Resurrection & Life

One lone daffodil blooms in my yard. Bright yellow tulips will soon follow as they gloriously lift their heads in spring’s emergence. Just weeks ago the honeyed scent of almond blossoms marked its beginning. Newness is here, again.

The spring season unfolds as plants awaken to living and growing. We observe its miracle. The refrain is as familiar as it is repetitive. We’re living it too. We are born, grow, learn, and produce. Then all too soon we are looking back instead of forward.

We marvel at the miraculous. Cycles come and go – and we come and go with them. Life hails from beginnings to endings. Employment starts, then ends. We stretch to achieve, then ride the wave. We try new things, then leave them behind. We plant, grow, and harvest, in season and out.

Easter tells of a holy resurrection that happened during the season of new beginnings and fresh starts. Jesus came, lived, taught, and died. Everyone was talking about it. But the grave could not hold Him. Jesus Christ arose to life, victorious over death.

In the little things we see the big things. How fruit matures after a season of growing is like how a person overcomes and then reawakens. Everyone overcomes. This includes those difficult parts we seldom talk about. Life cycles in a form of death and then rebirth.

Jesus went from death to life that we might have life in Him, which is why we sorrow, then celebrate. His death, then life. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” If there were not life in Christ, what good would the way and truth be? Life in Christ is the essence of the resurrection.

Christ gives hope in the hard times, help in the uncertain times, and love in the dark times. We emerge stronger in our beings having gone through the valley experience.

My friend lost her home in the Camp Fire, but she has gone on to experience community in another place. God has helped her with this unwelcome, unforeseeable journey. She rebirthed physically. She is also a child of God. She is born again spiritually.

Lives are made joyous through the living Lord. Wait for the resurrection from loss to life during troublesome times. Live the resurrection life. Rejoice. Sing the Easter song.

Happy Resurrection Day!

An Uncanny Realization

A thought has come to me. Opposite of the unfettered, unrestrained human appetite which increases when fed, comes a different, alternate spiritual passion that can be awakened, energized, and explodes into an ever-deepening awareness. This passion is a hunger for God which replicates and thrives in being.

The following consideration is most uncanny.

When a person develops a keen awareness of God which initiates a relationship with God that is real — really real, so real that the relationship eventually becomes a true friendship, such a friendship gives to us day by day and is the source of internal joy and happiness, unparalleled in intensity and duration.

The seeker begins to find God.

Seekers hunger and thirst after righteousness. Their desires convert to godly ambitions. They increase in knowledge and spiritual understanding. In time, wisdom covers them as a garment. Their passion for God defines them down to the innermost details of their interior life. The world loses its pull and attraction. Material possessions lose their gloss and importance. Status and power are of no consequence.

God is what matters.

Love for God and His love for them has become a powerful force with a multiplied effect — as seen in the great martyrs of the faith. These faithful followers of Christ counted it a privilege as they rose victorious to suffer unjust treatment and/or tortuous death for the glory of God.

God uses our emotions, intellect, and will.

Our emotions intellect and will work together. They have combined in a set pattern that continues to go deeper and fuller in Christ. But even in this there is a danger. Some believers get off track. They become enamored with what God is doing in their lives. They create a following. It is a small step to start exchanging truth for self-honor and the misleading of people into following a person and not the Christ of the person.

The seeker keeps focused and humbled.

Christ fills their thirst to over-flowing from out of his well of abundance. He is enlivened within them. Their passions are for God. He is their end-all. Jesus is Victor in their lives. This passion grows in intensity and breadth. People that live it, breathe it, give it, and show it. These followers of Christ have the real deal. They have that which is real despite a terribly fallen world. Praise be to God.

Kingdom saints have a kingdom heart.

You can be on this journey.

Less than a week ago I was in a prayer service. One elderly woman brought her father, who was quite elderly. I didn’t know him or her. He sat there and said nothing. When it came time to pray, I didn’t know what to expect from the gentleman. I didn’t expect much, if anything. But he did pray, and when he prayed, O how glorious. He was enthralled with Jesus. He spoke words of grace with a reverence for our Lord. I knew by the way he prayed that he loved God. It poured out of him from his heart, mind, and soul. It seeped from his being.

That is what I am talking about.

You can trust Christ as your Savior. You can give Him your life and give Him your stuff. You can love Jesus Christ and obey Father God. You can allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and fill your spirit to overflowing.

Yes, that is how it happens.

God will give you what you need, when you need it. You will grow as much as you want to grow… and that is a beautiful thing. I hope you will come up to me some day and say, Jesus Christ transformed my life. He will if you let Him — and it is sooo worth it.

You can go deeper with God.