I r o n d a l e C h u r c h i s a p l a c e o f p r o m i s e t o g r o w a n d b e l o n g

April, 2018

Irondale Church News

APRIL 1st
In the past 300 years So the people who plagues onto the Egyp-
Easter Sunday has continued to follow the tian people because
• Pray always been on April 1st in the Lunar Calendar after they held the Hebrews
following years: 1725, the Gregorian Solar in slavery. The 10th
• Pastor David and Col-
1736, 1804, 1866,
leen
1877, 1888, 1923,
• Community Soup
1934, 1945 and 1956.
Easter Sunday is due to
• Our outreach and wit- fall on this date again
ness to our commu- this year. After that,
nity within the 21st centu-
ry, April 1 will be the
• Busy Hands date of Easter Sunday
in 2029 and 2040, and
• People struggling next after that, 2108. It Calendar was accepted plague is the death of
with illness seems odd to have as the standard were the 1st born. The He-
Easter and April Fool’s called fools. So April 1 brews wiped sacrificial
• Young families and
Day on the same day, became Fool’s Day*. I blood on their door-
single parent fami-
lies
but what can we do? don’t know it that is posts so the angel of
true or not, but it does death would “pass
The true origins of
• Those struggling with seem reasonable. over” their homes.
April Fools’ Day are un-
addiction “Passover” became the
certain and a quick Have you ever noticed
Google search will pro- that Christmas is al- most important cele-
• Schools: students, bration in the Jewish
vide dozens of an- ways on December
staff, administrators faith. We know that
swers. But one theory 25th but Easter keeps
Jesus was crucified on
• Missionaries has to do with the offi- moving around? Well
a Friday during Passo-
cial changing of the there is a reason for
ver.
• Homeless, helpless, calendar from lunar to that too. And the rea-
hopeless, hungry solar in France about son is again the Lunar The earliest believers
1582. The lunar calen- Calendar. But it all be- in the church of Asia
• Local, state, national dar marked the New gins in the Bible book Minor wished to keep
and world leaders Year to coincide with of Exodus, where we the observance of East-
the Vernal Equinox and read the account of er correlated to the
that day was April 1. God bringing 10 Jewish Passover. The
Page 2
April 1st, continued
death, burial and resurrection of
Jesus Christ happened after the
Passover, so followers wanted
Easter always to be celebrated
subsequent to the Passover.
And, since the Jewish holiday
calendar is based on solar and
lunar cycles, each feast day is
movable, with dates shifting
from year to year.**
In the early days of the Christian
church, Easter was celebrated
on the Sunday immediately fol-
lowing the first full moon after
the vernal or spring equinox.
Over the course of history, be-
ginning in 325 AD with the
Council of Nicea, the Western
Church decided to establish a
standardized system for deter-
mining the date of Easter. So
Easter falls on a Sunday be-
tween March 22 and April 25
each year.
One final thought, where did the
word “Easter” come from? It is
a fairly common thought that
the name Easter has its origin
with a goddess of the Anglo-
Saxons named Eostre. It is be-
lieved that she is the goddess of
the dawn and was worshipped
in the spring by pagans in North-
ern Europe and the British Isles.
But just because it is commonly
understood doesn’t make it a
for sure thing. Matter of fact I
have always wondered why our
church forefathers would have
accepted a pagan name for their
holiest day. With deeper inves-
tigation another accepted an-
swer arises.
When Martin Luther translated
the Bible into German (New Tes-
tament in 1522), he chose the
word Oster to refer to the Pass-
over references before and after
the Resurrection. William Tyn-
dale translated the Bible into
English from the Greek and He-
brew. His New Testament
(1525) uses the word ester to
refer to the Passover. In fact,
we owe our English word Passo-
ver to Tyndale. When translating
the Old Testament (1530), he
coined the term to describe how
the Lord would “pass over” the
houses marked with the blood
of the lamb (Exodus 12). The
usage of ester was retained in
the 1534 revision of the New
Testament, and it was not until
later that it was known as East-
er, adding the a.*** So it seems
that there is a better answer to
the origin of the word Easter
than a pagan goddess.
Now we have a lot of infor-
mation about the dating of April
Fool’s Day and Easter. But what
of it? Knowledge is a good thing
and I have heard it said that
“Knowledge is power.” I sup-
pose there is some truth to that,
but knowing about Easter is not
the same as knowing the God of
Easter.
Irondale Church News
1 Corinthians 15 (NLT)
1
Let me now remind you, dear
brothers and sisters, of the
Good News I preached to you
before. You welcomed it then,
and you still stand firm in it. 2It is
this Good News that saves you if
you continue to believe the
message I told you….
3
I passed on to you what was
most important and what had
also been passed on to me.
Christ died for our sins, just as
the Scriptures said. 4He was bur-
ied, and he was raised from the
dead on the third day, just as
the Scriptures said. 5He was
seen by Peter and then by the
Twelve. 6After that, he was seen
by more than 500 of his follow-
ers at one time, most of whom
are still alive, though some have
died. 7Then he was seen by
James and later by all the apos-
tles. 8Last of all, as though I had
been born at the wrong time, I
also saw him. ….
11
So it makes no difference
whether I preach or they
preach, for we all preach the
same message you have already
believed.
12
But tell me this—since we
preach that Christ rose from the
dead, why are some of you say-
ing there will be no resurrection
of the dead? 13For if there is no
resurrection of the dead, then

