HE AROSE
HE AROSE!
Hello everyone and we are still celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Honestly, the Resurrection of Jesus is the best news ever. There are so many dimensions to it that if we decide to unpack each one we will never get to the end.
The good news I bring today is that Jesus was not left in the grave. I want to encourage us all that the trials and tribulations we face will never last forever. It might have seemed that the days between the crucifixion and the resurrection were the longest days in the lives of the followers of Jesus. And so when the third day dawned and Mary and the other disciples did not find Jesus in the grave they were filled with all kinds of mixed reactions. But thank God today we do not have to go through the emotional turmoil and maybe even fear that they went through. We got the sneak peek and we know that Jesus rose from the dead. Halleluyah! The worst situation anyone could ever find themselves in is a dead and buried one. Yet though it is the worst it need not be the end. It could be a new beginning. A reset. A reawakening. A new dawn. Lazarus died and was buried but Jesus called him forth out of the grave. And he got a new lease of life. (Luke 11: 43)
I am so confident that NOTHING will stay dead in my life again because I only have to invite the One who is the resurrection and the life into the situation. And life will spring forth.
Even that rotten decayed situation can come back to life if we bring in the resurrection and the life. We all know the story of Jonah who was trying to run away from going on an errand for God and he ended up in the belly of the fish. In there he was as good as dead. Darkness was all around. No way out. No hope. No proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. Yet even in that hopeless situation when Jonah called out to God, he was rescued. “From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said: ” In my distress I called to the Lord,
and he answered me. From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help.” Jonah 2:1 -2 NIV “I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.” Jonah 2:6 KJV
It already appeared to all that Jonah was gone. It was over for him like the followers of Jesus thought that was the end of everything when Jesus gave up the ghost on that cross. They were sadly mistaken. Jesus came to cut the bars of iron asunder! And we have been told that the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead dwells in us. “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.” Romans 8: 11 NIV
Dear friends, I come to encourage us today that death, rot and decay are not options for us as believers. We have abundant life in Christ Jesus. Please let us forge ahead. We must not give up now. This is our tipping point. Just a little while longer and we will see His glory revealed. “And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.” 1 Peter 5: 10 ESV In just a little while now you will not even remember that pain, that disappointment, that scandal, that sickness, that betrayal, that failure, that trauma, that shame. Hear what He says: “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,
because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;
Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion;
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot;
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion;
they shall have everlasting joy.” Isaiah 61: 1 & 7 ESV
Let us rejoice because Jesus is not in the grave. And because He rose from the grave, all our blessings in Christ will not stay dead or buried. They must spring forth.
HAPPY RESURRECTION
OLUYINKA EGO-MARTINS©