Blessed and joyous Easter to all! This Easter day brought abundant blessings to this family. Worship this morning was full of the spirit of God and the joy of the resurrection. The praise team rocked the house. We were accompanied by Addie’s masterful playing and a small orchestra. Praise God with the instruments and song!
After worship we met our family members for lunch at Bravo!, located in the Highlands in south Arlington. There were 13 of us for lunch. We followed up our lunch with dessert and coffee at our house. The front has been newly painted, with two new front porch rockers and potted flowers on the porch (see the attached picture). The inside has been beautifully and lovingly painted. I was so excited. It was sort of like a house resurrection. We had a wonderful family time and I think it may have been the most wonderful Easter I have ever spent.

Bruce and I were talking later and I asked Bruce if he thought Casey celebrated Easter everyday. Bruce said, “No. Heaven is better than Easter because Jesus has already ascended to His Father and is with Him all the time.”

Luke 11: 28 says, But Jesus said, “ No, blessed are those who hear the teaching of God and obey it.”

God created the heavens, the earth, and animals, the plants, the birds and us. After this last bit of creation, man and woman; one of God’s created beings, Satan, came into the garden. With the arrival of Satan in the garden came lies, jealousy and deception. You see, Satan wanted to be God and told the first man and woman that if they would just do what he said then they would be like God, too. God had already given them everything they needed and only made one request of them: not to eat of this one tree. Satan who thought he knew everything there was to know about God.

Satan kept up this practice of deception of people with a lot of success for thousands of years until Jesus came on the scene. Now Satan had to meet God’s son face to face for the next 33 years. As Jesus began to grow a following Satan thought, “I will tell lies to the people and I will have God’s Son killed.” Well, Satan’s plan worked. Jesus was crucified. Can you picture Satan all puffed up and parading before the Father that he had won not only the battle, but the war? Here is where it gets really good. Satan knew everything (or at least thought he did), and his plan had gone off flawlessly until …Easter morning. Satan thought he had put a stop to God’s work in the world with the ghastly crucifixion of Jesus. Then on Easter Sunday, the tomb is empty and Jesus is raised from the dead. Satan did not know this part of God’s plan. Can you imagine Satan at the resurrection being totally surprised and humiliated, his pride completely in the cellar and angrier than a mother hunting for a child’s shoes before school? Satan knows if he cannot kill the Son of God then His children might be led astray, but they will always be able to go home and that is one thing that not even Satan can change.

God has given us His Word to teach us about Himself. God sent Jesus to us as the model of perfect obedience. Jesus realizes the value of being obedient to the Word of the Father. Jesus teaches us the Word of His Father so that we might grow into His likeness and follow a path of obedience and be blessed.

Take joy in the journey. Love you all, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am moved only by what I believe and I believe God.