Thanks Be to God! I believe Easter is never going to be quite done with me. John 20:17-18.

John 20:11-18 New American Standard Bible 1995

11 But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb; 12 and she *saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they *said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She *said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and *saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus *said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?”  Supposing Him to be the gardener, she *said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” 16 Jesus *said to her, “Mary!” She turned and *said to Him in [a]Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene *came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Stuck in Grief, Pulled Into Joy

Mary stood outside Jesus’ tomb, crying. Her Lord and friend had died, and a real and legitimate grief had come over her.

But Mary’s grief entombed her.

It blurred her vision so that when she saw the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb, she assumed that someone had stolen his body.

And when she saw Jesus standing in front of her, she thought he was a gardener.

Unrecognized, Jesus, fully alive, faced a friend who was blinded by so much grief that she couldn’t see him.

Perhaps Jesus spoke Mary’s name softly, gently.

But he might well have said it forcefully to shake her out of her grief: “Mary!”—as if to say, “Get a grip on yourself! I’m alive! I’ve conquered death. I’ve broken its grip. Mary! Leave the tomb behind and come into the joy of new life!”

Sometimes grief or other harsh realities can overwhelm us so much that we forget Jesus is alive. But he has conquered death—our death, our loved ones’ deaths—and our future is safe in his hands.

We legitimately grieve the deaths of people we love, and we struggle with the cruelties of injustice and corruption in this world, but we do so knowing that our grief will one day turn to joy. What a thankful call to new thankful living!

Christ has risen, and one day he will return again!

Expecting Even More …

Yesterday Christians everywhere celebrated the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Some of us may have sang the words, “I serve a risen Savior, he’s in the world today” and in that moment of worship, our hearts resonated with every word.

Today, however, we’re back to school or work or at home facing the pressures of everyday life that we left when we each left our homes to go to our churches.

But with the long passage of time between the resurrection and now, the risen Savior may not seem nearly as close today, and little may seem to have changed.

We’re still faced with that lingering disease, that broken relationship, those same financial problems, or those hardships that come with growing older.

We hear about all the same issues as before being poverty and persecution, about war and conflict in so many countries, and we might just find ourselves asking, “Has Easter really made a difference? How has it changed me for the better? Has anything changed in the past 2,000 years since Jesus’ resurrection? Are things any better in the 21st century than they were in the first century?”

Though nations, technology, and social institutions have changed a lot since then, the human condition, our circumstances are still pretty much the same.

God’s image bearers are still addicted to sin, are still refusing to acknowledge that sin is the very severest of personal issues still confronting all of us today.

Jesus warned his followers, “In this world you will have trouble.”

But because he has overcome the world, we can have new life in him and peace in spite of our struggles.

We can believe despite of our present life circumstance and how we got to that particular circumstance through our life’s experiences, God is not done with us.

We can continue to strive beyond ourselves, to engage the kingdom of God in the place in life we find ourselves to enact God’s restoration in our daily lives.

We can in our full acknowledgement of the resurrection, share his love with others and look forward together to the day when the risen Savior will return!

For Christians, Christ’s triumph over death and sin is the very best news.

Jesus is risen!

God’s promises of forgiveness and new life for his people have been fulfilled.

But the resurrection means infinitely more than an empty tomb.

Mary saw that morning that the tomb was empty—and that was something she didn’t expect.

It was a shock to find that Jesus’ body was gone, and she thought it had been taken somewhere else.

Had it been stolen? Or had someone just moved it? She wondered.

Jesus’ response to Mary indicates that she found more at the empty tomb than she had even imagined.

Through her tears, Mary saw Jesus—risen and alive again!

But she didn’t realize it was him until he called her name.

That’s how it is for us too.

He calls our name too!

He calls us, and we go forth into those places of mission and ministry, we follow him and we glorify, and honor him as the One who has ascended to the Father.

As important as the empty tomb is to the Christian faith, we do not simply linger at the tomb and wonder what has happened there.

We listen to Jesus calling our name, inviting us into a new adventure that leads us to even more—to become witnesses for the risen and ascended Lord.

You are invited to follow the risen Jesus. In what ways can you do that today?

I don’t think Easter is quite done with me yet.

John 20:17-18 New American Standard Bible 1995

17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene *came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

I know what glorious things this Holy Day says to the world at large.

But what does Jesus want me to know, to think about, to wrestle through at this time of year? This season of new beginnings.

So, I’m lingering here a bit longer.

After all, Easter is no longer a ritual to me.

It’s a revelation.

