He is Risen!

He is risen, indeed!  Happy Easter!  Happy Resurrection Day!

From Of First Importance:

“Who delivered up Jesus to die? Not Judas, for money; not Pilate, for fear; not the Jews, for envy; — but the Father, for love!”

- Octavius Winslow, quoted by John Stott in The Message of Romans (Downers Grove, Ill.; Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 255.


From Gene Veith's blog Cranach:

Why Holy Week is Holy

“For we call this Holy Week not just because of the holy things that happened, or because of the Holy One they happened to--but because this is the week that makes you holy.”

"Besides, no matter how powerless you are, no matter how low, no matter how tired and weak and piled upon, you will never be at the bottom of the pecking order.

That spot is reserved for one person: Jesus."

Both quotes by Rev. James Douthwaite

From Gene Veith's blog Cranach: The Blog of Veith:

In more archaeological news, the wall that Solomon built around Jerusalem has been discovered.

“The city wall that has been uncovered testifies to a ruling presence. Its strength and form of construction indicate a high level of engineering”, [Eliat] Mazar said. The city wall is at the eastern end of the Ophel area in a high, strategic location atop the western slop of the Kidron valley.

“A comparison of this latest finding with city walls and gates from the period of the First Temple, as well as pottery found at the site, enable us to postulate with a great degree of assurance that the wall that has been revealed is that which was built by King Solomon in Jerusalem in the latter part of the tenth century B.C.E.,” said Mazar.

“This is the first time that a structure from that time has been found that may correlate with written descriptions of Solomon’s building in Jerusalem,” she added. “The Bible tells us that Solomon built — with the assistance of the Phoenicians, who were outstanding builders — the Temple and his new palace and surrounded them with a city, most probably connected to the more ancient wall of the City of David.” Mazar specifically cites the third chapter of the First Books of Kings where it refers to “until he (Solomon) had made an end of building his own house, and the house of the Lord, and the wall of Jerusalem round about.

This is especially significant because a whole line of liberal Biblical critics maintains that David and Solomon were mythological. Added to that are Islamic scholars who deny any and all historical claims of Jews to the Holy Land.

Elian Mazan next to Solomon's Wall: