Next Sunday our church plans to conduct an Easter Sunrise Service in the prayer garden on the lawn at 7:00 A.M. Everyone is invited to attend the service and also to stay afterwards for the fellowship breakfast. If the weather doesn’t cooperate, the celebration will be moved indoors. We sincerely hope that a large number of people will be there on what is the most important holiday of the year for Christians everywhere.

Also, I apologize for having Jonah instead of Jacob accused of being a con-man in last week’s report, and then adding injury to insult by reporting that Jonah was left crippled after wrestling the angel all night. The real Jonah had endured quite enough trials when, thinking he could avoid prophesying in Nineveh by running away, he was swallowed by a fi sh.

Unintentionally, I may have discovered why many people seem to endure more than their fair share of life’s trials. It isn’t always that God is wanting them to endure the tests and trials. It could be that it is people who are inadvertently bringing about many of the trials for either themselves or for others.

Until after this coming Sunday, there is still time to sign up for the men’s retreat at Falls Creek. Contact Brother Darrell or Alex Arnold—or anyone else you know in the church and you’ll be pointed in the right direction to get signed up for the event.

Joyce Searcy brought a message in song this Sunday with “I was on His Mind.” Joyce always has a song with a message that reaches the heart, and we do appreciate her talent and her ministry through music.

Rev. Brown’s message was from Matthew 21:1-11. In this passage, Jesus is standing on the Mt. of Olives looking down on Jerusalem. He may have been remembering many of the events that had led to his triumphant entry into Jerusalem and the week that would follow it.

Because he was going about His Father’s business, He took on the responsibility for us that was His to carry out, and with regal authority gave the needed orders to His disciples. When he further instructed that if anyone questioned them as they untied the donkey and her colt and led them away, they were to say, “The Lord has need of them.” This was the fi rst time He had referred to Himself as “Lord.”

As royalty, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a colt, a beast of burden, that had never been ridden by anyone else. Jesus is a king who sets people free, not a king who burdens His people down with more to endure than ever.

Rome was aware of the crowd of people welcoming Jesus as a hero as they had lined up to welcome other heroes. They called out, “Hosanna in the highest!” wanting something from their hero. But they didn’t know yet that it was the wrong week for that. The Hosannas might better have been saved until after the resurrection when Jesus rose truly and for all time victorious over sin.

Today, we praise Jesus who died for us, rose from the grave for us, protects us, keeps us, and sustains and loves us beyond anything we can completely understand.

“Hosannah in the highest! And again, Hosannah!”