FROM PASTOR MIKE’S DESK:

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ!

As many of you know … we are undergoing the family project of ripping out the floors in our house and then replacing them. Jessica and I may have bitten off more than we could chew with this project, especially considering my schedule and that it only happens to be one of the busiest times of the church year, but we are getting it done.      

Out with the old … in with the new. Projects like this, especially when you are sitting there and pulling the staples from the carpet pad out of the subfloor, give you time to think and contemplate the things of life. These kind of projects also help you realize that we live in a fallen and broken creation and are still awaiting the time when Christ comes again and everything is restored to perfection.  We have been experiencing aches and pains in parts of our bodies which we didn’t realize would ever hurt. We’ve also contemplated and thanked God that there are people who do this for a living and that those people aren’t us.

Reflecting on this project and looking ahead to Easter, I can’t help but think about what is yet to come. Paul says in Romans 8, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (8:18).  Sure, our bodies are suffering during our floor project … but how much more are all of our bodies suffering from the effect sin? It may not be suffering physically with aches and pains, but maybe for you it’s something else.  Maybe it’s your physical health, your mental health, your spiritual health.

All this suffering which you and I experience, it isn’t unique to just you or me, for everyone suffers somehow.  All this suffering which we experience … it’s minor compared to the suffering which Christ went through for us on Good Friday.

Arrested on fraudulent charges, spit upon and struck for saying the truth, flogged to please the emotions of an angry mob, ridiculed while stripped of every last bit of dignity, crucified upon a cross for everyone to see, suffering the wrath of God as his Heavenly Father placed the sin of the world upon him and then totally forsook him.  In light of the suffering of Jesus on Good Friday … the pain of a remodel or the other kinds of suffering we experience … not to minimize them … but they really don’t compare. And thanks be to God that they are not anything like what Jesus went through for you and me.

But also … thanks be to God that Jesus went through all that for you and me. If he hadn’t of done that … I personally don’t even want to think about what kind of suffering we would have to endure.

Thanks be to God too for Easter and Jesus’ victorious resurrection from the dead. When Jesus stepped out of that tomb, the ultimate remodel took place. The sins which scarred Jesus and left him ripped and tattered and left for dead … they were left in the tomb. Jesus walked out of that tomb in the utter perfection of God.

Since Jesus conquered sin, death, and Satan through his resurrection … we too will go through a complete remodel.  Out with the old … in with the new. Your body, my body, they will rise from their graves and be as perfect as Christ’s body was and is even now. When that resurrection of our bodies happens, there will be no more suffering.

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Being in Christ, your old sinful self is out and the new redeemed child of God is in. Your heart and soul has been remodeled and on that last day when Christ comes again and we celebrate the eternal Easter in perfectly remodeled bodies.

God’s blessings to you all as you celebrate our Lord’s resurrection this Easter,

Pastor Mike