He Is Risen! The Tomb is Empty… The story does not end here, as I have written in earlier blogs this is the beginning. In the Bible the book of Acts is the place to start…. Consider Acts Chapters one and two as they lead us to that next page. It was a beautiful Easter Sunday where I live and the Church was a full house…actually overflowing into seating placed in the aisles to accommodate the crowd. The early church faced a different picture after the crucifixion. The believers were hid in an upper room, they feared for their lives and that fear distracted them from their faith.   Acts 2:1-4…NLT… Then came the Spirit. We celebrate this day as being the day of Pentecost when the believers were meeting together in one place. “Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven, like the roaring of a mighty wind storm, and it filled the house where they were sitting then what looked like flames or tongues of fire, appeared and settled on each of them, and everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages as a spirit gave them this ability.” The people in the streets could hear the noise coming from the room, and they were amazed by it.They accused the people of simply being drunk, but Peter and the other 11 apostles  stepped forward and begin to speak to the crowd. “Listen carefully all of you fellow Jews, and residents of Jerusalem.Make no mistake about this. These people are not drunk as some of you are assuming…it is only 9 o’clock in the morning, much too early for that. Know what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel.” (Acts 2:14-16 NLT) Not sure how many followers of Jesus were in that room but I know after Peter spoke to those outside in the street…Acts 2:41… those who believed what Peter said were baptized and added to the church that day about 3000 in all. 

Moving forward to this past Easter Sunday I don’t know for sure even then how many people were there at church but it was quite a few. Moving to Peter’s Day we know there were at least 3011 people that day that heard the message accepted the message and began to believe in Jesus Christ and the resurrection. We can add with assurance the names of the 11 apostles that were there, but we don’t really know the names of all the people that were in that crowd that day whom came to be believers. But today in this blog, I would like to add 14 names to that list. To start with I would like to point out to you that this is a result of a Christian ceremony known as a confirmation. Confirmation is a practice primarily associated with  the Christian faith, specifically those that perform infant baptism. It is most commonly found in the Catholic Church eastern orthodox churches Anglian Church, Lutheran Church, and the Methodist Church. To keep things simple and not to get too complicated it involves a public profession of faith and a strengthening of the believers, faith journey. To make it even simpler, we could just simply say that it means the strengthening or deepening of one’s personal relationship with God. Now I might be accused of stretching this just a little bit, but let’s consider this. You remember John the Baptist in the wilderness, baptizing folks for the coming of the Messiah. So if we put this in a perspective, we’re talking about people that have been baptized and have accepted, and are now preparing to move further in their Christian journey. So what exactly is this baptism we’re speaking of. A  little more detail is needed. Might be that it’s a public declaration of faith. It’s a public way of declaring that you believe in Jesus Christ and are committed to following him. It’s also a symbol of spiritual death and resurrection, the act of being immersed in water, symbolizes dying to the old life and being resurrected to the new life in Christ, it’s also an entry point into the Christian community and a symbol of forgiveness and cleansing and it’s a sign of obedience. I know that what I will write next is a real stretch of “writer’s liberty”… As a church we acknowledged, celebrated, and gave thanks for the Resurrection of our Lord and Savior…Jesus Christ. We had 14 of our young people who have studied, prayed and sought to commit to Christ this day and be blessed by The Holy Spirt to confirm their faith. So even though it is some 1900 or more years ago that many came to believe…even more reason to rejoice this day.

Aubrey, Lilly, Elijah, Emerson, Margaret, Finley, Mason, Spencer Jax, Ryleigh, Malone, James, Parks and Davis.

When Peter spoke so long ago it was a dangerous time to be a follower of Christ…and sadly it is still so even in our day. Remember those names above…Pray for them often and give thanks for their courage and perseverance.

Life is Good

jk