In a few months time, we'll be celebrating the 2012 Olympics in London. Although the location, scale, format, participating countries, events, and well, practically everything has changed over the years, one tradition has persisted through the ages -- the Olympic Torch Relay.

The traditional Lighting Ceremony recently took place on 10 May 2012 at the Temple of Hera, Olympia, home of the Ancient Olympic Games. The torch will travel around Greece, and will arrive in Athens in 2 days time and then arrive in the United Kingdom the next day.

The relay will last 70 days, with 66 evening celebrations, six Island Visits with about 8,000 people carrying the torch a total distance of about 8,000 miles (12,800 km), starting from Land's End in Cornwall.

This year, the Olympic Torch is perforated by 8,000 circles representing the inspirational stories of the 8,000 Torchbearers who will carry the Olympic Flame.

Our Christian journey of faith reminds me a lot of this relay. It's not the torch that bore the mark of their testimony, but the Bible. The writer of Hebrews in Chapter 11 talks about the many "inspirational heroes" of faith that came before us. Each of them with their own story about how God delivered them and how His promises were fulfilled in their lives through their faith in Him.

After they carried the "torch", pressing on in spite of their struggles to take hold of what God had in store for them, they passed their legacy on to the next generation of "torchbearers" who would stand as a lighthouse and witness to the world around them. Their names are familiar to us. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, Gideon, Samson, David, Samuel, and the prophets. The writer doesn't always tell each of their stories but the very mention of their names makes us recall their great exploits, their journeys, their stories, and sometimes, cautionary tales.

They weren't perfect people and the Bible did nothing to sugarcoat or hide their flaws. They were murderers, thieves, adulterers, and prostitutes. They were proud, greedy, lustful, and selfish. Yet there they are -- the ones we look up to. They were human in their failings but the one common thread running through their lives was that they looked to God in faith. And that's what set them apart from the rest. They weren't focused on their insignificant lives, they were focused on an all-powerful God.

They finished their part of the relay and God saw that their faith in Him was well placed. And now they pass their torch to us. The writer of Hebrews says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." (Heb 12:1)

They haven't disappeared, they're there in the stands cheering us on. Saying as it were, "This faith journey of yours is not going to be easy, it sure wasn't for me either. But I made it. So, don't let your sin hinder you. Keep on going. Don't give up. You can do it."

There's always going to be times when we want to just give up. To say it's too hard and drop the torch. But we're reminded that we're not alone in this journey of faith. All those who came before us, even God Himself is cheering us on. Our place in this journey of ours is just to keep running. To be faithful to what God has called us to do and be an example, not even a perfect one, but a very real and human hero to the next generation of believers and faithful followers of Christ!

What do you feel God has called you to do? It could be something that requires a lot of faith, something that you have to persevere through, it could be a struggle you have to overcome. Whatever it is, he intends to make your hopes, dreams and experiences help others find meaning through their own lives. Your big dream can ignite that same passion in others, your persistence can encourage others to find strength, and your experiences can inspire the world. God can make your story like he used the stories of the faith giants in the Bible - the good, the bad, and the ugly - to be a testimony of His grace working through our faith.

Looking for Bible Studies for your summer youth camp or to coincide with the Olympic Games?

Go for the Gold

Destined to Win
Need a Youth Camp/ Bible Study Series on
"Running the Christian Race"?

The race as a metaphor for the Christian life is used in several places in the Bible. This series is a great follow up for new Christians or to re-emphasize the basics of our spiritual Journey in the Faith. This Bible Study / Camp Curriculum has a sports theme and is great for athletes as well as a tie in to the youth Olympic Games.
Learn More...

• "It is a dynamic relationship of trust in which one person enables another to maximize the grace of God in his/her life and service." -- John Mallison (Mallison, p. 34)
  
• A mentor "is not someone who can give you all the answers. He or she is someone who can cry with you when there is no answer, someone who can weep with you when you are wounded and there is no healing. A mentor is simply a companion in your situation." - James Houston (Rabey, Side by Side, 190)
  
• Mentoring is a brain to pick, a shoulder to cry on, and a kick in the pants.
  