A time where Jesus splits my soul along the fault line of a scar deep within: I was an unwanted and heavily bullied human, no one wanted to be my friend.

Unwanted, heavily bullied and teased, no friends I could ever trust or count on.

But to Jesus … I was wanted so much that He gave His life for me.

It feels so personal.

Even though I know God so loved the world, He gave His son, it becomes very individual if we let it and if we live in it and out from it.

Be personal.

With Jesus.

Yes.

So, in the midst of a world putting Easter away, might we let it sit with us for just a bit more?

I just opened my Bible open to the place where the angel spoke to the women at the tomb.

Matthew 28:1-7 New American Standard Bible 1995

Jesus Is Risen!

28 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week,  Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave. And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. The angel said to the women, “[a]Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.  Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

And I am tangling my thoughts around His words from Matthew 28 as six quietly and ever so subtly prayers, emerge into my resurrected spirit …

• “Do not be afraid,” – God, I hand over to You those things that make me so afraid. Resurrect the parts of my faith squelched by fear.

• “I know that you are looking for Jesus,” – God, when my soul is searching, help me know the answer to every longing can be found in You.

• “He has risen,” – God, the fact that Jesus is risen should lift my head, my heart and my attitude. Help me to live today as if I really believe this with every part of my life.

• “just as he said,” – Jesus, You keep Your promises. Help me live as though I believe that with every part of me. Help me trust You more, obey You more and resemble You more.

• “Come and see,” – Jesus, You had the angels invited the women in to see for themselves that You had risen. You invite me into these personal revelations every day. Forgive me for sometimes rushing about and forgetting to come and see for myself … You, Your Word, Your insights.

• “Then go quickly and tell his disciples,” – Jesus, I don’t ever want to be a secret keeper with my faith. I want to be a bold and gracious truth proclaimer. For You. With You. Because of You. Me, the unwanted human whom You loved, redeemed and wanted.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Yes, let this my miraculous Easter be personal.

Yes, let this my miraculous Easter be relational.

Yes, let this my miraculous Easter be transformational.

And, above all, let this my miraculous Easter be fervently prayerful.

And may I rise from my circumstances to linger with Jesus a bit longer.

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and ever shall be,
world without end. Amen, amen.

Because God is NEVER done with YOU!

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Author: Thomas E Meyer Jr

Formerly Homeless Sinner Now, Child of God, Saved by Grace.

One thought on “Thanks Be to God! I believe Easter is never going to be quite done with me. John 20:17-18.”

