*Please allow this powerful Easter message from my friend Ray Majoran to speak to you and bless your life as it has mine. Blessings, Ed đ
âAnd we are witnesses of all that He did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree, but God raised Him on the third day and made Him to appear, not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To Him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name. (Acts 10:39-43ESV)
This Easter Sunday, we celebrate the resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. He is the Son of God, the promised Messiah, the hope of the world. After suffering a brutal death on the cross, God raised Him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for Him to be held by it (Acts 2:24).
For Christians, this is a day of great celebration. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
For many, though, today is just another day on the calendar, one that is sometimes celebrated with Easter bunnies and chocolate eggs. Our public schools teach that the Bible is just a book written by a bunch of men who, for whatever reason, sought to gain some sort of power through myths and fairytales. Others believe that Jesus was real but only view Him as a good man or some sort of prophet.
While several people have debated the legitimacy of God and Jesus, secular historians can at least generally agree on the period when each of the 66 books of the Bible were written. The Old Testament was written between ~1500 BC and ~400 BC, while the New Testament was written between ~30 AD and ~100 AD.
If youâre a person who doesnât believe in the God of the Bible, or if youâre a person who thinks that Jesus was just another man, or perhaps youâre a person whoâs never really taken time to think about eternity â then on this Easter Sunday, I invite you to consider three things:
1) The Good News: The Bible lays out the narrative that we are all sinful human beings. Because God is holy and we are sin-filled creatures, we cannot enter into His presence. God and sin cannot exist together. To remedy our helpless state, He sent His one and only Son into the world who lived a sinless life and died as a sacrifice for our sins. As John 3:16 notes, you can enter the Fatherâs presence by putting your faith in Jesus. We are saved by no works of our own (Ephesians 2:9); instead, itâs by faith in Jesus Christ.
The Gospel message is really that simple: The Father made a way for you through Jesus Christ so you can live forever in eternity. Your sin is atoned for through Jesus. In heaven, God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, for the former things will have passed away (Revelation 21:4).
2) Jesus is the Only Way: Jesus himself declared that He is the only way to ever come to the Father and enter heaven (John 14:6). Whoever believes in Him has eternal life; whoever does not obey Jesus shall not see life, but the wrath of the Father remains on him (John 3:36). Therefore, it is impossible to say, âI believe in Jesusâ and then in your next breath say, âbut I think there are many ways for someone to get to heaven.â To do so would be to claim Jesus as a liar.
There is no other way, no other religion, no other reality. Buddhism wonât save you, Islam wonât save you, Hinduism wonât save you, Bahaâi wonât save you, Judaism wonât save you, Wicca wonât save you, being a monk wonât save you, Sikhism wonât save you, sitting on your butt and ignoring reality wonât save you, and not even âcalling yourself a Christianâ will save you. Only a true, honest faith in Jesus Christ will save you. That and only that will allow you to go home and live with your Heavenly Father for eternity.
3) Some Simple Math: The Old Testament contains over 400 prophecies about the coming Messiah. When Jesus came into the world, He perfectly fulfilled every one of them. Do you know what the odds of that happening are? Think about it: one single man fulfilling every prediction about the coming Messiah, the Savior of the world. A professor named Peter Stoner worked with 600 students to figure out what the probability would be of just eight (of the over 400) prophecies being fulfilled in any one person who had lived up to the present time. The result: 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000. Would you bet your life on those odds?
Lee Strobel, an atheist-turned-Christian, performed some calculations to try to figure out what this would look like in real life. Lee notes:
âI imagined the entire world being covered with white tile that was one-and-a-half inches squareâevery bit of dry land on the planetâwith the bottom of just one tile painted red. Then, I pictured a person being allowed to wander for a lifetime around all seven continents. He would be permitted to bend down only one time and pick up a piece of tile. What are the odds it would be the one tile whose reverse side was painted red? The odds would be the same as just eight of the Old Testament prophecies coming true in any one person throughout history!â
Listen, if one is bent on refuting God and Jesus, nothing youâre going to read here is likely to change your mind (including these crazy mathematical odds). You can argue until youâre red in the face. You can be a skeptic and declare, âThereâs no way 400 of those prophecies are about Jesus.â But the fact of the matter remains: they are real. Even if you can argue away half of them, the other half will still taunt you. Heâs created too much evidence for you to just ignore it. As Lee Strobel puts it, even if Jesus only fulfilled eight prophecies, you would still be walking across the earth hoping to flip over that one red tile.
