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Morning Devotional...


The Best News Ever in a World Filled with Bad News
By Michael Youssef, Ph.D


In the past, people either accepted or rejected Christ's resurrection as a fact of history. But in today's postmodern culture, people are apt to say, "Jesus rose from the dead? So what?"

That attitude perpetuates apathy about the most important event in human history, which in turn causes people to miss out on the greatest news they could ever personally experience. Christ's resurrection is the best news ever, and the evidence for it is overwhelming:

1. It was recorded by four independent accounts, which accurately reported many small details, such as the number of angels at the tomb, the number of women who went to the tomb, the time of their arrival, and the overall sequence of events. All the accounts are easily harmonized.

2. The removal of the tombstone and the presence of the grave cloth proved that Jesus' body was no longer in the tomb. In the culture of that day, and with such a dense population, it would have been impossible to hide a body if it were stolen. The authorities could have easily produced it.

3. After Jesus' resurrection, He appeared to not just a few women in the garden, but to a wide variety of people, including a group of 500. Surely 500 people could not have suffered a hallucination at the same time.

4. The resurrection changed things in dramatic ways, such as the change in the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday. But the greatest evidence of all might be how it changed the disciples and instilled in them a willingness to die a martyr's death. Surely they would not have been willing to die a decade or two later for a lie or hallucination.

Sir Edward Clark, an English jurist, once wrote: "As a lawyer I have made a prolonged study of the evidences of the first Easter day. To me the evidence is conclusive and over and over again in the high court, I secured the verdict on evidence not nearly as compelling..."

That's why the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the greatest news of all - it is indeed great news, not just a great story. It is the ultimate Truth, not just an opportunity to eat chocolate bunnies.

And because it is true, every human on the face of the earth must respond to it one way or another. Our individual eternal future, and the future of civilization, depends on it.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for the resurrection of Jesus - the greatest news of all. Help me to never overlook the significance of the resurrection, but to know its daily power in my life and its saving power for those who do not yet know You. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.

"The angel said to the women, 'Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay'" (Matthew 28:5-6). 

Happy Easter to one and all this fine morning. 

We plan on attending church this morning but won't try to eat out today as the Master's Golf Tourney has begun.  The gates were opened at 7 am this morning for the first day's event.  Apparently, all of the events all week long are sell outs.  We will be staying close to home this week.

John, thanks for the info on the ice roads and your journey North.

Jeanne, we lived in a mobile home for about 3 years and I know how the wind would sort of shake the mobile home and that I didn't like it.  Hope the wind has now passed your area.  We had some gusty wind here yesterday but not sustained and there is a bit of a breeze this morning. 

Janet,  glad that you are still able to stretch and bend.  We can still get the things out of our washer although those at the bottom and the back of the tub can be a challenge.  Nice to see you will be with family tomorrow. We are not having a family time as our son has to work today and tonight. 

Ruth Ann, enjoy your time with friends. 

Jeanne, thanks for postings new Devotional material for us for this week.  Dr. Youssef really nailed it in his article. 

HYMN HISTORY:

Rev. Alfred Ackey (1887-1960) was preaching during an evangelistic crusade. After the service he was trying to persuade a young man to give his heart to Christ, when the man said, "Why should I worship a dead Jew?" Ackey stated, "HE LIVES! I tell you, He is not dead, but lives here and now! Jesus Christ is more alive today than ever before. I can prove it by my own experience, as well as the testimony of countless thousands." Later that evening the young man gave his heart to Christ. It was during this experience that Ackey wrote not only the words but also the tune for our hymn, "He Lives."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I serve a risen Savior, He's in the world today;
I know that He is living, whatever men may say;
I see His hand of mercy, I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need Him He's always near.

In all the world round me I see His loving care, And tho my heart grows weary I never will despair;
I know that He is leading thru all the stormy blast,
The day of His appearing will come at last.

