What’s Good About Good Friday?

  This is Holy Week when we will celebrate Easter, but before Easter we will celebrate Good Friday --a time when we remember the willing suffering and sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  You might ask, "What's good about Good Friday?"-- We believe that Christ's willing sacrifice upon the cross paid the penalty for any sins and failures in our life and offers us new life and hope. Good Friday is good because as the old preacher once said, "It's Friday but Sunday’s coming!" Just as the tragedy of the cross became the triumph of the resurrection, we too know that God can take our greatest tragedies and through His eternal power turn them into triumph.  On Easter we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord with special exuberance, but the impact of Easter and the resurrection of Christ touches us each and every day of our life.  We know that the depth of Christ’s love is without limit, for He suffered all that could be suffered for us.  In the cross and resurrection, we find forgiveness for sin and failure, and hope for new life now and through all eternity.  Our heart may rest assured that God’s peace is a lasting peace.  And as we face trials and tribulation, we can be confident that God can take the most poignant tragedies and turn it into the greatest triumph.  Even death does not have the final word, for we know that we will one day be re-united with those who love God along with our Lord in eternity.  God has taken the tragedy of the cross and turned it into the triumph of the resurrection.  Why? --Because of God's amazing love!  This living hope touches our life each day.  Whatever you are facing, remember God loves you and God's love is life-changing!  Peter reminds us of this hope:
 
 (Verse of the week)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.  (1 Peter 1.3-9)
 
(Prayer of the week)
Almighty and Loving God, thank you your great love expressed by Jesus on the cross, and thank you for your forgiving grace.  Forgive me of wrongs and shortcomings of the past, and fill my life with your peace and hope.  May each day I know your incredible love.  And may my life touch others with love like a candle in the night.  Amen.
 
Blessings in Christ!—Pastor TJ
 
(quote of the week)
Believe in God like you believe in the sunrise. Not because you can see it, but because you can see all it touches --C.S. Lewis
 
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