Rejoice Again I Say REJOICE!

Published 6:40 am Saturday, March 24, 2018

By John Warren

I listened with great love as the youth of our church witnessed to another work team Wednesday evening as they shared their fearful flood stories to the group who had spent their Spring Break in Orange repairing homes.

This group came from Ft. Smith, Arkansas. Last week, our high school and junior high youth witnessed to a group of college students from Boston, Massachusetts who spent their Spring Break in Orange.

One young man said, “I had spent the last two spring breaks getting drunk and partying and decided that I wanted to do something useful this year.”

There is hope that maybe this spring break he grew up a little bit and Orange and Christ made an impact on his life.

Easter falls on April Fools Day this year. I think this is very appropriate. For many, those of us who do believe are fools. Well, if that is what I am, I will be a fool for Christ.

I can understand their skepticism.

Who on earth rises from the dead? In the New Testament it is reported that Jesus raised several people from the dead.   Lazarus was raised by Jesus in John 11:44 and Jairus’s daughter in Mark 5:41 then you have the son of the widow at Nain Luke 7:11-14 and then Tabitha in Acts 9:40 and Eutychus in Acts 20:9-10.

But what is amazing to me is that the resurrection of Jesus had such an affect on the world that it literally over the years witness of his disciples and their followers changed the coarse of our history from pagan to Christianity.

This is the most radical change in all of world history. And yet that is changing rapidly. The United States whose coinage declares “In God We Trust” is quickly becoming more and more God – less. We live in a mission field where the norm in no longer Christianity but the “nones” those who believe in nothing. Either we wake up and change our ways to reach the changing world of this story becomes lost.

Jesus Christ died for our sins, shouldn’t we at least share the story before the world dies from their sins and we along with them for not continuing to tell the story. This Easter bring your family for that life saving story we all need to hear.   Our lives have changed so much after Hurricane Harvey, come Easter and hear my sermon on our changing world called “Navigating the Geography of Reality”.