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Easter

Apr 8th, 2009 18 Comments

Alive

alive_jesus

Churches everywhere are bracing for Easter Sunday. Regular attendees as well as “EC” (Easter and Christmas) goers will fill chapels, sanctuaries, cathedrals, gymnasiums, ballrooms, theaters and anywhere else people gather to worship. There’s a cemetery down the street from our house and even they are advertising a “sunrise service”. Yeah baby! Church in the middle of a gravesite! That’s what I’m talking about!

Why not? After all, that’s where Easter started anyway. Imagine with me that morning? Religious leaders preparing for Sunday service without the distraction of having the self-proclaimed Messiah around. They had finally put him away for good. Roman soldiers who thought they were the stuff, “out cold”. Then all of a sudden, “EARTHQUAKE”! The mammoth boulder that covered the tomb rolls away like a child’s marble. BOOM! BAM! SHAZAAM! Jesus, Savior of the world, King of kings and Lord of lords walks out to the stereo sounds of angels singing and worshipping His majesty! Scarred from the nails driven into his body three days earlier, yet “ALIVE” and well! He was beaten, bruised, and pulverized beyond description on Friday, but today……He’s “ALIVE”!

Over 2000 years later, we celebrate! What separates us Christians from every other faith is the very fact that Jesus is ALIVE! He is no longer in the grave! Everyone else, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Zoroaster or anyone else people choose to worship are all dead and decayed by now. But Jesus, “HE’S ALIVE”! If I come across a little excited, it’s because I am. You see, I was dead too. I was laid up in a grave of sin. I was bruised and beat up by my own selfish desires. I was burdened by the pain of guilt and shame. And then one day, “BOOM, BAM, SHAZAAM”! Jesus came into my heart and set me free. He took the debts I owed and paid for them all on His own. He forgave me of every sin I ever committed. Because of love, grace, and mercy…..Because of Jesus, today “I’m ALIVE”!

Romans 6:6-10; Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the Cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life-no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. (The Message Bible)

Share your story. If you wouldn’t mind, take a few minutes and let us know how Jesus gave you life. How you were once dead, but now you’re ALIVE! If you’re not sure of where you stand today, let me know. I’d love to talk with you more about Jesus. He would love for nothing more than to see you ALIVE!

Until next week,

Happy Easter!

joe

Apr 1st, 2009 22 Comments

The Cross

the_cross1

Over 2000 years ago, the story began. A man named Jesus was falsely accused by self-righteous religious leaders of crimes he was totally innocent of. He was disowned, beaten and made fun of by his very own people. The same ones he loved affectionately and performed many miracles for. Then he was beaten again, spat at, whipped and flogged for several hours. The Roman soldiers did this to the point his appearance was unrecognizable. That wasn’t enough though. They gave him a “CROSS”. A cross was usually reserved for the worst of criminals. They made him carry it for several miles up to a hill where he would hang naked before the whole world to see. In excruciating pain, he willingly took the blame and suffered consequences he did not deserve. Frederick Farrar described the torturous effect: “For indeed a death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death can have of horrible and ghastly—dizziness, cramp, thirst, starvation, sleeplessness, traumatic fever, tetanus, shame, long continuance of torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of untended wounds—all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all.”

Struggling to contain my own emotions, I’m reminded of the ultimate sacrifice that was made so that I could be forgiven. I’m confronted with the fact that my Salvation that is so rich and free is definitely not cheap. Theologians say that the cross was actually just a beam. I wholeheartedly disagree. Nailed to that cross, whatever it looked like, was every…………pain, heartache, sickness, failure, fear, doubt, addiction, divorce, depression, discouragement, disease, death, dysfunction, curse, and sin we could ever imagine or commit.

As we approach Easter, let us remember the message of the cross. It still has the power to save and to forgive. For some it many it be too gruesome to fathom, but without the cross, there would be no hope for the world. Let it be more than a piece of jewelry you wear, a decoration in your house or a tattoo on your body. May it resonate loud and clear by the way you live.

1 Corinthians 1:18

; For the story and message of the cross is sheer absurdity and folly to those who are perishing and on their way to perdition, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

-Joe