• "Mentoring is a relationship through which one person empowers another by sharing God-given resources." -- Robert Clinton, Connecting. The God-given resources include wisdom, experience, patterns, habits of obedience and principles.
  
• “Mentoring is a process involving people. Sometimes it’s a whole series of individuals that God brings into your life at various stages and for various purposes. In every case, those people are committed to helping you grow and perpetuate the learning process. If you stop learning and growing today, you stop ministering tomorrow.” (Hendricks, p. 51).
  

Counseling is a two-way relationship of counselor and client; whereas, mentoring involves a three-way relationship: the Lord, the mentoree, and the mentor. The Lord is the most important person in the relationship; the mentoree the second most important person and the mentor-the least important of all. The mentor is merely a facilitator of the deepening relationship between the mentoree and the Lord Jesus Christ.

A mentor is a person who helps a protégé move ahead in life. He is usually older and more experienced and therefore able to help the protégé get where he or she wants to be. The mentor clears the way, gives some travel tips and smooths the bumps. Occasionally the mentor helps the protégé develop the necessary skills to navigate an especially difficult turn in the road. The mentor is not so much interested in fixing the road as in helping the protégé to become a competent traveller. Here the mentor is a trusted guide rather than a tour director. Anderson and Reese identify 6 distinctives of spiritual mentoring (Anderson and Reese, 12)

1. a means to enhance intimacy with God, ultimate identity and unique voice
2. a way to recognize the already present action of God in the protégé's life
3. an effective model for personal development in character formation
4. an effective way to discern God's direction in decision-making
5. a historically proven diet for the journey of faith
6. an effective safeguard during boundary and transitional times in ministry
   

Sources:
Biehl, Bobb Mentoring : Confidence in Finding a Mentor & Becoming One (Nashville: Broadman and Holman, 1997.)

Stanley,Paul D. & Clinton, J. Robert. , Connecting: The Mentoring Relationships You Need to Succeed in Life (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 1992).

Anna May Jarvis, quote: "Mother's Day has nothing to do with candy. Candy is junk. You give your mother a box of candy and then go home and eat most of it yourself...."

Anna May Jarvis, quote:
"A maudlin, insincere printed card or a ready-made telegram means nothing except that you're too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone else in the world. You ought to go home and see your mother on Mother's Day. You ought to take her out and paint the town red...."

Anna May Jarvis, still quoting now:
"You ought to give her something useful, something permanent. A lot of mothers are sleeping on mattresses that are as hard as rocks. Maybe she needs new eyeglasses, comfortable shoes, a pair of slippers, or better lighting fixtures. Is she sleeping warm at night? Could she use an eiderdown? Maybe the stairs in her home need fixing. . . ."

What about flowers, Anna May?
"Flowers are about half dead by the time they're delivered."

And Anna May goes on to say that she won't rest "until Mother's Day becomes the personal family Memorial Day it was intended to be."

If anyone had the right to speak out against the commercialization of Mother's Day, it was Anna May Jarvis. That second Sunday of thoughtfulness each and every May was Anna's idea in the first place. Anna May Jarvis was the Mother of Mother's Day. Anna May Jarvis, born May 1, 1864.

She was a minister's daughter, described as a quiet, studious girl in school who liked everyone and whom everyone liked. Anna was just two weeks forty-two, working for a life insurance company in Philadelphia, when her mother died on the second Sunday of May, 1906. Friends noticed a change in Anna in the months following that unhappy occasion. No longer the gentle, easygoing woman they knew, Anna became obsessed with but one desire: to see her mother and motherhood honored annually throughout the world. After more than a year of careful planning, Anna arranged the first Mother's Day church service-May 10, 1908-at St. Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where Anna's mother had taught Sunday school. Anna worked hard to promote her idea. A year after that first memorial service in West Virginia, Philadelphia became the first city to proclaim an official Mother's Day. Three years passed. West Virginia made Mother's Day a statewide observance. One year later, in 1914, President Woodrow Wilson signed a proclamation from Congress-a document recorded as Public Resolution 25-to establish the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day forevermore.

