[Faith-talk] Good Night Message for Saturday, March 30, 2013

[Paul]

Hello and good morning, afternoon or evening wherever you live on this planet.  Here in the Americas it's still Saturday, whereas the rest of the world is in its Lord's Day, or Resurrection Day as it is called in some places.  Because of its pagan connotation, I refuse to use the word Easter, but that is a personal decision and I won't mind if I read that word in any of your posts.  Anyway I hope that everyone is having a good day or did have the same.

Here in the Americas, as this is being written, we are in an in-between phase in this season of our Christian life, the time between Christ's death on the cross and His resurrection.  David Jeremiah, the well-known pastor of Shadow Mountain Community Church and speaker on his radio show "Turning Point," graces our Braille displays and screen readers with his article entitled "Anticipation," rendered as follows:

"Therefore, beloved, since you wait for these, be zealous to be found by Him without spot or blemish, and at peace.  And count the forbearance of our Lord as salvation.  So also our beloved Paul wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, speaking of this as he does in all his letters.  There are some things in them hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.  You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, beware lest you be carried away with the error of lawless men and lose your own stability.  But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  To Him be the glory both now and to the end of eternity.  Amen" (2 Peter 3:14-18 RSV).

Psychologists tell us that anticipation, which is the opposite of surprise, is an emotion with marvelous healing powers.  People who are snowbound sustain their spirits by anticipating the longer days of spring and summer.  Couples who are separated by military deployment stay sane by anticipating their reunion.  Students anticipate the end of the semester.  Workers look forward to their vacations.  Brides and grooms are eager for their wedding day.

Can you imagine a world without anticipation? How would we feel with nothing to look forward to? Welcome to non-Christianity.  Without Christ, there's no ultimate anticipation.  There may be momentary prospects and incremental excitement, but lasting expectancy is missing.  The future has no promise; it holds no hope.  Everything is perishing or will perish.  Death is the termination of our lives, our families, our fortunes, our civilization, and even of the universe itself.

Thank God we have a message of hope! Our joy is complete as we look to the future return of our Lord and to the mansions He is preparing for us.  Let's live in anticipation today!

Well folks, I don't know about you, but I look forward to tomorrow's activities at church when, along with my fellow congregants at my Christian house of worship and I am sure of yours, that I look forward to the celebration of Christ's resurrection with the full knowledge and confidence that, just as He rose from the dead, that we who know Him as our own personal Lord and Savior will also be resurrected with new and glorified bodies.  And folks, that isn't a pie in the sky or an imaginary thought, but it will be very real to each and every one of us.  Alleluia and praise God for this anticipation!

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul