Happy Holy Days to all of y'all!

Every year, on the Saturday that falls between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday I send out in e-mail an inspirational message. Here it is in full:

Today is Saturday. Yesterday was Friday -- a Friday that on Western calendars is labeled "Good Friday". We call it "Good Friday" and we remember.

But what do we remember on this one Friday every year? We remember that the one and only perfect and innocent man who ever lived was put to death as a criminal. We remember that the one human who did not deserve death died at the hands of angry men. We remember his torture, his passion, his hanging stark naked on a cross for hours in dreadful pain before he breathed his last. We remember that a friend took the body down and placed it cold and bloodied in the friend's own tomb.

Now what, pray tell, is "good" about all that? Why should we call the day "Good Friday"? We call it "good" because of what we'll remember tomorrow. Tomorrow we celebrate that this same Jesus the Nazarene, Anointed of God to be our Savior, was raised on the third day after that horrible death. We celebrate that the power of God Almighty conquered death and triumphed over the death of the Son and raised him back to life!

He who died for our sins came out of that tomb. He's alive! Forevermore!

And his resurrection ensures us that, sinners tho' we be, culpable as we are in his death (to ransom us sinners), we who place our trust in this Jesus the Christ will also be resurrected after death. We, too, shall live forever in the glorious presence of God and of our Savior! Now, THAT'S "Good News"! That's the reason we call yesterday "Good Friday". Without what happened then and our remembering it, what we'll remember tomorrow on Resurrection Day would be incomplete, and lacking in real meaning.

But Christ who died is risen! He is risen indeed!

May the Lord bless you with His grace and peace and JOY as you celebrate tomorrow. Hallelujah!

Your brother, in Christ,
Glen Alan Graham
Nashville, Tennessee
born again on Resurrection Sunday of A.D. 1969
(I'm 40 years old in the Lord! Praise his name!)