And it had all begun with Anna. But Anna, now fifty years old, was not content with her victory. She retired from her job at the insurance company to spend her remaining thirty-four years, and her entire fortune of over a hundred thousand dollars, campaigning against the commercialization of the day she had founded in honor of motherhood. She interrupted florists' conventions to express her remorse at their "profiteering"; wherever there was a forum for her cause, she spoke out. Then one day, when she was too old and too tired to speak out, she was placed penniless, deaf and blind in a West Chester, Pennsylvania, sanitarium. She died there in November of 1948; she was eightyfour.

And if the story of the woman who invented Mother's Day is made even more poignant, it is by the fact that she, Anna, would never benefit from that time of remembrance. For Anna May Jarvis-the Mother of Mother's Day, who devoted her life and her fortune to its reverent observance-was never married and was never a mother.

Here are some of the characteristics of athletes mentioned in the Bible and help up as illustrations of how we should live as Christians:

• Endurance - Galatians 6:9
• Lose - Luke 9:25
• Perseverance - James 1:2-4, Romans 5:3-5, Hebrews 10:36
• Physical Training - 1 Timothy 4:8
• Pursuit of the Goal - Philippians 3:14
• Spur others on - Hebrews 10:24
• Strength - Philippians 4:13, Job 17:9
• Training - Ephesians 6:4

His name was Walter Elias, a city boy by birth, the son of a building contractor. Before Walter was five, his parents moved from Chicago to a farm near Marceline, Missouri. And it was there on the farm that Walter would have his first encounter with death. Walter was only seven that particular lazy summer afternoon not much different from other afternoons. Dad was tending to farm chores, Mother was in the house. It was the perfect day for a young fellow to go exploring. Now just beyond a grove of graceful willows was an apple orchard. There Walter could make-believe to his heart's content: that he was lost, which he never was, or that he had captured a wild animal, which he never had.

But today was different. Directly in front of him, about thirty feet away, perched in the low-drooping branch of an apple tree and apparently sound asleep-was an owl. The boy froze. He remembered his father telling him that owls rested during the day so they could hunt by night. What a wonderful pet that funny little bird would make. If only Walter could approach it without awakening it, and snatch it from the tree. With each step, the lad winced to hear dry leaves and twigs crackle beneath his feet. The owl did not stir. Closer . . . and closer . . . and at last young Walter was standing under the limb just within range of his quarry. Slowly he reached up with one hand and grabbed the bird by its legs. He had captured it!

But the owl, waking suddenly, came alive like no other animal Walter had ever seen! In a flurry of beating wings, wild eyes and frightened cries it struggled against the boy's grasp. Walter, stunned, held on. Now it's difficult to imagine how what happened next, happened. Perhaps the response was sparked by gouging talons or by fear itself. But at some point the terrified boy, still clinging to the terrified bird, flung it to the ground- and stomped it to death. When it was over, a disbelieving Walter gazed down at the broken heap of bronze feathers and blood. And he cried.

Walter ran from the orchard but later returned to bury the owl, the little pet he would never know. Each shovelful of earth from the shallow grave was moistened with tears of deep regret. And for months thereafter, the owl visited Walter's dreams. Ashamed, he would tell no one of the incident until many years later. By then, the world forgave him. For that sad and lonely summer's day in the early spring of Walter Elias brought with it an awakening of the meaning of life. Walter never, ever again, killed a living creature. Although all the boyhood promises could not bring that one little owl back to life, through its death a whole world of animals came into being. For it was then that a grieving seven-year-old boy, attempting to atone for a thoughtless misdeed, first sought to possess the animals of the forest while allowing them to run free-by drawing them. Now the boy too is gone, but his drawings live on in the incomparable, undying art of Walter Elias . . . Disney. Walt Disney.

The death of an owl gave us the Wonderful World of Disney, but the death of Christ gave us something so much greater. Walt could not bring the little owl back to life, but God did indeed bring Christ back to Life and life with him will be so much greater than any world that Disney could dream up.

Resources

• Modeling Clay or Playdoh
• Flashlight or small light

Advance Preparation
Prepare the room so that if you turn off the lights, the room becomes very dark. You can use newspaper, aluminum foil, or black plastic trash bags to cover windows if needed.

