RESURRECTION POWER

 

Sunrise on Folly Beach, SC

This is Resurrection Day, the day the church celebrates Easter.  It is the day we remember that Jesus rose from the dead victorious over the grave.   

On Friday we remembered Jesus as a victim who was taunted, mocked, flogged, tortured, and crucified on a cross of wood.  He died with only love and forgiveness for his tormentors.  He was buried in a tomb.  

Love raised Jesus from the dead.  He conquered evil and now reigns forever as pure love, pure light. 

Jesus lives in Resurrection Power and invites us to live in the spirit with him in resurrection power, loving those who treat us badly, and offering gifts to those who torment us.  He is our role model.  

This is the power of love.  It heals the sick, casts out demons, and raises the dead.  This love will eventually claim everything that is not love, redeeming all the brokenness of the world.  

Easter is not one day.  It is a season of fifty days.  

For the next fifty days, let us pledge to walk in resurrection power, co-partnering with God to see what God wants to do in and through us to redeem the brokenness of the world around us.  

Let us pray great big, bold prayers.   Let us call for the impossible to occur.  

Let us dare to believe that God wants to bring miracles into the world through us.  Let us dare to believe that for the next fifty days anything is possible.  

Join me in this prayer each day:

Lord of Love, Jesus showed us the way.  He is our role model.  Help us to let go and let you do something big, bold, and beautiful in and through our lives today.  We want to walk in Resurrection Power!  Show us how to take the first step.  Lead us on the way.  For Jesus' sake.  Amen.  

BEING A VICTIM

Hampton Park, Charleston, SC 

Today is Good Friday, the day we remember Jesus' suffering and death on a cross. He was betrayed by his own people, then turned over to the Romans who crucified him. 

It is a most troubling and humbling day of remembrance. 

One of the most humble, kind, and loving human beings who ever lived on this earth was flogged, tortured, and then nailed to a wooden cross. As he gasped for breath, he looked down on a scornful crowd. "If you're the son of man, come down from that cross!" they jeered. 

 Beloved Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit and power, was a victim.  How can this be?

Although Jesus is a role model for many of us, being a victim is the last thing most of us want to experience.  Don't we pity victims as weak, powerless, and passive? Of course, we want to be thought of as strong, capable, and in charge! 

Even Jesus struggled with relinquishing his will to submit to the horrors that lay ahead of him.  As he prayed in the garden of Gethsemenee the night before his death, he finally let go and prayed, "Not my will, but Your will be done."  But Scripture informs us there was much anguish of spirit before his relinquishment. 

We've all been victims in our lives. Many of us experienced childhood in a dysfunctional family; most women have experienced sexual harassment; many women have been raped; a good number of people have been betrayed by a partner who was abusive. Some have been victimized by those in the church they trusted.  Most of us have been blamed for something over which we had no control.  Victims all.  

What do we learn from Jesus about being a victim? 

Jesus showed us that is possible to be a victim with only love, compassion and forgiveness in our hearts, even for our tormentors. He showed us that love is stronger than abuse, stronger than death.

Jesus showed us what it looks like when love has taken over your very being, body, soul, and spirit.  

Lord, as we remember Jesus' suffering today, help us to understand how to more fully surrender to the power of love.  Help us to forgive our enemies and to bless those who persecute us.   Help us to return blessing for cursing.  Help us to give a gift in return for mistreatment.  For Jesus sake who leads the way to Live Everlasting.  Amen.