I'm going to make a statement that will shock you....but please continue and read my explanation. Taking a break from chores around the house I was just going through the news and went to Breitbart where the headline was.....Christians Celebrate Good Friday. I had forgotten that today was Good Friday. I watched the 1953 movie The Robe two nights ago....and I still forgot that today was Good Friday. I know that this Sunday is Easter....and yet it still did not register! How can this be?
It is 1:30 in the afternoon as I type this....the hours that Jesus was on the cross. When I was a youth....I was raised to be very reverent about this day....and these three hours. I wore a religious medal around my neck most of my young adult life. I attended mass....even at times in Vietnam....and more regularly when I came home and went to Pitt on the G. I. Bill. My wife and I were regular attenders at Sunday mass back in 1982.I've told this story many times in these posts....even recently....it was sometime in that year 1982....my wife was shopping at Penney's and I decided to walk the shopping center concourse. I spotted a....Christian bookstore. I had never been in a Christian bookstore but every Sunday after mass I would gather up all the religious magazines and newspapers at the back of the church and go home and spread them on the dining room table to read almost every word. Something was happening to me in those days....for there had been a genuine revival going on in America for a number of years....and men all around me were telling me that they were....born again. I was the type that would not scorn....but would listen.
So I ambled into that Christian bookstore....and asked the lady if they sold rosaries....for I had mine in my pocket but it had snapped in two. She politely said that they did not....so I browsed the books and picked up a paperback titled....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....by a man named Josh McDowell. (If you are not aware of it....it was and is a very well known apologetic on the Christian faith) It was in outline form which appealed to me so I purchased it....and life was never the same after that day.
OK....enough of that testimony that I have given many times. What about Good Friday? The process took a few years but after ten years of being a Pentecostal I...'found' is the term we often use....I found the Reformation....and once again my life took a slightly different direction.
How can I summarize this in one paragraph and do it justice? I can't....but I'll do the best that I can. In genuine and faithful Reformed churches....or any churches that still are grounded in the 16th century Reformation....Sunday....is....the Lord's Day. I squinted as I wrote the word Sunday earlier in this post for I hardly ever use the word. Every Lord's Day is a celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....every Lord's Day. It is odd therefore to try to place a special emphasis on the day that the Gregorian calendar tells us is Easter....(another word whose etymology causes me to wince.)
I have these words in my profile...."I am thankful most of all that God reached into humanity to adopt a multitude as His family and that He opened my own eyes to see... first myself, and then the cross of Calvary, the empty tomb and the clouds in which Jesus both ascended and will return."
I fully appreciate how most of evangelicalism celebrates that one day of the year. I see the many benefits despite the perennial jokes about people going to church only on Christmas and Easter. May you have a blessed....Resurrection Day....(please allow me that)....as all of us will be praising our God this....Lord's Day....and worshipping our Savior and our Lord and our coming King!
