THE NEWSPAPER FIRES CARRIERS

  Just as they promised, the newspaper DID NOT arrive today in our box. 

We fastened a plastic box to the post beside our USPS box. We live on a rural cul-de-sac, and for years “The Greenville News” (“TGN” of Greenville, SC) has been delivered to that box. 

Weeks ago, TGN sent a notice saying the paper would not be delivered, as of October 10, 2023, by “regular carriers” but delivered by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS). We would receive the paper when the postal carrier delivered it with our mail. Of course, I can read TGN on the internet. That privilege is paid for with my subscription to the newspaper. 

I took letters to our mailbox this morning, looked in TGN box, and sure enough, the paper wasn’t there. I felt nostalgic.

Months ago, TGN stopped Saturday delivery. I had to go online on Saturdays and print the crossword puzzle I clip for my wife. She likes to work that crossword right after breakfast. Early in the morning, I take letters to the mailbox and fetch the paper out of the newspaper box. Sort of like — “Go, fetch the paper, Fido!”

Now, I’ll need to go online everyday because “Honey” won’t want to wait on her crossword puzzle. If she does not get to fill in blanks on her crossword right after breakfast, there may be some cross words exchanged across the breakfast table. Who needs that?

I suspect TGN is trying to force its subscribers to go online. I wonder if they want to stop printing a paper edition? What about the poor folks who don’t have computers? “The rich get richer and the poor get poorer” comes to mind. Maybe this is part of the push for a paperless society. Perhaps this is “pulp friction” in the making. 

Oh, well, I’ll adjust. But what about the folk who delivered TGN — the “carriers,” as we call them. 

Weeks before the “shutdown,” as I call it, I received a letter from my carrier; it was attached to my newspaper:

“Newspaper Subscriber,

“As y’all may have already heard, your ‘Greenville Newspaper’ is going to the Post Office as of Oct. 10th. So Monday, Oct. 9th is our last day of delivering your papers. So like usual at Christmas, we give y’all a Christmas card. Well this year y’all won’t be getting one. 

“We are so sorry for this. We don’t like it no better than y’all do …

“Because of the paper going to USPS, we are losing our job. We so appreciate your business so much. We all did the best to do a good job. So if y’all would like to send or give us a last tip, it would be appreciated so much. I have been with Gannett for 18 years.

“Sincerely.”  

He signed his name and gave his address. 

(Gannett Company owns over 100 daily newspapers, and nearly 1,000 weekly newspapers, sources say.)

I sent the guy a check, feeling as though my gift was a drop in the bucket for the poor fellow. Christmas is coming, and it’s sad to think of my ex-paper carrier looking for a job. Times are a-changing, and technology is causing changes — and heartache. 

The paper should arrive after lunchtime in the regular mail. I better make a note to warm up my computer early tomorrow and have that crossword puzzle printed out before Honey finishes her coffee.

LETTING GO

  “The trees are about to show how lovely it is to let things go,” someone said about the approaching autumn. 

Letting things go. Now that’s a big deal. Most of us have a hard time “letting things go.”

My late wife, Carol, grew up poor in Washington, Pennsylvania. She talked about growing up in “two rooms and a bath” with her single mother who rented places for them to stay. Carol’s father and mother divorced before Carol was two. Carol was sentimental about “her stuff” that included mementoes (objects kept as reminders of people or events) from her beloved Grandpa Ben Steele and Grandma Ella Steele’s home place in Lone Pine, Penn. Over the years, Carol also collected lots of doodads and figurines (small carved or molded figures).

When Carol and I lived a few months in Aurora, Colorado, in 1970 when I was in the Army, I bought longhorn steer horns. They were perhaps four feet from tip to tip — could have mounted them on my car hood, I reckon (ha, ha). Three years later we lived in North Plainfield, N.J., and sold those horns at a yard sale before we moved back to SC. I owned a 12-string guitar and a saxophone. Sold them too. I’ve spent a lot of life living through obsessions and then moving on — but I still hang on to too much stuff.  

