Awakening

Praise Jesus for Easter Sunday!  Oh, what a joyous day it is.  This year in our house we have made some major changes to our past "Easter" celebrations, and, as a result, the Gospel of Jesus and the power of Jesus' resurrection has been revealed to me (and then passed on to my children) in a different way than ever before. 

First of all, let me explain some God spoken changes that we made this year...as a family, we participated in NO easter egg hunts, did not purchase Easter gifts or baskets, and, of course, made sure that our children knew the truth about the Easter bunny. (For a side note, if you don't know the truth about the Easter bunny, you should google it's origin and you will find very disturbing information about how he first represented a pagan celebration of the goddess of dawn.  For this reason and many more, our family will have no part of celebrations of little "g" gods...we know the one and only living, powerful capital "G" God and He's all we need.)  

We read the Word of God in our house often but this year we made sure to read the scriptures from the Bible (Luke - Chapter 23) that describe Jesus' crucifixion.  We also included Ephesians 4:8-9 which tells us what Jesus was doing during the time that His flesh was still in the tomb.  Then, this morning, Kate and I took a sunrise walk.  We played our Jesus songs and watched the sunrise over our neighborhood as we worshiped Jesus - the reason for our celebration on this day.  I look forward to also reading Luke Chapter 24 (the scriptures that tell us about Jesus' resurrection) when Luke wakes up this morning.

Through these changes of focusing on Jesus alone (and trying our best to shut out the world's eggs and bunnies), Jesus revealed this very simple revelation to me (and with the children)....

Did you know that on that first Easter day your identity changed?  Luke 24:36 says this, "Now while they were talking about this (the witnessing of seeing Jesus' alive on the road to Emmaus), Jesus Himself took His stand among them and said to them, 'Peace (freedom from all the distresses that are experienced as the result of sin) be to you!'"

Did you catch that?  Jesus Himself was reminding the disciples and other witnesses that they no longer had to identify with sin and the bondage/stress/guilt that comes with it. Jesus reminded them to identify with peace. On that day (on this day), Jesus' resurrection had defeated sin and replaced it with peace.  And...also on that day (on this day), Jesus' resurrection had defeated death and replaced it with eternal life.  So, praise Jesus - from that day forward, we no longer have to identify with sin, with guilt, with stress, with worry, with doubt - but we only identify with peace, with eternal life, and with the love and thankfulness of what Jesus has done for us.  

On that day of Jesus' resurrection, we became a son/daughter of God.  Our pathway - communication - relationship - with God, the Father, was restored.  All of the blessings of Heaven and the good treasures that God wants to give us became available.  The Kingdom of Heaven had come! And, of course, it's still here.  The Kingdom of Heaven is right here, right now - when we turn our sin over to Jesus and accept Him as our personal savior. 

Today, in churches all over the world, the Gospel of Jesus will be taught.  Today, many people who usually don't go to church will find a church and enter the doors.  I talked to God this morning and prayed that the Holy Spirit would go forth and bring people to Jesus today.  Romans 1:16 says, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek."  

Oh, friends, if you don't know Jesus as your personal savior today, call out to Him. Or, if you know Jesus and you are trusting Him as your savior from sins but you are still identifying with guilt from your past or you are struggling to overcome the temptations of this world, call out to Jesus today. Ask Jesus to reveal His identity to you.  Remember, Romans 8:10 says, "If Christ is IN you, the body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of righteousness."  Jesus has made you righteous in God's eyes (as soon as you accept Him). God doesn't see your dirty past but only your clean Spirit (that is one with Jesus).  So, now, ask God to help you begin to see yourself as He does - pure, clean, righteous. Tell yourself that you are a son/daughter of our loving heavenly Father.  Tell the enemy that those guilty "feelings" and reminders of your past are a LIE.  Don't let your mind identify with those dead things. You are NEW in Jesus and today is the day that represents that first Easter day that changed our identify forever. Oh, thank you Jesus!

This morning, as Kate and I watched the sun rise, we heard the song by Chris Tomlin called, "Awakening."  Some of the words said this..."Like the rising sun that shines from the darkness comes a light, I hear Your voice and this is my awakening."  

Just as the sun rises and overtakes the darkness, Jesus' power in you will overtake sin, stress, worry, and doubt as you let Him.  There is no darkness too powerful for Jesus. God proved that when He raised His Son from the dead...and, now this same power is IN us...Ephesians 1:19-20 says, "His incomparably great power for us who believe, that power is the same as the mighty strength He exerted when He raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms." 

With God's power in us, we can overcome all evil things in this simple way - identify with Jesus.  

Happy, happy Easter! Happy, happy resurrection day!!! Happy, happy identity changing day!!! Let the awakening (and revelation of our new identify) overwhelm us today and everyday!

Love,
Toddy