  1. How John 13:34 perverts and justifies homosexuality
    Intermarriage with the specific of Canaanites – equally applies to all Goyim who do not accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. I bring the Book of Ezra as proof. Many early Church Fathers used John 13:34 to claim a supersessionist “new law”, replacing the Torah’s commandments with a simplified ethic of love. Yet ironically, the very idea of loving one’s neighbor—and even one’s enemy. An utter perversion of the oath brit alliance among the chosen Cohen people who accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai. Ezra 9–10, post-exile, shows the seriousness of intermarriage with foreign women—because it represents a breach of kedushah and brit, meaning: spiritual allegiance and oath brit fidelity. The Church Fathers (e.g., Justin Martyr, Origen, Chrysostom) weaponized verses like John 13:34 to argue that a new “spiritual” law of love had replaced the “old legalistic” Torah—especially the halakhic boundaries that safeguarded Jewish identity and fidelity to the brit.
    Jesus introduced, according to these vile animals, “Love is enough!” A Greek ideal—abstract, universal, de-politicized—divorced from the concrete legal-communal substitutional theology. Love, defined by Torah, defined through the Torah precedent of marriage requires that a man love his wife by acquiring title to her world to come souls. Meaning the children, the product of this union. Based upon the precedent of the brit cut between the pieces whereby Avram had no children and cut a brit over the first born chosen Cohen people. This concept of the chosen Cohen people understands the intent of the prohibition to marry with Goyim who do not accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai.
    Xtian supersessionist theology gutted the concept of brit: Shalom became personal inner peace, not oath alliance to pursue fair justice – compensation of damages inflicted by Party A to Party B among our chosen Cohen people within the borders of the oath sworn promised land.
    The Xtian pervert theologians corrupted emunah unto belief in Jesus as the son of God and belief in God as a triune mystery of Monotheism. The Torah defines emunah as the righteous pursuit of justice among our people. The Xtian pervert theologians corrupted ‘ahavah’ unto generic love, rather than the Torah brit-bound hesed based upon the oath brit foundation precedent of the oath cut between the pieces.
    The Xtian pervert theologians know absolutely nothing of Torah common law which stands upon the foundation of Torah precedents – both positive and negative commandments.
    In doing so, the Church replaced the Torah’s vision of a holy people bound in legal, ethical, and national allegiance to Hashem, with a mystical, universalized ethic that denied the enduring chosenness of Israel and the centrality of Sinai. John 13:34, obliterated the Torah common law faith to pursue justice among and between the chosen Cohen people who accept the revelation of the Torah at Sinai in the face of the Goyim “darkness” who reject this light unto the nations.
    The Xtian theologian perverts abhor the oath-bound brit alliance which forever discerns between emotional short term vows from remembering from generation to generation the oaths sworn by the Avot by which they cut the brit which permanently established the oath brit Cohen people. Hence the mitzva precedent of the captured woman through war. Whereby the Torah commands that she cut off all her hair and par her nails etc for no less than one month before the Israeli permitted to marry her! Why? Torah marriage cuts an oath brit alliance between man and wife and not a emotional vow which can be easily annulled based upon the Torah precedent which permits the Father or Husband to annul the vows made by either young daughters or wives!
    John 13:34 not just evil theology, it perverts marriage unto the metaphor of permitted homosexuality. The chosen Am-segulah (treasured nation) refers directly to the Sinai first-born Cohen people. The Goyim reject to this day the revelation of Torah common law!
    The Xtian theologian perverts sought power, hence they slept in the same bed as the Governments which ruled Xtian lands. The American and French Revolutions separated Church from State and cast these Xtian whores to the dogs to sleep with. All agricultural based economies require slave labor. This has absolutely nothing to do with the bankrupt theology of the church great whore of Babylon.
    When categories established by Torah law—male/female, Israel/goy, slave/free—are collapsed by when new testament replacement theology which abhors Torah common law and specific Torah abominations such as homosexuality and men and women confusion of genders and clothes. Galatians 3:28 doesn’t just dissolve the legal structure of the Torah, but opens the door to ideological chaos—Same-sex marriage (“There is no male and female”); Gender fluidity and trans ideology; Erasure of Jewish national identity (e.g. no “Jew or Greek”); Social anarchy in place of legal status (no “slave or free”). In many liberal Christian and post-Christian circles, Galatians 3:28 has become the banner verse for LGBTQ+ inclusion, often cited directly to undermine Torah prohibitions in Leviticus 18 and 20. Paul’s statement is interpreted as saying: All categories are now irrelevant in Christ.
    Paul’s doctrine, and the super-sessionist theology it spawned, does not merely disagree with Torah—it declares war on Torah categories. Shalom perverted into inner peace, not the righteous pursuit of judicial justice which strives to make fair restitution of damages inflicted by Party A upon Party B. His replacement theology abhors the post Gold Calf Day of Atonement where HaShem first revealed the revelation of the Oral Torah – which the church rejects. Galatians 3:28 is not just heresy—it is the theological root of modern moral collapse.
