After His resurrection He was seen by hundreds of His believers before He ascended up to Heaven to be with the Father, Almighty God, and is seated at His right hand.

As we remember and celebrate this awesome event on Ascension Day in the Church Year, forty days after Easter, let us call to mind the Ascension of Jesus recorded in Mark, chapter 16, verse 19:

“So then the Lord Jesus, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into Heaven and sat down at the right hand of God.”

I have a saying I tell others that speaks of the Rapture of the Church saints, even you and me,  and all those precious believers who came before, and it is this:

In the air, above the clouds…

For, one day, perhaps soon, we shall meet the Lord Jesus above the clouds and we shall see Him as He is…and we shall follow Him to Heaven!

The Lord Jesus promised to send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, when He left and went up to Heaven.

And so it was, and so it is even today that we who believe have God, the Holy Spirit dwell in us.  He convicts us, seals us, guides us, protects us, stirs us, reminds us, helps us in prayer, and helps us in all things.

And this glorious event we celebrate when the Apostles received the Rushing Wind of the Holy Spirit and the Church was born!

This is Whitsunday…White Sunday, better known as Pentecost.

What a wonderful, totally awesome calendar of holy events the Lord has given us, events to cherish and live in and within our church year, our family, and our community.

For what follows next is blessed, holy Trinity Sunday!

This is the Sunday that follows Pentecost, observed in the early Church to honor the blessed holy Trinity, one in three, three in one, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Almighty GOD!  The manifestation of God in Christ.

It is right to remember that our Lord’s public life, His ministry began with the revelation of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity in Matthew 3:16-17, when Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist:

“And when Jesus had been baptized, just as He came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were opened to Him and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on Him.  And a voice from heaven said: “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.”‘

And the last command Jesus gave to His Apostles was a command to make disciples of all nations by baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit as recorded in Matthew 28:19.

This is the faith we proclaim as Christians; this is our journey “In the Year of our Lord.” This is our walk.  For He will never leave us or forsake us, never!

Let me conclude this powerful, awesome Christian walk in our Christian Year with the celebration of “All Saints Day.”

This observance occurs in the Fall, and reminds us who the blessed saints are? Just those of all the centuries from 33 AD, and right up to our present time in history, all who believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, that’s who!

You, dear ones, are the Lord’s forever; you are the saints of His everlasting Kingdom.  We are the children of God and heirs to the Kingdom of God forever and ever.

We, you and I, are in “The Year of our Lord,” now!

This is your, our, Christian walk, our year and the years to come…always separated from the secular year that denies all that has been written here.

Bur we are blessed and we know the truth, and so we act, and so we live!

“In the Year of our Lord,” the Christian Year, the wonderful, awesome Church year of faith and celebration and remembrance.

May God bless you always.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

Amen.