As we enter this special Resurrection weekend, take a moment to ponder and reflect upon the character of the Christ who gave all, so that we might live.

“How amazing it is that individual men and women vehemently refuse and reject the claims of Christ on their lives. They fear that to acknowledge His ownership is to come under the rule of a tyrant.

This is difficult to comprehend when one pauses to consider the character of Christ. Admittedly, there have been many false caricatures of this Person, but an unbiased look at His life quickly reveals an individual of enormous compassion and incredible integrity.

He was the most balanced and perhaps the most beloved being ever to enter the society of men. Though born amid most distressing surroundings, the member of a modest working family, He bore Himself always with great dignity and assurance.

Though He enjoyed no special advantages as a child, either in education or employment, His entire philosophy and outlook on life were the highest standards of human conduct ever set before mankind. Though He had no vast economic assets, political power or military might, no other person ever made such an enormous impact on the world’s history.

Because of Him millions of people across almost twenty centuries of time have come into a life of decency and honor and noble conduct.

Not only was he gentle and tender and true but also righteous, stern as steel, and terribly tough on phony people.

He was magnificent in His magnanimous spirit of forgiveness for fallen but a terror to those who indulged in double talk or false pretenses. He came to set men free from their own sins, their own selves, their own fears. Those so liberated loved Him with fierce loyalty.

It is this One who insists that He was the Good Shepherd, the understanding Shepherd, the concerned Shepherd who cares enough to seek out and save and restore lost men and women.”

- Philip Keller, A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23

Happy Easter, everyone!