Today is Holy Saturday or perhaps you know it as Black Saturday. There are events that took place each day of Holy Week leading up to the crucifixion. Nothing happens today; Jesus rested in the grave. After spending a day thinking about the scourging, the crown of thorns and Jesus crying out as he yielded up his spirit, take this day to reflect. It’s a lot of action, loud words, crying… rest as Jesus rested. Tomorrow we celebrate.

Here is what we did on Good Friday. I pastor a very traditional Baptist church; brick building, pews, chandeliers, piano on the left, very large wooden podium, baptistry behind the pulpit. This is the church my friend Stephen pastors. He is second from the left with the acoustic guitar. I thought, based on the flyer, there would be several elements of worship to this service; a few praise & worship songs, either a sermon or devotion, communion, “other.” This was basically a two hour concert with a self-serve communion station near the back that we visited during the last song. I don’t think there was a prayer time, not that everyone was led in together. Not what I expected but we worshiped with other like-minded believers which was the point.

Speaking of Unity Baptist in Plainville; imagine getting a call at 10 a.m. on Friday morning from a family that wants to have a dinner at the church on Easter Sunday. I told them it’s a little late to plan something like that. They told me they would do everything and they were going to have it somewhere regardless, but they would like to do it at church and feed everyone that wants to stay after service. I said no the first two times they asked, then caved the third time (all during one phone conversation). This one extended family makes up a large percentage of our congregation. It’s my best friend from his school plus his mom, sister, daughter, her husband, two kids, etc. All the pics I have shared of baptisms and weddings for the past two years, that’s them. They had been planning to go out of town but changed those plans to be with us at church instead. So if the church wants to do a thing, my job is to facilitate. The picture above is our fellowship hall. All I did was pop in at the end of the day to see how it was going. I did none of that and yet, it’s done. So I guess, if they want to feed me, I’ll let them, lol.

I know sometimes we look like rock stars on stage when were mic’ed up and have projection going or musicians playing, but the pastor is not always the center of attention. (Tongue in cheek, don’t take everything I say seriously, especially on Saturday.) Sometimes there are hospital visits or private meetings with families at the funeral home. The hours are often not 9 – 5 or even 7 – 3. And sometimes you spend the afternoon putting little chocolate coins and such into plastic eggs. I don’t mind so much.

A man in Asheville, NC, had an uninvited guest, a bear that frequently came out of the woods and just wandered around or even laid in the yard. So he put on a bear suit – that’s him in the picture, wearing his bear costume – and chased the real bear away. The National Park Service recommends not doing that.

My opinion is my own, you are welcome to yours. From time to time Christians use stories like this to prove to potential critics that their faith is well-founded. In my humble opinion, it should not be necessary. I don’t need archaeologists to find buildings in Egypt that have good foundations then increasingly inferior building material as you move up the layers, suggested that the slave labor had to find their own straw while not diminishing the tally of bricks being made. Yes, that was a real story I encountered many years ago. I’ve heard long scientific discussions of a phenomenon involving a steady wind from one direction that could in theory part the Red Sea, causing a land bridge. See, if you prove it is scientifically possible then it wouldn’t take a miracle. I don’t need scientists and historians to prove the things the Bible claims really happened or are possible. The things in the Bible that really matter, such as Jesus being the Son of God or that God loves us, cannot be proven via the scientific method. I don’t care if the earth is 6,000 years old or 4.5 billion. As I’ve said many times, if it was that important the Bible would say and it does not. But more importantly, finding mysteries we cannot explain in the fossil record isn’t going to lead me to the conclusion there is no God. Christianity is not an academic discussion, faith is not a matter of winning a debate.

LIke I said, if these things matter to you that’s fine. If you get exciting talking about satellite imagery finding the resting place of Noah’s ark then I’ll be excited for you. I believed Noah built the ark as instructed by God and that will not change whether we find it or not.

The new study suggests that 5% of cancer cases could be caused by CT scans, which is triple the previous estimates. The use of CT scans is up 30% since 2007 and some now fear the scans are being over-prescribed. The new recommendations may advise against using CT for things such as upper respiratory infections. CT scans use multiple x-rays taken from many different angles to composite very high resolution images. We have known, of course, that x-rays are hazardous for nearly a century. The notebooks that Marie Curie used in her lab are still radioactive.

This has never been the Jewish understanding of Passover. The Passover feast commemorates the night God’s judgement “passed over” the Hebrews when the first born of every Egyptian died. For the Christian believer, the Passover lamb points forward to Jesus’s work on the cross. When the blood of Christ is displayed on our hearts, God’s judgement will pass over us at the final judgement. The image above may be inspiring or hopeful, but it diminishes the truth of God’s Word in order to do so. God will judge with a righteous judgement and that’s why salvation is precious.

We came home to find this little guy hanging out last night. There are lots of flying insects hovering around that window because of the lights inside. It almost looks like he is giving us the two-finger peace sign. So that makes him Peace Frog, IRL.

AND FINALLY…

Here’s a little puzzle to work out. I got all of these in under a minute but then found out I was wrong about one of them. If you grew up in the 80’s and became an adult in the mid 90’s this ought to be a piece of cake. (Now I wonder why Cake is not one.)