I’m fortunate to pastor one of those churches where you don’t know exactly what’s going to happen in a church service. You don’t know what God is going to do, nor for the fact of the matter – what people are going to do. Some people may be uncomfortable with that format, but I’ve discovered that you can’t put God in a box. God doesn’t always move in predictable methods – nor do people.

In a church service recently a little girl, who sometimes is a little rambunctious, slipped out the door and went down the steps to the mailbox. Down the aisle of the sanctuary she came toward the pulpit – her face beaming – she raised her arm with a fist full of mail and announced, “Preacher, you’ve got mail!”

Two brothers running across America, as well as a young couple sitting on the steps of a subway station near the collapsed World Trade Center, all must face the question: “Where are you headed?”

A famous rock singer sang, “The world is a bad place, a very bad place to live. Oh, but I don’t want to die.”

Today we watch shattered children, the victims of war, groaning on the six o’clock news while we calmly eat our dinner. We hear people threaten one another and plot the bombing and massacre of innocent families. We suddenly realize that we Americans are also vulnerable along with the rest of the world. The enemy, the devil (John 10:10) is trying to rip apart our world of peace and freedom, leaving only a memory.

My grandson Seth is a rock hound. Wherever he goes he collects rocks. Little rocks, big rocks, colorful rocks, and plain rocks. Seth is only 4 years old so I doubt his choice in a rock has much to do with its geological or elemental make-up. He even gives names to his pet rocks.

I love the natural beauty of a rock garden and the uniqueness of a house made with field stones. I think God must love rocks – after all He made enough of them.

When the Son of God made his “triumphant entry” into Jerusalem, his followers gave him praise. “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Someone described the Bible using the acrostic: Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth. I like that! A mother gave her son a Bible before he went to war. She wrote on the flyleaf, “This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book.” That soldier became my Bible college Professor.

At a prison church service the men were given the opportunity to tell how they came to Christ. A young man shared with us that when he was in the county jail someone gave him a Bible. He intended to use it to roll some smokes when he ran out of cigarettes. He carried it around for days so no one else would take it. The thought came to him that he should at least read some of it before he made his smokes. He began reading the New Testament where he met Jesus the Son of God and committed his life to Christ. His life is being transformed as he devours the Word of God in prison.

Christianity is unique because Christ is unique. No other religion’s god gave their life as a sacrifice for their people in fulfillment of prophecy. No other god died and arose from the dead as the Son of God did. Good Friday and Easter (Resurrection Sunday) are the most holy days of the Christian calendar. Just as the Day of Atonement and Passover are in the Jewish calendar.

The sufferings and passion of Christ were prophesied (foretold) centuries before Jesus Christ was born in fulfillment of scripture. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he declared, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

Sometimes I think that I’ve spent most of my life in the emergency room. If not for myself and my family, it seems that supporting others in the emergency room of life has been our life’s ministry. We live in a fallen, imperfect, fragile world. Job spent much time in the emergency room. He concluded, “Man is born into trouble as the sparks fly upward” (Job 5:7). But thank God for the emergency room. It is in the emergency room where help is sought and found. Unfortunately, only an emergency room will motivate some people to seek help, both physically and spiritually.

Dear friend,

Over the years, we have conversed about the existence of God. We have discussed creation and the unlikely theory that this vast, varied, and complex universe could have just come into existence by accident or have evolved over a trillion years. We have considered the Apostle Paul’s argument that from the creation of the world people have seen the earth and the sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse whatsoever for not knowing God. (See Romans 1:19-20.)

My grandmother made a journey in a covered wagon from Kansas City back to Illinois when she was a baby. During the westward expansion of America, her parents, like so many other pioneers, endured many hardships and dangers along the trail. Their dream and hope of free land and a new start in the west spurred them on. Some proclaimed their determination to cross the formidable Rocky Mountains with placards on their wagons. One such sign read, “Pike’s Peak or Bust!”

Like the pilgrims and pioneers of early America, multitudes throughout the centuries have traveled with hope and determination toward a new and eternal promised land called “Heaven”. There are many obstacles, dangers, and enemies to discourage and deter weary pilgrims from reaching heaven’s shore. But the hope and assurance of heaven spurs them on.

Billy Joe was a simple young man who lived in a small village in the hills of Kentucky. Nothing much ever happened in his little town. Billy Joe loved to dress in Army fatigues and direct traffic at one of the two stop signs that stood sentinel at the center of the small town. Nobody ever paid much attention to Billy Joe. Everyone knew he was “slow” but harmless.

One hot summer morning, Billy Joe had one of the most exciting things in his life happen to him. As usual, he was standing on the street corner directing the occasional vehicle that passed by.

Why do so many Americans promulgate the myths of the tooth fairy, Santa Clause, and the Easter Bunny but do not believe in miracles nor emphasize the most important miracle of all – the bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead? Could it be that to believe and admit to the resurrection would then require an acknowledgement and accountability to the living Christ as Savior and Lord?

The resurrection of Jesus Christ proves that He is who He claimed to be – the Son of the Living God – deity. Salvation and eternal hope stand on that bedrock.

Grandpa Os had several businesses and did some farming. He was the first person to question the existence of God to me. One day he asked me, “How do you know that there is a God?” I was just a young boy but the answer immediately popped into my mind, “Because I talked to Him this morning and He talked to me.” Grandpa Os had no reply. Personal experience can’t be argued with. Grandpa Os died of a heart attack sometime later. But before he died he asked my grandmother to pray with him.