4/9/2015 – Thursday of the first week of Easter - Acts 3:11-26 –

        Peter and John were heading to the Temple to pray when a lame man stopped them and asked them for some alms.  Instead of just giving him alms, they healed him through the help of the Holy Spirit. The man is so overjoyed.  In response he literally jumped for joy and shouted praises to God. This commotion drew the attention of a crowd. This gave Peter the opportunity to preach to them about Jesus, about what they did to him, about how they are called to repent and believe in the Gospel.  A miracle is not to draw attention to itself, but rather our attention is to be focused on the power and the truth behind the miracle, on the way it teaches us about God’s kingdom and about the values of our faith. 

       Today’s date – April 9, 2015 – is the 150^th anniversary of the end of our country’s Civil War, the date on which General Lee of the Confederate States surrendered to General Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.  I guess being in Mississippi I should not call it the Civil War, but the “War of Northern Aggression”.  Even though that war ended so many generations ago, we know that it continues to shape our state of Mississippi and our country to this day.  In fact, I saw a list of things that came out of the Civil War that continue to influence our lives today, such as the trans-continental railroad system that was started in 1863 in part to help strengthen ties between California and the West to the other states in the Union; the land grant college system which includes universities such as Texas A&M and Mississippi State; and the Homestead Act of 1862 that increased migration to the West.  It is amazing to see the interest that people still have in our Civil War, in the way people re-enact the battles that were fought so long ago.  The miracles that Jesus performed and the events that took place in the Early Church still speak to us in our lives of faith, just as the Civil War still speaks to us and draws our interest.   As we journey during these upcoming weeks of the Easter season, may the reality of the resurrected Christ continue to draw our interest and to help us to grow closer to Christ.