Easter Reminds Us: God is Still Good

After a difficult year, Easter in 2021 seemed so uncertain. But I was thankful, glancing at Baptist Press news articles, to know Heaven made the way for many of our church services.

The service I was able to attend was here in Shreveport, Louisiana, at Hollywood Baptist Church, where the pastor preached that God sacrificed Jesus in exchange for our freedom. But he didn't preach the whole message of his heart on Easter day. Ten days after the Easter service, at the mid-week Bible study, he preached all over again:

In terms of going to Heaven one day, Jesus acquits (saves from damnation) even the guilty who trust and accept salvation in Him. To save our souls from hell, Jesus have Himself in exchange for our release, he made clear.

Heaven also placed it on my heart to say God put the Savior on the cross at Calvary, so sinful men would not be crucified (condemned to hell!) again and again. "For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all" (Hebrews 10:10, New Living Translation), which means Jesus sacrificed Himself for everyone who believes, regardless of whether a soul lived a believing life in the year 1921 or 2021.

Still, in exchange for Heaven's sacrifice, what we do as Christians is repent. Like the thief on the cross, what we each do in response to what Jesus did for us is repent and confess what we believe.

God gave us Himself through the only Son appointed to die in body to redeem us, to open our eyes to salvation and save us from wrongs.

"The night is nearly over; the day has drawn near. So let us put away doing wrong in darkness and put on the light ... ." (Romans 13:12, paraphrase)



Easter at Hollywood Baptist Church
in Shreveport, Louisiana

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