“Pinch Yourself!”
I’m pinching myself because I can’t believe I am getting to come back to my favorite church for Easter weekend!
But, more than that, all of us should pinch ourselves when the full impact of Easter dawns on us! (No pun intended, but if you don’t get it, you really need to come Easter!)
Good Friday evening for our Tenebrae service, I will bring a message entitled “Dead Man Walking.” We will get a reality check on the cross.
Dr. Jim Strange will lead the Easter Sunrise Service on Davis Island. (I hope he’s going to help Friday night by reading the sign on the cross in the original languages—always a spine-tingling moment!)
Easter Sunday I am praying for a capacity crowd in that beautiful sanctuary! My Easter sermon is “Can These Bones Live!” from Ezekiel 37. (You might want to look at that passage again.)
I am going to do what my seminary professor, Dr. George Buttrick, told us to do: “Never preach from the Old Testament without knowing in advance where you will land in the New Testament.” I know where I will land: at the entrance to the vacated crypt of Christ!
A big favor, please? Make a short list of three people you could invite to our Easter services. Move heaven and earth to get them there! God has a timing in these things. Your invitation may be the perfect one for that trio of friends. You could midwife them into the Kingdom of God!
Marilyn and I have received the assurance that Holly Eaton will be coming up from Bradenton to be with us Easter. If you don’t know Holly’s story, read it on Bayshore’s website. Jack and Michelle Cochise said they would come and probably bring her mother, Betty, and sister, Sheree. So, I’ve got my three!
Don’t let me down on this! Everybody COULD do it but WON’T!
There are some really great days ahead for Bayshore. Be ready. Get prayed up. Come for the blessing!
Love you just like you are!
Dan Griffin