HE IS RISEN!

This post was originally generated in 2010 when I wrote my very first Lent blog.  At this point I have coalesced those 2010 blog entries with some other writing and am doing the final edits on them as a book titled, Lead Me to the Cross.  But I wanted to re-share this part today in celebration of Resurrection. 

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Readings for today:

Matthew 28

Mark 16:1-8

Luke 24:1-49

Resurrection Day (Easter) is the most important day in Christianity. We wouldn’t be Christians without Easter. Anyone can die, but only God can raise himself from the dead! It is beyond belief, unfathomable. It is no wonder Yeshua’s followers didn’t get it, didn’t hear what he had repeatedly told them. Who would? 

I loved putting together puzzles as a kid, and even well into adulthood – just haven’t done one for a while – but these passages provide us a puzzle worthy of challenge. It is a perfect example of who said what, and who’s testimony for precision is most credible. It’s also a model of what is most important to mention in one’s view is not equally important in another’s. But the main message is there and is undeniable. The tomb was empty. Jesus did the impossible. He rose from the dead! He appeared to the women and most of his disciples; Thomas was the only one who wasn’t there. 

Jesus was risen indeed!

I love Easter morning when we joyously proclaim, “He is risen!” and the resounding response of, “He is risen indeed!” 

MAJESTY

by Lola Cain

“A King who ruled in majesty”

That’s what people wanted him to be!

No crown of thorns or whip of shame

No cross on which to bear our blame

No nails, no spear, no agony

No death upon a criminal’s tree

No burial in a borrowed grave

No resurrection power to save!

Thank God for His eternal plan

for justifying fallen man

He came as atoning sacrifice

in sending His Son to pay the price

Coming incarnate to earth to die

He redeemed His created from Satan’s lie

Thank you, Sacrificial Lamb, 

For overriding the will of man!

The veil was rent! God’s plan complete!

We now can worship at his feet!

We enter his presence unafraid 

by the blood that Jesus shed to save!

Thank the LORD, he rose again

victory over death to win

Thank Father, Son, and Holy Ghost

An anthem sung by heavenly hosts!

“He’s risen,” we shout. “HE’S RISEN INDEED!”

The cornerstone of our Christian creed

And coming once, he’ll come again

His promised victory over sin

“It’s finished,” his final words on the cross

Our redemption sealed. Our salvation bought.

Now he reigns eternally

What both God and man wanted him to be: 

“A KING WHO RULES IN MAJESTY!”

Thank You, LORD! 

Love, 

Lola

Joseph of Arimathea was questioned about why he would be willing to give his prime location gravesite to a crucified, rejected man, and Joseph replied, “It won’t be a problem. He only needs it for the weekend.” 

                                                                        Author unknown

Journey to Resurrection 2017, Day 40.

Saturday, Day 40:                                   

SABBATH – DAY OF SORROW & DESPAIR FOR THOSE WHO LOVED AND FOLLOWED JESUS

Countdown – 1 day!

Reading for today:
Mark 16:1
Luke 23:43
Ephesians 4:7-10

It was ‘over’ for Jesus – but not for His disciples and followers. They hid –  out of public view – and grieved. They were wounded, confused, guilt-ridden, devastated.   Sabbath ended at 6 p m – and Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome went and bought spices to apply to Jesus’ body on Sunday morning.

Perhaps they didn’t know that Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had encased Jesus in 75 pounds of myrrh and spices the night before when they buried him in Joseph’s unused tomb. But they loved Him, and whether or not He met their expectations as Messiah, they loved the gentle person that He was – and they were going to honor him by giving him a proper and decent burial – and that meant spices....

Meanwhile, while Jesus’ body was wrapped in a linen cloth and lying on a stone cold slab in Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb, all the Bible tells us about where Jesus was – from 3 p m on Friday until the pre-dawn hours of Sunday morning – is what Jesus told the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Paul talks in 2 Corinthians 12:2-4 about being caught up to Paradise....

Where I am going with this is: where did we ever get the idea that Jesus descended into hell and ‘preached to the captives.’

When I was a kid I heard preachers say that Jesus went to hell, wrestled with the devil, and took the keys of death, hell and the grave away from Satan. The Apostles’ Creed says He descended into hell...and I memorized that in college when I was at Northwest College (now University). But I can’t find it in the Bible.