What to do

• As the youth arrive, give each a "ball" of modeling clay or Playdoh. Instruct one half of the room to create something that represents darkness. Instruct the other half of the youth to form something that represents light. Their creations can either be very literal or symbolic.
• After all the youth have had enough time to create something, ask them to share their expressions of light and darkness with the class. Encourage them to explain what they have created and how it represents light or darkness.

Take it to the Next Level

Learning Games
We all have spiritual darkness in our lives, but Jesus promises to bring light into our lives. Read John 8:12 then turn out the lights so that the room is completely dark. Then play a few carnival games in the dark. Here are some possibilities

• Ball toss
• Obstacle Course
• Scavenger Hunt
• Charades
• Ring Toss
• Complete a Zigsaw Puzzle
• Bowling using a ball and empty soda bottles as pins
• OTHERS?

Discussion

• How would you describe darkness?
• Darkness is like ___________?
• What would it be like to live without light?
• What effect does darkness have on us?
• How does darkness hinder our abilities?

Learning Games: Part 2

• Turn on the flashlight and repeat the games.
• "Even a little light makes a big difference"

Conclusion

• Read John 8:21-24
• The light of Jesus is offered to every person, but each of us must personally make the choice to follow or reject him.
• Divide the youth into two groups. The first group must list as many consequences or benefits as possible that are likely for a person who rejects the Light of Christ in his or her life. The second group of youth must list as as many consequences or benefits as possible for someone who rejects the light of Christ in his or her life. Answers should reflect immediate results, long term results as well as the afterlife.
• Have the groups pick one or more spokespersons to share their answers.
• Explain that while Christ offers light to our lives, there are still many people who choose to walk in the dark or even to close their eyes when there is light available. Discuss why a person might choose to live in the dark?

Applying the Truth

• Jesus is available to all, if you have not asked Christ into your life, then why not? What must a person do to have Christ?
• Ask youth to list possible areas where teens need more light?
• Ask youth to think about areas in their own lives that need more light?
• Have a time of prayer where youth can talk to God about the areas of their lives they need him to bring his light an cleansing to

Scripture
John 8:12,21-24

Looking for more Ideas related to Jesus as the Light of the World?
Shining for Jesus This Christmas
Poem: Christ has Come - the Light of the World
Placing Light
How Youth Can shine as Lights in the World

• Ask the right questions.
• Write down what you observe and discover.
• Apply your discovery to your life and thoughts.
• Study the Bible systematically.
• Strive to exhaust the passage you are studying.

Bible Study Tools in Order of Importance

• Translation of the Bible
• Concordance
• Dictionary
• Bible Dictionary
• Commentary

Methodical Bible study

• Pray for the Holy Spirit's guidance and insight.
• Make observations by asking questions.
• Seek answers from the scripture and then tools in order of importance.
• Apply the scripture to your life.

Questions to Ask When Studying the Bible

• What is the historical setting?
• What is the literary form?
• What are the key words?
• What important grammatical structure do I observe?
• What is the tense of the verbs?
• Is there something contrasted?
• Is there a paradox?
• Is the passage dependant on a preceding passage?
• Ask six questions: What? Who? Where? When? Why? and How?

Application of a Bible Passage

• Is there a promise to claim?
• Is there a command to obey?
• Is there a sin to confess?
• Is there a teaching to absorb?

Common Pitfalls of Youth Studying the Bible

• Looking past the obvious for the hidden.
• Failure to consider the historical in rushing to application.
• Narrow vision. (All scripture is true all the time.)
• Lack of discernment as to what is cultural and what is eternal.
• Lack of respect for God's Word. (God's Word means what it means, regardless of our beliefs or opinions.)
• Superstitious approach to God's Word.

Resources needed

• Bible
• A chair for each youth
• A handkerchief
• Bibles

How to Play the Game

1. Ask your youth group to form a circle of chairs facing inward then take a seat.


2. Take a handkerchief and knot it at one end so it can be easily thrown back and forth between the teens. Give the handkerchief to one of the youth instructing him/ her to throw it into the lap of someone else in the circle. As he/she throws it he/she must call out “Earth!” “Water!” “Air!” or “Fire!”


