Shade tree wisdom 4/3/13

Shade tree wisdom 4/3/13

          A blessed Easter for Christ is Risen, our Lord is Living.

          On March 13 the largest ground-based telescope on earth was dedicated  at Atacama Desert in Chile. According to reports this telescope, costing l.3 billion, is the cooperative venture of parties from the North America, Europe, and Asia. It is hoped astronomers will gain insight with a peek at the most distant parts of the universe. To Quote from Captain Kirk, it will help mankind “to go boldly where no man has ever gone before.” Exciting news.

          I have something to tell you even more exciting.  It is not possible to read the New Testament without being impressed by  the atmosphere of joyful confidence which we find there. It is an attitude of victory. There was no defeatism at all.

          Expressions such as “Thanks be to God, He gives us the victory.”  Or “In all these things (Dangers and setbacks), we are more than conquerors. . .” or “God would lead us in triumphal procession”.

          Each letter to the seven Churches in Asia ends with a special promise, “To him who overcomes.”  A full quote from St. Paul is: “he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And “We are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”

          Luther struck the same note in his hymns and catechism teaching, where he rejoices that we have victory over that ‘monster’, or ‘tyrant’, the devil, who had held us captive under the curse of sin, law, death and hell.

          Colossians 2, 13 – 15 makes it very clear.

When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. 15And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.^e

So when we say, “Christ is Risen. He is Risen indeed, Hallelujah”. It is truly an expression of victory, for the sin that lay against us, in which we dwelt, is forgiven. And that is done because Christ died on the cross.

GPD 4/3/13