by Billy Clayton, of St Barnabas Parish Church, Thwaites Brow

AT some time in our lives most of us have been told something and responded by saying “I don’t believe that” or “It can’t be true”. What we discover in the next few days makes us change our minds. The apparently unbelievable is true.

This is exactly what happened when the first apostles were told by the women who had visited the tomb of Jesus. St Luke’s Gospel is quite clear. In chapter 24 we can read how the woman found the stone rolled away from the entrance to the tomb, and how they had been told “Why seek the living with the dead? He is not here, he is risen”. They rushed to tell the apostles what they had seen and heard, and there, in verse 11 is the response, “Their words seemed to them like idle tales and they did not believe them”.

Obviously something had happened and over the next few weeks reports from various sources supported the women’s news. There was no other possible explanation and so the announcement “He is risen from the dead” was accepted as true. The apostles found they were no longer afraid, hiding behind locked doors, but now spoke boldly to the crowds in the streets. They were so obviously full of joy, so persuasive, that many joined them, the Church of God came into being. Its members then, and now, were convinced that Jesus was alive and that he had somehow made them stronger in their fight against evil, in their lives and in the world. He gave them a new start and by rising from the dead, pointed out that death is not the termination but a changing place on the way to a new beginning.

The Christian life is open to all and the Christian journey begins, as does every journey, by taking the first step. I am sure you will find joy in accepting Jesus into your life, and I am also certain that somewhere in Keighley you will find a church with a style of worship to suit you.