Easter 2024 ~

 This Easter season I have been dwelling on the crucifixion and and resurrection of Jesus Christ quite a bit. My wife and I have gone through several short devotionals on the YouVersion Bible app (https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/) which have all been good in pointing us to different aspects of the stories in the Bible. One of the devotionals was even about how the different translations of the Bible use words that seem to work better than English to point to God's glory in everything that happened to Jesus in his last week before being crucified.

It's a hard story to buy, but without it Christianity makes no sense. With all the "new age" gurus selling ads to tell us about the "one consciousness" and how we are all just expressions of how our brains manifest us in this place we call "reality" there are a lot of alluring ideas as to what life is and how we can make the most of it.

But one of the guys that I occasionally listen to and more often read points out that the "bad" things that happen in and around our lives occur because we live in a "fallen world" and that these "bad" things are a result of sin tainting the world and twisting things. Sin in this case would be disobeying the Creator or "unseen God" that people seem to struggle with so much.

I recently finished a book by Michael Crichton called "Travels". In it he tells about his adventures in medical school and then his travels to experience things in his search for physical and spiritual relevance. The book is panned by most of the reviews I see but my big takeaway is that we should work to keep our sense of wonder and awe as we search and sift through the things of this world. At the end of the book he included a speech he was going to give to a bunch of skeptic scientists. In that speech he emphasizes that science takes as much faith as all the "spiritual" pursuits out there, including Christianity.

There's only one spiritual pursuit that has said plainly that there is only one way to get to live forever with the Creator. I've put my faith in Jesus as my Savior, and I hope you do, too. https://welcome.saddleback.com/sections/more/follow-jesus/

Youversion Bible app:
https://www.youversion.com/the-bible-app/

Erick Erickson's article:
https://open.substack.com/pub/ewerickson/p/suffering-through?r=3uvh3&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Michael Crichton's book Travels:
https://www.amazon.com/Travels-HardPress-ebook/dp/B07DTRZC3K/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&dib_tag=se&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RiB-9pCgV4FXtg3r4DR7aovvT_7DEBoRbahrXvNN3e1OaOOLqyyS5fI5jU35hRIQTCM5XwX0f8uLQeHoVw-b33CEYWS5WE8JxlI2CXlwCguVQ6iZaqM8E9feFAeDBQM63so8lYULD1AUPfc25DuO54R0cSnNe6ANH8OwGCeJG0mD6KByZ439maHCw3gdlGOa22TC3bhOrMO_mnb8SnGJfJ74klfX9HQ13VtYHpkYV2U.4vsGTVluinNSguuqJDU8ZQECIfO_D9HbDnIMEEJD3Yk&qid=1711463896&sr=8-1

Follow Jesus:
https://welcome.saddleback.com/sections/more/follow-jesus/