God is real, and Jesus is the Son of God, Messiah, and King. Today, we rejoice in the fact that Jesus is alive, and one day, we will meet Him face to face.
If youâre reading this today and have never given your life to Christ, I encourage you to do it. Tomorrow is not promised.
PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, I humbly acknowledge that there is no one righteous, not even one (Romans 3:10). I am a sinner in need of Your mercy and forgiveness (Titus 3:5-7), for without it, I will be separated from You forever. Your wrath will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth (Romans 1:18).
Father, I desire to be made right in Your eyes. Thank You for sending Your Son Jesus, who died on the cross in my place, taking the punishment I deserve (Romans 5:8). Please forgive me for my sins, as I put my trust in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that Jesusâ death and resurrection have provided forgiveness for my sins, and I put my trust in Him alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank You for forgiving me and saving me.
*If you prayed this simple prayer, please let Ray know by tapping on his name or tap this link to let Ron Hutchcraft walk you through a simple process that you can follow after you invite Jesus to be Lord of your life.
Walking With Jesus 
Iâm deeply saddened by your blindness to the obvious. đâ¤ď¸đ
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every cultist claims his imaginary friend is obvious, and strangely enough, not a single cultist can produce their gods.
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One day my âimaginary Friendâ is going to return in power and youâll be on your knees before Him just like the rest of the world. Just wish youâd come to your senses before that day, because if you wait until then it will be too late.
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ah, “one day” which is what christians have claimed for 2000+ years and have failed every time. Your sadistic fantasies will never come true, dear. Your cult has nothing but fear and ignorance when it comes to getting people to join.
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This has nothing to do with fear, only love. Love casts out fear. I have no fear of the present or the future. Fear is only for those who canât grasp the meaning and value of seeing Truth. One day you will. Iâm praying itâs sooner than later. Open your eyes to the reality itâs you who are believing fantasies, not me. It takes a lot more faith NOT to believe Jesus is alive and real than not to believe. đâ¤ď¸đ
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ROFL. Threatening people with eternal torture if they don’t obey you is an appeal to fear.
It’s hilarious how you cultists try to lie and fail so hard.
Dear, your prayers have failed miserably, despite your bible’s promises. *You* are great evidence on how your cult fails. Funny how your bible promises that true followers will get any prayer answered with that is asked for and answered quickly. Why are you, and every other self-professed christian, a failure in that? What excuses do you have to tell yourself to salve your failure?
Unsurpsingly, the lie that christains tell themselves that it takes more faith to not believe in their imaginary friend that it takes to do so fails. Even your own bible says that faith is all you have. And considering how you have no evidence for your god, for anything it supposedly did, and for anything it is supposedly doing, I’m quite content in knowing you are a fraud.
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đ
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Your responses reveal your gross ignorance of faith in general and the Christian Faith in particular. Prayer is a conversation very much like any conversation, not demanding answers but used to build and develop relationship. My faith doesnât rise or fall based on answers, though I receive many, it enables me to maintain stability in my confidence the the Bible is true and the God of the Bible is my personal Friend who created and loves me. He created and loves you also, youâre just too full of yourself to see it. One day you will. đâ¤ď¸đ
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And yet more attempts at bearing false witness. It’s notable how your prayers fail yet again, and they are not a conversation since there is no one replying to you.
Your faith is based on nonsense and wishful thinking, nothing more. You invent excuses when your imaginary friend fails you.
It’s notable you’ve evidently received no answers since you can’t produce your imaginary friend. as for the bible being “true”, even christians can’t agree on what parts are supposedly true and what parts are metaphor, exaggeration, hyperbole, etc.