Rejoice, rejoice, O Christian, lift up your voice and sing
Eternal hallelujahs to Jesus Christ the King!
The hope of all who seek Him, the help of all who find,
None other is so loving, so good and kind.

He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus lives today!
He walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives, He lives, salvation to impart!
You ask me how I know He lives?
He lives within my heart.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good devotional, I really like Dr. Yousef!  And I've always loved that hymn, so thanks, Jeanne!

Larry, I imagine all the restaurants will be crowded with the golf folks and those who watch them, huh?  We went to church here last night.  Our church put on quite a production called A New Day.  They had at least 7  guitar players, keyboard players, singers from our church, and had a professional light and sound man who did those jobs.  It wasn't unbearably loud as it was last year, and was interspersed with words from the pastor, also videos.  We enjoyed it.  This morning, we took Beth and went to My Father's House in Hugoton.  Oh, what a glorious service that was!  Powerful, Spirit-led preaching, followed by Holy Ghost prayer!!  I looked at Beth and asked if she wanted them to pray for her and her eyes lit up and she said yes!  So they did.  Praise God, my spirit felt revived.

We had a very nice dinner with the kids.  All were there except our Mark, who had to fly today.  The little girls had fluffy yellow Easter dresses and I told them they looked like three fluffy little chicks.  Adorable!  (Partial?  Who, me?  What makes you think that??)     Then after watching the little ones hunt eggs, we all went over to Moscow to see the progress on Curtis' and Toni's house.  By then Beth was more than ready to come home.

We had a beautiful, warm day, and NO WIND!!  Yea, God!  Thank you!

I hope all of you have been blessed this Resurrection day!

Hi everyone on this Easter night. I decided to post again tonight as I want to get an esrly start on reinstalling Windows 7 on Pat's desktop as something has gotten messed up and we can't get it out on the Internet.  My son and I have spent several hours of frustration and decided enough was enough.  I know the process involved as have done reinstalls several times. 

We did attend the Easter service at the church.  It was a fine service with a strong message and the service ended with choir singing the Hallelujah Chorus accompanied by the pipe organ and it was magnificent.  During the children's sermon the minister asked the kids to share some surprises they had experienced.  One child brought down the house when she responded her surprise was when her cousin jumped into the pool without any clothes.  It was not a response the minister had anticipated.  We did not go out to eat today and spent a restful afternoon.

Jeanne, we sang "He Lives" at church this morning.  It is a very powerful hymn and thanks for posting it.

Janet, you certainly have reason to be proud of your family and glad you could be together today. Too bad that music has to be a plied at a very loud volume. 

We went to the Easter Vigil service Saturday night and it was super uplifting.  Best one we have ever attended.  We went out for coffee this morning because of all the music scheduled for Easter Sunday and sure do miss the special services but Don cannot tolerate the noise - it makes him disoriented so this is our life now and we are grateful for so many other things that we cannot gripe about the things we cannot do anymore. 

Television has an ongoing special now on the Holy Land and it is so interesting - historically speaking of Christianity.  They show the actual sites of where things spoken about in the bible took place.  Amazing that these places have survived. 

Children phoned or Skyped on the computer - we are blessed. 

John B:  That sounds like such an interesting place for you to see - way beyond the tourist area. 

Have a good and safe week everyone.  I will try to pop in here to check on you. 

Carol, would you share the channel and the time the shows are on the Holy Land?  I would love to watch those!

Larry, I hope you get Pat's computer straightened out!

The guy who had called twice before and didn't show, did come today and picked up the washer and dryer, so that's good!

Not much to say today, so I shouldn't say it! 

Hi, friends,

I've been "up 'n at 'em" for quite a while today.

How wonderful to hear of your lives with family and friends and learn of the various ways we worship. Isn't it wonderful that God who knows our hearts, has provided the faith environment to share here in this sharing place.

Y'all have a good day.

