Do You Believe In Easter?
Do you believe in Easter?
I do.
Let’s take a few minutes together to process a few things. So much is at stake. Your eternity/my eternity is at stake.
Maybe you think serving in the church for years makes you good enough for heaven. Maybe you think you have always believed.
My Dad thought because his Dad was a lay preacher, and he himself had taught Sunday School, that he would go to heaven. I remember my Dad’s men’s trio singing “In the Garden” in the church sanctuary. Those men could bring you to tears with that song.
But Jesus makes it clear that we each have to make a conscious personal decision to follow Him.
Did my Dad ever do that before he died?
I don’t know.
People from his generation didn’t talk much about their faith. Sadly, it was a “personal” private thing to them.
The Cross & the Empty Tomb
Whether you believe it or not, it is true! Jesus died. Jesus is ALIVE! And He is in Heaven, preparing a place especially for His own.
Have you yet thanked Him PERSONALLY for that…by welcoming Him to enter your life and transform your mind, will, and emotions? (To begin to remake you into His image. To pick you up when you fall down/when you sin/when you fail to do what you know you should do.)
Have you come to the end of yourself yet?
It’s never too late to surrender your will…at the foot of the Cross.
The Cross—an anchor for the soul. Hang onto it. Daily. The Cross had to happen before the Resurrection could happen. (There is nothing that you will experience that will be any worse than that.) Daily, choose to surrender to His will for you. It is a type of death – to self.
Is anything keeping you from making that choice right now to follow Him? It only takes a moment to begin the journey of a lifetime!
Sin
Every one of us has a deep longing and need to belong. To be loved unconditionally. Tell Jesus that you want to follow Him. That you want to stop trying to be in control. Then, Jesus Christ fills those deep needs with His Holy Spirit power. Power that only comes from embracing His substitutionary death for sin.
Sin…the result of the choice that Adam and Eve made so many years ago. Sin in each of our own lives that have continued on each day for everyone in the world since their decision to believe satan rather than God. Adam and Eve had it all and it was not enough for them. They wanted more. They willfully and foolishly chose to believe deceitful satan disguised as a creature…a serpent. They chose to listen to the creation rather than to the Creator. That original couple. That man and woman. Later to be the first parents. Sadly, they consciously and deliberately chose to walk out of close relationship with their Creator.
Choice
We all have a choice whether we will believe in Easter (the celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ)…and in the Creator God… OR will we believe satan, the creation.
God gives us the gift of choice. He loves us enough to die for us. Loving Him back is a choice.
Gifts
Have you ever had the experience of having someone return to you a gift you had given them?
I had a friend do that…actually, she gave me back numerous things I had given her over the years. She didn’t Value what I had given.
Or…have you had someone tell you in words that your gifts are not thoughtful after you had spent time trying to find something very special for them?
I have. I think those experiences give me a tiny glimpse of what God feels when we reject His gift of salvation. His gift that came with a highly personal price that He willingly paid. His gift chosen thoughtfully with each of us in mind.
Accepting and cherishing His gift is the ONLY way to become His child. There is no other way to Heaven, but to see the value of His Gift. Easter. Some look at His gift with disdain…not wanting it…and looking for a different gift…a different way to Heaven.
Born Again
I was nearly 30 years old when I finally understood with my heart what Jesus had chosen to do for ME. For YOU.
Don’t close your heart to Him. Don’t turn away from His gift.
Will it be easy?
NO!
Life will continue to be a challenge. But there is now strength for the journey and the hope of your resurrection to new life in Christ.
Keep searching until you find Him. Visualize walking into His waiting open arms. Just as you are! Warts and sins and all!
Then hang on tight! Don’t let Him go. He will not move away from you. Not ever!
But…if you do the moving away from Him, and therefore, out of the area of His blessing, He will not force you to do His will.
Do you believe in Easter? The Resurrection?
I do. I daily experience Easter’s resurrection power. There is Holy Spirit power as a result of the Resurrection (and Jesus’ Ascension into Heaven). He sent the Holy Spirit to HELP us in this fallen world. To strengthen us to seek Him daily.
Jesus paid it all. He paid it all for all peoples. Willingly. Joyfully. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross. The joy He felt was His understanding that His loving, willing sacrifice of Himself…for you…for me…was making it possible for us to willingly, joyfully choose to be His follower. His disciple. Seekers always seeking Him whom our heart loves.
Witnesses
There were more than 500 witnesses over a 40-day period after His resurrection. He had died. He was put into a tomb. Sealed. Dead. And then three days later, they saw Him ALIVE! They saw the nail scars on His body–the results of being nailed to the brutal cross. Now alive.
Jesus…Lord of Lords, King of Kings! Forty days after the resurrection, they saw Him ascend to Heaven. Alive! He’s alive! Can you believe it?!
And He is coming again … for His own … and you can join Him. Forever and ever. It’s your CHOICE. Do you value the GIFT of salvation that He offers?
Whatever you have endured here, it will be worth it all. I promise. Better yet, HE promises!
Victory
Easter is the celebration of Jesus overcoming our sinful heritage and the sting of death. It is the season for remembering the agony He went through in order to be the sacrificial substitutionary Lamb…the offering to rectify the choice Adam and Eve made so many years ago. Don’t make the same foolish choice they did. Not deciding is also a choice. Choose this day whom you will follow.
Related Post: God is the Victor
Home
This world is not your home. Someday, you will be in your eternal home.
Do you want to spend it with the deceiving serpent satan or with the Creator? There are only those two options.
Do you believe in Easter? I pray you do! I’d love to hear from you that you believe in Easter in its fullest of meanings!
May God bless these words to cause you to hunger and thirst for more of Him as you fling yourself down at the foot of the cross and gaze at the empty tomb and ponder what that means to you personally.
Maranatha
Come Lord Jesus.
May we await His shout together!
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