"Jesus said to her,'Mary.'" John 20:16

[Duccio di Buoninsegna 1308]

Can you imagine the scene. Mary goes to her Lord's tomb, already heavy with grief and pain, that He was crucified three days earlier. And then she sees that His body is gone, and she weeps even more. In her deep sorrow she can't understand what has happened, even in the midst of angels, and the Lord Himself right there at the sepulchre. But, then, she hears His voice say, "Mary."
The whole time her mind and heart is settled that Jesus is dead, and missing. But then she sees Him, and recognizes Him. Her deep sorry was turned to great joy, as Mary fell before Jesus and wrapped her arms about His ankles and worshipped Him (Matthew 28:9) !

Here are some thoughts from JC Ryle:

"The boundless compassion of our Lord Jesus Christ to His believing people comes out wonderfully in this verse. He can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He knows how weak our bodily frame is, and how much excess sorrow can unnerve and stupefy our minds. He can pass over much darkness of understanding, much slowness of comprehension, when He sees real, genuine, hearty, bold, persevering, thorough love to Himself and His Person. We see this prominently brought with His dealing with Mary Magdalene, when He revealed Himself to her. He graciously pardons her forgetfulness of His oft-repeated declarartion that He would rise again after His death, pities her deep sorrow, and abundantly rewards her love. These things are written for our learning. Jesus never changes. What He was, when He revealed Himself to Mary Magdalene, He is at this day."

When we are going through the deepest pain, I believe Jesus will call our name. Not in person as He did on the first Easter, but through His Holy Spirit, who abides with us, and is in us. We must believe that Christ has always been who He is, even before the universe was created, and on into eternity. His love for His elect is an everlasting love.

[Matthias Grunewald 1432]

Jereimiah 31:3: "the Lord appeared to him from far away.I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have continued my faithfulness to you."

"Love... rejoices in the truth.'

I love the pure and simple truth of the Gospel, and of the Scriptures. Of course Satan hates the truth, for he is a liar, and the father of lies. and there seems to be so much nonsense in the Church in our day.

Here's a prominent teacher, who I have no idea where he is coming from to be honest. if anyone wants to decipher this man's thoughts I'd appreciate it. I have heard that prominent, so-called pastors, like Rob Bell, (who is another strange dude), have endorsed Ken Wilber.

"Are the mystics and sages insane? Because they all tell variations on the same story, don't they? The story of awakening one morning and discovering you are one with the All, in a timeless and eternal and infinite fashion. Yes, maybe they are crazy, these divine fools. Maybe they are mumbling idiots in the face of the Abyss. Maybe they need a nice, understanding therapist. Yes, I'm sure that would help. But then, I wonder. Maybe the evolutionary sequence really is from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit, each transcending and including, each with a greater depth and greater consciousness and wider embrace. And in the highest reaches of evolution, maybe, just maybe, an individual's consciousness does indeed touch infinity—a total embrace of the entire Kosmos—a Kosmic consciousness that is Spirit awakened to its own true nature. It's at least plausible. And tell me: is that story, sung by mystics and sages the world over, any crazier than the scientific materialism story, which is that the entire sequence is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing? Listen very carefully: just which of those two stories actually sounds totally insane?"
—Ken Wilber, A Brief History of Everything, 42–3

"Glory to God the Father, Son,And Holy Spirit, Three in One! To thee, O blessed Trinity, Be praise throughout eternity!"

The Hymn verse above is from the hymn: ""LORD JESUS CHRIST, BE PRESENT NOW", by Wil­helm IV of Sach­sen-Wei­mar, in the Can­ti­o­na­le Sac­rum, second edition, 1651 (Herr Je­su Christ, dich zu uns wend); trans­lat­ed from Ger­man to Eng­lish by Ca­ther­ine Wink­worth, The Chor­ale Book for Eng­land, 1863, alt."

This is the fianl video of Pastor Begg's sermon on the Trinity. Be edified in His truth, and encouraged in the love of Christ, Father, and Spirit.