It’s hilariosu how arrogant and pathetic you are when you claim the supposed creator of the universe to be your personal friend, when you don’t have any real ones.
I do love how your prayers fail yet again. 2000+ years and no one has been able to show your god exists.
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It occurs to me that in reality I may simply be an invisible friend to you that you cannot know for sure is real. You write words to me without having ever seen me, heard my voice, verified my birth or existence. Iâm words on a page, yet you communicate with me. It takes a lot of faith to write messages to your invisible friends, yet you strongly believe I/they exist. Sounds like a familiar story to me. Food for thought. I love you, invisible friend, and I hope to see you in heaven one day. Your invisible friend, Ed. đâ¤ď¸đ
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You aren’t invisible and you aren’t a friend. You are a sad little human who worships his own fantasies.
It takes no faith at all to write comments dear, but nice try. It just takes someone to write a post and to respond.
Your imaginary friend still doesn’t exist. Strange how your god never responds to you at all, and all you have are excuses on why it constantly fails you, Ed.
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Iâm invisible to you, yet you continue to âspeakâ to me. I may be AI for all you know.
Just because I have conversations with someone who is invisible to you doesnât make Him invisible to me. I see Him in the many things He has created, including those who are too ignorant to open their minds to Him. Just as the Bible teaches, I am able to hear His voice and discern His directives in my life.
How on earth can you make a judgment regarding my friends? I have hundreds of friends all over the world, some very close friends, 2 a.m. friends that would come to my side at any hour of the day. Friendships orchestrated by my Heavenly Father who loves me and illustrates His love through the many friends I have who also love Him.
Itâs deeply saddening how lonely and lost you must be in your small, limited world. You can hate me if you wish, but I will never hate you regardless of how cruel and demeaning you may seek to be. I can see through the facade of your efforts to protect yourself through rehashed and debunked intellectual findings.
Iâm not the one living in a fantasy world my dear, you are. đâ¤ď¸đ
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Itâs great to see how addled your cult has made you. You arenât invisible to me, dear. I always enjoy when cultists think they are being clever but are only showing how their cult has backed them into a corner. You have no evidence your god exists. Your claims that your god has conversations with you are the same as any other cultist with their own imaginary friends.
You try to claim you see your god in the things it supposedly created. Yep, other cultists make that claim too, and like you, they canât show that their god merely exists, much less created anything. Your presuppositions are worthless. And dear, every cult claims that those outside the cult are wrong. Alas, not one cult can support that claim either. Itâs notable how cultists claim to know what their god wants them to do and surprise, itâs exactly what they want to do.
I can make any judgement I want, dear. For your claim of having âhundreds of friendsâ itâs curious that not a single one shows up on your blog. Itâs lovely how your delusions are that your imaginary friend gives you even more imaginary friends.
Ah, nice to see more false claims you make about me, dear. I have friends and gee, they actually exist and comment on my blog. No one hates you dear, thatâs just your need to play the martyr. Your lies fail and itâs great how youâve not debunked a single thing Iâve posted.
and your prayers still fail miserably.
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âRemember, we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For the Scriptures say, âAs surely as I live,â says the Lord, âevery knee will bend to Me, and every tongue confess and give praise. To God.ââ That includes you, my not friend. One day you will see clearly, and I hope, it will be before the final judgment. One way or another, you will voluntarily and willingly bow before your King. It will be a glorious day for those of us who see Him and have learned to love Him now. The torment of hell will be your remembrance that you could have known Him, but chose to ignore Him. Youâre experiencing a taste of hell right now, but are too blind and closed minded to see it. I truly pity you. Please donât waste any more effort spouting your meaningless nonsense to me. I wonât flatter you by even reading it.
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What if my Invisible Friend created me just so I could one day become YOUR invisible friend. Food for thought. â¤ď¸đ
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poor Ed, still unable to show his imaginary friend exists and that he is a christian. The bible says how one can tell if someone is a true follower of jesus and you certainly fail that.
Maybe junk food for thought since you still fail.
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