April 1st, continued
Christ has not been raised ei-
ther. 14And if Christ has not
been raised, then all our preach-
ing is useless, and your faith is
useless. 15And we apostles
would all be lying about God—
for we have said that God raised
Christ from the grave. But that
can’t be true if there is no resur-
rection of the dead. 16And if
there is no resurrection of the
dead, then Christ has not been
raised. 17And if Christ has not
been raised, then your faith is
useless and you are still guilty of
your sins. ….
20
But in fact, Christ has been
raised from the dead. He is the
first of a great harvest of all who
have died.
21
So you see, just as death came
into the world through a man,
now the resurrection from the
dead has begun through anoth-
er man. 22Just as everyone dies
because we all belong to Adam,
everyone who belongs to Christ
will be given new life. ….
35
But someone may ask, “How
will the dead be raised? What
kind of bodies will they have?”
36
What a foolish question! When
you put a seed into the ground,
it doesn’t grow into a plant un-
less it dies first. 37And what you
put in the ground is not the
plant that will grow, but only a
bare seed of wheat or whatever
Page 3
you are planting. …. bodies that will never die, this
42 Scripture will be fulfilled: “Death
It is the same
is
way with the
swal-
resurrection of
lowed
the dead. Our
up in
earthly bodies
victo-
are planted in
ry. 55O
the ground when
death,
we die, but they
where
will be raised to
is your
live forever.
43 victory? O death, where is your
Our bodies are buried in bro-
sting?”
kenness, but they will be raised
56
in glory. They are buried in For sin is the sting that results
weakness, but they will be in death, and the law gives sin
raised in strength. 44They are its power. 57But thank God! He
buried as natural human bodies, gives us victory over sin and
but they will be raised as spiritu- death through our Lord Jesus
al bodies. For just as there are Christ.
natural bodies, there are also 58
So, my dear brothers and sis-
spiritual bodies.
ters, be strong and immovable.
51
But let me reveal to you a Always work enthusiastically for
wonderful secret. We will not all the Lord, for you know that
die, but we will all be trans- nothing you do for the Lord is
formed! 52It will happen in a mo- ever useless.
ment, in the blink of an eye, Happy Easter!
when the last trumpet is blown. Pastor David
For when the trumpet sounds,
those who have died will be *http://www.dictionary.com/e/
raised to live forever. And we fool/
who are living will also be trans- **https://www.thoughtco.com/
formed. 53For our dying bodies date-of-easter-change-every-year-
700670
must be transformed into bod-
***https://answersingenesis.org/
ies that will never die; our mor- holidays/easter/is-the-name-easter-of-
tal bodies must be transformed pagan-origin/
into immortal bodies.
54
Then, when our dying bodies
have been transformed into
Page 4
The Patient Love of God by Colleen
The cross is the patient love of
God revealed. Century after cen-
tury God watched as His crea-
tion failed to serve Him and live
by His principles. Even after the
flood we returned to our old
habits and again spoiled His per-
fection with our selfish ways and
pride to do life “our way.”
How amazingly kind and gentle
God has been to this world. The
first time was at the Garden of
Eden when He could have, right-
ly so, been disgusted with His
creation and the failings of the
two first of His creations made
in His image. Then He banned
them from the garden but let
them live, even create their own
family tree.
The next was when Cain pas-
sionately killed Abel out of
prideful feelings of injustice. The
first murder was enacted and
the tendency of this line of in-
habitants to so selfishly disre-
gard the life of another human
was made apparent. If we were
developing a new line in any
type of animal, we would most
likely quickly weed out this ten-
dency and not allow this type of
strain of utter callousness of
thought to continue. He saw
with His eyes, not ours and had
the wisdom to continue because
of His great love for His creation.
From here He watched patient-
ly, hoping for our obedience and
respectful acceptance of His
ways, but sadly, the times of No-
ah and his generations arrived.
With it came such debauchery
to the ways of God that in His
mercy He looked to Noah’s fam-
ily, as a way, in their loving re-
spect of Him to allow creation to
not be completely wiped out.
Again His everlasting love was
revealed for His creation. Such
patience with an undeserving
world, the inhabitants other
than Noah’s family showed utter
disregard for the lives given
freely to them by God, living as
if they deserved to live how they
pleased and taking for-granted
the gift of their very lives as if
they had created themselves
and were independent of God.
Patient love that this world
could not even begin to compre-
hend…. And yet, over and over
through the generations of time
God has been more than gra-
cious to us all. Watching, waiting
and longing with a steadfast
heart through the progress of
time.
He gave opportunity through
temple sacrifice and rights of
cleansing and He gave lists of
His ways, prophets to show us
His commandments to live wor-
thy of the lives He had given us
even to the point of His precious
mercy and cleansing. Yet even
with so great a road map for our
lives, even with spiritual direc-
Irondale Church News
tion and leadership we truly be-
came a “sheep without a shep-
herd” by our own choices.
Patiently He allowed us to see
His goodness revealed by those
who chose to follow His ways,
by those who not only followed
but spoke and taught His truths
and these same people lived
their lives in such a way that
their goodness pointed to God
and not to themselves. Such
love…. As they faced the sure
criticism of this world they did
not fail Him or His principles.
They gave of their lives with
both hands open holding noth-
ing back. But still we as a crea-
tion failed Him.
The centuries continued down
through the time of His great
loving patience as He watched
our choices. As a mother or fa-
ther looks to the growth of their
children, He continued waiting
for us to realize and walk in the
truth of who we were and who
He was to us. Like our own chil-
dren we hope they will one day
understand our great love for
them and respect us and under-
stand our hopes for them. He
waited. He hoped. He planned
for our success and continued to
love us in-spite of our callous-
ness to Him and His ways. He
had planned eternal life for each
of us from the beginning of time
and His hope was that we would
spend our eternity with Him in

