Firm Foundation

April 23, 2025

Leadership Notes

     After a lovely Easter morning here at Covenant Church, my wife, oldest son, Tyler, and I had a quiet afternoon. After a lunch of comfort food, we didn’t do much. While streaming praise music {Zach Williams Pandora channel}, I worked on a jigsaw puzzle; Tyler and Lori talked and putzed around on their phones. By all measures, it was sublime.

     Around the time we were ready for dessert, we got a text from our oldest granddaughter, Lorelei. She’s a student at Northern Michigan University in Marquette. She sent a picture of our Easter worship with the caption, “Watching online with tiny Snoopy and a can of sweet tea.” Tiny Snoopy is exactly what you picture…a stuffed animal. Too adorable. We loved seeing how she stays connected with home.

     But that serendipitous moment isn’t the end of the story. At one point in the message, when briefly talking about how our culture deals with death and dying, I mentioned that Disney theme parks are built and operated on the premise of death-avoidance. They are the happiest place on earth. Death is the last thing they want their guests to think about.

     Well, she is her father’s daughter. She graciously reminded me that I had forgotten about “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.” In the end of “Mr. Toad,” the riders follow him as he dies and then goes to hell, where the ride abruptly ends. That would have been an even perfecter illustration to Luke 6:

“But the one who hears and does not do them is like a man who

built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the

stream broke against it, immediately it fell, and the ruin of that

house was great.”

     The best part, she reminded me, is the ride is still in operation at Disneyland! It was replaced with “The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” in WDW.

     I was so pleased to get that correction/addition to Sunday’s message. And then we enjoyed two kinds of desserts. A homemade Easter-y cake and Bob Evans apple pie. It truly was a lovely day.

     And now, your Moment of Spurgeon:

“We have often asserted, and we affirm it yet again, that no fact

in history is better attested than the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead.”

     With Much Love and Affection,

                      Richard