The Empty Tomb

 1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, \”They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don\’t know where they have put him!\”

 3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus\’ head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.)

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

 10 Then the disciples went back to their homes, 11 but Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus\’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

 13 They asked her, \”Woman, why are you crying?\”

   \”They have taken my Lord away,\” she said, \”and I don\’t know where they have put him.\” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

 15 \”Woman,\” he said, \”why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?\”
      Thinking he was the gardener, she said, \”Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.\”

 16Jesus said to her, \”Mary.\”
      She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, \”Rabboni!\” (which means Teacher).

 17 Jesus said, \”Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, \’I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.\’ \”

 18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: \”I have seen the Lord!\” And she told them that he had said these things to her.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, \”Peace be with you!\” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

 21 Again Jesus said, \”Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.\” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, \”Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.\”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, \”We have seen the Lord!\”
      But he said to them, \”Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.\”

 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, \”Peace be with you!\” 27 Then he said to Thomas, \”Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.\”

 28 Thomas said to him, \”My Lord and my God!\”

 29 Then Jesus told him, \”Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.\”

Read an excerpt below.

Everybody\’s got skeletons in the closet. Every once in a while, you\’ve got to open up the closet and let the skeletons breathe. Half the time, the very thing you think that\’s going to destroy you or ruin you is the very thing that nobody cares about. My advice to anybody with skeletons is dust them off every now and then — as long as your closet ain\’t full of them. It\’s not good to have more than two or three.

What I have learned in this life is that you can never be ashamed of where you come from. So as you read some of this stuff, especially when I\’m talking about my family and folks, keep in mind that I\’m going to keep it real. Some people think that keeping it real will get you in trouble, but I\’m going to tell it like it is.

The first memory from my childhood is so beautiful. It was lovely. I was looking out of the window. It was autumn. The leaves were changing, everything was golden brown, and the wind was blowing. The sky was blue with white clouds passing slowly. At that moment, I was sitting there thinking, Wow, I am so very, very blessed to be on this earth. Just as I was getting ready to raise my hands and say, \”Thank you, Jesus,\” my momma slapped the hell out of me on the back of my head and said, \”You ain\’t finished washing them dishes yet! Stop staring out that window and finish the dishes!\” So that\’s my earliest remembrance. I must have been about five.

We started cleaning the house at three. In that day, we didn\’t have no remote controls and vacuum cleaners. If you wanted all of that stuff, you had children. That\’s what they were for. So that was my job: I was the automatic dishwasher. My brother was the lawn mower. I had another sister who was the remote control — every time they wanted to change the channel on the TV. Every time the family wanted a new technology, it was called children. I grew up in a little house on a hill in the country in a little town named Greensburg, Louisiana. Maybe it was more like a shack. We had to stuff newspapers into the walls because we didn\’t have insulation back then. But it was nice. We had an outhouse. We didn\’t have much, but we had love.

And I had many, many, many uncles. Every time my daddy went to work, one of my uncles would come over. So there were plenty of family members always around. Most of the uncles\’ names were Johnson for some reason: Uncle Little Johnson, Uncle Big Johnson, Uncle Wide Johnson, Uncle Crooked Johnson — everybody\’s name was always Johnson. I could never figure that out.

Britney Spears grew up in the same area. She, of course, came many years later. It was a little different today than when I grew up there. Now they have trailers. As I said, I grew up in a shack, she grew up in a trailer, but we are all in the same park, not too far from each other. I knew her great-grandmother. What was her name? Litany Spears? That\’s right, Litany. Yeah, I didn\’t like her, and she didn\’t like me.

It was a small house. We had a living room, a kitchen, the outhouse, and one bedroom. All of us there in the one room. But you know, it was all good. There was a foot tub that we would all take baths in. We\’d have to get the water from the well and warm it up. You had to stay clean when you live in such close quarters. If you smelled bad, my mother would be the first one to knock you on the side of head and tell you to take a bath. There were two beds: one for my momma and daddy, and the other for all us children — that was another good reason to smell good, sleeping in the same bed.

My daddy was the nicest man you\’d never want to meet — but not too bright, though. Looking back, I realize just how dumb he was when I remember him coming home once and finding one of the uncles there. My momma introduced him as Uncle Lowdown. My father shook his hand and invited him to stay for dinner. You see, my daddy had an accident. He worked at the sawmill and one of the logs fell down and hit him upside his head. That side of his brain was never too together after that, but he was a good provider.

Of course, growing up like that, all together with seven or eight people, you have to stand up for yourself. I had to fight all the time. That might have something to do with who I am now.