"He Is Risen" Part 5

"He Is Risen"

Part 5

    

   When you receive this, it will have been twenty years to the day that we began sending out these devotional messages.  More than twenty centuries ago, the event took place that provided a reason for believers to publish the good news that the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead.

    "He is not here.  He is risen, as He said" (Matthew 28:6).

    We have sought in every message to directly or indirectly declare that the resurrection of Christ is not only an historical event.  For Christians, it impacts every moment with the possibility of victory snatched from the jaws of any and every defeat.  Our Lord arose to provide salvation from our sins, and also supply for this moment and forevermore.  Indeed, the empty tomb promises full hearts for all who believe that the Lord Jesus is alive and present in our hearts, and in our circumstances, situations, and conditions.  We may not remember the blessed fact.  We may sometimes disbelieve it.  And believers can still think, speak, act, and relate as if Christ is still dead.  "Ye are yet carnal... walk as men" chided the Apostle Paul in his first epistle to the Corinthians (I Corinthians 3:3).  Yes, believers sometimes live as if we are merely human, rather than being human as inhabited by the Spirit of God who reveals the risen Lord Jesus in our hearts.  It is hard to imagine a sadder occurrence than to forget both the empty tomb and the full hearts it made possible.

    On November 1, 1998, I did not expect that two decades later, I would still be writing and you would still be reading.  I don't recall what I expected.  But this I know for absolute certainty: if ever you have be helped in any measure or degree by any message, the risen Lord Jesus deserves all the honor, glory, and credit for it.  It has been and remains the purest joy to "consider Him" with you (Hebrews 12:3).  I cannot thank Him or you enough for such a completely undeserved privilege.  He is risen indeed, and it is also the purest joy to know that we have eternity to rejoice together in the Christ who died, but who arose and is alive forevermore.  And, we are "risen with Him" (Colossians 2:12).  The purest joy indeed.  Thank God and thank you for these wonderful twenty years of shared fellowship with the Life of our lives.

"Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.  For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

(Romans 6:9-11)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.

(Ephesians 4:25)