(I had already figured out that I don’t agree with some of the Apostles’ Creed. It takes Jesus out of creator status – and yet, John 1:1-4 says ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men.’  I believe in a triune God as Creator, and that God represents Himself in 3 distinct persons:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.)

So here’s where I am stuck for now: Jesus said he was going to Paradise. Paradise is not synonymous with hell. When He was on the cross he said, “It is finished.” That doesn’t sound like an ‘except for this one final thing.’ All evidence points to His going to Paradise and speaking with those held there until His redemptive work on the cross was completed. The lambs slain for years were only substitutionary until the real came. Jesus was the real deal. His sacrifice reached back into all of man’s history and forward for as long as man would walk in metered time.

I believe that it is very possible that all who had been ‘saved’ were waiting for Him in Paradise – and that after he defeated death he led them to heaven.  I don’t know for sure – but it is plausible….  I obviously have some more research to do on this….

Journey to the Cross 2017, Day 12

Tuesday, Day 12:  Matthew 13                    

I want to have a chat with whomever divided up the chapters in Matthew. There is just too much in Chapter 13. It does not lend itself at all to cursory reading and brief observations.  I cannot camp long at each parable!  

My Bible provides titles over sections, and the section on the soils is titled “The Parable of the Sower” but the focus is on the soils and I understand the ‘big picture’ of this lesson of the soils – and it concerns me, particularly in huge evangelistic services where many people come to the Lord, but are not provided the follow-up of ‘another waters’ where they are nurtured, discipled and assisted in their new commitment so they become grounded in their faith. I am more concerned about how many who embrace salvation become part of a church, rather than how many come forward in a huge, emotion-filled meeting, and that filters down to the local level as well – but I’m not ‘going there’ though it would be all too easy to do that. Today I am going to take each soil to heart . . . personally.

Yesterday was diverted for me by one of my ‘blessings’ – and today the blessing of having a home and maintaining it through necessary chores looms ahead of me. What a day to read this chapter. It brings startling clarity to the parable of the soils! Depending on the day, I can be each of those soils. Oh, I know I am blessed because God opens my eyes to see and my ears to hear . . . but I also know that some days I am guilty of not being a receptive soil. Verse 22 leaps out to me – and it is one I must pay attention to as a reminder. It is so easy to be consumed by the worries of this life, to be immersed in the comparatively inconsequential and miss the truly important – what I have heard called, and now also call, ‘the tyranny of the urgent.’

When I think about the worries of this life, health leaps out in the forefront – and the reminder of how quickly life can change from seeming secure to absolute devastation is all too apparent. I am reminded of a lady in our church who just learned last August that she has cancer – and the battle for her life that has been waged ever since. And just yesterday I received an e-mail from a far-away friend telling me her family has been hit hard by sudden tragedy and alarm. One son-in-law’s father (a pastor) collapsed Sunday in his pulpit while preaching and died of a massive heart attack. Her other son-in-law has just been diagnosed with a malignant tumor growing in his jaw. Sometimes life is just too much! And it seems that some people get more than their share of challenges.

I’ve been there – so sometimes even when things are going well I have a sense of ‘waiting for the other shoe to drop’ because life is tenuous. (Yet, no matter how fragile it is on the individual level, reminders of the devastation of war and of horrific earthquakes and natural disasters take tenuous to another sphere and demand I attempt to develop a more expansive perspective.)

As for money, the deceit of wealth is a huge risk in our society. The deceit lies in a sense of self-sufficiency with the security of what money can do/buy/influence. But, as we have seen in severe economic downturns, wealth is not where we need to have our security. Our only security is in the Lord God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and earth. It is He who made us. In Him we live and move and breathe and have our being. We are not our own – we are bought with a price.  (There is a lot more to be mined here, and that will have to wait until a later date.)

This one simple verse brings it all into focus: the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth are the briars that choke the plant as it tries to grow, and keep it from being fruitful. I suppose everyone who has grown things in the Pacific Northwest has a clear picture of briars. We have more than our share of varieties of wild, thorny blackberries. They do choke out everything else – but at least they are good for making jam! (Sort of a variant on ‘when you’re given lemons, make lemonade!) Part of the deceitfulness is the amount of time that gets unnecessarily  diverted to manage the wealth and cares of this life.  