    It dismantles the sacred distinctions that uphold holiness, family, justice, and national brit identity. It replaces Torah law with a boundaryless mysticism that justifies everything from homosexuality to gender nihilism to the erasure of Jewish nationhood.
    This verse is often cited to support a universalist theology—that all human beings are one, created by God, and therefore equal and interchangeable. Viewed in the context of Paul’s theology, especially in Acts and Galatians, this verse becomes part of a larger Pauline strategy to undermine: Israel’s distinct chosen Cohen oath brit status, the chosenness of the Jewish people. The Torah’s territorial inheritance laws, and the culture and customs established by halakhic and the idea that only within the borders of the Promised lands to Jews possess the wisdom to keep and remember the oaths sworn by the Avot לשמה, from generation to generation.
    Paul’s replacement theology perverts the oath brit alliance to that of a temporary vow, which his perverted theology attempts to annul through the new testament. The Torah establishes the vision that the nations inherit distinct national cultural and customs inheritances. Distinct languages, lands and destinies (Genesis 10-11). The essential concept of Israel’s national identity as a people relies upon and defined by the promised lands which Arab nationalism absolutely rejects. Deuteronomy 32:8 (LXX): “When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.” Deuteronomy 7:6: “You are a people holy to Hashem… a chosen people from all the peoples on the face of the earth.” Paul’s replacement theology, like Arab hatred of Zionism which bases itself upon the 1917 Balfour Declaration wherein first Britain and later 2\3rd of all UN member states recognized Jewish equal rights to achieve self-determination within the borders of a distinct Middle Eastern nation.
    His replacement theology abomination of shared human origin which collapses national distinctions cultures and customs, like modern Arab racist nationalism rejects Jewish national sanctity. Paul’s Acts 17:26 (universal origin) with Galatians 3:28 (category collapse) replacement theology destroys the chosen Cohen people of Israel; dissolves the laws of inheritance and land; undermines the Oral Torah halakhic requirements concerning intermarriage with Goyim and promotes modern Wokeism that emphasize awareness of social injustices and systemic inequalities, particularly related to race and identity. It is often viewed critically by some as being overly doctrinaire or insincere in its approach to social issues. Acts 17:26 is the philosophical foundation for Christian universalism.
    It sounds innocent—but in Pauline context, it’s a soft prelude to the hard abolition of Israel’s unique brit. It paves the way for the erasure of identity, the rejection of Oral Torah Talmudic common law judicial lateral courts.
    Paul’s 1 Corinthians 7:39 (KJV): Formula: “Only in the Lord” — Coded Supersessionist Halakhah? Paul doesn’t outright reject the binding nature of marriage—but it’s loaded with subtle replacement theology logic. Torah marriage flatly not just a temporary transitional vow–but rather an oath brit, contractual alliance with family generations and national implications. Governed by halakhic precedent, rooted in Exodus 22, Deuteronomy 24, and the Oral Torah. Validated by witnesses, contract (ketubah), and understood as part of a nation’s framework of kedushah and inheritance. Paul substitutes this with a subjective spiritual criterion: his “Only in the Lord.”, directly implies – Marry a fellow believer in Christ. It’s not about cutting an oath brit alliance—rather replaced by a shared belief in Xtian faith that declares Jesus as God.
    This “Only in the Lord” phrase, exist as the key supersessionist pivot of Pauling propaganda. It nullifies the Torah -brit based marital framework model, replaces halakhic structure with doctrinal allegiance to the church abomination. And renders Torah marmital law as obsolete for “believers”. Ewwwwww! It detaches marriage from the promised land, nation, and halackhic authority. Sets the foundation for spiritual intermarriage theology – a direct violation of Torah common law; leading to full Goyim-Xtian identity formation apart from Israel. If one can marry “in the Lord”, then one need not marry “in the nation”. If faith in the belief of Jesus as God replaces Israel as the chosen Cohen nation, then the new covenant has replaced the oath brit cut between the pieces with Avram.
    Paul’s “Only in the Lord” is not a neutral phrase. It functions as a Trojan horse for an entire redefinition of marriage: no longer a national covenant rooted in generational Torah obligations, but a private, spiritualized union under Church doctrine.
    Xtianity, especially in its Pauline and post-Constantinian forms, intentionally dissolves ethnic, legal, and national distinctions. This is central to its theology. Galatians 3:28 – “There is neither Jew nor Greek… male and female… all are one in Christ.” This replacement theology erased halakhic distinctions, promotes spiritual unity over ethnic/national differences. Recasts marriage as a personal vow like sacrament, which replaces the oath sworn to remember dedication which any and all brit alliances fundamentally requires.
    Liberal Protestant thoughts concerning marriage emphasize: romantic love and personal choice; Xtian values of inclusivity; detachment from ancestry, tribe, nation, or land. The Torah oath NOT vow, brit relationship cut between man and wife binds Jews to Torah Constitutional Law, tohorat ha’beit requirements for the woman to visit a mikveh prior to sexual activity; and the standards of keeping tohor & tuma distinctions like kosher foods etc. A man commits that he will educate his future born children in the oath brit faith – not to worship other Gods through intermarriage and assimilation which embraces Goyim cultures and customs.
