1801.) Ten Thoughts about Easter

Christ Is Risen!  Alleluia!

“Think on these things.”

“If Jesus rose from the dead, then you have to accept all that he said; if he didn’t rise from the dead, then why worry about any of what he said? The issue on which everything hangs is not whether or not you like his teaching but whether or not he rose from the dead.”

~Timothy Keller

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Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this?”

~John 11:25-26

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“The Disciples Peter and John Running to the Sepulcher on the Morning of the Resurrection” by Eugène Burnand, c.1898.

“For me the most radical demand of Christian faith lies in summoning the courage to say yes to the present risenness of Jesus Christ.”

~Brennan Manning

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“Women at the Tomb” by He Qi.

“Life [had] replaced logic.”

~Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

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“Guards at the tomb of Christ” drawing by J. R. Howley, 2011.

“Perhaps [the critics are right and] the drama is played out now and Jesus is safely dead and buried. Perhaps. It is ironical and entertaining to consider that at least once in the world’s history those words might have been said with complete conviction, and that was on the eve of the Resurrection.”

~Dorothy L. Sayers

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“Christ on the Cross” by Sir Anthony van Dyke, 1627.

“The Bible says he was raised not just after the blood-shedding, but by it. This means that what the death of Christ accomplished was so full and so perfect that the resurrection was the reward and vindication of Christ’s achievement in death.”

~John Piper

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There are times when I feel that he has withdrawn from me, and I have often given him cause, but Easter is always the answer to My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me!

~Madeleine L’Engle

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Today is the day of salvation for the world… Christ is risen from the dead: arise with him. Christ returns to himself: you also must return to him. Christ has come forth from the tomb: free yourselves from the fetters of evil. The gates of hell are open and the power of death is destroyed. The old Adam is superseded, the new perfected. In Christ a new creation is coming to birth: renew yourselves.

~Gregory Nazianzen

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Our Lord has written the promise of resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.  
~Martin Luther

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“Now let the heavens be joyful,
Let earth her song begin:
Let the round world keep triumph,
And all that is therein;
Invisible and visible,
Their notes let all things blend,
For Christ the Lord is risen
Our joy that hath no end.”
~John of Damascus

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Music:

“Hallelujah Chorus” from Handel’s Messiah, performed  HERE  by the Royal Choral Society.  You are cordially invited to sing along!

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Images courtesy of:

Alleluia!    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/alleluia.gif

empty grave clothes.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/emptytomb.jpg

I am the resurrection.    https://everythingforhisglory.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/whiterosejohn11.jpg?w=625

Burnand.    http://www.artbible.info/images/grafspoed_grt.jpg

He Qi.    http://auroratrinitylutheran.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/womenatthetomb.jpg

Howley.    https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/guards.jpg

van Dyke.    http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/13/1347/UGCS000Z/posters/sir-anthony-van-dyck-christ-on-the-cross-1627.jpg

cross at sunrise.   https://illinoisaxiom.files.wordpress.com/2011/04/eastercross.jpg

empty tomb.    http://media.photobucket.com/user/clchco/media/emptytomb1.jpg.html?filters[term]=stone rolled away&filters[primary]=images&filters[secondary]=videos&sort=1&o=1

spring leaves.    http://wallpaperstock.net/two-spring-leaves_wallpapers_11823_1024x768_1.html

JOY.   https://dwellingintheword.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/ttr-joy.jpg?w=450