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Pastor Nick

Doversberger

Pastor Nick's April 2008 Message

Now we are in the season of Easter. We rejoice in the faith that Christ is alive and among us. The resurrection is the basis of our hope for this life and the next. St. Paul put it so well when he wrote to the little Christian church in Philippi, “For me living is Christ and dying is gain.” How can you lose with such a faith?!

How we live now in the light of Easter is most important. In that same letter to the Philippians, St. Paul urges: “Live your life in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ.” He expresses his own eagerness for the new life in the risen Lord Jesus: “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection of the dead.”

“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.” These are great words! “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection…I press on to make it my own!” He wants to live his life in the resurrection, and he wants the risen Christ living in and through him.

Living our life as the resurrection people of Jesus Christ is our central focus for these Sundays of Easter. We’ll be using, as our guide, another apostle of the risen Lord, the Apostle Peter, not only a witness of the resurrection, but certainly one who experienced the power of Christ’s new life himself. The sermons will focus on the second readings each Sunday, drawn from I Peter, in which this apostle helps us discover, with greater fullness, what it means to live as Easter people.

Here’s the outline of Sunday themes during the Easter season, leading up to Pentecost:

Second Sunday of Easter (March 30)
Living Hopefully
I Peter 1:3-9

Third Sunday of Easter (April 6)
Living Lightly
I Peter 1:17-23

Fourth Sunday of Easter (April 13)
Living Freely
I Peter 2:19-25
Fifth Sunday of Easter (April 20)
Living Constructively
I Peter 2:2-10

Sixth Sunday of Easter (April 27)
Living Openly
I Peter 3:13-22

Seventh Sunday of Easter (May 4)
Living Joyfully
I Peter 4 & 5)

Day of Pentecost (May 11, Mother’s Day)
Living Spiritedly
I Corinthians 12:3-13

Let us always be learning to live more fully as Easter people in the risen Lord Jesus Christ!

Pastor Nick

(You can call Pastor Nick at the church or reach him by email at ndovers@juno.com.)