Alva Review-Courier -

Let’s start this week’s ramblings with a friendly plug. Have you noticed what a fine job Doug Graham is doing with the Riverside Church of Christ in Burlington? If you haven’t friended him on Facebook, you ought to do that right about now. ... I’ll wait. ... I think you’ll enjoy his posts – both video and blog style. Doug is sort of a local who made his way back home. End of plug.

This Sunday, in case you haven’t heard, is the 1,985th annual celebration of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead (give or take a year or two). I’m sure you have already made plans to join one of the local congregations for a morning of praise and worship. If, for some reason, you’ve convinced yourself that you can get along without Jesus, perhaps we can change your mind.

First, if Jesus had never come to the planet, we would be left with no sure way of getting things right with our Creator. As the Son of God and the very essence of the Divine, Jesus took on human form and died a horrible death, as a substitute sacrifice for the sins of all the other humans who could never face God on their own. This, in and of itself, was a major world historical event, but according to the apostle Paul, it was simply not enough to finish the task (see 1 Corinthians 15:12-20).

You see, if Jesus had remained in the tomb, he would have become just another great hero of the human race, like Confucius or Muhammad, or any number of other great reformers and religious leaders. The thing that sets Jesus apart from the rest of the crowd (and the reason He can claim to be “the way, the truth, and the life”) is that Jesus did not stay dead.

As a minister, I hear all sorts of reasons why people can’t possibly make it to worship. I get it. You’re really busy. Jesus gave up the perfect to die for the imperfect so the imperfect can be made perfect and live forever. Forever’s a long time ... maybe whatever it is that’s keeping you from praising Him could wait an hour or two.

See you Sunday.