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From The Pastor's Pen Henry Schulte The JOY – Filled message of Easter is that Christ IS Risen! It was not just a historical happening but a celestial event that proclaims Christ is alive. We understand the doctrine of the Triune God to mean that there is one God, eternal in nature, who is revealed in the work of creation creating the cosmos. At some point this God chose to create the human race through Adam and Eve and called them to live in relationship to God in the Garden of Eden. Their desire to know, not only good, but to know good and evil, led them to disobey God and to suffer the consequences of sin,,,, separation from God. But God did not give up on his children. God’s love and grace was shown to Adam and Eve while yet in the Garden as he provided clothing of fig leaves, and it continued on as God was always at work in the world, working out God’s plan for the redemption of the world of humans, now separated from God. It was at Bethlehem that we see what God looks like, and throughout his ministry we see what God acts like as the true, 100% human Jesus, and the 100% truly Divine Christ, live out God’s plan in perfect righteousness so that God might deliver righteousness to his whole world. God’s plan of redemption went through the suffering and death on Calvary and through the empty tomb, the visit to the place of the dead (Sheol or Hell) and in a victory lap through hell as the first stage of his exaultation showed his power over sin, death and the power of the devil. And then, “Up from the grave he arose!” Christ was alive! But the real Easter message is that Christ IS alive,, as the one God in three persons came back to earth in the person of The Holy Spirit. The visible came back as the invisible so that God’s power could be at work in the world through the Holy Spirit, calling, gathering and enlightening all humans, causing them to be opened up to God and be opened to his saving grace, be filled with that grace and respond to that grace with lives of worship and praise to God and in GRACE-FULL acts of interaction with those around them. God is alive! Christ is alive! The Holy Spirit is alive! God is calling us to live out of that tub full of grace in which we now stand, having been justified by His Grace, through faith for the sake of Jesus Christ. We live in a Post Resurrection time in a relationship of faith in Jesus Christ. He lives in each of the baptized through His Holy Spirit, in faith, calling us to faithfulness. Allow that to be your identity. Allow that to guide your attitudes and actions to those around you. Remember his last command,, “Love one another AS I HAVE LOVED YOU!” Let’s love like Christ loves! Remember, he is living in us!
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