Living in the Ressurection

Are you living in the resurrection? What does it mean to live in the resurrection? How do you live in the resurrection?

In light of Easter and the resurrection of Christ, the defeat of death, and the promise we have in him, it is so easy to forget that we live in the wake of an all powerful God. It is sad but true, we go to easter service at church and as we leave we quickly realize that we have the same problems as we did before we went to Easter service. We feel burdened, that the world is weighing us down with work and worries and all too quickly we forget what we just celebrated, that Jesus has conquered the grave and wants us to bring our burdens to him.

What does it mean to live in the resurrection? It means to have faith that Jesus has gone ahead of us to prepare our place and that the problems of this world mean nothing because our salvation is secured. So in the mean while, here on Earth, we can lift our burdens, our hurts, our struggles to God because if Jesus can conquer the grave he can most certainly conquer our problems. Living in the resurrection means living a new life of joy and confidence in Yahweh.

How do you live in the resurrection? I can't tell you, but what I can tell you that it looks different than how the rest of the world lives. There is a quality that will draw people to you, they won't know why and maybe you won't either but by being yourself in the resurrection of Christ you will be doing more than you could ever believe.

Be joyful in your temptation

Ok today was one of those days where I finally truly understood what Paul was saying about being joyful in your sufferings. I'm going to change sufferings to temptations for the purpose of this story.

I've been in a weird place for a while. Because of who I am and how I am I don't think anybody has been fully aware of me not being normal. To begin I must start with yesterday. Yesterday I went on a hike. During this hike I had a little one on one time with God and I had a realization, that made me realize that I need to get life back together and priorities straight. So I made a promise to God and to myself to do this.

Fast forward to today. Today I had an offer to to back on my promise to God. The offer was oh so tempting however I abstained by the grace of God. In not going back on my promise I reflected on this challenge. I realized that this offer was not a coincidence in fact it was a test. God was testing me to see if I was for real with my promise.

In my temptation I found some character that I have been missing for such a long time. It gave me hope for the future and getting my priorities straight. Because of this I have reason to be joyful, not only did I pass God's test but I came out stronger, and better for it. I am joyful because in that moment I showed God my heart and desire to be committed to him.

Today I understood scripture and it gives me joy that I have an all loving and gracious God that cares for me, knows my heart, and believes in me, even when I do not.

God: the master artist

 

Ok so have you ever found yourself thinking, God now your just showing off. Well I found myself saying that this evening when I was driving home. The scene in the sky was amazing, the clouds were covering most of the sky, the sun was shining through it in such a way you can see the beams of light breaking through, and the sun colored the clouds in neat shades of blue and orange. And I thought, God, now your just showing off.

That got me thinking. What would it be like to paint with the clouds, or to watercolor with rain or I don't know, craziness like that. I'm pretty sure God does, and it is amazing what he can come up with. Also what would it be like to have your art change throughout the day. To have it be cold and rainy and just basically nasty outside but to know that in just a few hours something beautiful will form.

Can you imagine? How exciting would it be to know something amazing is on its way. To be able to say, "just wait you'll see." I think God tells us this all the time, he is painting this masterpiece in our lives and we are in the rain he is saying, "just wait and you'll see... just wait and you'll see."