Why do many of us want to hold on to things? Why do we want to live in the past and not let things go?

Sources say, “Reasons you live in the past may include traumatic experiences, fear that it will happen again, or shame that it ever did. You may also wish to change an outcome, hang on to the fear of the present or future, or worry that you will never experience a deep emotion, like love, again.”

Sources also say, “People who live in the past find it difficult to accept change. They hold onto their established routines, familiar places, and people they’ve known for ages. They don’t want to grow and leave their comfort zones. They want things to remain the same.”

“Nostalgia” is “a longing for the past, for a period or place with happy personal associations.” A central part of nostalgia is “rosy retrospection,” sources say. “This makes us remember past events more fondly and positively than they might have actually been. It’s like wearing rose-tinted glasses when looking back at our past.” We had rather live in a pleasantly remembered past than face tough situations happening now or looming in the future. 

Jesus is my source of stability. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever” (Hebrews 13:8). At age six, I became a follower — sometimes a stumbling follower — of Jesus Christ. Moving through life, I have found Jesus Christ to be my Rock. “On Christ the Solid Rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand,” are words of an old song. 

The spiritual meaning of “falling leaves” is that leaves represent the cycle of life, someone said. In an analogy (“a comparison between two things for the purpose of explanation”), we often compare one’s life to one year in a tree’s life. A tree puts out new green leaves (we are born and start growing); summer arrives (representing the middle of our lives); autumn represents the “getting older but still getting around” time of life; winter represents waning years. The “one year” comparison to human life ends in death on the last day of “winter.”

But there’s another way to look at trees and seasons. A tree can live a long time and weather many seasons. Like trees, we see seasons come and go, and we usually live many years. 

We do not want to get stuck in a season we need to move through. I spent a year as a US soldier in Vietnam but never saw combat. Later, back in the US, the government offered weekly nightly “rap sessions” (discussion groups) for Vietnam veterans troubled with PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder). I had few problems but attended some sessions to see if I could help other vets. During the meetings, I noticed some vets discussed the same experiences each week. It seemed they were stuck in traumatic experiences and could not move on in life. We all can get stuck in something life has thrown at us.  

Much of moving on through life’s seasons has to do with forgiveness. Forgiving those — individuals, churches, the government, etc. — who have hurt us can help release us from pain, resentment, bitterness, hurt, and anger we feel. By forgiving, we can deal better with physical and mental pain and find peace with God through Jesus.

When autumn and winter finally arrive in our lives — I’m now using the “one year” analogy — may we “let things go,” accept change, and rely on Jesus, who said, “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

SPIRITUAL but NOT RELIGIOUS?

  Some people say, “I don’t go to church, but I am spiritual,” or “I’m spiritual but not religious.” 

“Some see the term ‘spiritual but not religious’ as indecisive… Others embrace it as an accurate way to describe themselves… the label applies to a growing share of Americans,” say Michael Lipka and Claire Geceqicz, writing for Pew Research. 

Some people want to be spiritual — but do not want to belong to an organized religion.

Americans are more interested in faith and spirituality than in Christianity, pollster George Barna says. 

The internet defines spirituality as “an individual's search for ultimate or sacred meaning, and purpose in life… a search for personal growth, religious experience, belief in a supernatural realm or afterlife, or to make sense of one’s own inner dimension.” 

To be spiritual speaks of “personal practice and personal empowerment having to do with the deepest motivations of life,” the internet says.

A person can be spiritual, in the world’s eyes, and still be eternally lost.
 
  RELIGION?

“To be religious conveys an institutional connotation, usually associated with Abrahamic traditions,” the internet says. 

In other words, religious relates to attending worship services.  

Some spiritual people want to simply live happy lives, help others, and develop qualities that religious people often develop — but they don’t want involvement with a traditional religion.

In the past, spirituality was associated with religion, deities [gods], the supernatural, and an afterlife, Wikipedia says. 

But tradition no longer wins out.
 
  HAPPY AND KIND? 

One writer gives his definition of a spiritual person: 

“A major sign of a spiritual person is that they are always happy and kind to others. They don’t like to degrade or criticize people. Instead, they always offer motivating and kind words, in hopes to make the world a better place.”

