Some friends are excited about Friday being Opening Day for hunting wild turkeys. I've heard there are a lot of wild turkeys around, so the hunters should be very successful.
It occurred to me that there is another Opening Day for which we should all be excited, thankful, and humbled. This Opening Day happened over 2,000 years ago, yet is celebrated often. In fact, for many Christians, this Opening Day is celebrated every first day of the week during communion.
What Opening Day am I referring to? Do you know? YES! The Opening Day I'm referring to is the day when the tomb was opened.....when the stone was rolled away, and when Jesus arose!! That is the best Opening Day there could ever be. I pray that you celebrate it, not just once a year, but every day by thinking of Him and also on each first day of the week with your Christian brothers and sisters. Because Jesus arose, we have the hope of eternal life! He defeated death!
Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?” But when they looked up, they saw that the stone, which was very large, had been rolled away.
Mark 16:2-4
After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothes were white as snow.
The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.
Matthew 28:1-6a
There will be another Opening Day some day. When Jesus comes back, there will be an Opening Day of sorts. On this Opening Day.....Judgement Day......books will be opened and each of us will be judged. We will be judged according to what had been recorded in the books.
On that day, there will be an opening of the book of life. Many names will be written there. Those whose names are written will be saved. Those whose name is not found will not be saved, but thrown into the lake of fire.
Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:11-15
At the resurrection of the unsaved, the time of judgment, there is no second chance for those who have rejected Christ: "He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power."
2 Thessalonians 1:9
OPENING DAY.....ARE YOU READY?!
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