April 19th, 2019

     It's that time again...eggs, bunnies, chicks, new spring fashions. This is what the world offers at Easter, if the world acknowledges this special day at all! Is this enough to bring deep, abiding joy to your heart? It may not be enough, if life has left you disappointed...unfulfilled. It may not be enough if you are grieving the loss of someone you love. It may not be enough if your future is on hold, and you don't know which way to turn. It may not be enough if the world is antagonistic toward your most deeply held beliefs, and you have enemies breathing down your neck. It may not be enough if a person you had pinned your hopes on has let you down. 
     Truth be told, you may not be in the mood to celebrate come Easter morning, if you are currently experiencing any of these scenarios, or other negative situations life can throw at you. Don't beat yourself up if you are not digging out your party hat!  You would have fit right in on that first Easter morning with some of the most renowned followers of Christ. Peter, James, John, the Marys...they were all experiencing a myriad of emotions, none of which called for a celebration. Bunnies doing handstands couldn't have aroused joy in their hearts. A basket filled with peeps and jellybeans couldn't have elicited a faint smile. Yet, a few hours after arising despondent and gloomy, they were overflowing with joy! Why? 

     What caused the turn-around? It occurred because someone else had arisen that morning too, not from sleep, but from death! That made all the difference. They looked into the tomb and saw that it was empty. My friend, that is what can turn your traditional "Easter" into Resurrection Day. Maybe all you need to do is to remind yourself that the tomb is empty! That  means that every negative thing we are experiencing is temporary. My problems, your problems...they don't define us. They have no power to keep us from choosing to REJOICE! We have been given joy, not contingent on anything but the fact that Jesus Christ our Savior has conquered death, hell, and the grave! Because He lives, we shall live also! (John 14:19). Yes, we shall live...really live, also, someday!

I shall live someday
In a home far away...
Pain-free, sorrow-free, peace-filled
Eternally!

     While we may have to wait for the literal place, we tend to forget that we already have the person of the place. The very Spirit of our resurrected Lord lives in us. "...God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts..." Galatians 4:6 NIV. "...When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance..." Ephesians 1:13-14 NIV. 
   Christ's resurrection enables me to rise...to rise above my physical conditions, to rise above my emotions, to rise above my inabilities. "...God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." 2 Corinthians 9:8 KJV. The grace of God isn't just a thing; its a person. Sufficiency isn't just a thing; it's a person. God's grace and sufficiency has a name...Jesus!  No matter what our circumstances may be, in Him we are not bound, we abound!
     When Paul saw the living Jesus, simultaneously he encountered the empty tomb. He saw it in a figurative sense, just as the apostles before him had seen it literally, on Resurrection morn. That's the reason he and Silas could pray and sing to God from an inner prison with their feet fastened in stocks (Acts 16:24-25). They realized that He who raised Christ from the dead would also give life to their mortal bodies by the same Spirit living within them! (Romans 8:11). 
     This holiday, let's look beyond the bunnies, the eggs, the chicks... the spring fashions. Like the Apostle Paul, let's figuratively gaze into the empty tomb by fixing our eyes on the following verses. By the time we finish meditating on them, I have a feeling we may be dusting off those party hats!

"Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honor at God's right hand."     Colossians 3:1 NLT

"So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."
2 Corinthians 4:18 NIV

"...we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we become united with Him in the likeness of HIs death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of HIs resurrection." Romans 6:4-5 NASB

"...our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body." Philippians 3:20-21 NIV

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of HIs great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:4-7 NASB

"Rejoice in the Lord Always.
I will say it again:
Rejoice!"
Phil 4:4 NIV