"I am not interested in any theological discovery that does not help me tell others that Jesus is Savior and Lord and King." -Alistair Begg

"Holy, holy, holy! Lord God Almighty! All Thy works shall praise Thy Name, ..... God in three Persons, blessed Trinity!"

What a fine pastor-teacher, and preacher, Alistair Begg truly is. He edifies the people of God in the Word. Have a listen, if you have an half hour to give, and be blessed and built up in the truth of our Lord.

Holocaust deniers have denied that the Holocaust ever happened, from 1945 on, and claimed that it was propaganda. That is simply amazing to me.

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad frequently denies the Holocaust"
He said this:
"They have fabricated a legend, under the name Massacre of the Jews, and they hold it higher than God himself, religion itself and the prophets themselves...If somebody in their country questions God, nobody says anything, but if somebody denies the myth of the massacre of Jews, the Zionist loudspeakers and the governments in the pay of Zionism will start to scream."

Here's a quote from General Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower:
"The same day I saw my first horror camp. It was near the town of Gotha. I have never been able to describe my emotional reactions when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency. Up to that time I had known about it only generally or through secondary sources. I am certain however, that I have never at any time experienced an equal sense of shock.
I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that "the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda". Some members of the visiting party were unable to go through with the ordeal. I not only did so but as soon as I returned to Patton's headquarters that evening I sent communications to both Washington and London, urging the two governments to send instantly to Germany a random group of newspaper editors and representative groups from the national legislatures. I felt that the evidence should be immediately placed before the American and the British publics in a fashion that would leave no room for cynical doubt."

And another quote from General Eisenhower:
"The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they [there] were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to "propaganda."

There will most likely be many who will follow these liars, and deceivers. who boldly state that there wasn't a Holocaust. It doesn't seem possible, with all the evidence there is, but nonetheless, people will have hard hearts and will believe their hatefilled lies. Satan is a liar, and the father of lies.

And just as abortion in our nation, which is a holocaust in itself, is denied that it is a holocaust, many even now follow the lies.
People with hard hearts don't care. I didn't care at one time either. "But God..." Ephesians 2:4

May the Lord have mercy, and soften all our hearts, especially so we may believe in Jesus Christ, the risen Prince of peace, and the only possible way to peace in this world ruled by the prince of this world, Satan.

Check out this short post from Greg Dutcher, if you get a chance. It's something good to ponder I thought.

HERE'S THE LINK TO GREG'S POST RIGHT HERE====>http://beholdinghim.blogspot.com/search/label/St.%20Francis%20of%20Assisi

St. Francis Rejecting the World and Embracing Christ Bartolome Esteban Murillo (baptised December 31, 1617 Seville - died there, April 3, 1682)

I was very impressed with this artist's paintings. Superb art. The Catholicism themes surely go against my Protestant ingrained doctrine and theology, but I really can appreciate this man's "giftedness".

"Christians will always live in a manner that is inconsistent with their confession of Christ." -Michael Horton

Here's and excerpt from an article in 'Modern Reformation' magazine by Michael Horton that i felt was worth thinking over:

"We will never be able to draw a sharp contrast between light and darkness, good and evil, righteous and sinful, based on the works that we see. Even the best works of the holiest Christians in this life are imperfect. This is not a cop-out but biblical realism. We are saved by Christ's righteousness, not ours. We are being sanctified, but this work remains incomplete until we (individually and corporately) are raised in glory. In this respect, the church's existence as the harbinger of Christ's heavenly kingdom is ambiguous. The visibility of the church in this age lies, however, in the public preaching of the Word, the administration of the Sacraments, and the governance of the church under the Scriptures. Only by identifying the place where God is at work creating light out of darkness can there emerge a people who display, however inadequately, the effects of Christ's redeeming work that one day will be completed at His return."

How Simon Peter, John, and the other Apostles must have missed being with their Lord Jesus. And I imagine they longed for His return, as they lived out their lives for Him. I too long for His return. In a selfish way I must admit. And yet not completely selfish. I do love the Lord Jesus, and desire to see Him. He is what life is truly all about. But as Dr. Horton teaches us here, we shall have the struggle of flesh and Spirit until the day we die.

"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord." -St. Paul