I have been so blessed throughout my entire life to be surrounded by many loving Christians. This has helped me so much to stay on the Christian path of life myself, and I cannot thank all my friends and family for being such a consistent and dedicated Christian support group for me for so many years.
I began writing these weekly TGIF messages in the summer of 2020, almost three years ago. I still really enjoy writing these messages each week, and to see what God chooses to put on my heart to share with you. I have also been blessed more recently to receive a number of ideas and suggestions for the TGIF from a number of you, and I thank each of you for the kind comments and suggestions you have made to me.
This week it turns out the two options that are on my mind and heart right now for a TGIF have both been shared with me by two very dear Christian friends of mine and Cindy, who are also regular readers of these messages. The one is very timely for this week and the other can be held until next week, so that is determining their order of presentation for me.
We have just completed another annual celebration of Lent culminating on Easter Sunday, with the great news that He is risen! This is such an incredible and marvelous day in our annual church calendar that it can be hard to let go of this message and move on. After I got home from our Easter church service and a wonderful dinner with dear Christian friends, I had a new email from Harriet Wise, Cindy’s and my neighbor and dear friend (along with her husband Buddy) for the past 48 years. Harriet shared with me the Sunday school video they had viewed at their church on Easter Sunday. It was a 20-minute video of Max Lucado giving an Easter sermon in Jerusalem near the possible burial place for Jesus. I listened to this sermon and it was so moving that I felt I needed to share an Easter message with you all to just continue the Easter celebration for a few more days. I was unable to share this specific message with you, but have found a very similar Max Lucado Easter sermon online to share. Whether or not you were able to be present in your church yesterday, be it Covenant or elsewhere, I believe this message will add to your enjoyment of Easter and to the hope of Easter.
Note that the sermon is in two parts, so remain on the site when it ends because part 2 will begin automatically in just a few seconds.
I hope you find it as meaningful and joyful as I did. May it help us to keep Easter in our hearts all year round!
I hope you will be back next week to hear about another friend who provided my inspiration for next week’s TGIF message!