Ruth Ann

Hi everyone.  I spent a lot of time re-installing Windows 7 on Pat's computer but still cannot connect to the Internet.  I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with Comcast this afternoon and hopefully doing a driver update will solve the problem.  If that doesn't do it there is a hardware problem with the computer.  It has been a nice day weather wise but looks like some rain is headed this way.  I will be doing more work on the computer tomorrow.  I am looking forward to the Final game tonight in the NCAA Basketball Tourney tonight.  Just wish it started earlier.

Janet:  We only get about 4 channels here & it has to either be the World channel or PBS.  Sorry, we have another friend visiting this week. 

Don is taking our friend to the Boneyard which is a bus tour of a lot of old planes.  I am planning the next few meals - also cousin & wife want to come back but this time not staying overnight.  We are blessed. 

Love that random image of a moose head! 

Sipping coffee with the laptop in the kitchen, door open to hear the chirping and watch the hummingbirds  it is so peaceful and quiet.  We have been discussing Heaven as our friend is widowed just a year.  He is reading books on that - any suggestions for me to tell him? 

Have a  peaceful day. 

We have missed Larry's post today.  Hope all is well.

Kassie is here for a couple of months, she is finishing off a PSW course, all she has left is the work experience and that will take her till the middle of July.

The snow is evaporating quickly, warm +6C and windy.  There so far has been no flooding.  This is always good news.

Have a great day everyone.

Hi, friends,

Well, today has been one of sorting and discarding or shredding documents. Awhile ago, I sat down for a rest, and just now awakened.

So, I don't know much to talk about, but hope all is well with y'all.

Love to all,
Ruth Ann

Busy day for me, too, but nice, as I talked to all three of my sisters today!    Both of my older sisters called to ask about Darrel, thinking he had already had his surgery.  I appreciate their concern and their prayers for him.

Thanks, Carol, I will check PBS here. 

I need to lie down and put ice packs on; had a chiropractic adjustment earlier.   ;)lso took another carload of stuff to the senior center.  If I keep plugging away, I will get rid of the clutter (and just no-longer-wanted-or-needed stuff!) yet!

Talk to you all tomorrow!

Hi everyone.  I realized last evening that I had not posted here yesterday.  Pat and I are fine.  I spent a good part of the day working on Pat's computer.  I took it to Office Depot to have it checked out with their free tuneup service and the computer is fine as it worked perfectly in the store.  I now have it down in my office and it is working so can only conclude we don't have a strong enough signal upstairs to make the Internet work properly. I am going to call probably today and request they come and put in the booster(s) that I was told they were going to do when the Tech came and changed the gateway, which didn't solve anything.  In the meantime I am going to be restoring Pat's computer the way it was in terms of programs, which will take a number of hours. No other plans for today.  We had just a brief shower yesterday afternoon and might see one early this evening.

Larry, you must have way more patience than most of us, to spend so many hours working on computer problems!  I hope you get it resolved this time!

I've been to the gym, came home and got some more clutter cleared away, now it's lunch time already!

Be back later, probably.

Winter is still trying to hold on.  A dark day, a chill in the air and we had a little snow flurry a few minutes ago.  But I think eventually spring will win out.  Most of the snow is gone - mostly there's just where it was plowed up into big piles.  And over the weekend we may get up close to 60! 

Hello everyone, Sorry I have been MIA for a few days.  Easter Sunday we had brunch at 9 am, I made h quinoa gluten free  strawberry bread for the brunch. Service was  fantastic and  when pastor did the alter call no one went forward, but several of us went forward to renew our commitments.  I have been cleaning this around here getting rid of stuff. I took a bunch of clothes that no longer fit me and are  in excellent condition over to our church for the  garage sale they are having this Saturday. Today I cleaned out the pantry closet and have  a ton of plastic tablecloths to take over to the church around the corner from here tomorrow morning, this is the church that  does the food giveaway and free yard sale stuff. I try to donate to them  frequently.  Last week I took over a bag full of shoes.

