547: Making Easter Personal

Easter Sunday is next week, so I thought I would represent my Memo I have written in the past concerning the Resurrection.  I hope you spend some time meditating this week on the significance of Easter and what its significance for your PurposeQuest.

A PACKED HOUSE

My church has six weekend services every week, and we are getting ready for overflow crowds next weekend.  People who don't darken the door of a church throughout the year will come to church on Easter Sunday along with some who have returned to the area to visit family, which will make for a packed house. They all sit with the regular attenders, family and friends, and pay homage to the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead. It is probably the same in your church.

We will assemble next week and say by our presence, "Yes, we believe Jesus was dead.  Furthermore, we believe that He was in the tomb for three days.  Yes, we believe that God raised Jesus, who was both fully God and fully man, back to life. And yes, we further attest to the fact that Jesus ascended into heaven, and that our flesh, Mary's boy, intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father."  I hope you agree that those affirmations summarize truths of Easter.  But is that all the truth of Easter?

It always intrigues me that many will come and attest to these truths yet all too often those truths have no meaning or application in their daily lives.  Stop for a minute and ask, "So what if Jesus was raised from the dead?  What difference should that make in my life?"  Those are good questions; let's try to come up with some answers.

MAKING EASTER PERSONAL

If you believe that Jesus was raised from the dead, then you can believe God for anything!  If God raises the dead, which He does, then He can cure cancer.  He can provide for your business or ministry.  He can transform you into the person He intended you to be, that person you want to be. If God can take a dead body and give it life, then nothing is beyond His miracle-working power.  What's more, you have the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead living in you!  It is not a replica or a portion of that Spirit.  You have the Spirit that raises the dead living in you. Here is what Paul had to say about the implications of this Spirit-resident:

You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you (Romans 8:9-11).

I trust you plan on being at your local church fellowship next weekend.  Don't go as someone merely giving mental assent to a historical fact, go celebrating the truth that God is alive in You  Then find how to release that resurrection power into your life, relationships, work and purpose. If you can believe that God raises the dead - and you should - then you can believe God for anything.  Have a great resurrection-power-filled week!  Happy Resurrection Day!

Comments

[rita sessoms]

John,
I so needed this reminder today.....I trust God to get me to heaven but in this life i find myself trying to help him out a little.Thank you for causing me to just stop and releash the power of The Spirit in relationships by faith.See you soon and have a safe trip home
Rita

[judy michael]

Thank you for sharing "you can believe God for anything". that is so easy to forget when we get too busy.

[Connie Corder]

I would like the series of The Five Regrets of the Dying again. It started on Jan.9th this year. How do I get it again? It was so good, and I thought I had saved it, but it is gone.
Thank you so much.

[helen jacksonq]

God Bless Dr. John and thanks for the Monday Morning Memo.

I was so touched by "Courage" ...

Lord Help