    Xtianity’s doctrine of spiritual unity and its deconstruction of Torah-based national distinctions directly laid the groundwork for both the theological legitimation and cultural normalization of interracial marriage. It treats distinctions—whether between Israel and the nations, or male and female—as obstacles to spiritual truth, not as sacred boundaries tied to divine law and oath brit consciously remembered dedications passed down from generation to generations just as DNA. From Augustine to modern liberal Protestants, modern issues like Wokeism and identity dissolution directly consequential to the Pauline doctrines of utter abomination.
    “Only in the lard” totally unique to Xtianity. “Only in the lard” totally unique to Xtianity. It’s a theological phrase that doesn’t exist in Torah, halakhah, or any Jewish learning on the Torah. 1 Corinthians 7:39 a total Xtian new testament new religion of avoda zarah Av tuma. This phrase is nowhere in Tanakh. Paul creates a new criterion: shared belief in “the Lord” (i.e., Jesus).
    The Xtian church does not define faith compliance any more than the Nicene Creed defines Monotheism. Monotheism rapes the 2nd Sinai commandment. This new testament perversion marks a supersessionist turn: marriage is no longer a national-legal act, but a spiritual-sacramental one. “Only in the Lord” = Trojan Horse. It reflects a super-sessionist marriage ethics; it perverts the negative commandment of “cross-dressing” between Males and Females; it lies totally outside of the customs and cultures of the Jewish people.
    Furthermore, it establishes a faith-based “intermarriage” theology. A spiritual identity, which replaces ethnic-national boundaries as the Torah fundamentally and absolutely commands. Prior to the establishment of the Jewish Republic of the 12 Tribes the Torah commanded the negative commandment not to marry between Jewish Tribes! This horrid abomination serves as justification for assimilation unto universalist Xtian structures. From “Only in the Lord” to Modern Abominations … Xtian approval of interfaith/interracial marriages; same-sex marriage under the banner of “shared love in the Lord”; trans marriages and gender deconstruction as “inclusive theology”.
    From ghetto walls to gas chambers, “By their fruits you shall know them”— Jesus’ own words condemns the tree that claimed to grow from the root of the chosen Cohen nation which Paul declared Xtians as a graft to this Tree. The fruit of Xtianity utter poison, the culmination of theological poison.
    Germany was a Lutheran nation. The Vatican signed a Concordat with Hitler. The Catholic Church blessed Nazi flags, and baptized perpetrators. The Protestant churches in Germany developed a theology of “Dejudaizing” Xtianity. Xtian anti-Judaism became racial antisemitism—but it started in pulpits, not politics.
    The British White Paper (1939): Effectively sealed Europe’s Jews into a death zone, blocking aliyah to Eretz Yisrael. Not one major church authority condemned it. FDR’s administration turned away ships carrying Jewish refugees. Where were the bishops? The pastors? The popes? Silent. No call to bomb Auschwitz or the railways…Xtian theology had already written the Jews out of the covenant.
    Today’s South African legal attack on Israel at the Hague is a blood libel with a UN suit and tie. Yet again, the churches are silent, or worse—supportive of the lie. World Council of Churches? Silent. Mainline Protestantism? Often openly anti-Israel. Catholic voices? Muted or muddled, more concerned with interfaith optics than justice. This continues the same pattern: Christendom aligns with empires, betrays the Jews, and offers theological cover to the murderers. Revelation’s image of the Great Whore riding the beast—but this time it’s Rome on the back of political empire, intoxicated with the blood of the saints and martyrs of the Torah. Xtianity slept with kings—and their offspring were inquisitions, expulsions, and Auschwitz.
    This Ephesians 5:25–28 passage—on the surface poetic, lofty, and seemingly elevating marriage—is in fact deeply super-sessionist, and functionally replaces the Torah mitzva of kiddushin. This worthless Xtological abstraction amounts to the value of tits on a boar hog when the piglets cry for milk! Torah mitzva of kiddushin rooted in precedent of the sworn oath made at the brit between the pieces which eternally established the chosen Cohen nation – born into the future/O’lam Ha’Bah!
    Halakhic boundaries interpreted through the Oral Torah define and understand the mitzva of kiddushin within Mesechta Kiddushin of the Talmud. The Torah requires mikveh, which is about ritual purity in relation to the woman’s cycle and the marital household—a national law rooted in Genesis–Deuteronomy. Paul’s version? No mikveh, no Torah. The cleansing comes by “the word”—meaning his gospel, his doctrine—a mystical metaphor that supplants halakhah with belief. “…that he might present it to himself a glorious church… holy and without blemish.” … Temple language, stolen and re-applied to “the Church”, as if she were now the bride, the Temple, the chosen.
    It uproots Jeremiah 31:31. Torah marriage simply not about emotion or romantic identification—this mitzva cuts a brit, a legal alliance with concrete halakhic duties, inheritance laws, and national continuation. Paul dilutes this into a private spiritual metaphor: love your wife because she is you—a move away from oath sworn alliance obligations that live on throughout the generations, perverted and change unto worthless abstract emotionalism. The Church now pictured as the bride, not Israel. Faith in Christ, not halakhic brit, serves as the glue. Love and purity merely symbolic, not legal categories tied to Torah. Just as Galatians 3:28 dissolves categories, and Acts 17:26 universalizes origin, so too does Ephesians 5:25–28 spiritualize and replace Torah marriage—making it subordinate to Christ, not the Torah Constitution of Israel.

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