This Easter morning 2019, has been so alive with birds singing and sunshine and loving brothers and sisters in Christ to share my joy as I meditate on and celebrate what Jesus Christ did for us. I've been thinking a lot about when Jesus went to Gethsemane to pray just hours before he was taken, prisoner. You can really see his humanness in his prayer to the Father and his pleading with his friends to stay awake and pray with him.
You can see and feel the suffering of knowing what he was going to go through; knowing about his betrayal and horrendous beatings and suffering on the cross approach but he said what we should all be saying to the Father, "not my will, Father you will be done."
Jesus loved us so much he wanted to suffer and die for us but his love for God, his trust in God and his plan for him is what kept him on the course. He knew us. He loved us and wanted to help fulfill God's plan of salvation for us. His obedience to God was what kept him on the course. His love for God and us kept him on the cross, even forgiving others including his tormentors as he hung there in agony and gasping for air. He could have run and hidden. He could have called a multitude of angels who would have come to rescue him but he stayed the course.
He ascended to the Father to sit at his right hand on the throne with the keys of sin and death in his hand. He sent the holy spirit into the world to fill each one of us who believe with his power. The same holy spirit who gives us the fruit of the spirit, the gifts of the spirit, and who teaches, comforts and guides us.
He was obedient to God and trusted God's plan for him. Now there is the power to heal, remove mountains, remove curses and to bless in his name. His name has been set above every name. At his name, every knee will bow on Earth and in heaven, in this world and the spirit world. He will rule as our King for all of eternity. His loved ones will spend all eternity with him, that's us.
What a privilege it is to know Christ and what peace it is to know God has a plan for each one of us. Stay the course. Suffering may be but for a while but the glory will last forever.
Earn your crowns. Earn your Crown Incorruptible for renewed mind and self-control. Earn your Crown of Life for rightly dividing the word of God. Earn your Crown of Rejoicing for winning people to Christ. Earn your Crown of Righteousness for eagerly awaiting the return of Christ. Earn your Crown of Glory for being a leader in the body of Christ. Then one day, when we're standing in line to pay reverence to our King, you like me I'm sure, will one at a time lay our crown's at his feet because without him we wouldn't know or understand the true meaning of unconditional love and forgiveness and eternal life in Paradise. He loved us first. He gave his life for us. He has equipped us to stand on his word, to fight the good fight of faith.
I hope each and everyone has a wonderful Easter. God's peace is poured out on you today.
Lisa C