The soil I want to be is the one who hears, understands, and produces. My pastor-friend from years ago in Montesano taught us that the true translation of the Great Commission is “In your going, disciple.” It is a relational directive. We need each other. That is a huge part of walking out our faith. Not just believing, but doing. It is stated as an imperative, not a suggestion.  I am reminded that I have to have Purpose and God's leading me daily as the primary focus in my life.  What we have can be a blessing or a hindrance.  It all depends on how it is utilized.  

Moving on, Jesus tells other parables, talks about the kingdom and talks graphically about hell. This was fodder for the hellfire and brimstone sermons from my childhood. I believe it – that’s not at all in question – but I’ve learned from my own life, that I am drawn by His incredible love and grace – not by fear of hell. Yet, Jesus speaks of it plainly. It is not to be ignored.

The very last section of Matthew 13 provides us a reality-check of how Jesus was thought of in his hometown of Nazareth. When we watch the Olympics they provide such a contrast.  Every little town who has had an Olympian grow up in their midst honors them with icon-status. But not in Nazareth. God took on the form of man, and walked among them, and they dissed Him. They acknowledge the evidence of His wisdom and miraculous powers, and rather than thank God for them – and for Him – they try to keep him in their box that allowed him to be only a carpenter’s son, with 4 biological brother’s (in reality half-brother’s) and multiple sisters. They epitomized the opinion, “Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?” Jesus response: he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.

Lord, I love to see miracles and want to see more of them! Help me be so in tune with You that I can sense when You want to perform a miracle in someone’s life and partner with You by praying for Your will to be accomplished.

I want miracles for God’s glory – not for a show, not for seeming more ‘spiritual’ because we have prayers answered – but because in my script, they will draw people to our loving miracle-working God! I know the greatest miracle is a changed life, but I want the physical, tangible miracles as well. I want miracles for people whose hearts yearn for His touch!  I get impatient with God. I know He can . . . it is that middle space between faith and His will that gets fuzzy . . . .

Not my will but Thine be done . . . .

Humor for today:

A gorgeous young redhead goes into a Doctor’s office and says that her body hurts wherever she touches it. “Show me,” says the Doctor. The redhead pushes on her left shoulder and screams; then she pushes on her elbow and screams even more. She pushes her knee, and screams; and her ankle, and screams. Indeed, everywhere she touches, it makes her scream out in pain. The doctor says, “You aren’t really a redhead, are you?” “Well, no,” she replies, “I’m actually a blond.” “I thought so,” says the doctor. “Your finger is broken.”

Journey to the Cross 2017, Day 8

Thursday, Day 8:  Matthew 8                           

I can’t even get past the first few verses in Matthew 8 without digging deeper. Jesus came down from the mountain and large crowds followed him – but then in his path was a leper. I can see the crowds shrinking back, repelled. After all, the lepers – abandoned to the countryside away from contact with healthy humans – were required to walk around repeatedly saying, “Unclean, unclean” so people would stay away from them to avoid potential infection. But not this man. He’s not following the mores of his society. This man comes and kneels before Jesus. The Law does not allow him to come that close to people, but he came anyway. However, it was not he who reached out and touched . . . .  Oh, his words did, certainly . . .  “Jesus, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” And then Jesus touched him – a leper  –  an untouchable – and said, “I am willing. Be clean.”

In the fall of 1970, I came to Jesus as one who had ‘spiritual leprosy.’ I was ‘outside the camp,’ ostracized (it was at least partially self-imposed, but it felt like real abandonment), and as I knelt before Him, He touched me with His incredible, forgiving, cleansing love. I was the prodigal daughter. I had known Him and walked away because He let me down (or so I thought.) I mistakenly thought that His being ‘in control’ meant he was a controlling God, and that nothing bad could happen to me with Him in control. He had disappointed me. He had failed to protect me. He had let me make a huge mistake (that led to more) and I was very angry with Him – so I abandoned my faith.

My healing was not wrought as immediately as the leper’s appears to have been (though his physical healing and his social healing are two separate issues.) Mine was more like peeling away layers of an onion – until at last, I felt I was freed completely – even from the guilt of my sin. Don’t misunderstand, I am dreadfully sorry for the sins I committed and for the mistakes I made, but God has redeemed them, and I no longer feel guilt. And, of course, now I understand about ‘free will’ and that God’s being in control is not synonymous with controlling every situation in our lives. I also understand that we live in a fallen world and that bad things happen – but that the difference for us as Christians is that we can have inner peace – a peace the world cannot offer – a peace that gives us an inner calm no matter how stormy the circumstances we are living through. And I know that we see difficulty through different eyes because this world is not our long-range focus.

