“He is not here; for HE HAS RISEN, just as he said. Come, see the place where He was lying.” Matthew 28:6



Some statements in life are world changers.

When the two Mary’s visited the tomb, where Jesus had been buried for three days, and heard the angel from heaven triumphantly declare “He has risen”, their world changed. The rock that was rolled away from sealing the grave rocked their world from sadness to gladness, despair to unspeakable joy!

They ran as fast as their feet could fly to tell Jesus’ followers He was not dead, but alive. Imagine their excitement! I can feel goose bumps, can’t you! Jesus said He would rise on the third day, and He did. The Savior they loved was alive. An empty tomb demonstrated that death had been defeated

What does Easter mean to you in 2012? Spring days, tulips, daffodils and lillies? Soft bunnies, Easter egg hunts, new clothes for church, a family meal? How about a resurrection, the resurrection of God’s only Son from the dead!   

Easter is all about a Risen Savior, Jesus Christ the Lord. Because He lives, we live. Those who believe in Him are resurrected to eternal life. “He has risen” means we are risen in Him.

The three words “He has risen” mean five significant things for you and me.

 We have HOPE. There is nothing more necessary for the human spirit than hope. An empty tomb means hope. No matter what we may be facing, we always have hope because Jesus is alive. Resurrection is hope.

We have PURPOSE. Jesus’ resurrection makes life make sense. Our destiny is to spend eternity with our Creator in heaven. This earth is not our home. Heaven is. Christ’s death and resurrection paid the price for our sins and paved the way to heaven for you and me. 
 
 We have POWER. Resurrection power is real power. No more powerless living. You and I possess resurrection power through the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We can be and do what God has called us to be and do….with limitless power.

 We have a FUTURE. Life that matters and is significant begins when we are raised with Christ. Our future is everyday in Him. Our past is history. Your and my future is alive with potential and opportunity because we are alive in the resurrected Christ.  

 We have JOY! Embrace Christ’s resurrection…experience real joy. The joy of Jesus.  God’s joy in you! Wow! If you want to be happy, heavenly kind of happy, rejoice that “He has risen.”

Christians worship and follow a bodily resurrected Savior. Only one Teacher, who is the Messiah, Jesus Christ, walked out of His grave clothes and tomb. Jesus left the cemetery! He is not in the sepulcher! Every other religious leader, philosopher, theologian, soothsayer, mystic or spiritual icon’s bones lie decomposed in the dirt.

Christ’s resurrection changes things. Everything. Human history and eternal destiny were changed when the angel uttered the three words “He has risen”.

Have the three words “He has risen” that changed the world changed your life?

If you are not a Christian, come, take an honest look at the cross and empty tomb.  Believe Jesus’ is God’s Son. Receive Him into your heart by faith and be saved for eternity.

“That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved.” Romans 10:9

If you are a Christian, come, take a fresh look at the cross and empty tomb. Rise up joyfully, with resurrection power to share with a lost and hurting world that God loves them and Jesus Christ is Savior and Lord.

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, end even to the remotest part of the earth.” Acts 1:8

Make a decision today to be a world-changer for Christ because His resurrection has changed your world.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” I Peter 1:3

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me shall live even id he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”John 11:25-26

“Knowing this that He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and will present us with you.” II Corinthians 4:14

A Word For Your Week: Change your world with the life changing words “HE HAS RISEN!”

“Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 3:13-14

Recently my personal computer started bogging down. My hard drive used to be fast, fast, fast! Turtle pace would best describe my computer’s current response to my commands.

So I called a good friend who is an IT (Internet Technician) guy. Before I tell you how he saved the day, restoring my pc to fast and efficient, you need to know that I am not an IT person. I know just enough about a computer to be dangerous. Whenever I announce that I am on the computer, my wife, daughter and two dogs run for cover!

There have been times when I was writing on the word processor that I hit a key and a warning box popped up. An ominous ping, a big red X introduced a warning of impending doom if I didn’t do something to correct my mistake. Panic attack! I bow my head and pray to God for forgiveness if by accident I launched a nuclear weapon from my computer.

Thank the Lord the world is still here in spite of my comedic, generally harmless computer escapades.

Gary graciously diagnosed my computer woes, patiently explaining IT stuff to me. Computer lingo like gigabytes, ROM and RAM blew right over my head. I thought RAM (Random Access Memory) was a Dodge pick-up truck with a huge Hemi! Gary asked me if I defragged and if I knew how to Google. I said, I am not sure, but googling sounds like fun!

Gary checked my Recycle Bin. Upon opening it, he exclaimed “Wow! Look at this Pastor Steve. Have you ever emptied your recycle bin?” I said no, I didn’t know I had one. There were almost 750 items in the bin. For eight years, deleted items were stored in the recycle bin, showing down my computer hard drive to a crawl. 

My IT guru cleared the recycle bin, and presto, fast, fast, fast returned. Gary told me I need to clear the bin weekly or the deleted files will take up hard drive space and bog down the system. I said I think I get it now. When I delete a file and it goes to the recycle bin, it is like taking trash out of the house to my trash cans in the backyard. Then I have to put the trash out to the curb for the garbage truck to take it away permanently.

