of articles of ivory, all kinds of articles of costly wood, bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. ‘The fruit for which your soul longed has gone from you, and all your delicacies and your splendors (foodstuffs and luxuries) are lost to you, never to be found again!’”- Revelation 18:11-14.
    Are these scarcities going to remain with us after the virus subsides? Perhaps not but the implications remain.
    Verse 19 reveals that the men of commerce (movers of commodities) will mourn and cry out . . . for financial support? “And they threw dust on their heads as they wept and mourned, crying out, (begging for a bailout) ‘Alas, alas, for the great city where all who had ships at sea grew rich by her wealth! For in a single hour she has been laid waste.’” It’s a far stretch, you think? The hotel industry alone is looking for $150 billion in aid. Boeing is also seeking billions of dollars in bailouts, as are the airlines and cruise lines. Multi-billion dollar industries are seeking financial aid. Even after the recession of 2008, it is hard to imagine.
    The chapter ends with the pronouncement that life, as we know it, has come to an end. From entertainment to manufacturing to threats to technology and the deeper relationships of modern life, everything has changed!.“Then a mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, ‘So will Babylon the great city be thrown down with violence, and will be found no more; and the sound of harpists and musicians, of flute players and trumpeters, will be heard in you no more,(entertainment in all its forms) and a craftsman of any craft will be found in you no more (joblessness), and the sound of the mill will be heard in you no more ( manufacturing shut down), and the light of a lamp will shine in you no more, and the voice of bridegroom and bride will be heard in you no more, for your merchants were the great ones of the earth, and all nations were deceived by your sorcery.’” - Revelation 18:21-23. It somberly ends with the idea that the merchants, the purveyors of the modern lifestyle, were considered ‘great’ by us, not only because of their provisions but also because of the perceptions they fostered, perceptions that were part our overall delusions.
    The subterfuge was universal in that it touched all nations, leaving none unsoiled by a faith in materialism fostered by mercantilism.
    The COVID-19 virus has undone the world as we knew it. Already there are those in the fields of business, medicine, and politics who are saying things have changed forever. I will not suggest that Revelation 18 is the prophecy of the virus foretold over two-thousand years ago. However, when you read the chapter, the words do have a disturbing nature about them.
(All parentheses mine.)

Without Hope - Romans 12:12

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. - Romans 12:12

    This past Easter Sunday, our pastor gave a message of hope. After hearing God’s word on the subject, I started to think - “What about those who don’t believe in God? From where do they draw their hope? And is such a hope truly “hope?”
    So from where does worldly hope arise? Hope certainly doesn’t come from the world and all it’s frivolity. A life without real and meaningful hope can only be a life lived in despair.  Look at the sheer numbers of depression, anxiety, sexual confusion, drug and alcohol addiction, and suicide. These maladies are the results of lives lived without hope! The world offers no hope. In fact, the fastest way to despair is to place our hope in anything world related. It truly is like grasping at the wind. “Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had expended in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun.” - Ecclesiastes 2:11.
    Hope in the things of this world is meaningless. Such hope has no anchor, nothing steadfast to hold onto. I ask anyone to provide me with an example of how one might ‘hope in the world.’ What will be the lynchpin to the fulfillment of that hope? What will be the basis of their hope in this world?
    From the Christian perspective, we have every reason to hope because ours is based upon our faith. “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” - Hebrews 11:1. Our hope is not derived from any worldly thing. Our hope comes directly from the word of God. “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” - Jeremiah 29:11. All our hopes are bound up in God and nothing else because nothing else can guarantee the outcome of our hope. “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God.” - Psalm 146:5.
    My late pastor, R.C. Sproul once wrote - “Those without Christ are without hope; those in Christ are never without hope.” The Bible assures us - “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you.” - 1 Peter 1:3-4. Jesus is the source of all Christian hope. If Christ is truly not the source of our hope we are truly all without hope! Tongue-twisting as that may sound, the words are intertwined like the very vine that Jesus Himself spoke about. “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” - John 15:5.
    It is this surety provided by Jesus that we stake our hopes on. And we are guaranteed our hopes will not be disappointed.
    Let us look at the title passage again. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. If we rejoice or take joy in our hope, then and only then can we be patient in tribulation. It is the man without hope who gripes and grieves over his lot in life. The man with hope can experience joy despite his problems because his hope is anchored in Jesus. “But how,” you ask, “can one find joy in troubles?” In prayer, my friends, in constant prayer. “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” - Philippians 4:4-7. We are told to rejoice in the Lord always, do not be anxious about anything, but pray and be thankful and let our requests be made known unto God! This is the key to having a hope that has its anchor in God: be joyful, be prayerful, be thankful, and make our supplications to God . . . not to the world!
    We can certainly place all our hopes in mankind and wait on the world to grant what we want or we can pray to God in thankfulness and joy and let our hope ride on the Spirit of God rather than the fickleness of man. Where does your hope come from? Do you even have any hopes?       

A Sunday Unlike Any Other - Philippians 4:4-6

 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
- Philippians 4:4-6


    This will probably be the most remarkable Easter Sunday in my 65 years. It will be remarkable for the fact that we are celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ in our homes rather than in assembling at our church. This plague has certainly altered our lives in ways that we will never forget. The infection continues to grow; the death toll continues to climb.
    On this Resurrection Sunday let us take the time to remember the grace with which God granted us redemption I Jesus Christ. “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” - Romans 8:11.
    During this time of sickness, we need to remember that through the sin of Adam the entire universe has suffered in ‘the Fall.’ Each age has had its share of tragedy and tribulation. From the ancient threats to the specter of nuclear annihilation to the plague event, the world and all the people in it have always faced one kind of catastrophe after another. “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these are but the beginning of the birth pains." - Matthew 24:6-8.
    And yet we as we approach Easter this year we are still able to access the hope that is in Jesus Christ. Despite our current virus emergency the means of grace provided by God to us are still available to those who believe in Him. The way to achieve those means of grace is as they have always been - through fervent prayer. “Is anyone among you suffering? Is anyone among you sick?.... Let him pray. . . and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” - James 5:13a, 14a, 16b.
    And where is the power of prayer? It must be ardent, pious, and sincere. In other words, we must be genuine, reverent, and our prayers must come from our hearts. These are the prayers that God listens to. Prayer requires belief in God, not some fleeting assent but a firm and convicted belief that with God, all things are possible. The prayers of the unbelieving God merely ‘hears.’
    Prayer remains our greatest weapon against the forces of the world, the flesh, and the devil whether they are represented by man’s inhumanity to man, the forces of natural disasters, or plague. Prayer should be our first resort, not an eleventh-hour refuge. And while God certainly expects - commands - us to use the common blessings of knowledge, wisdom, and technology to battle the tragedies we encounter, so He commands us to turn to Him for healing. “ . . . if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” - 2 Chronicles 7:14. This is the promise of our Almighty God!
    Therefore, let us take time this Easter Sunday, a Sunday unlike any other, to rejoice, pray, and recognize God’s providential blessings to us in the resurrection of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ who remains our Lord and Savior, for -“If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.” - 1 Corinthians 15:19. Happy Easter 2020!