The King of Kings

Palm Sunday celebrates Jesus Christ entering Jerusalem in peace as its King.  It begins Holy Week which culminated in the suffering in Gethsemane, the trial, crucifixion, and death.  A week from today, Christians around the world will celebrate the dawn of the Resurrection.  When the Son of God, made flesh, takes up his body, now glorified and perfected.  He defeated the finality of death.  Because of Him all will be made alive.

This weekend, I went to see the movie "The Case for Christ".  It is based on the conversion of Lee Strobel, a reporter for the Chicago Tribune in the 1970s and 80s.  He broke the story on the exploding Pinto, and the knowledge that Ford had about that defect.  The movie is built around his desire to disprove the Resurrection, as his wife had converted to Christianity.  It is a movie that I would recommend to everyone.  A friend told him that the Resurrection was the key to Christianity, if it could be proven a hoax, then it all would fall.  Needless to say, he became convinced by the actual evidence and facts involved.  He is now a Pastor, and teaches Theology.  Here is the link for the trailer.


There were a couple of things that I definitely got out of the movie.

1.  The evidence is in front of us, is it our disbelief that causes us to not see it?  This actually was part of a side story in the movie.  But how often do we have preconceived notions?  (me? all the time)  We need to set those aside, and take an honest look.

2.  Patience.  I know, it is a virtue, blah blah blah.  But we have to remember that God's plan for us and those we love may not be our plan.  In the movie, the wife was worried that he was so against the church. and that he would never accept Christ.  She was given counsel to be patient.  To pray, and to love.  Love more than all.  It was the love of our Father for us that He offered His Son, who willingly obeyed, that has given us the path back to Him.

3.  A paraphrase of C.S. Lewis regarding Christianity.  Essentially it was this.  If you live your whole life trying to do good works, trying to keep the commandments, and it turns out that there is no Christ, then what harm was there?  You became a better person, and had a positive impact on those around you.  But if Christ is real, and you choose not to follow his teachings, then what?  That is a very good question.

Finally.  The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has introduced their social media promotion for Easter.  Entitled the Prince of Peace, it gives eight principles that we can follow to bring peace, not only to our lives, but to the lives of those around us.  A beautiful message.  

I am no where near perfect.  I am very opinionated, and while I try to walk towards the light, I make mistakes, I alienate family and friends, mostly unintentionally, but that pain isn't any less.  As I try to live as the Savior would have me live, I recognize more and more that I need to do better.  That is all I can do.  Christ is perfect, the rest of us have to strive, knowing that God has patience with us.  We should do the same, especially for those we love.  For more information on bringing the peace of the Savior into your life click below.

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