He's Alive!

 He is Risen!

I hope this finds its way to you from where we are in faraway Thailand.  We will be worshipping with old friends this morning and thanking the Lord for all of you, and mostly for our Risen Saviour.

Being in Bangkok these last couple of weeks has been wonderful, catching up with so many friends, making presentations for some of the stuff Tony's been teaching, looking up old eating places and generally remembering this city as the place we have enjoyed so much in the last 15 years.

But I have one story that came to me the other day as we were riding in a taxi. Once you determine whether there’s a meter or not, then settle on a price, taxis are the way to go around here. There are of course the motorcycle taxis that are even cheaper, but we try to avoid those as much as possible. More often than not, the driver and his bike are not as wide as our bodies, especially the knees, so you can imagine the experience in terror associated with every trip. A motorcycle taxi zoomed by us and made us laugh as we remembered our friend Chai.

He was a brand new believer at the Baptist Student Centre where we were working.  English was almost always a great way to establish relations among the young people, and the BSC was a fantastic gateway through which we could introduce the Gospel to our students. Chai, through a good friend of ours, had recently found the Lord, asked Him to forgive his sins and come into his life. He was thrilled to be part of the Christian family, and was devouring his Bible every day. The weeks since his decision had found him growing by leaps and bounds in his new found faith.

One day Chai and this friend who led him to the Lord were going somewhere on an errand, riding erratically through the traffic at break neck speed on Chai's motorbike, as is the custom. Our friend was hanging on for dear life and somehow talking in Chai's ear about the wonders of our Lord.  With Easter on the horizon, he mentioned the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead, and what a wonderful thing that was.

Chai turned around in his seat almost completely, never letting up on the speed, or releasing the handle bars.  He looked my friend in the face and yelled with astonished glee, "YOU MEAN HES ALIVE?"

I’d like to think that the women and the disciples on that first Easter morning were at least that excited. Yes, Jesus had been a great teacher, a wise rabbi, an amazing prophet and a real friend. but .......HE'S ALIVE!!!

Shout it out, Church. That’s news worth repeating.


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