That’s pretty general.
 
  AN ATHEIST’S DEFINITION

Wikipedia says some atheists define spiritual as “nurturing thoughts, emotions, words and actions that are in harmony with a belief that the entire universe is, in some way, connected; even if only by the mysterious flow of cause and effect.

“In contrast, those of a more New-Age disposition see spirituality as the active connection to some force-power-energy-spirit, facilitating a sense of a deep self.”
 
  SEPARATE?

Some see spirituality and religion as separate. 

William Irwin Thompson, a cultural historian and yogi, said, “Religion is not identical with spirituality; rather religion is the form spirituality takes in civilization.”

“Religion is a set of beliefs and rituals that claim to get a person in a right relationship with God, and spirituality is a focus on spiritual things and the spiritual world instead of physical/earthly things,” says GotQuestions.org.

Those who speak of spirituality outside of religion generally believe in the existence of many different spiritual paths.”

WITHIN ONESELF?

“One might say then, that a key difference is that religion is a type of formal external search, while spirituality is defined as a search within oneself,” Wikipedia says.

But a person can be spiritual — and even religious — and still be lost forever.
   
TRUE CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY

Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 2:7).

GotQuestions.org (GQO) answers the question “What is Christian spirituality?”: 

“When we are born again, we receive the Holy Spirit who seals us for the day of redemption (Ephesians 1:13; 4:30). Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would lead us “into all truth” (John 16:13). 

“Part of that truth is taking the things of God and applying them to our lives… the believer then makes a choice to allow the Holy Spirit to control him/her.  

“True Christian spirituality is based upon the extent to which a born-again believer allows the Holy Spirit to lead and control his or her life… 

“The most common misconception about spirituality is that there are many forms of spirituality, and all are equally valid.”

Many people seem to be talking about being spiritual, but real Christians know the true spiritual path to God is found in what Jesus said about himself: 

“I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).
 

Joyce Ann Crain Capps Passes

   Ms. Joyce Ann Crain Capps funeral was held at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 15, 2023, at Renfrew Baptist Church, 951 Greer Highway, Travelers Rest, SC 29690.

Her obituary: 

“Joyce Ann Crain Capps, 86, of Travelers Rest, went home to be with the Lord on Sunday, June 11, 2023. She was predeceased by her loving husband Charles H. Capps, of which they were married 57 years at the time of his passing. 

“Born in Greenville County, she was the daughter of the late Luther Jay and Nell Willis Crain of Taylors. Joyce was a loving wife, mother, nana and grandma. She was a long-time member of Renfrew Baptist Church. She worked many years for Dan Manufacturing Company and retired as a CNA at Oakmont Nursing Home. 

“She is survived by a son: Michael H. Capps (Angie) of Taylors; daughter: Debra Capps Shepherd (Wally) of Travelers Rest; grandchildren: Summer Capps Moore (Richard), BJ Capps (Rachel), Amy Sparks Dotson (Charley), P J Sparks (Kayla); and eight great-grandchildren. 

“Along with her parents and husband she was predeceased by a brother Frank Crain of Landrum. 

“The family will receive friends Thursday, June 15, 2023, from 11:30am until 1pm at Renfrew Baptist Church. 

“Funeral services will be Thursday, June 15, 2023, at 1pm at Renfrew Baptist Church with burial to follow at Mountain View Memorial Park.
The family will be at their respective homes.
The family would like to take this time to say thank you to Providence Care and the wonderful team of doctors, nurses, and caregivers. You were Angels here on earth. And to the private sitters Nancy, Angie, Miranda, Debbie, Tracy, Kayla, and Jennifer.”

During visitation time, 11:30-1:00 p.m., I spoke with Debbie Capps Shepherd. She works out of her home as a hair-dresser; her husband, Wally, drives a truck. I told Debbie about 1950s days when I was a child and her mom visited us. Joyce was unmarried then, ten years older than I, and lived with her parents on Groce Meadow Road, not far south from our house located on the corner of Groce Meadows Road and Keller Road. 

