Happy Easter!

I'd be remiss indeed if I did not take this opportunity today to remember the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross; His death, burial, and resurrection to life again, conquering that stronghold that the evil one had held against us and freeing us to the opportunity of everlasting life through our belief! Praise God forever!

Our Sunday school lesson this morning had to do with a personal favorite topic, the investigation of Lee Strobel into the evidence of Jesus and His claims. Strobel had been a devout atheist and an editor for one of the largest newspapers in the country, the Chicago Tribune. Strobel sought to examine the evidence and verify that the claims of Jesus and the tenets of Christianity were without merit and therefore justify his own atheism. Of course, as Strobel investigated, he came to believe in the truth of Jesus and His ministry and became a devout Christian himself. Strobel's first book that details his search, "The Case for Christ," is a compelling read that I highly recommend.

Now, it's hard to know who reads here, so it's hard to know where readers are in their own walk with God. There are many reasons I could give for my own faith in Jesus and His Holy Word, but I'll stick to a few of the ones that were addressed by Strobel. First, Jesus would have been a complete fraud if He had NOT risen from the dead! Since, as Christians, we believe that He did in fact rise from the dead and did in fact fulfil His promise, what actual evidence is there to support the claim? Here's a few:

1. No one has ever produced the body of Jesus despite the tremendous advantage of doing so if they wished to stamp out Christianity. Jewish leadership at the time realized that they must prevent Jesus' followers from stealing the body, so they had Roman guards placed at the tomb to circumvent that attempt.

2. The risen Jesus was seen by literally hundreds of witnesses after His resurrection and not all of the witnesses were disciples or necessarily even followers.

3. After His ascension, followers of Jesus were severely presecuted, many to the death, but they would not recant what they knew to be the truth. Many have died in the history of mankind to support the truth and a deep belief, but its hard to find people who will go to their deaths in support of what they know to be a lie.

4. The resurrection story if it wasn't true wasn't very well concocted. The biblical accounts have WOMEN finding the tomb of Jesus empty and then telling their story to other disciples who then verified their account. If someone was going to concoct a story about the resurrection of Jesus, women, who were basically personna non grata in the time of Jesus, would never have entered the picture!

5. Jesus was buried in the tomb of Joseph of Arimithea, NOT that of a disciple or a family member. Such being the case, they had little or no control over His body and were prevented by the guards from getting anywhere near, as if they themselves were not so afraid of their own potential demise that they would ever come out of hiding in any case!

Anyway, that's a taste, but it all boils down to this; you either believe or you do not. I leave you with a challenge and an assertion; if you find yourself in disbelief, read "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel. If you still disbelieve, you will have at least exhausted the evidence that's there so that you may have some justification for your belief. The assertion? If you read the book and still disbelieve, your faith is much greater than mine! If you can look at incontrovertible evidence and still disbelieve in what that evidence proves, then your faith is great indeed!

May God bless your search! - Dan