Alive!

Did you notice that yesterday’s date was counting down to Resurrection Sunday? 4/3/21… Today, all of creation seems to be proclaiming Jesus is Alive forever! In His precious, holy name, we have Life Eternal for He is Eternal Life!

“For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us.”

Romans 8:19-23 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/rom.8.19-23.nlt

This year more than ever, I have felt creation groaning as the warm temperatures we’ve enjoyed since before the first day of Spring gave way to a cold snap on Thursday evening, threatening our budding landscape. On the night marking the arrest and trial of Jesus, temperatures plunged into the twenties! The cold endured through this weekend, but today, Easter Sunday, promises temperatures in the seventies here in the southeast. Death cannot hold back the Living Christ and all of creation rejoices!

I have a friend whose husband craves endurance races. He pushes himself to the extremes of what the human body can withstand. From a spiritual place deep inside, I believe he senses the same groaning and chooses to push back against physical limitations. I’ve seen his strength of character seep into his wife and daughters in different ways over the years of our friendship, and even now, his resolve is being tested on this Easter weekend! I know Resurrection Sunday has a deeper, richer meaning to this family today! I know it does to me because of one word- cancer.

“We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.) And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”

Romans 8:24-28 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/rom.8.24-28.nlt

“Sing to the Lord, all you godly ones! Praise his holy name. For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning.”

Psalms 30:4-5 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/psa.30.4-5.nlt

So as I celebrate this Resurrection Day, I look forward with great expectation to the promised day when “every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Jesus Christ as Lord!”

“Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Philippians 2:9-11 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/php.2.9-11.nlt

““So you, too, must keep watch! For you don’t know what day your Lord is coming.”

Matthew 24:42 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/mat.24.42.nlt

““Then if anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘There he is,’ don’t believe it. For false messiahs and false prophets will rise up and perform great signs and wonders so as to deceive, if possible, even God’s chosen ones. See, I have warned you about this ahead of time. “So if someone tells you, ‘Look, the Messiah is out in the desert,’ don’t bother to go and look. Or, ‘Look, he is hiding here,’ don’t believe it! For as the lightning flashes in the east and shines to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.”

Matthew 24:23-27 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/mat.24.23-27.nlt

Let’s keep our eyes and our hearts open because “He who promised us faithful!”

“Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.”

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 NLT

https://www.bible.com/116/1th.5.23-24.nlt