3. If “Earth!”, “Water!” or “Air!” is called, the youth into whose lap the handkerchief has been thrown must name some bird, animal, or creature that lives or moves about in that environment. Each animal can only be used once during the course of gameplay.
   
   For example, if “earth” is shouted then the youth who receives the handkerchief might answer. “Worms!” It would be just as correct however for him to name any beast which lives upon the earth.


4. If the handkerchief is thrown, and the youth who throws it calls out “fire!” then the youth that receives the handkerchief must remain perfectly silent. If he/ she does not he/she must response to one of the questions (listed below) before passing the handkerchief on to another youth.


5. As soon as a handkerchief lands in someone’s lap the one who threw it begins to count rapidly to 10. If an answer is not given to one of the three words except “fire”, then that person must answer a question before passing the handkerchief on to the next person.

Take It to the Next Level

Questions
Questions can be on any topic, making this a fun game for youth leaders and Sunday School / Bible study teachers to introduce just about any topic.

For this example, my topic is a person's “personal testimony.”

The questions that youth must answer all involve whether the action/ attitude/ characteristic stated

harms one’s testimony (Harms)
• benefits one’s personal testimony (Helps)
• has no effect on a person’s testimony. (No effect)

To make it easy, you might want to write the answers on newsprint or a large sheet of paper in front of the room. You want questions with a simple answer, but that also allow a more detailed explanation or opinion later.

After the question is answered continue with the game. You can use questions more than once so that you get different opinions for later discussion.

You may do the questions in order, or just ask them randomly. Personally I prefer random as it is less an interruption to the game. Also limit the number of questions to those most applicable to your group of youth.

Discussion
Keep track of the answers and who gave them to stimulate a discussion later. Later you can say, "John, you said ________ doesn't affect a person's testimony. Could you explain why you said that?"

A Personal Testimony - Being a withness for Christ

Here's my list of things that could affect a persons testimony. Some of the choices involve things that happened to Paul in the book of Acts. Others involve things to which a typical teen might be exposed,

• Anger
• Athletic
• Being a follower of the Way (Paul)
• Being in Jail (Paul)
• Being Responsible
• Belief in an afterlife (Paul)
• Causing a public disturbance (Paul)
• Ceremonially clean (Paul)
• Challenged to fight someone
• Cheating
• Clear conscience (Paul)
• Customs (Acts 16:20-21)
• Dancing
• Dating
• Disagreements (Acts 25:18-20)
• Disturbing the Peace (Acts 24:1-8)
• Drinking
• Envy
• Falsely accused of a crime (Acts 25:7)
• Giving gifts to the poor
• Going to a party
• Going to an RA movie
• Going to church
• Good looks
• Gossip
• Hanging with the wrong crowd
• Having a consistent devotional life
• Having fun!
• Having personal problems
• Having to appear in court (Paul)
• Helping those in need
• Insisting on your rights (Paul)
• Integrity
• Kissing someone in public
• Listening to country music
• Listening to ONLY Christian music
• Listening to Rock music
• Losing your temper
• Loving one’s enemies.
• Lust
• Making good grades
• Memorizing your testimony
• Obeying parents
• Pointing out the sins of others
• Praying daily (Paul)
• Preaching (Paul)
• Quoting from Scripture (Paul)
• Rudeness
• Saying table grace
• Serious about life
• Serving others
• Sharing your belief with someone else (Paul)
• Showing your answers on a test to someone
• Shy
• Singing (Paul)
• Smoking
• Sneaking out of the house to go to church
• Speaking to a leader with great authority (Paul)
• Taking a stand for what you believe (Paul)
• Taking responsibility for your actions (Paul)
• Teaching against worshipping idols (Acts 19:22-27)
• Telling Jokes
• Telling the truth, even if it hurts someone (Paul)
• The clothes you wear
• Theft
• Thinking about sex
• Trials (Paul)
• Trust
• Wealth
• Worshipping God in a place where it is outlawed (Acts 18:12-16)
• Your nationality (Paul)

Scripture Passage
If you want to focus on one passage, Acts 16:16-38 is a great one to look at.

In it he says...

"Six hours. One Friday.

