His burial is yours.

In the natural realm death leads to burial. When someone dies the body is released to the ground. We know that the cycle of life finds its destiny in death. But in the spiritual realm it is not that way.

In the realm of Gods economy, burial can precede death. First our life becomes buried in Christ, then we are baptized into His death. The great paradox is that in becoming unified with Christ, death becomes our reality but not our destiny. Burial in Christ becomes life in Christ.

In the case of our Lord the natural and the supernatural intersect in a glorious display of love at the cross. The humanity of Christ was put to death and his body lay buried on the Sabbath. But death could not reign for Easter Sunday will come in the morning and our savior lives.

-PST

Peace and Justice became one on a Friday afternoon

"Perfect peace and perfect justice became united in one death on a Friday afternoon some two thousand years ago. The thief who repented while hanging on the cross next to Jesus understood the paradox. No one else knew so well the physical agony of what Jesus was suffering in crucifixion. And the thief knew that he deserved it. He knew the fear of God. But he received the assurance of pardon from the blameless Man hanging beside him." - Dr. Ravi Zacharias from the forward of Radical Cross, AW Tozer

And that blameless Man who was the embodiment of the Godhead became the embodiment of sin for all humanity. Ironically we call this day Good Friday. It is a fitting phrase for the dichotomy of this Gospel. The day of our saviors horrific death on the most barbaric instrument of elimination which the Romans created for one purpose alone, to dispose of a man, is the day we call good. The day is good because death was not the destiny. Death is the passage to life. A cross draped in darkness would be the beacon from which all light would come. We look to our Lord's death today and become one with Him. For only by becoming one with His death will we become one with His resurrection.

-PST

The best (and most unselfish) birthday party I’ve ever been to.

When my daughter Audrie was about ten years old she came up with an idea and stuck to her word, even after we tempted to change her mind. While some girls have visions of beautiful fifteen’s or fabulous sweet sixteen’s, Audrie had a different thought. She wanted to travel somewhere grand when she turned thirteen. So she approached Mom and Dad a few years ago and presented us with a request; “Can you take me to San Francisco for my thirteenth birthday?” she asked. Well thirteen or not, Mom and I thought that was a pretty cool request. Even though this would be a huge financial stretch for us we thought the fact that she wants to travel was very bright of her. Having done some traveling ourselves we can respect the broadening perspective it gives you. With a few years of planning and preparation we just might be able to pull this off. Time passed and the desired destination changed from San Francisco to New York City. A couple of months ago we were getting ready to make the decision and invest in the airfare and hotel so we approached Audrie with a question. “Do you want all new bedroom furniture and a laptop computer, or do you want to travel to NYC?” She thought, long and hard for a few days and then returned with her final decision.

The past five days have been great. We have been freezing on top of skyscrapers, bouncing underneath the city on subways, eating dumpling soup in Chinatown, sampling as many pizzerias as possible, shopping on Madison Ave, people watching in Union Square, stuffing our face with cheesecake, dazzled by the lights of Times Square, walking our feet sore and nodding off in the back of cabs. We will never forget this time in NYC. Thanks to a thirteen year old who was unselfish with her birthday wishes. Happy Birthday Audrie, I love you and thanks for being a great daughter.

The funny thing is Alyssa who is eight says she wants to travel to Tokyo for her thirteen birthday! If I know Alyssa, that destination will probably change 100 times before that day comes. If not I better start saving now.

Special thanks to friend Jeremy DelRio for (my first ever) texting tour of NYC. Great recommendations man.