Hi Folks:

Its been a full couple of weeks. Tomorrow is the first day in several weeks where I have nothing scheduled and I'm greatly looking forward to it. The boys don't have school, and so I don't even need to set my alarm. Woo hoo!

Mark had his birthday party on Friday night. We had fun setting off fireworks, eating pizza, and opening presents. His actual birthday isn't until the 11^th, but it was easier to do the sleep over now. No word on the cup stacking yet - this week the school will finish its playdowns.

We thought we were done with the snow, but ended up with 25cm last night. We cancelled our early Easter service for 8am, but had our breakfast at 9, and a good worship service at 11.

Last week I had quite a few responses to "Jelly Jesus." When something works well, use it. I used it to speak at a Good Friday service in Yarmouth. The opportunity to nail Jell-o to the wall was too good to pass up, so I had Ian nail it to a sheet of plywood while we watched it slip. That's what was supposed to happen. To make it easier to transport, I bought the pre-packaged stuff for the kid's lunch boxes. Its a lot thicker than the normal and didn't slip off the nails.

We got a good laugh out of it and moved on. After the service while I was talking with people, a girl approached us and said, "I was praying the jell-o wouldn't work. That way it showed Jesus really did have a spine!" That was great. If you ever use the object lesson, now you know how you can shape the lesson depending on whether the jell-o falls off the nails.

Happy Easter to you. Blessings on this Resurrection Day!

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I am told that in Greek Orthodox Christian traditions, the day after Easter is devoted to telling jokes. The reason is that Easter is the Great Cosmic Joke. Satan thought he had won over Jesus on the cross. Sin and death really were more powerful, so he thought. And then there was the resurrection.

Jokes work because there is a surprise ending. For instance...

...A little boy flipped through the large old family Bible. While turning through Genesis something fell out of the Bible. He picked it up and looked at a very large old tree leaf that had been pressed between the pages long ago.

"Momma, look what I found!" the boy called out.

"What do you have there?" his mother asked.

The young boy answered, "I think it's Adam's underwear!"

The surprise in this joke is that the boy would so quickly identify the leaf with Adam.

Check out this surprise...

...A little boy was attending his first wedding. After the service, his cousin asked him, "How many women can a man marry?"

"Sixteen," the boy responded.

His cousin was puzzled. "How do you know that?"

"Easy," the little boy said. "Add it up - 4 better, 4 worse, 4 richer, 4 poorer.

Jokes work because of the surprise ending. Easter was the surprise ending. Satan thought he had the final word, but then the Father added the punchline, and the joke was on him. Surprise!

Satan did not beat the Son of God. Death could not hold Jesus. Sin does not win. Surprise!

We live in a world where death seems to be the last word - death and a hundred other words for hopelessness. We live with words like disease, poverty, injustice, global warming, futility, cynicism, darkness, depression, despair, decay - the list goes on and on.

You've heard me say before that faith means better days ahead. There are times when it is hard to believe it. That's death speaking.

Jesus rose from the grave to deliver the punchline that death (in its hundreds of forms) is not the final word. Satan does not have victory, neither then nor now. Resurrection is life. Resurrection means better days ahead.

Surprise!!

Hope this helps. Be OnFire.

Troy

April 8, 2007.