Sunday, March 27, 2005

He is Risen!

John 11:23-27 (New International Version)

23 “Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24Martha answered, “I know he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; 26and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27“Yes, Lord,” she told him, “I believe that you are the Christ,[
a] the Son of God, who was to come into the world.”

Christians have passed through the most solemn week of their annual calendar. The time for grief has passed. It’s Easter morning and we today are celebrating His resurrection. He is Risen!

Two things - my thoughts, in metered form, will follow some thoughts from Oswald Chambers on this most glorious of mornings:

Have I Seen Him?

After that He appeared in another form to two of them.
(Mark 16:12)

Being saved and seeing Jesus are not the same thing. Many are partakers in God’s grace who have never seen Jesus. When once you have seen Jesus, you can never be the same, other things do not appeal to you as they used to.

Always distinguish between what you see Jesus to be, and what He has done for you. If you only know God for what He has done for you, you have not a big enough God; but if you have had a vision of Jesus as He is, experiences can come and go, you will endure “as seeing Him Who is invisible.”
The man blind from his birth did not know Who Jesus was until He appeared and revealed Himself to him. Jesus appears to those for whom He has done something; but we cannot dictate when He will come. Suddenly, at any turn He may come. “Now I see Him.”

Jesus must appear to your friend as well as to you; no one can see Jesus with your eyes. Severance takes place where one and not the other has seen Jesus. You cannot bring your friend unless God brings Him. Have you seen Jesus? Then you will want others to see Him too. “And they went and told it unto the residue, neither believed they them.” You must tell, although they do not believe.

O could I tell, ye surely would believe it!
O could I only say what I have seen!
How should I tell or how can ye receive it!
How, till He bringeth you where I have been?


The mist has been pierced; the darkness of death has been overcome. I believe! I know! I have seen Him; He is Risen!

Through the Mist
By
Phil Dillon

©2002 Phil Dillon


Sometimes I peer into the mist of time before time
And gaze at a place dimmed by the clouded glass of one event.
In that distant recess I see history bruised in a fleeting moment
That no man can retrieve.

I gaze and wonder how one moment, just one act of will
Could dim the hopes of years and hearts to be.
Silently I rage and plead, but the truth of time remains
The plague of hearts bowed heavy now in pain
Moves on through time . . . a pace that no man can relieve.

I fix my gaze. Can my eyes break through
The mist that separates me from innocence?
I fix my gaze and still the pain remains.
I fix my eyes and yet I can't perceive.

"There is no hope. Grace like time lies lost within the mist."
A voice now from the darkness strangely woos
And draws my heart to places filled with grief.
A voice to mock my plight,
A honeyed voice meant only to deceive.

In weariness of soul I turn my frame
And there I find a place to bow, a place to bend my knee.
A crossroad and a cross, a man like me.
One born the gift of new life to conceive.

As in a moment hearts and time were bruised
So now a moment heals the weary soul.
The spirit once held captive in the mist
Now moves within a precious veil of love.
A place to rest, a place to now believe.

I gaze once more and see the shackles loosed.
Multitudes now find a wondrous course
Of life and joy and hope for things to be
As through the mist new vision they receive.

He is Risen indeed!

May His life touch you on this glorious Easter morning!

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