The day of resurrection

God is in the business of transforming.  He doesn't keep things as they are; he changes them and makes them new.  He doesn't do this unexpectedly, at least not usually.  He lets you know beforehand so that you can remember.

We all know the story:  The women came to the tomb, and he wasn't there.  There was, instead, a message--don't you remember?  He told you that he'd rise on the third day?  The implication is, as always, that you should know this.  Think! Remember!

The first people that came to find out what had happened were the women who had come to anoint the body for burial.  An interesting fact is that two people were not at the tomb:  Jesus and Mary, his mother.  Are the two linked?  Scripture doesn't say.  To me, it makes perfect sense that the person who was first shown Jesus' risen body be the same person who first saw Jesus' earthly body.  When I  think of the grief that Mary must have felt while watching her son die on the cross, it seems only right that her son would visit her first to reassure her that he had risen as he had promised.

Jesus is our resurrected Lord.  And he is in the business of redeeming us and given us a resurrected life, first symbolically here then literally in the last days.

I believe with all my heart that I have been redeemed. I also believe with all my heart that I am not the same person that I was 10 years ago, 20 years ago, or when I was five.  I honestly believe that God has resurrected the person that was meant to be all those years ago.  He has renewed the vision of my youth--given me back dreams that I gave up on years ago.  I see myself living a life that would have seemed unbelievable even 10 years ago.

And I am a small example.  Think of the girls taken into human trafficking and then rescued.  Are they going to live with the stain of that life forever?  Some do, yes.  Some never seem to be able to get over the life that they once lived.  But others--the ones who believe in and worship Christ as their Savior, the ones who are willing to give over all the hurt, the betrayal, the bitterness to him--they are brought into new life.  They are allowed grace to use the life that came before as a stepping stone to a new life of freedom and peace in the Lord.  No, it's not easy.  Nobody ever promised that it would be easy.  But it is possible, because Christ arose.

Do you feel dead inside?  At worship today, did you sing the song and recite the scripture, but only with your mind, not with your heart and soul?  Ask God to bring you into new life.  And then wait.  And remember what you were told.  He arose, and so will you.