Happy Easter

May 16th, 2022

Beloved Brothers in Christ!

Happy Holy Week and Easter from Monument Ministries!

I wanted to take a moment to celebrate the fact that we have a great and glorious Savior, and of all the amazing things that he has done for us. These are the very things that we take time to remember on this blessed Easter season!

My brothers in Christ, consider the amazing things that God has done for us! 

From the prophet Isaiah, who wrote over 600 before Jesus was born, God the Holy Spirit inspired the prophet to share the good news of our great and glorious king!

Isaiah 53

Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?

2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground;

he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.

3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;

and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.

5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities;

upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.

6 All we like sheep have gone astray;  we have turned—every one—to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth;

like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,

    so he opened not his mouth.

8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered

that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?

9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death,

although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.

10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief;

when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days;

the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.

11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors;

yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.

WHY, we can ask in our dark times, when the bars seem permanent, hope seems dim, and Satan keeps throwing our sins in our faces along with the highlight reel of how we enjoyed the worst things we did… WHY would God do this to his only son for folks like US?!

For the joy, of course. Ephesians 1 spells out this Gospel truth beyond our wildest dreams.  Jesus, knowing all of the price that he would pay, considered it a joy to pay it in order to redeem us so that we might be adopted as God’s sons and Jesus’s brothers!

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

1 Corinthians 2:1-2

And

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

Now, this Easter, we can face the trials of life with the sure and certain knowledge that God is for us, that he loved us, chose us, and paid the full price for our sins. Now Jesus calls us friends.

No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

John 15:15

For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

So let us thank and praise God this Easter because of his surpassing greatness of loving us, adopting us, and sealing us with the promise of great glory, peace, and immortal life.

May God’s richest blessings be with you this Easter season.

Yours in Christ,

Bruce Burns