My Grandfather Carl C. Crain and her father, Luther Jay Crain (“Uncle Jay” to me), were brothers. I often fished for catfish with the two of them. They had three other brothers (Claude, Jim, and Theron) and a sister (Hazel Ramey). 

One time Joyce came to see us after a snow fell at Groce Meadow Road. I was around eight years old and Joyce was around 18. My mother, my younger sister (Shirley), and I went outside with Joyce and began throwing snowballs. Joyce was a long way off when I threw one toward her. Bent over, making a snowball, she raised up, and my snowball hit her in the face. Mom was about to give me a whipping, but Joyce said, “It’s all right.” She was kind and gracious. 

As the service began, Pastor Michael Baker of Renfrew Baptist Church said about Joyce’s funeral, “I promise you it’s a celebration.”

A young chaplain who visited and sang with Joyce, sang and played “Beulah Land.” His guitar playing was beautiful; his voice, lovely.

A chaplain who visited Joyce spoke next, reading all of Psalm 24: “Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully” (verses 3-4).

“Joyce was easy to love, easy to talk to,” he said. “She often expressed her love for the Savior. She poured into her children, and they poured back into her in time of her need.”

Joyce’s daughter and main family caregiver, Debbie, spoke, thanking many folk and describing her mother as “one tough little lady.” 

“Mom’s life revolved around doing for others,” Debbie said. Joyce loved to crochet, knit, make jewelry, loved putting puzzles together. “Was she stubborn? Yes, tough. I tried to be there for her every step of the way.”

Debbie said that when her mother began staying with Debbie and Wally, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and others would visit. “I became ‘chopped liver,’” she said. The visitors would rush in saying, “Where’s grandma?” Or “Where’s Joyce?” and ignoring Debbie. (The congregation laughed.)

Debbie said her mom prayed for Debbie’s dad, who was saved years ago but needed prayer. 

“We are praying people,” said Joyce, who dealt with a pacemaker, a defibrillator, COPD, arthritis, “knees gone,” etc. Debbie thanked Providence Healthcare and Pastor Michael Baker. She thanked many private angels who helped.

“There’s a hole in my heart that only God and time will heal,” Debbie said, expressing her love for her mother.

Playing his guitar, a man sang “Lead Me Home,” a song written by Randy Houser and Craig Monday. Its lyrics include these: “I have seen my last tomorrow / I am holding my last breath / Goodbye, sweet world of sorrow / My new life begins with death. (Chorus) I am standing on the mountain / I can hear the angels' songs / I am reaching over Jordan / Take my hand, Lord, lead me home. (Second verse) All my burdens are behind me / I have prayed my final pray / Don’t you cry, over my body / ‘Cause that ain't me, lying there.”

Pastor Michael said, “I will miss you; we had some good times, some good talks … that body, that frail body … healing has taken place.” 

He read 2 Timothy 4:6-8: 

“For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.

“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 

“Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”

He prayed, mentioning those who follow Jesus faithfully, as Ms. Joyce did. 

“She celebrated who Jesus was to her,” he said. “We often bemoan what we don’t have, but we’re responsible with what we are given. Ms. Joyce was one of my favorite visits. She just had a way of making you feel like family. She was always thankful … a gleaming example … one tough lady. What an example.”

Joyce had COVID twice. 

“She learned to thrive,” Pastor Michael said. “Though she could no longer walk, she took spiritual steps. … I couldn’t figure out who was family and who wasn’t. She loved everyone. She’d say, ‘Pastor, we need to pray … .’” 

Pastor spoke to Debbie, saying, “She realized all you were giving. I see Joyce in you. … She was determined to be thankful. … She did it with a smile … She crocheted a blanket for me and Melissa.”

He referred to Hebrews 12. 

“Many people give up,” he said. “She didn’t. She wanted to talk with me about some of the thoughts she’d had … She was able to see peace with God and man. She laid aside that weight and finished strong.”

He read James 1:12: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.”