Well we have been hit hard.  Yesterday we were tol d that we owe revenue Canada 2400 dollars.  I laughed, because that is as easy to pay as 24 million would be.  We will figure it out.  Today John saw oil on the rear left wheel, and checked.........we have a wheel seal gone.  Into the shop I go and find out that the cause of this second seal going is a problem with the axle.......There is wear on it and it needs to be replaced.  I am not laughing at this as the Explorer is our only means of transportation.  Laurence (owner of the garage) has done some calling and the price is lower than the original quote.  God is good, giving me peace through all of this.

We have snow again tonight, it won't last long just long enough to slow down the melt.  Not a biggie.

Have a great evening everyone!

Marilyn, I have been "ridding out" too!  Still a very long way to go, though.

Judy, so sorry for the new bumps in your road.  BUT GOD......He who has all the answers will help you and John find the answers to these new money problems, too.  Hugs!   

OK I have entered my pictures!

Hi everyone on a very beautiful morning here in South Carolina.  It was 69 degrees when I got up this morning and we expect to reach 90 by 5 pm.  It will certainly be a nice day to begin the actual Master's Golf Tournament.  I pretty well completed the reinstallation of programs on Pat's desktop and now have to take it back upstairs and then contact Comcast (not my favorite thing to do although I usually find the people to be friendly and trying to be helpful).  Pat and I plan on a trip over to Walmart this morning before it gets too hot.  I do have a couple of Facetime sessions planned for today to see and talk with my friends in Georgia.  Other than that I hope it is a quiet day.

Judy, itis the bumps in the road (as Janet said) that make us appreciate the smooth pavement when we get to it. 

Marilyn, our old church had a monthly event called "Free Saturday" where church folks could bring in clothing and a few other category of items and give them away to people in the community.  Nice of you to support the local church in their charitable activities.

Jeanne, hold on Spring has to be on the way.  I think we may have already gone into summer as it is going to be in the 80's and 90's for several days.

Janet, I really don't mind redoing the computer as have done it quite a lot. 

Awaiting    3 neighbors from home arrive Saturday.  Now the count of visitors is about 24 - I stopped counting.  There are two ways to look at this and we choose to give thanks that so many think about us enough to come and visit and we are well enough to handle the company.

Janet:  That program may be over but it could be repeated sometime. 

JudyB:  Very good news that you don't have floods this time and prayers for your other issues. 

Hi, friends,

Well, today started with breakfast at Shoney's with friends who were flying out to go home to Virginia. Oh, well, it certainly was good to be with them when they were here.

Our temps also went above 80 today, and now that southern wind off the Gulf of Mexico is bringing humid air to our environs where it's expected to collide with a cold front. Oh, dear, they say our most active weather will be from 11pm to 4am with storms, possible hail, and possible tornadoes.

I'm so thankful that I have a local station's weather app on my phone. Without even ringing, if there's an alert in my zip code, I'm told to take cover. I surely do appreciate that convenience.

Well, y'all have a good rest of the day with our Lord.

Ruth Ann

Good to see Judy, Larry, Carol and Ruth Ann posting today!

We haven't been home long, and I am exhausted.  Darrel is scheduled for surgery early next Wednesday.  We do not anticipate it to be anything serious, it will be a day surgery.  But prayers are always appreciated.

We have a very busy day tomorrow, so I'm going to get my bones to bed! 

God bless each of you!

Hi everyone on an overcast morning.  The forecast says 86 today with possibilities of severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening.  We lost our internet service for a couple of hours yesterday but it wasn't off as long as they said it might be. I tried to get a tech scheduled with Comcast to come out and do something to boost the signal in the house but each time their system would not let them get to the scheduling page so have to call again today.  Our big plan today is to go out and have lunch at our favorite Mexican Restaurant as we haven't eaten out all week and know that Pat is getting tired of having to cook every evening. 

Carol, I know all that company and the responsibilities that fall on your shoulders gets to be a heavy burden but indeed you are blessed to have so many friends and relatives that care enough about you to want to spend a little time with you. 

