The Christian life is a lot like those rose bushes. In order for a rose bush to produce more flowers you have to remove all the dead roses from the bush. In much the same way, God gets a Christian to produce more Christlikeness when the dead weights and sins are pruned from a believer's life.
In January of this year I suffered a stroke which left me partly incapacitated. I’ve not been able to fully use my left leg or foot since then and am actively involved in exercise and rehabilitation. The Lord has been gracious and has helped me each day to “re-learn” the use of this leg. Thanks to the assistance of my wonderful wife and kind friends, I am well on the way to recovery. But we don’t know what it means to be without body parts until we are interrupted in the usage of them. The smallest tasks, especially of mobility, suddenly become daunting.
The first eleven chapters of Genesis tell big news: God creates everything, sees humankind fallinto sin, judges humanity by a global flood, spares only Noah and his family, and watchespeople try to build a tower to heaven their own way. But bigger news in Genesis will follow.
Grief has become once again a part of our family’s heart condition. The fact that I have a master’s degree in counseling and have done some counseling with those going through the grieving process does not ease the feelings of loss I feel. Over the last few days, I have returned to my books and studies on the issues of grief.
“Bless the LORD, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” (Ps. 103:1-2) I have found too often in life that loud hosannas more easily come forth from a comfortable, blessed, relatively trouble-free existence than from the soul that is struggling to find the way through valleys of despair, pain, and hopelessness.
“But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober and watch unto prayer.” After all, only the Father knows.
“Thy words were found, and I did eat them…” (Jeremiah 15:16a)
Once there was a boy who wanted to become a chef. He admired pots and pans as a toddler, studied ingredients and recipes as a boy, and mastered double boilers and woks while still a teenager.
Fully human, Jesus wept. Fully divine, Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. “Jesus wept” captures so much.
Resurrection Sunday is not about rabbits, baby chicks or colored or chocolate eggs. It is about the death, burial and glorious resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
