Editor, Gazette-Journal:

After Jesus rose from the dead, He appeared to His disciples and spent the next 40 days with them, explaining things they hadn’t fully understood before. It must have been a very remarkable time as they realized they had followed and were now physically with God, instead of just the greatest healer and rabbi who ever lived.

After they saw Jesus’s greatest miracle—His resurrection—they knew positively that He was God. And after the Holy Spirit descended on them on Pentecost, they boldly began fulfilling the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19,20: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them … teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.”

The disciples weren’t afraid of death anymore, despite being threatened, beaten, jailed or exiled. Even after Stephen was stoned to death, James died by the sword and Peter was crucified, they would not back down. They went forth to change the world and were willing to die rather ...