He Is Risen!  He Is Risen, Indeed!  My friends, on this Easter 2015, with those words, today we acknowledge that our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has conquered death, even death on a cross, and has paid the penalty for our sin, for our selfishness, for our misdeeds.  Put bluntly, Jesus has saved those of us that love Him and Believe in Him, Jesus has saved us from ourselves!

Here the words given to  us in the Bible in the Book of Luke, the 24th chapter:

¹ But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. ²And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb, ³but when they went in they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. ⁴While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. ⁵And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, “Why do you seek the living among the dead? ⁶He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, ⁷that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.” ⁸And they remembered his words, ⁹and returning from the tomb they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest. ¹⁰Now it was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles, ¹¹but these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. ¹²But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened. ~ Luke 24:1-11 (ESV)

My friends, because of these words, and because God is who He is, and Jesus is who He is, because of that, we have hope — hope that, despite all that is happening to us in this day and this age, we have hope that we have a wonderful future, and when we pass on from this life, we will be reunited with Jesus, and with all of our loved ones, our friends, our families, but most importantly, with Our Lord and Savior.

On this beautiful Easter morning, please take a moment, pray with us, pray for us, and let us pray for you.  Please pray along to these words:

Our Heavenly Father, on this Glorious day, we remember that Our Lord and Savior, Jesus, conquered death.  We remember that He gave himself up for us, to save us from our sin, from our sinful natures, and in doing so, he gave every one of us Hope for the future.  Father, please be with us all, whether we have chosen You or not, show us Your love, show us Your kindness, and reach those that don’t know You, that they would choose to follow You, to love you as You love us.  It is in the precious name of Your Son Jesus that we pray, each and every day, with wonderful Thanksgiving. Amen.

Now, please join us in praying with our prayer requests and praises.

Prayer Requests and Praises…

• Prayers please for Cindy’s Uncle Ted. We have prayed for him — he is battling cancer. We have found out that Uncle Ted was in the hospital — his cancer has spread to his liver — and while he is now home, they are calling in Hospice. Please pray for Uncle Ted, for his wife Connie, and for all of the family and friends that love them. Please pray for Healing, for Peace, for Comfort, and for Strength in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Thank you.
  • UPDATE:Please keep praying for Uncle Ted, his wife Aunt Connie, and the rest of the family. Uncle Ted was taken into Hospice in Newport, NC yesterday. Please lift them up in prayers for Peace, Comfort, and Strength. Thank you.
  • UPDATE:Uncle Ted told us that he won’t go back home, that he will be in Hospice until the Lord calls him home, whenever that is.  Uncle Ted is a strong Christian, and we have no concerns as to where he will be — at this point, we are worried about Aunt Connie and all of the family.  Please keep praying with us.
• Please pray for my Uncle Donnie. He is the husband of my dad’s sister, my Aunt Ti, and he has been sick. We learned today that he has been sick, and is now in ICU. This story doesn’t get better, though, because Uncle Donnie’s organs are shutting down, and they are going to disconnect him from life support tomorrow. Please pray for Aunt Ti, for her Peace, for her Comfort, for her Strength, and for all of the family and friends that love them.

  Thank you.

  • An update on Uncle Donnie, from his wife, my Aunt Ti:

    For those of you who don’t know yet, my husband Don Trent passed away on Wed. April 1. After looking like he was kicking butt with the pneumonia for days his heart, then his kidneys were just too stressed. He went downhill pretty quickly and by last weekend we were realizing he was too sick and weak to heal. Letting him go was very hard but thinking of months of ICU care, then heart surgery and rehab,and finally coming home to be in as much pain as he’s been in this past year was just more than we could bear. He is resting now, finally, after so many years of working himself to the bone. Thank you all for your prayers and good thoughts.

• Please pray for the family and friends of Lillie Grissom. She was our neighbor across the street, and she had a series of strokes. She was at Peace, though, and was getting better, but we learned that she went downhill, and passed away on Friday the 27th. Her funeral was on the 31st. Please pray for her family and friends, for those that knew her best and will miss her gentle spirit.

  Thank you.

• Lastly, on a wonderful moment, please give God Praise for the twin children of our friend Becca and her husband!  Their twins came home from the hospital yesterday after 16 days in the NICU!

Now, please pray with us that prayer that Jesus taught his Disciples to pray:

Our Father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done,
On earth as it is in Heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,
And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever and ever.