I had been deleting files but not taking them to the curb. Now I am a recycle bin junkie. With great gusto I know how to hit the button that asks me if I want to permanently delete the recycle bin files. Right now there are 0 files in Steve Roll’s recycle bin! Amazing, almost miraculous!

Our minds are like a computer hard drive. You and I store files in our head.  Emotions attach themselves to our files. Some files are good, some bad, some happy some sad. We can retrieve, modify or delete personal memories and life experiences.

The Apostle Paul had a mental recycle bin. Paul called his past way of life before Christ “rubbish” or trash (verses 1-12). No recycle bin for Paul. Paul’s Christian life was not bogged down by the past that could have haunted him and slowed down his witness and work for the Lord. He trashed the trash. Deleted the recycle bin. 

Paul chose and made it a personal priority to delete his negative past in order to reach forward freely to the positive future he had in Christ.

Like Paul, you and I can have a victorious, fulfilling faith walk that looks forward, not backwards. How? By fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-3) and keeping our spiritual/emotional recycle bin empty. Negative past experiences don’t have to bog or slow us down and sideline us from going forward in Jesus’ name.  

Here are a few thoughts about emptying your recycling bin.

• Only you can keep your human hard drive clean and running efficiently.
• Stay current. Check up on your emotional recycle bin regularly.
• Delete hurtful memories and experiences from your heart and mind. 
• Don’t recycle your negative past. Delete it permanently.
• Create positive files and store them in your hard drive for easy retrieval.
• Empty recycle bins mean you and I won’t have to call upon a spiritual guru to bail us out. 

Any files in your personal recycle bin that need permanently deleted?

And by the way, this Google thing can be fun!

“But Jesus said to him, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62

“Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever  is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.” Philippians 4:8

A Word For Your Week: Delete what needs deleted in your life.

“For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.” Hebrews 6:10

Have you ever worked hard in Christian service and it seemed like nobody appreciated it….or even remembered?

You and I have been there. It is not fun when people forget the good things we do. And it seems so unfair.

Love, acceptance and approval is the deepest need of the human heart. Deep down in our hearts we all crave recognition. You love to be recognized, remembered and rewarded!

Having served the Lord as a Christian for forty years and as a Pastor for thirty-three years, I have learned that it is divine to remember and human to forget. A few of my gray hairs, which I am very proud of, are testimony that people often forget what I hope they might remember. Frustration can flood my heart quickly when people don’t acknowledge the labor of love I have given on their behalf.

It just seems like we humans are wired to forget. In all honesty, I have preached a sermon on Sunday and wondered what I said on Monday! Well, I do remember some of it! But why is it so easy for us to forget to remember?  It is a human thing. Throughout the Bible God reminded His people to remember what they should not forget? And they still forgot!

Our word for this week is so encouraging to those who serve. It brings a sigh of relief and a shout of joy to my servant’s soul.

Right up front the writer of our verse declares “For God is not unjust as to forget.”  I believe there is solid evidence that Paul probably wrote the Hebrew letter. This verse is written out of Paul’s personal history/experience of Christian service. The Apostle’s positive conclusion about Christian service sounds something like this: Life is not fair, but God is not unfair. Men may forget, but God never forgets the work and the love behind our works of service. He is careful to remember and reward our good works done in His name.

Please note that Paul recognizes the fact of “your work and the love that you have shown toward His name”. You and I may have memory lapses. The older I get the more lapses I am experiencing! God‘s memory never lapses. It is not possible for Him not to remember. God’s heavenly hard-drive never crashes. Every service file on each one of us is remembered, stored away, retrievable, and ultimately rewarded. That’s good news

The love we have for the Lord and the service we perform for Him is not forgotten, never wasted and never in vain.

Also note that the writer references past and continuing ministry: “Having ministered” and “still ministering to the saints.”  The phrase still ministering to the saints is there on purpose. Why? So that when we have ministered and are tempted to become discouraged that no one seems to notice, we will continue on in ministry…knowing the Lord will notice and remember.

When you and I settle it in our hearts that we serve the Lord and He will never forget our service, we will never quit serving people in His name. Christian service is not about me. It is about God and the people He has appointed for me to serve on His behalf.

Bottom line, Christian service boils down to whom are you serving anyway, God or men? If men, they will forget. If God, He will always remember.

Service for the King in His Kingdom should be fulfilling, not frustrating. If you want to know joy, unspeakable joy, serve in Jesus’ name and leave the remembering of your good deeds to Him. Remember that God will never forget what you do for Him.

   
A Few Frustration Reducing Thoughts for God’s Servants

• Remember that you are the Lord’s servant.
  
• Never forget whose glory you are serving for.
• Remember most people will forget what you do.
• Keep on serving people because of your love for the Lord.
• Never forget that the Lord is the rewarder of His servants.
• Rejoice daily that you get to serve people in Jesus’ name!

You and I are called, anointed and equipped to give and serve. It is our privilege and honor to love one another through service.

There is nothing more fulfilling and rewarding than serving people in Jesus’ name. God remembers what you do. He will reward you. So keep doing what He has called you to do and trust Him to keep score.

“But you be strong and do not lose courage for there is reward for your work.” II Chronicles 15:7

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”   I Corinthians 15:58

A Word For Your Week: Never forget that God never forgets.