Happy Easter to everyone!

Easter is the oldest and most important festival of the Christian calendar and celebrates the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ after his crucifixion at Calvary, bringing hope and redemption to mankind.

This resurrection of Christ, the Son of God, is a foundation of the Christian faith. Those who put their trust in Christ are spiritually resurrected with Him. Through faith in God, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, they are liberated so that they may walk in a new way of life – life in all its fullness.

And talking of miraculous resurrections, the amazing work that new Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis has done is simply outstanding. When he joined the club in November last year, Palace were rock bottom of the Premier League and favourites for relegation, seemingly without hope and sinking fast.

Yet Pulis, who has a reputation within the game for achieving solid results on limited budgets, has not only steadied the ship, he`s made the ship almost impregnable. His management methods have very quickly tightened up a leaky defence to make it one of the meanest in the division.

Although still not quite mathematically safe, recent wins against Chelsea and Everton have taken the Eagles to the holy grail of 40 points which is generally accepted as the minimum tally needed to guarantee Premiership survival.

Assuming that Palace do stay up, it would be a refreshing change to see the annual Manager of the Year award given to someone other than the gaffer of whoever wins the Premiership title. If that were to be the case then there`s really only one candidate that stands out and that’s Tony Pulis, who has the enviable record of having never been relegated with any club he`s managed.

Palace are no strangers to miraculous escapes; who can forget Dougie Freedman’s` 88th minute winner at Stockport in 2001 to keep us in the Championship? Or the 2-2 away draw at Sheffield Wednesday that kept us safe from relegation on the last day of the season in 2010? And this was after being placed into administration and a subsequent 10 point deduction, not to mention a change of manager and backroom staff! Fair to say that life is rarely dull at the Palace!

1 Peter 1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead...”

Have a great Easter and God bless.