He is Risen!

Resurrection Sunday is my favorite holiday and the thing I shall most miss tomorrow morning, will be walking into our gathering and greeting people with, “He is risen,” and receiving in response, “He is risen indeed.” The certainty behind those two stark sentences is the source of our joy, for as Paul said in 1 Cor 15 14 -19 that if Jesus was not risen our faith is in vain. The fact of his resurrection, his defeat of death on our behalf gives rise to worship.

So since we can’t gather tomorrow I’m giving you three of my favorite songs that celebrate the resurrection.

The incredible truth is that not only did Jesus defeat death on the cross, he also overcame the power of sin, and He promised that all those who received Him had right to become chidren of God and to walk in that victory as well. So we have so much to celebrate.

I’ve been part of the same faith community for four decades and as we gather every week to worship I can look around the room and see one life after another that has been transformed by the love and power of Christ. (Wow, I just did the math – that’s over 2,000 times!) I’ve seen people walk through crushing difficulties and pain, the kind of circumstances that can drive you to any one of myriad addictions, and watched them come out victorious, more confident of the God they follow. I’ve seen people shine through chronic debilitating sickness, seen them grow in character through losses, seen them humbly carry success. *

We look back to what Christ did on the cross, we look up to where He is seated in glory and we look foward wholeheartedly to His promised return.

The most delightful surprise I’ve had in writing this blog has been to see readers from countries all over the world – Russia, New Zealand, Mexico, America. If you follow Jesus then we are family – and this morning I greet you, “He is risen.”

* Lest you think I am ridiculously naive or blind to the many who have been hurt by followers of Christ, I am not unaware of that. The church, the body of Christ is made up of a host of imperfect people who are gradually walking out of the darkness into the light, Prov 4:18. As we learn, increasingly, what it means to be recipients of God’s grace, in Christ, we are able to extend that out to a hurting world, without hurting others in the process.