“God honors those who remain steadfast in this life,” Pastor said. “She preached this sermon a long time ago. … She was determined to persevere. She’s rooting for you. Lay it at Jesus’ feet. She did. What a day that will be if you know Jesus.”

The Pastor led in the hymn, “What a Day that Will Be,” as a guitar player accompanied him and the audience sang. 

The chaplain who spoke earlier closed in prayer: “You are our God … thank your for allowing us to be part of life. Praise you for everything you are doing.”

GOD PROVIDES RAIN!

   RAIN FELL on Wednesday. That same day, I received pluviophile as the Word of the Day from Dictionary.com. 

A pluviophile is “a person who enjoys rainy days and is fascinated by the sights, sounds, etc. of rain … someone who finds joy and peace of mind during rainy days.”

Phile denotes a fondness for a particular thing. A phobia is a “fear.”

An ombrophobe is a person who hates rain or fears it deeply. 

A pluviophobe experiences anxiety when confronted with the possibility of rain. In severe cases, pluviophobia can cause panic attacks, sources say. 

The late Eddie Rabbit sang “I Love a Rainy Night.” Rainy days or nights are fine as long as you don’t have to leave the house. Sunny days abide no excuse for not getting outside work done. Rain allows you to attend to things inside the house and also take a nap, read a book, or watch TV. Rain acts as a curtain — maybe a shower curtain? — between you and the world.

As a boy, I loved being outdoors. Mother often quoted this rhyme to me on rainy days: “Rain, Rain, go away; come again another day; Little Johnny wants to play.”  

Later, I began liking rainy days. A pluviophile loves rain and is generally a quiet, calm, peace-loving loner who is not afraid of being on his own. The calming effect of rain helps introverts get pleasure from their ability to escape and turn inward for a while, Charlene Ignites says. Introverts make up about 25-40% of the population, says Bagikan Artikel, adding, “Although some may think rain is annoying, it can be seen as a blessing that gives us a new perspective over life.”

“Just as the rain brings a clean scent and new life, rain lovers also appreciate the cleansing renewal of a good cry,” Ignites says. “Pluviophiles understand very well that it takes a little rain to make the flowers grow.”

IN THE BIBLE, RAIN is referred to as a blessing after a drought, a symbol of God’s love and teachings to spread over the world, and even as a flood to wash away the sins of a corrupt world, biblestudytools.com says. 

The word rain in the Scriptures “is employed in both a literal and figurative sense.”

“The whole population depended upon the field, and the field upon the rain,” Charles Spurgeon said of Israel. “Therefore let us lift up our eyes to the Lord who giveth rain, and in so doing drops bread from heaven… As it is in the outward world, so is it in the inward; as it is in the physical, so is it in the spiritual.”

The amount of rainfall in Biblical countries varies greatly, according to Merrill C. Tenny’s Pictorial Bible Dictionary. He says that in Egypt, there is very little water, if any rainfall, the land being dependent upon the Nile. In Syria and Israel, the rainfall is usually abundant.

The Lord said to Old Testament Israelites:

“For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.  

“But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven … And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full” (Deuteronomy 11:10-15 ESV).

But if Israel disobeyed God?

“Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you” (Deut. 11:16-17 ESV).

There are the two types of rain in the Bible: the former (fall) rain and latter (spring) rain. These rains marked the beginning and end of the Jewish harvest. Israel’s main natural water source is the Sea of Galilee. It feeds the Jordan River that flows into the Dead Sea. Israel depends on rain.

“Surrounding Israel are nations who have their own flowing water sources — Egypt has the Nile, and the Euphrates serves the Mesopotamian basin, but Israel has no such permanent and reliable source of water. Civilizations quickly sprung up around the rivers that could sustain life, but God led his people to a land where they would be utterly at the mercy of the skies… and therefore completely dependent on the one who can make it rain,” oneforisrael.org says. “And so God has placed his people in a dry and dusty land with no reliable source of water so that they must look up to the skies, to the one who can make it rain. He did it on purpose.