Let me ask you a question: What do you do with that day in history? What do you do with its claims?

If it really happened...if God did commandeer his own crucifixion...if he did turn his back on his own son...if he did storm Satan's gate, then those 6 hours that Friday were packed with tragic triumph. If that was God on that cross, then the hill called Skull is granite studded with stakes to which you can anchor.

Those 6 hours were no normal 6 hours. They were the most critical hours in history. For during those 6 hours on that Friday, God embedded in the earth 3 anchor points sturdy enough to withstand any hurricane.

Anchor point #1 - My life is not futile. This rock secures the hull of your heart. Its sole function is to give you something which you can grip when facing the surging tides of futility and relativism. It's a firm grasp on the conviction that there is truth. Someone is in control and you have a purpose.

Anchor point #2 - My failures are not fatal. It's not that he loves what you did, but he loves who you are. You are his. The one who has the right to condemn you provided the way to acquit you. You make mistakes. God doesn't. And he made you.

Anchor point #3 - My death is not final. There is one more stone to which you should tie. It's large. It's round. And it's heavy. It blocked the door of a grave. It wasn't big enough though. The tomb that it sealed was the tomb of a transient. He only went in to prove he could come out. And on the way out he took the stone with him and turned it into an anchor point. He dropped it deep into the uncharted waters of death. Tie to his rock and the typhoon of the tomb becomes a spring breeze on Easter Sunday.

There they are. Three anchor points. The anchor points of the cross.

==========

I think all three of these have powerful lessons for our youth.

Life is not futile. Everyone seems to be looking for gloom on the horizon. The economy is on edge. Jobs are uncertain. The future looks difficult. And in this uncertain time, many youth are also uncertain of themselves. They wonder why they are here. Is there a reason for them to be here? Is there meaning in life.

Failures are not fatal. Youth make mistakes. We all do. It's not making the mistake that is important, but learning from the mistakes we make. God has forgiven those mistakes and even the willful choices. Forgiveness is there for the asking. When youth fall, they need to get up, grab the hand of Jesus and keep moving forward .

Death is not final. That is powerful. Youth aren't often concerned with death. But knowing that there is more beyond this life is important. That out time here is momentary compared to eternity. So with youthful zeal, make every moment count.

An Easter Story based on John 20:1-9
by Dr. Ralph F. Wilson

Source: http://www.wilsonweb.com/archive/easter/peter-ran.htm

By day it gnawed at him, but nights were even worse. He had betrayed his dearest friend. Not privately, not secretly, but blatantly, out in the open for all the world to see. And now it was too late to say, "I'm sorry." His friend was dead.

Peter tossed sleeplessly, unable to find a position that felt comfortable. Outside he could hear the sounds of Jerusalem stirring to life. This city he had once loved to visit, he now hated. It held too many painful memories impossible to erase from his mind. Today he would leave for Galilee and fishing, though even fishing held no allure for him now. Nothing did.

"How could I have so utterly shamed himself? How could I? Peter, you d--- coward!" For the thousandth time he cursed himself. "He was my friend! How could I have done this to my very best friend?"

He could see Jesus riding that donkey down the hill into Jerusalem to the cheers of thousands. He saw him in hot anger overturning coin-laden tables in the temple. "You have made my Father's house a den of thieves!" the Master had told them in carefully measured but biting words.

Peter recalled blind men abruptly seeing, lame men suddenly walking, and loathsome lepers' skin turning baby-soft within a moment of Jesus' touch. He saw Jesus' smile, his compassion, his hours of gentle teaching. He felt the Master's hand on his shoulder after a long day of caring for the multitudes. The accompanying words repeated themselves over and over in his mind, "Thanks, Peter, for your help today. You are a faithful friend ... a faithful friend ... a faithful friend." Tears began to well up in Peter's eyes. Faithful? Me?

When the High Priest's soldiers had tried to arrest Jesus, Peter had defended his Master with a sword. But later, when a servant girl had challenged him with: "You're one of his disciples, aren't you?" he had denied it with an oath. A mere servant girl! But again and again he had compounded the cowardly lie until the cock crowed, and Jesus' eyes from far across the courtyard met his. Sad, disappointed eyes. Then he had broken and run. Run from the High Priest's home into the dark streets. Run until he could run no more. Run until he had flung himself onto the cobbled streets sobbing.

