Resurrection Power

I have come refreshed and renewed in mind and spirit, on this Lord’s Day Sunday, still in celebratory mood. True, we have just had our huge celebration of Resurrection, in various and different ways, as we remembered our Risen Jesus. We have had, leading up to Resurrection, forty days and forty nights of sharing deeply with our Lord, His Passion, before He was cruelly crucified. We have been with Him at the foot of the Cross and we have had Him come to us in Risen Form.

On this first day of the week, I invite you to share with me in an after resurrection time of, ‘Engagement and Encouragement’ which will take us through this week. We will be led through this week by the apostle who styles himself as the least of the apostles.

I have quoted this passage of Scripture, for as I myself listened to it, as I read it, the words captured me and held me bound in truth, resurrection truth, as they have never before done. I was fully engaged by them, to the point where encouragement bathed me within and without. As I was washed in solemn, yet pleasingly satisfying silence, I became like one cuddled in the warmth of welcoming, loving arms, assuring me that it is okay. O blessed is the Lord Jesus, who was crucified, who died, who was buried for three days and who is risen. It is because of His Resurrection that we know this miracle of grace.

May you know engagement and encouragement as you read and listen to the Holy Spirit. Amen!

For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance; that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas and then to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. 1 Corinthians 15: 3 – 8.

Paul is speaking to us through the testimony of Scripture and his own personal testimony. By faith, we believe without wavering, because we believe this. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3: 16. Whatever God the Holy Spirit is shedding abroad in your hearts, be eternally thankful.

Let me bring you one of the pictures of encouragement, which has come upon me in even more radiant and encompassing light. Paul has come before me as in light, an illumination in which I can stand. The truth is that I cannot stand in any light of his, but when he let us know, last of all he appeared to me also, nothing but hope and encouragement sprang to life in me. Doesn’t the same thing take place in you? Among other things, these two have wound themselves around my heart and mind. The first is that it is never too late for me. Paul was not one of Jesus' Twelve, and Jesus never appeared to him in the first forty days of His resurrection. However, he had the same testimony as the Twelve, less one. Jesus appeared to me too. The second is that Paul, whose name was Saul, has been very honest and truthful about his life. He describes himself as one who is abnormally born.

Whatever makes Paul abnormally born in his physical birth, if there is any schism, we know that his spiritual birth happened far from normally. What I mean is that he was anti-Jesus Christ with such passion that he became one who was obsessed with ridding the world of Christianity. While the disciples were converting people, both Jews and Gentiles, we are told this. Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. Acts 9: 1a. God waited patiently until Saul was on the mission way to Damascus to convert him. God did it all Himself. Does this not engage you fully? Does it not encourage you to the point where you want to have all of you quickened?

I see that no matter how deceived, stubborn and horrendous I am to Jesus, through His believers, the power of resurrection can overrule all evil in me.