Ruth Ann, it has been several years since we last ate at a Shoney's.  The ones close to us in Georgia closed sometime ago and I am not aware of any in this area.  I sure hope the bad storms bypassed you.  It sounds like a number of area were severely hit yesterday. 

Janet, glad that that surgery for Darrel can be day surgery and that nothing serious is anticipated.  Please set aside some time today for yourself to do what you want to do rather than what you feel needs to be done.   

Hi, friends,

This has been a quiet day, which will include supper with dear friends at a delightful little Thai restaurant that has operated by a family here in Nashville since my boys were in their teens.

The storms weren't too bad - some downed trees, etc., but nothing terrible.
Mercifully, we didn't have the terrible difficulties that others have experienced with this particular set of storms.

Y'all have a great day with our Lord.

Love to all,
Ruth Ann

The news of storms in the Midwest and and East are so sad at this time of the year, especially strong weather patterns.  There was a man talking about rebuilding his town and he said his family and friends were so blessed - amazing people out there.  Just thinking about every little thing you are used to in a residence - even a hairbrush etc.  It must be a sobering experience. 

Today, a 2nd. cousin's wife has an appointment with an oncologist who is looking at her records as for over a year, she has been needing care but they have not diagnosed the problem.  We are praying.  We had lunch at Red Lobster with my twin older cousins yesterday - they always make me laugh.  it is so hard seeing them more frail each year and one is putting his AZ place up for sale so if I want to see him, we will have to drive to Minnesota. 

Thanks for that good advice, Larry.  It is now a little after 4 PM and I finally am getting to take a few minutes to do what I want!    I had a hair appointment this morning, then got our clothes ready to go to the photographer's this afternoon, for our 1:30 appointment.  Ellen is so good at what she does, makes you feel really comfortable.  That's probably why she's so good at her job!  Now we are back home.  I just looked at the online proofs of the photos Ellen took of our Abby that day when I went with her.  They are terrific!(at least, so says Grandma!) 

The wind was just awful yesterday when we were in Garden City.  I actually felt as if it might blow me off my feet!  Whew!   It is much nicer today.  Carol, you're right about the things we would miss if they were suddenly gone!  How long might it take a person to remember to replace everything?  Hard to even imagine.  All in the path of storms need our prayers.

I wish we were going out to eat tonight, but Darrel said his back was really hurting on the way home, so I'm not going to suggest we go out.   We will find something here.

Ruth Ann, so glad you didn't get hit by a bad storm.  May God continue to protect each of us!

Hi everyone.  We have escaped any storms and apparently had just very light rain.  It is to be cloudy here this morning then partly sunny this afternoon and get up to just 80 today.  It will be a nice day for the third round of the Masters.  My schedule is pretty clear today and as far as I know now I will be staying home.  I was finally able to get the Comcast Tech scheduled for tomorrow afternoon between 5 and 7 pm.  I spent a lot of time yesterday talking on the telephone, which is a bit unusual for me  We did enjoy our late lunch at the Mexican Restaurant we like here.  It was nice to get out. 

Ruth Ann, I am not familiar with Thai food.  Hope you had an enjoyable supper with your friends and glad the storms were not too bad for you all.

Carol, it is sad when one has to sell out as your cousin is having to do but time marches on and sometimes we can no longer march with it or must do it at a slower pace. 

Janet, there would be something amiss if you didn't think Abby's pictures were great as you see them through the eyes of love.  However, I am sure they are as you say as know she is a beautiful young lady.  I have taken pictures of our furniture and saved them in the cloud as know how difficult it is to remember everything when it is gone.  Years ago we were robbed and just trying to remember what was taken for insurance purposes was most difficult and it wasn't that many items.   

Hi everyone. Thank you, Jeanne, for posting that wonderful hymn. It was one of the first that I learned when I started attending church at the age of 39. I'm sorry I haven' been on much lately, other than to read through posts.

Please pray for me in the coming days. I am off work with strep throat. 

Thank you all.

May His blessings surround you each and every day.