Well it’s finally here! Even though the calendar claimed March 20th as the first day of spring, we are now seeing some signsof it’s arrival. More days over sixty degrees than under, the trees, shrubs, and flowers are starting to bud, and some robins are even showing up in backyards. The new life of spring always reminds me of the new life we have in Christ. It was only two weeks ago that we celebrated Christs’ sacrificial death and the glorious resurrection that took place on the third day after, leaving the tomb empty.These three days tell the entire Gospel storyin a nutshell. We see Jesus raised from the dead, showing victory over it. I Corinthians 15: 54-57 tells us ” But when the perishable has put on the imperishable, and the mortal has put on immortality, then will come about the saying thatis written, ” deathis swallowed up in victory, O death where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; but thanks be to God, who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Hopefully we all can say that we have the victory over death. The wayto be assured of that victory is to have new life in Christ. In the book of Acts, the historian Luke tells of the jailer asking Paul and Silas ” Sirs, what must I doto be saved?” And they said ” Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved…” Believing in Jesus as Lord and His being raised from the deadare linked together in Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter 10 verses 9-10 ” That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. “Rev. Larry Sassmann