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He is risen! If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9

He is risen, indeed! Echoing your blessings and prayers for our President and our nation, and that the lost may be saved, in Jesus' name!

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He’s Alive

by Dolly Parton

The gates and doors were barred, and all the windows fastened down
I spent the night in sleeplessness and rose at every sound
Half in hope of sorrow, and half in fear the day
Would find the soldiers breakin’ through to drag us all away

And just before the sunrise I heard something at the wall
The gate began to rattle and a voice began to call
I hurried to the window, looked down into the street
Expecting swords and torches and the sound of soldiers’ feet

But there was no one there but Mary, so I went down to let her in
John stood there beside me as she told me where she’d been
She said they’ve moved Him in the night, and none of us know where
The stone’s been rolled away and now His body isn’t there

We both ran towards the garden, then John ran on ahead
We found the stone and empty tomb just the way that Mary said
But the winding sheet they wrapped Him in was just an empty shell
And how or where they’d taken Him was more than I could tell

Oh, something strange had happened there; just what I did not know
John believed a miracle, but I just turned to go
Circumstance and speculation couldn’t lift me very high
’Cause I'd seen them crucify Him. Then I saw Him die

Back inside the house again, the guilt and anguish came
Everything I’d promised Him just added to my shame
When at last it came to choices, I denied I knew His name
And even if He was alive, it wouldn’t be the same

But suddenly the air was filled with a strange and sweet perfume
Light that came from everywhere drove shadows from the room
And Jesus stood before me with His arms held open wide
And I fell down on my knees and I just clung to Him and cried

Then He raised me to my feet, and as I looked into His eyes
The love was shining out from Him like sunlight from the skies
Guilt in my confusion disappeared in sweet release
And every fear I ever had just melted into peace

He’s alive! Yes, He’s alive
Yes, He’s alive and I’m forgiven
Heaven’s gates are open wide
[repeat, repeat]

He’s alive! He’s alive! He’s alive!
I believe it! He’s alive
Sweet Jesus

From two nights ago! I had a interesting conversation concerning this passage with a friend of mine and it confirmed much.

Jeremiah 16

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who beget them in this land: 4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried; they shall become like dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall become food for the birds of the air and for the wild animals of the earth.

5 For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament, or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, says the Lord, my steadfast love and mercy. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them; there shall be no gashing, no shaving of the head for them. 7No one shall break bread* for the mourner, to offer comfort for the dead; nor shall anyone give them the cup of consolation to drink for their fathers or their mothers. 8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to banish from this place, in your days and before your eyes, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ 11then you shall say to them: It is because your ancestors have forsaken me, says the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshipped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law; 12and because you have behaved worse than your ancestors, for here you are, every one of you, following your stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.
14 Therefore, the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of Egypt’, 15 but ‘As the Lord lives who brought the people of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the lands where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their ancestors.

16 I am now sending for many fishermen, says the Lord, and they shall catch them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my presence, nor is their iniquity concealed from my sight. 18 And* I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations.

19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge on the day of trouble,
to you shall the nations come
from the ends of the earth and say:
Our ancestors have inherited nothing but lies,
worthless things in which there is no profit.
20 Can mortals make for themselves gods?
Such are no gods!

21 ‘Therefore I am surely going to teach them, this time I am going to teach them my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord.’