"For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness." - 1 Chronicles 29:15
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward. // isaiah 58:8
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. // 1 corinthians 15:55-57
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. // 1 peter 1:3
As someone was discussing in a radio broadcast I heard recently... We shouldn’t talk about Easter only one Sunday in the spring. We should be steeped in it. Easter should flavor our lives every day of the year. We don’t go to church on Easter Sunday to learn what Easter is—we go to celebrate what we already know, and to worship.
Isn't that a thrilling thought? Christmas and Easter are wonderful holidays that serve well as timely reminders of what's important, days to make memories with family, and opportunities to share our faith with the world.
But living for Jesus is about so much more than that. He should be the center of our lives every single day. We have too much to celebrate to cram it all into a couple days or weekends a year!
Just think of it.
Our sin, an unimaginable debt that we could never even hope to repay, has been covered. Paid in full by the blood of Christ Jesus, our perfect sinless Savior. Hands that held nations, stretched out on a tree. Our very souls redeemed from a destiny in hell. The only One who could repossess the keys to death and the grave snatched them from the hand of the wicked one. The power of darkness holds no more dominion over us.
This is worth sharing, so very worthy.
Morning has dawned. Our Lord has risen. The light is breaking forth. His love is real. Hope abounds. Mercy flows anew.
This is what it's all about. This is the center, the core, where all our hope, our everything, rests.
Saturday has ended. The wait is over. Darkness and despair has passed. Sunday is here. The light has come. The Lord has come. Because He lives, all fear is gone.
Our hope resides in the glory of the stone rolled away. We have this hope.
A thought occurred to me earlier today. Can you imagine the rejoicing in Heaven on that first Easter morning? Doesn't that thought bring a smile to your face? Just imagine the coming day when we'll all be joined together for a celebration like that. Every believer, reunited with all those we love in the presence of our Jesus.
All because of a Savior whose love for a sinsick world was greater than all else.
This is redemption from an unimaginably fate.
This is hope, living hope.
This is light breaking forth.
more jumbled thoughts. happy resurrection day, dears <3
For as yet they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead. // john 20:9
And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost. ...
And all his acquaintance, and the women that followed him from Galilee, stood afar off, beholding these things. // luke 23:46, 49
And she went and told them that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. // mark 16:10
Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.// psalm 30:5b
It's Saturday.
The in-between day, wedged between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. It has no official title (that I know of). Yet it holds such meaning and symbolism.
On that first Easter weekend, Christ had been crucified and laid to rest in the borrowed tomb. We're not told much of how the disciples and followers spent the time between the Crucifixion and Resurrection. But they certainly weren't living life as normal.
They were hurting and broken. They were grieving. Their very souls were crushed.
Peter was struggling, personally, with the knowledge that he'd audibly denied his Lord...thrice. The group must've also felt betrayed by Judas, one who they'd counted a friend and brother, yet he had sold their Lord by a deceptive kiss for thirty pieces of silver.
In a sense, they were waiting, too. But did they know what they were waiting for?
He had spoken of a home with Him someday, of eternity, of a Comforter. But they didn’t understand the meaning of these words yet. All they knew was their Lord—the Promised One, their everything—had been brutally killed before their eyes. Life as they’d known it had ceased, crashed, halted.
All their hope—gone.
Nothing would ever be the same again.
How often, in our darkest moments, do we cry out to God that we don’t understand? Maybe it's not even that we're doubting His goodness or rebelling against His will—we just don't know why it's happening. We want to understand. We want to comprehend. We want to be able to make sense of things. We want answers.
But you know, it's okay if things don't make sense to us. It's okay if we feel lost in the darkness, cracked and broken and crying out to the One who always hears. It's okay if answers elude us. It's okay if all we have the strength to do is cry out to Him, take it moment by moment, and make it through one day at a time.
It's okay.
Because He is good, no matter what.
Because He is with us, every single heartbeat.
Because this pain won't last forever.
In the wise words of my friend Mikayla, “Sunday’s on the way.”
Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.
And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
Now when the centurion, and they that were with him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they feared greatly, saying, Truly this was the Son of God.
// matthew 27:45-46, 54
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.
// john 19:30
It is finished...
As many of you know, I'm a student of American Sign Language pursing an education in interpreting. While ASL and English are essentially the same written language, the grammar, sentence structure, and sign/word definitions of ASL are vastly different than that of English.
The sign for finish/finished, for example, is very definite, final, and emphatic. It's not used to mean something that might be done soon, or will probably happen, or to exclaim that you're finished with someone in a non-literal sense.
It means it is done, in full, totally. Finished. Definitely. For certain. In the past. It means completion. It means finality.
On that day at Calvary as our Lord breathed His last, he cried out, "It is finished." Three simple words, yet a phrase so brimming with meaning and underlying truth.
It is finished. Forever and always, it's done. Taken care of. Over with. Completed. Never to have to be worried about or thought of again. It is finished, Jesus cried, and every since, I'm satisfied...
Satisfied. Satisfied by the heart of the One who fulfilled the sin debt we had no hope of ever repaying. He cleared our charges, he eases our hurting hearts, he brings love and peace and contentment—and asks only our love and faith and allegiance in return.
This Man. This Son of God. This Passover Lamb.
He is the Finisher. He is enough.
And He is good.
just some really disjointed thoughts, but maybe they make sense to someone <3
