What a wonderful Easter Sunday!!! I want to thank everyone who worked so hard to make this Holy Week a very special time of worship and fellowship for everyone. Thank you to Susan Smith, Ricky Sutphin, and Jean Cobb and all the members of the choir and the Praise Ringers who gave of their time and talent to enhance our Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday services.  Thanks also go out to Chellee Bailey and her wonderful troop of actors for the Sunrise Easter service drama.  Thank you also to Jim Holcomb, who did triple duty on Easter Sunday sharing his gifts in all three services.  Thanks to Anthony Olinger, Ronnie Carnes and Doug Sibley for their assistance in the sound booth.  Thanks to Thames Robinson and everyone who cooked, set up, took down, and served at our Easter Breakfast.  We fed around 90 people and we had food left over!   Easter was a glorious day to worship the risen Christ. And I continue to be blessed by such a giving and gifted congregation!  Thank you all!

This week, we begin our Easter emphasis on witnesses to the resurrection. Each week, we'll hear a story from the gospels or the book of Acts about someone's response to an experience of resurrection and what that might mean to us today.  This Sunday we will hear the story of Thomas from the Gospel of John:

¹⁹When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." ²⁰After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. ²¹Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." ²²When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." ²⁴But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe."

²⁶A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." ²⁷Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe." ²⁸Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!" ²⁹Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe." ³⁰Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.  John 20:19-31

• Keeping in mind that the disciples had deserted Jesus when he most needed them.  How do you think they felt when Jesus suddenly appeared in their locked upper room?

• What instructions does Jesus give the disciples?

• To whom are we sent?
• What do you think Jesus means when he said "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."
• Whom should you forgive?
•  Why do you suppose Thomas did not believe the others?

• On what do you base your faith in Jesus Christ?

• What does it mean to you to say, "Jesus is Lord"?

See you Sunday as we continue to celebrate the Living Lord!