The Patient Love of God, continued
was that we would spend our
eternity with Him in the sanctu-
ary of His Holy presence.
Finally He chose in His great love
to bring the only thing He could
that we could not corrupt as we
selfishly tried to plan for our
own perfection. It wasn’t a way
of life, a style of living or a new
set of rules; it was what He had
planned from the very begin-
ning…. It was the perfection of
that great patient love. He had
seen from the beginning of time
to the birth of Christ that in our
selfishness and pride He would
need to send Himself in the
form of His one and Only Be-
gotten Son who would live a
flawless sinless life and have the
uncorrupted blood of God Him-
self flowing in His veins. For
those who would believe on His
name the name of Jesus. Who,
asking for the forgiveness of our
sins and believing on Jesus’s
name and receiving Him as our
Savior, would finally have the
unspeakable free gift of grace
and mercy and the only way of
salvation. He, God in the form of
his Son, revealed for all time,
the perfect revelation of the full
love of God.
Patient, un-imaginable love, the
price the cross, the gift salva-
tion, timeless mercy, the hands
of our Lord stretched wide for
you and me, He spoke the
words: “Father forgive them, for
they know not what they do.”
Jesus said, Luke 23:34 NLT
"Father, forgive them, for they
don't know what they are do-
ing." And the soldiers gambled
for his clothes by throwing dice.
These soldiers had no idea of
what they were doing, but we
do. What the Lord did for us was
to extend unfailing love, unmer-
ited favor and gave us the blood
of His very life, for mercy and
grace in place of our sins. Lord
please help us that we would
not foolishly gamble away any
part of the example of your pre-
cious life. Help us not to live im-
patiently and unkindly with one
another. Help us be ready to
forgive as we have been, love
with abandon and lay-aside the
right to be treated with dignity
and respect, just as you did, The
King of Glory, when you came to
give eternal life to us all. Help
us to love patiently remember-
ing we have paid nothing, nor
could we for Your matchless
love.
Thank you, for giving us yourself
Lord, and thank you that none
of us are worthy of it.
Happy Easter
Love, Colleen
Page 5
Easter Fun Facts
• Eggs are dyed to repre-
sent the blood of Christ.
• The Easter Bunny is said
to have originated in
Germany during the mid-
dle ages, with the first
written mention of this
tradition dating back to
the 16th century.
• Easter is second in candy
holidays sales only to
Halloween
• Americans eat more than
600 mil-
lion
marsh-
mallow
Peeps
during
Easter.
In 1953,
it took
27 hours to make one,
now it take six minutes!
• More than 1.5 million
Cadbury Crème Eggs are
made every day.
• Americans consume more
than 16 million jelly
beans during this holiday
• Around 90 million choco-
late bunnies are pro-
duced for the holiday.
• In the old days, pretzels
were associated with
Easter, because the
twists of the pretzel re-
sembles arms crossing in
prayer