“He loves his children to depend upon him and his provision, rather than taking the natural for granted and relying on their own abilities to cope. He wanted them to have to come to him and talk to him. In short, he wanted relationship with them.”

AFTER THE RESURRECTION

   BARBARA and I debated about attending the 7:00 a.m. sunrise service on Resurrection Sunday, April 9, 2023, but we knew chilly winds were blowing across the Faith Temple hill in Taylors, SC. Neuropathy bothers my feet, and the ground is uneven between the church and the giant cross. And I’d have had to stand unless I had taken a chair. I felt sort of guilty about missing the sunrise service. Someone said, “Jesus rose from the dead, and you can’t even rise from the bed!” 

A cold wind drove the Destination Church of God/Faith Temple (FT) sunrise service into Fleming Hall. Ms. Sandy Brown attended and said they had a good service. 

At the 10:30 a.m. FT Resurrection Sunday service, we sang hymns, prayed, and enjoyed a service planned by Mrs. Ann Burrows. Mrs. Sandra Martin played the piano for the singing, accompanied soloists, and sang a solo. Our church is blessed by her music.

Some folk feel a little letdown after Resurrection Sunday (“Easter” is the common name). We get excited about the day. Spring is in the air; flowers are blooming; the world is emerging from winter. We say, “He is risen!” And friends respond, “He is risen indeed!” Easter Sunday is triumphant! And then, it’s over. 

“We have come down from the mountain top of Easter, and now may feel that we are in the valley of the routine,” says the Rev. Charles P. Henderson, a Presbyterian minister. “There always seems to be a let down in the life of the church after Easter. Even if you could, like Thomas, reach in and touch the wounds in his body... Even if you had solid, certifiable evidence that the resurrection was real, there would still be the bills to pay, the meals to plan, the problems of life to solve… So it was for the first disciples.”

After you experience a great accomplishment or enjoyment, you feel things slowing down, returning to the routine and the mundane, Henderson says. 

I remember when my younger daughter, Suzanne, was a preschooler in the early 1980s and we attended the Fowler Reunion at Fleming Hall, Faith Temple’s fellowship building. My late mother, Eva Fowler Crain, was one of nine children, so I grew up with 15 first-cousins on the Fowler side. Many of my cousins attended the Fowler get-together, and Suzanne enjoyed playing with their children. Mark Fleming, child of the late Charles and Mrs. Sandra Fleming, entertained us by imitating an inchworm speeding along the floor of Fleming Hall. What fun! Driving away after the reunion ended, I heard a small voice from the back seat say, “Well, I guess we’ll never do that again.” My late wife, Carol, and I were amused at how quickly Suzanne’s letdown began.

Jesus’ disciples probably had a letdown after that first Easter Sunday, Henderson says, adding, “None of them had actually seen the resurrection. They had heard the reports about the empty tomb; a couple of them had seen a mysterious stranger on the road to Emmaus, but even if it actually were Jesus, so what? Things were quickly returning to normal.”

After the resurrection the disciples woke up to the fact that the world looked pretty much the same as it had looked before they ever met the man from Galilee, Henderson says.  

“They began drifting apart,” he says. “Some of them headed north to Galilee where it all began just three years before. They even returned to their fishing boats. It had been a heady three years, following Jesus to become fishers of men. But on the morning after Easter, Peter and the rest turned back to their boats” (John 21:1-25).

After fishing all night and catching nothing, they saw a man on the beach. He called to them, “Have you caught any fish?” They said, “No.” The man said, “Throw out your net on the right-hand side of the boat.” They did and caught so many fish (153) they couldn’t pull in the nets. John told Peter, “It is the Lord!” Jesus had cooked fish for them and said, “Come and dine.” This was the third time Jesus showed himself to his disciples after he rose from the dead. He encouraged them in the work opportunities that lay ahead of them. 

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:58, “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.” 

To be steadfast is to be firmly fixed and not subject to change, to be firm in belief and determination, and to be loyal and faithful. 

“Lord, give me firmness without hardness, steadfastness without dogmatism, love without weakness,” Jim Elliot said. 

