"He Is Risen" Part 1

"He Is Risen"

Part 1

       

     As I write this, I sit in the waiting room of a business.  I can see outside the window of the establishment to the parking lot of a dentist's office.  The sign of the office is barely visible, with the only readable words being "He is risen" (a Christian dentist, obviously).  

    The sign changes my plans for the coming week.  We will be unable to send out the messages for several days, beginning today.  I had intended to send repeats of devotionals from previous years during this time, but the words "He is risen" inspire a different course of action.  So, you'll receive new material during the week, all centered on the theme of the Christ who was dead, but is alive again and forevermore.

    "God raised Him from the dead" (Acts 13:30).

   Just as the words on the sign instantaneously changed my plans, the remembrance of our Lord's resurrection can transform any moment from despair to hope, darkness, to light, sorrow to joy, and death to life.  Indeed, regardless of what we may be experiencing in the present moment, the empty tomb of the Lord Jesus offers the power of its help and hope to every trusting heart.  Remembrance of a risen Christ leads to a revolutionized circumstance, that is, in the sense of how we perceive whatever blessing we enjoy, or challenge we face.  In blessing, we realize that had not the Lord Jesus died and arose, God could not justifiably bestow His goodness upon us in any manner whatsoever.  His sorrow purchased our joy.  In difficulty, we remember that our Savior overcame all things in His death and resurrection in order to provide Himself as the supply for whatever we need Him to be.  The empty tomb is not merely a void in a geographical location for Christians.  It rather provides the victory of God's love for every moment, including this moment.

    He is risen.  Angels announced the wondrous truth to brokenhearted disciples of old.  The Bible has declared it to believers through the centuries regarding every imaginable experience.  And the Holy Spirit proclaims the empty tomb to your heart and mine in this moment.  The Lord Jesus Christ was dead.  But He is risen, never to die again, and always to be everything we need in all things and at all times. Let us forevermore embrace the truth, beginning in this moment, be it a time of blessing or buffeting.  The tomb is empty.  The heavenly Throne is occupied.  Christ is alive and He is Lord.  He is risen.

"The Lord is risen indeed."

(Luke 24:34)

Weekly Memory Verse

   In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him.

(I John 4:9)