RISE & SHINE, OH, LORD!

Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. ~ Isaiah 60:1

For all of time, (past/present/future) and into eternity, the hours from the cross to the empty tomb will be unanimously regarded as the most monumental moments in all of human history!

A lot can and did happen in such an epic 3-day timeline;

Jesus went……..

from death to Life;

from Lamb to Lion;

from buried to RISEN;

from rejected to Glorified;

from servant to Savior;

from enacting laws to exhibiting Grace;

from prophecy to Fulfillment;

from time back into Eternity;

from flesh back into Deity;

from sin-bearer to Supremacy;

from the cross to the grave and then up to the Throne;

from King of the Jews to King of kings;

from crucified for our sins to Victor for all;

from being made a curse on that tree to becoming the ‘Yes & Amen’ to all of God’s promises;

from outstretched arms to an empty tomb;

from a perfect sacrifice to Our Everlasting Lord;

from being mocked by the hosts of wickedness in the spiritual realm thinking they had just achieved their greatest victory to making a public spectacle of them of endless humiliation through His ultimate triumph on the cross;

and from loving us as a willing servant to proving it beyond all measure as our one & only Savior.

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That’s my take on things.

And to think, some people don’t even recognize Him at all….Really???

Well, they soon will because He went from ‘In the Beginning’ to ‘The Great I Am’ to ‘It Is Finished’ to ‘I Am Returning’

And He has always been the ‘Alpha and the Omega’.

Each and every human that has rejected His goodness and denied His existence will eventually go from standing on this globe self-righteously to bowing in absolute humility at the base of His triumphant and all-authoritative Throne and giving an account of their life…

…….from the beginning to the end.

And for those of us who have patiently and passionately longed to finally be home in God’s glorious kingdom, the Lord is even more excited to welcome us to an endless life; illuminated by God’s glory, most abundant in majesty and perfect in fellowship!!

Hallelujah & Maranatha!!

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So then, aren’t we looking forward to a moment that won’t even take three days but will happen in one ten-thousandth of a second….when that trump of God sounds and we are called to “Come up, hither”? That twinkling in time when we will then be translated…..

from mortal to immortal;

from corruptible to incorruptible;

from temporary to eternal;

from aged to ageless;

from faith and hope to sight and touch;

from gradually sanctified to instantly and completely glorified;

from confined to this existence to seeing Jesus face to face;

from gravity-bound down here to being simultaneously gathered around up in the atmosphere;

from old sorrows and pains to being given splendid bodies and new, Heavenly names;

from traveling at the price of fuel to that of the very speed of thought;

from limited dimensions to beyond any and all limitations;

From storms, tears, and sadness to immense joy and perpetual gladness;

from ‘Sudden Destruction’ down on earth to being immersed in all of Heaven’s immeasurable worth;

from praising Him with fleshly chords to becoming the grandest of orchestral choirs;

from communicating with one another through limited means to perfect fellowship with saints throughout all the ages;

From reading about all those ancient people of faith in the Bible to meeting them and starting to know these amazing family members of ours personally;

from missing our lost loved ones to being welcomed Home so heartily by them;

from planning yet another normal day to suddenly being given a tour of the vast cosmos by the Creator Himself;

from sharing our faith with others to seeing it come to such sweet fruition with one another;

from living day to day to walking hand-in-hand in Christ’s eternal presence;

from petting animals and visiting them in the zoo to conversing with them and praising God in one accord together;

from buying and preparing foods that we’re so accustomed to – to plucking millions of wonderful new flavors right from the trees in the midst of Gloryville;

from processed and fast food to our most festive and extravagant Wedding Feast!;

from being bound in wheelchairs to playing hopscotch across the galaxies;

from aches and pains to having ultimate athleticism, lol;

from checking our texts and notifications to receiving our glorious inheritance;

from bound to crowned;

from the grip of the power and presence of sin to being held by the nail-scarred hands of Him who conquered death, hell, and the grave;

from the attacks and schemes of satan to diminish our faith with worry and anguish to realizing once and forever that he is indeed a most vanquished foe;

from praying for deeper fellowship with God to being seated around Him and immersed in the warm glow of His glorious presence!

……I know you would love for me to go on and on here but this section has to end sometime, right?

For those who aren’t being purified by this ‘Blessed Hope’ that keeps us balanced with both a heart for the lost and a yearning to finally be with our ever-loving Lord….

…get to know in a most intimate and personal way the Savior that has overcome the world and will reign in perfect dominion….forevermore!

It will be the most monumental decision a human can ever make and will change you from death to life spiritually;

from rebellious to redeemed;

from under penalty to under such immeasurable grace;

from God’s enemy to God’s heir and loved child;

from calloused to cleansed;

from thinking you knew love to really know the purest form of all.

Why not allow Jesus to take you from a complicating and confusing religious futility or prideful self-reliance to finding immense clarity in God’s truth and promises and simplifying what the essence of our salvation and His grace is really all about………HIS LOVING YOU – PERFECTLY & FORGIVING YOU – COMPLETELY!

IF you only will allow Him, that is.

The only heart that Jesus can’t heal is a heart that won’t let Him in. But if you do, He will prove Himself most faithful and worthy day upon day upon endless days – for He alone is the Ancient of Days and He has already long known us, His children, well into the future and far beyond this temporary era of time and space.

When we, in the future of eternity think back upon the confines of time, these 3 days will most assuredly be the moments that garner the most discussion….and celebration!

This is the apex of all human history. The first three thousand years were ramping up toward such a monumental moment and the last two thousand have been established upon it….upon the cross and the resurrection….upon the life and time of HIM who holds all things together. Colossians 1.

Within those few days, the Lord lived out the essential doctrine of our faith. Paul would later nutshell this soul-saving Gospel, “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.” (1 Cor. 15:3-4)

Believing this is what justifies us through God’s power to become true Christians.

The empty tomb, His ever-faithful hand of most gracious guidance, and His Spirit of personal and indwelling fellowship are proof that our faith is not in vain.

~ jeff

*1 Corinthians 15:20-23;

Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ the firstfruits; then at His coming, those who belong to Him.

*Preeminence of Christ; [Colossians 1:15-18] >

Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.

*Reconciled in Christ; [Colossians 1:19-20] >

For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

*Ephesians 1:11-14;

In Him, according to the purpose of Him who accomplishes all things according to the counsel of His will, we who first hoped in Christ have been destined and appointed to live for the praise of His glory. In Him you also, who have heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and have believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory.

“I have chosen you,” says the Lord. “I have predestined you; I have redeemed you; I have sealed you by my Spirit. Your inheritance is sure because I am passionately committed to magnifying the glory of my grace in your salvation.”

*Romans 10:9;

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

*Acts 16:31;

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved…

God has the ability to keep it really just that simple. He desires a personal relationship with us, free from the futility and deceit that come through the pride and perversion of man-made religion and the persuasive bondage of traditions.

Allow His grace to lift you from spiritual death to life anew and everlastingly abundant!