Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26, NIV)

This scripture sums up for me the reason why we celebrate Easter. It is a yearly remembrance of the gift that God gave to the world on that first Easter morning. With the empty tomb, Jesus opened up for us the opportunity to receive everlasting life. His resurrection defeated the finality of death.

On April 9th , we will celebrate the gift of Easter in our worship service. We will celebrate Holy

Communion together. We will be blessed with several wonderful musicians and the Bell Tones playing the bells for several songs. It will be a wonderful celebration of the Gospel message of salvation.

We spent the Lenten Season learning about the statement of faith contained within the Apostle’s Creed. On Easter, we will wrap up our teaching by looking at what we mean when we say, “I believe in . . . the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting”. We will look at this phrase through the lens of Christ’s resurrection from the dead on that first Easter morning.

The following Sunday, April 16th , we will begin a new sermon series based upon the Armor of God. Paul uses this image in his letter to the Ephesians. We have been given the protection of God through our faith as we try to live our lives to share the love of God to our neighbors.

Each Sunday, we will look a piece or armor to see what it protects and why. We will learn about the attribute of faith that Paul and other Biblical writers assigned to the piece of armor. This study will take us up through the celebration of Pentecost on May 28th.

Have a Happy Easter! And, I look forward to the journey.

In Christ!

Pastor Matthew