From the Pastor's Desk

We learn by painful experience the truth of our Lord’s warning: “we must pass through many tribulations to enter God’s kingdom” (Acts 14:22). This is not a justifying passage, for our Lord alone plunged into the gulf of hell to obtain our righteousness. For all his children, enduring tribulation with patience and joy is a purifying passage that conforms us to Christ and ripens us for heaven. All the saints have passed through many troubles on their way there. Returning home in obedience to the Lord’s command, Jacob was distressed over his pending reunion with Esau.

The three darkest days in history were those between our Lord’s death and his resurrection. On the Thursday night before that Friday morning, his disciples confessed, “Now we are sure that you know all things, and need not that any man should ask you: by this we believe that you came forth from God” (John 16:30). But then the soldiers came with Judas. Jesus was taken away, condemned, and crucified. John stood on the bleak hilltop, waiting for him to do something, knowing he could have done something, but he died. He died horribly, shamefully.