Another difference for us as Christians is that we can learn amazing lessons through times of trial. In 2000, after going through a series of challenges culminating with a plethora of issues precipitated by having an oophorectomy, I learned firsthand that God deserves our praise and worship no matter what our circumstances.

In the difficult months that followed that surgery – including being in the throes of trying to handle all of the issues related to being executrix for my stepmother’s will, her lawyer committing suicide, and having to start all over again with another attorney – and being in the midst of building and moving, which meant no longer having my 30-years-long church support network available to me – some days all my journal stated was HELP! in very large print. But, like Peter, I knew there was nowhere else to go. I knew that because I had tried life without Jesus – and my resolve after coming back to faith was total commitment. When people say “God will never give you more than you can handle” I think, ‘They haven’t been where I have been.’ But I do know this: He will never give me more than HE can handle – and I know He is smack dab in the middle of it going through it with me, whatever the ‘it’ is. It is a wonderful assurance! That’s the most amazing thing: He walks with us through every painful step – as well as the joyous ones. It isn’t about feeling. It’s about faith. He says He will be with us – and He is. No matter what.

As for redeeming the bad – He has. There are others who have walked away from God because of their own terrible circumstances who have believed one of Satan’s most insidious lies: that God can’t or won’t love them anymore. They believe in Him, but they have been told that ‘once they have put their hand to the plow and turned back, they are no longer worthy’ and they take that to mean that He won’t accept them – so they live outside the gate, ostracized. A few years ago God placed me in the right place at the right time to be able to be the one who could share my story with one woman who needed to hear it. Her immediate response was, “Well, no offense, but if God can forgive you, then He can forgive me.” No offense was taken – just pure joy in seeing God redeem the bad that had happened to me, turning it to joy in seeing someone else restored to a right relationship with Him – and then later to see her be instrumental in passing that on to others….

And just an aside - for those who believe and misuse that bit about ‘putting our hand to the plow’ NONE of us are worthy to begin with. But – when God forgives with extravagant grace, what a testimony to His amazing love. His amazing, extravagant grace is why I call myself ‘A child of God’s grace.’ I am.

Just after going through the worst of that terribly tough time beginning early in 2000, God gave me a chorus to a calypso beat. These are the words:

I don’t deserve your love. I don’t deserve the life you have reserved for me.
I don’t deserve your love. I don’t deserve the grace you give to set me free.
I don’t deserve that you, the Son of God, died on the cross for me.
I don’t deserve your love, but thank you, Lord, that you give it to me, so freely.
I don’t deserve your love, but thank you, Lord, that you give it to me.

Not everyone agrees with me – or with the sentiment expressed in this chorus – but that’s O K. I know that what I deserved was death – as in the ‘eternal separation from God’ death – but He didn’t agree. Oh, how beautiful the song of the Redeemed.

When Jesus healed this particular leper, he told him not to go talk about it – but to go do what was required by law. If you want to read the extensive process that involved, you’ll find it in Leviticus 14:2-32. What touches me about that, is that Jesus wanted the testimony to be proclaimed to the Priests. They were the ones who knew the prophecies of the Old Testament. If they were paying attention they would have recognized Him as the Messiah. Few did, apparently.

So – I read the whole chapter – but that’s my tidbit for today. Blessings!


Humor for today:
Following an unresolved argument a man and wife were giving each other the silent treatment. At bedtime the man realized that because he was prone to sleeping through his alarm, he would need his wife to wake him up at 5 a m the next morning for a long-anticipated fishing trip with his buddies. He had to meet them in the designated location by 5:30 a m or be left behind. Not wanting to be the first to break the silence, he left a note pinned to her pillow – where she obviously couldn’t miss it – written in large letters: ‘PLEASE WAKE ME UP AT 5 A M.”

The next morning the man awoke to find he had slept through his alarm and missed his trip. He was furious, and was about to go find out why his wife hadn’t awakened him when he discovered a note pinned to his pillow that stated, “IT’S 5 A M - WAKE UP!”