Happy Resurrection Day

Ok, Ok all you diehards for chocolate bunnies and all you painted hard boiled egg enthusiasts; go ahead, indulge yourselves and enjoy every second of it! While you wipe your mouth allow us to NOT let anyone forget about the real side of this celebration. We are talking about the single most import 3+ days in the history of the world.

Here's a TRUTH, Jesus was an amazing collaborator. This is the case throughout His time on earth, even when it came to His own death and resurrection. According to the book of John chapters 5 & 8, Jesus spoke many times about Him and His Father being one, and the truth that He didn't do or say anything that His Father wasn't in collaboration with Him on. In stark contrast to this truth the evil one specializes in individual lies. Jesus even said that satan cannot tell the truth because there is no truth in him, and when he speaks they are all lies because no one of any authority verifies it. This age old conflict can be seen at play in several instances leading up to Jesus' crucifixion and ultimate resurrection. One blatant, obviously tense moment between truth and lies that Peter happened to get caught in the crossfire of, was when the devil tried to rebuke Jesus through Peter about going to the cross and being raised on the 3rd day. See what he tried to do there? It's easy to miss, because it seems like a straightforward temptation, but the truth is that the enemy has no substance behind his lies. He needs that verification from someone with authority, in order to proceed with ANYTHING he attempts. Jesus saw right through him and cut to the chase by telling him to get behind him (modern day language: ARE YOU FOR REAL? THE ANSWER IS NO, ALWAYS). Now we can understand why it was imperative at times that Jesus set a steely resolve toward going through with the plan and not giving the enemy what he was after, otherwise He would have not fulfilled His Father's will, leaving us to ride out our lives on the Titanic.

Now that we got that out of the way, lets look at the stuff that is life changing about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Do you realize that Jesus came to save us from the sentencing of sin, as well as the imprisonment of sickness, poverty and death? Those are accepted universal Truths in most Christian theological camps. The heavenly Father endorsed this by His affirmative action demonstrated in the resurrection. But there is one more major thing that most play it safe, natural minded, conservative Easter egg hunting, chocolate bunny eating, blend in and make no waves type of Christians don’t get (present company excluded, of course). We believe one of the biggest things that Jesus accomplished was to revolutionize our way of living down here in “fallenville” just like as if we were already in the supernatural realm of heaven. He said so and showed so, in many different ways. For instance He preached that if we don’t cut this lower natural life loose we can not take hold of our higher supernatural life. Luke‬ ‭17:33‬ (‭ICB‬‬) “Whoever tries to keep his life will give up true life. But whoever gives up his life will have true life.”

Jesus was on a mission from God to not only save mankind, but to teach mankind how to LIVE like Him. To do so He came with the purpose to die in our place staring death in the face without blinking because He knew His Father would back His play. How could He be sure of this reckless notion? He knew because He learned at an early age to completely trust His heavenly Father so much that He trained Himself to only say what the Father says, and only do what He sees Him doing. Jesus defied all of the natural safe cultural guidelines that were set for ages to keep people SAFE even if it meant holding them back from their potential. He defied the limits of oppression by a hostile government, ‭‭the boundaries of religious laws, the social spacing of contagious disease, and the impossibility of turning death around. It was never OVER until Jesus said it was over. So, for us the resurrection is the focal point for anyone who has this insatiable itch on the inside to live an unlimited, unnatural, adventure filled life on the cutting edge between heaven & earth. Jesus preached it and Jesus lived it, not just for the next world, but for here and now. Because He is risen, we are now responsible for not settling for SAFE but are inspired to live at a higher level without making excuses that it can’t be done. Anything less than that is an offense to Him because He showed the way and is still here with us leading by His Spirit right in the middle of these unusual times. In fact, we were made for these times because we are the most UNUSUAL people to ever walk the earth or upon water. Because He’s risen, all things are possible and nothing is impossible, except if we don’t believe this, and refuse to live a resurrection lifestyle of faith in the fullness of our emancipation from the limits of the natural world that we were born into and born again out of.

So although we have a dual appreciation in the western civilization, with an understanding that having a happy chocolate bunny day is acceptable behavior, we also KNOW, this anniversary is better than just carving a ham, using three legs to race and even being with family; it is the day of our TRUE salvation. We leave now with one last thought, since resurrection power resides on the inside of us, we MUST keep in mind that no matter what type of death we may be faced with in the future (business, relationships, dreams, etc) we represent the X FACTOR that can and WILL introduce resurrection change into any seemingly impossible situation.