Paul says we should “always” do God’s work and not be hindered by letdowns. 

Before Jesus ascended to heaven, he told his disciples, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Matt. 28:16-20).

UP FROM THE GRAVE

  JOSEPH OF ARIMATHEA, a rich man and disciple of Jesus, asked Pilate for Jesus’ body. He wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, laid it in his own new cut-rock tomb, rolled a stone over the tomb’s entrance, and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting across from the tomb. (The story continues below, according to Matt. 27 and 28 ESV.)

The next day, “the day of Preparation,” the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate” and said, “Sir, … that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”

Pilate’s soldiers sealed the stone covering the tomb and set a guard. After the Sabbath (Saturday), toward sunup on the first day of the week (Sunday), Mary Magdalene “and the other Mary” visited the tomb. 

AN EARTHQUAKE HIT! An “angel of the Lord descended from heaven,” rolled back the stone, and sat on it. “His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.” The guards feared him, trembled, and fainted. The angel said to the women, ‘Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him… .’” 

THE LADIES, feeling fear and joy, ran to tell his disciples. Jesus met them, and they “took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Jesus said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.’” 

While the women went, some of the guard hurried to the city and told the chief priests what happened. They and the elders decided to bribe the soldiers. “Tell people, ‘His disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep,” they said, adding that if Pilate heard about the body being gone, they would smooth things over and keep the guards out of trouble. The soldiers took the money and did what they were told.

TWO THOUSAND YEARS have passed, and Christians are still telling that Jesus physically rose from the dead on the Sunday after his crucifixion, says Neil Shelvi, author of the book “Why Believe?” He says, “Jesus’s death and resurrection are both tied to our salvation. While most religions teach that we are saved on the basis of the good things we do, Christianity teaches that we are saved on the basis of what Jesus did for us. God drew near to us in Christ to bear our sin, to take our punishment, and to die on the cross in our place. The resurrection was God’s confirmation that Jesus was who he claimed to be, and it is God’s assurance to Christians that they have been forgiven.”

Present-day historians are nearly unanimous in accepting Jesus’ death on the cross, Shelvi says. “His death by crucifixion is the single fact most mentioned in all the historical records of his life, both Christian and non-Christian.” Jesus’ burial is recorded in all four Gospels, and St. Paul writes about Jesus’ death. 

WOMEN DISCOVERED Jesus’ empty tomb, and that is the strongest piece of evidence in favor of the historicity of the empty tomb, Shelvi says. “This detail may not strike us as odd, but it is surprising, given the low status of women in the first century. For example, the first-century Jewish historian Josephus claimed that Jewish law expressed the following sentiment regarding the reliability of women: ‘Let not the testimony of women be admitted, on account of the levity and boldness of their sex.’ If early Christians were inventing narratives to support their own version of events, why not ascribe the discovery of the tomb to witnesses who would have been received as more credible?”

DIGGING UP JESUS’ BODY would have disproved his resurrection, Shelvi says, adding, “How did Christianity grow so rapidly in the very place where Jesus was buried if it could have been falsified so easily?” And if the disciples stole Jesus’ body, couldn’t the Romans have found that body?

MANY CLAIMED to have seen Jesus alive after he had been executed. “They did not claim to have seen him only once or for a short time; they claimed to have seen him repeatedly over an extended period of several weeks,” Shelvi says.

SUFFERING PROVES SOMETHING. “The apostles were repeatedly beaten and imprisoned,” Shelvi says. “We have good historical evidence that James, Peter, and Paul were all executed for their faith, and church tradition maintains that as many as eleven of the twelve apostles were eventually martyred. Given the suffering the apostles faced, it is difficult to maintain they knew the resurrection to be a hoax. … One after another of those who claimed to have witnessed the risen Jesus went to their own gruesome deaths refusing to recant their testimony.” The Apostle Paul claimed he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and “went from regarding Jesus as a false prophet to believing that Jesus was the unique Son of God.” Paul joined the despised, persecuted Christian “sect” that had no power and few members because he believed Jesus was the promised Messiah who rose from the dead.