Later that morning he had watched from a distance as they mocked and tormented his friend, finally nailing hands and feet with huge spikes, and suspending him from a cross until his life was spent. He couldn't bear another day in this city!

The thin light of dawn had appeared under the door. Night was finally over; today he would leave. Today he would run away, back to the only life he knew. Today Peter would leave this bloody city
behind.

Bang! Bang! The nearby door shook as someone kept banging on it. Peter reached for his sword, and quietly took his place behind the door.

"Peter, John, it's Mary! Let me in."

It was a woman's voice, Mary Magdalene, one of Jesus' close friends who had traveled with them for months. He unbolted the door and Mary slipped inside. She took several deep breaths before she could speak, then blurted out her message: "They've stolen the body! Jesus' body is gone, and we don't know where they've put him!"

John, who was wide awake by now, looked at Peter, and then threw on his clothes. Peter was out the door running, running down the streets, tearing around corners, headed for the garden tomb where Jesus' body had been laid.

Now John was close behind. Younger and faster, John soon outdistanced Peter. By the time Peter got to the tomb, John was standing outside the door peering in. The huge stone, designed to prevent desecration of the tomb, was rolled away. Peter brushed inside. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the dimness of the damp limestone cave.

There was the linen gravecloth that had been wrapped turn after turn around the body. It lay on the chiseled stone shelf where the body had been. Yet now with nothing inside, its coils lay collapsed, empty, like a chrysalis after the butterfly has emerged. Folded separately was the cloth that had been around Jesus' head.

Peter looked at John and motioned him inside. How curious! If the tomb had been robbed and the body stolen, he would have expected the wrappings to be nowhere in sight. Or perhaps strewn in haste around the narrow stone room. Yet here they were, orderly, as if laid aside, no longer needed.

John looked at Peter. Peter looked at John. Peter could catch the faintest smile playing at the corners of John's mouth.

What if ...? What if ... he is risen?

Peter walked back into Jerusalem, but each step was a bit quicker than the one before. What if he is risen?

As Peter turned the corner onto the street where he was staying he say a figure waiting for him at the door. A very familiar figure -- Jesus!

Peter ran to meet him!

--------------------------------

The Scripture records, "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scripture, and that he appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep" (1 Corinthians 15:3-6).

"They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, 'It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon'" (Luke 24.33-34). Note: Peter is referred to by three names in Scripture: Simon son of Jonas, his Hebrew name, Peter (Rock, the Greek form of the name Jesus bestowed on him), and Cephas (the Aramaic word for Rock).

“Crucify!”
tears away at God’s Beloved.

• 90 million chocolate Easter bunnies are made for Easter each year.
• Each day, five million marshmallow chicks and bunnies are produced in preparation for Easter.
• 16 billion jelly beans are made for Easter
• 63 percent of Americans would most like to receive a chocolate bunny on Easter morning, followed by marshmallow bunnies (10 percent).
• The world's largest jar of jelly beans weighed 6,050 pounds.
• 75 percent of kids are willing to do extra chores for extra Easter candy
• According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest Easter egg ever made was just over 25-ft high and made of chocolate and marshmallow. The egg weighed 8,968 lbs. and was supported by an internal steel frame.
• 88 percent of adults carry on the Easter tradition of creating Easter baskets for their kids & 90 percent of adults hope for their own treat from the Easter Bunny. Who wouldn’t want chocolate?!
• The first chocolate eggs were made in Europe in the early 19th century and remain among the most popular treats associated with Easter.
• Kids first grab for chocolate bunnies (76 percent) when checking out their Easter baskets, followed by marshmallow treats (18 percent), malted milk balls/eggs (17 percent) and jelly beans (16 percent).
• When it comes to knowing which types of bunnies please the palate, the majority of Americans say a solid chocolate bunny (42 percent) first and foremost, followed by a hollow chocolate bunny (21 percent), marshmallow bunny (10 percent) and other types of Easter bunny candy (9 percent).
• Red jelly beans are kids’ favorite.