Christ Has Risen! He Has Risen Indeed!! Alleluia!!!

O Death, Where Is Your Sting? O Hell, Where Is Your Victory?

My uncle died yesterday. Not that long ago an aunt died. I was at her funeral & committal. Soon I will be attending his funeral & committal. 

In church this morning two of the scripture readings really hit home. here they are.

Truth from Scripture

"Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth him. But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. And he said, 'Behold I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." Acts 6:54-56.

Some devotional thoughts

"He" is Stephen, one of the first elders in the early Church. The "Son of Man" is Jesus, standing next to God the Father. They who "ground their teeth" at him?" The religious leaders whom he had just accused of murdering the Son of God. Where is Jesus standing? He is standing in heaven. In the next few minutes they will pick up rocks & throw them at Stephen until he is dead. There is a heaven. My aunt & uncle are in heaven with Jesus. "Our hope is built on nothing less . . . "

More Truth from Scripture

(Jesus said), "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe God; believe also in Me. In My father's house are many rooms. if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?L And if I go and prepare a place for y0u, I will come again and will take you to Myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.
      "Thomas said to Him, 'Lord, we do not know where You are going. How can we know the way?' Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me . . . '" John 14:1-6

A few(?) more devotional thoughts

My Uncle Royce was a god-fearing man who was a faithful church-goer . . . who walked the walk & talked the talk. You know what else I glean from these passages? Especially coming so soon after our celebration of Easter?

• We have a Savior Jesus Christ who conquered sin, death, & Satan by His sacrificial death & glorious resurrection.
• We know our Father in heaven accepted Jesus' sacrifice on behalf of poor miserable sinners--that would be you & me--because He raised His Son from the dead.
• You want the Truth? The Truth in a culture that increasingly scoffs at the idea that there is One Truth? Here it is.
• There is one God. There is one Savior. It is Jesus Christ.
• "It is by grace you have been saved through faith. It is a gift from God, not works, lest anyone should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

I will miss my aunt & uncle. I will look forward to a joyful reunion with them.

A prayer

We sang "Come, You Faithful, Raise the Strain" * in church this morning. It also resonated with me.

(St. 2) "'Tis the spring of souls today:  Christ has burst His prison

And from three days' sleep in death As a sun has risen;

All the winter of our sins, Long and dark, is flying

From His light, to whom is giv'n Laud and praise undying.

(St. 5) . "Alleluia! Now we cry To our King immortal.

Who, triumphant, burst the bars Of the tomb's dark portal.

Come, you faithful, raise the strain

Of triumphant gladness!

God has brought His Israel Into joy from sadness!

* SOURCE:  Lutheran Service Book, #487