Easter is a Glorious Day

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As you look at your life, what are some days in your life that you would consider calling them “Glorious Days.”  If a student, would it be the day you graduated high school or college?  If single, would it be the day you fell in love with your soul mate?  If married, would it be your wedding day?  If you are a parent, would it be the day you became a dad or a mom?  If unemployed, would it be the day you landed your dream job?  William Barclay said, “There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.”

“There are two great days in a person’s life – the day we are born and the day we discover why.”  – William Barclay

I would propose that there are several “Glorious Days” in the past that impact us and give us our glorious days in the present.  It was a Glorious Day when Jesus, the Son of God, came into this world.  We choose to celebrate His birth at Christmas.  Good Friday is the day we remember His sacrificial death on the cross and His blood gloriously washes away our sins.  And oh, Glorious Day, Easter Sunday, the day we mark on our calendars that Jesus rose from the dead.  Actually, every Sunday is a day Christians all over the world gather together for public worship to remember that Jesus rose again.

110 years ago, a famous evangelist and pastor, J. Wilbur Chapman, wrote a hymn called “One Day.”  What is unique about this hymn is the chorus is a summary of all five verses.

Living, He loved me;

Dying, He saved me;
Buried, He carried My sins far away;
Rising He justified freely forever:
One day He’s coming– O Glorious Day!

It was a Glorious Day when Jesus came into the world!

It was a Glorious Day when Jesus died for my sins! 

It was a Glorious Day when Jesus Arose from the Dead!

It will be a Glorious Day Jesus Returns from Heaven!

What does all of this mean to me? 

Life can be filled with such monotony, such sorrow and suffering, and hopelessness.  Many are turning to all kinds of “crutches” or “self-medications” or “escapes” to rescue them from their pain – alcohol, drugs, immorality, gambling, overspending – only to find that the hangover, the STD, the crushing debt makes them feel worse than before they tried to medicate their pain.

The Easter story is ultimately about changed lives – ordinary people transformed forever by the mercy of a Cross and the victory of an Empty Tomb.  If you will begin to seek God in your life, you will soon discover that He has been seeking you all along.  It is a glorious moment in your life when you realize that you can have a living relationship with the living God.  This is different from religion.  This is being born into God’s family – becoming His child.  Your most Glorious Day is when you receive Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.

Glorious Day –

When I receive Jesus as my Savior.

 

 

 

 

Solar Eclipse: Evidence of Intelligent Design

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A solar eclipse is when the moon passes between the Earth and the sun, casting a shadow onto our planet. This stunning astronomical event is more than an amazing light show, it is one of the most dramatic pieces of evidence that our planet and solar system is not an accident, but was designed by a magnificently intelligent Creator.

August 21
A total solar eclipse crosses the continental United States, an event that hasn’t happened in nearly a century. Tens of millions of people, crammed into a 70-mile-wide path that crosses our country from Oregon to the Carolinas, stand looking up at the sky.

This massive nationwide spectator event, and especially for people of the Christian faith, is evidence of God’s majesty, glory, creativity, and power. God made the universe beautiful on purpose, and one of the beauties is a solar eclipse. The next one to occur in America will not be until 2024.

What is remarkable is this – of the many moons in our solar system, our moon is the only one known to yield the most perfect solar eclipses when viewed from the surface of the earth. Is it just a coincidence that the one planet in the solar system that produces the most perfect solar eclipses just so happens to be the one planet that hosts conscious intelligent observers to appreciate them? Only one other moon in the solar system appears the same size when viewed from its host planet – a small moon of Saturn called Prometheus. But this moon moves so rapidly around Saturn that its solar eclipses endure for less than a single second.

Solar eclipses are a spectacular sight to behold. But they have also contributed significantly to scientific discovery. The sun’s corona, the star’s outer atmosphere, becomes observable only during a solar eclipse. This has allowed scientists to conduct experiments during solar eclipses. A 1919 solar eclipse led to the confirmation of Einstein’s theory of General Relativity that he had proposed three years earlier. If Einstein’s theory was right, starlight should bend as it passes the sun. The 1919 experiments during the eclipsed confirmed Einstein’s theory.

The conditions for this dazzling display are incredibly rare. The moon has to be just the right size, orbiting a planet just the right distance from its host star. The sun is 400 times farther away from the earth than the moon is, but it is also 400 times larger than the moon. This is why the sun and the moon appear to be approximately the same size in the sky. The result – total solar and lunar eclipses. The one place in our solar system where you can see a total solar eclipse is on our planet where people can see it.

Happy Accident or Intelligent Design?
Yet, many skeptics are not convinced. David Dickinson denies that all of this planetary engineering suggests intelligent design. He calls the many preconditions necessary for solar eclipses a “happy celestial circumstance.” Other faith deniers call solar eclipses  “a coincidence”, “natural phenomenon”, and ” a rare celestial spectacle.” They would be more accurate to call it a “miracle of intelligent design and divine engineering”, Genesis 1: 14-16.

Fred Espenak, famed eclipse expert (who has witnessed 27 eclipses on 7 continents), says, “The air gets noticeably colder by about 10 degrees. You feel something in the pit of your stomach like something is not right. As totality begins, and the shadow sweeps over you, the hairs on the back of your neck and arms stand up. You just go, ‘Wow.’ Flowers tend to close up like it’s nighttime. Birds tend to stop singing. I’ve seen cows head back to barns. I’ve heard crickets. All of a sudden now the sun, which was too bright to look at seconds ago, is replaced by this black disk with this ghostly halo around it, which is just exquisitely beautiful.”

Solar and lunar eclipses add to a growing body of data that suggests that our Universe was designed for intelligent life. Yes, the heavens do declare the glory of God, Psalm 24:1.

www.premierchristianity.com/Blog/Could-solar-eclipses-be-evidence-for-God
http://www.icr.org/article/10138/256/
www.cnsnews.com

My Prayer from Psalm 25:4-5

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Prayer is the highest form of worship. But it is also communication. Communication with our Heavenly Father. Prayer is a way for us to develop a relationship with Him. Remember that communication is not just reserved for your own time of need. A relationship continues through good times and bad.

Imagine for a moment that you only communicate with your husband/wife when you find yourself in a time of crisis. That would never fly! Why then do we reserve our main form of communication with God only for the times that we “need” Him, instead of maintaining a healthy, constant, two-way relationship all the time?

Shew me thy ways, O Lord; teach me thy paths. Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.
– Psalm 25:4-5

Watch the message here.