It’s a “Living on the Wrong Side of Easter” Day
LORD, WE THANK YOU AND WE PRAISE YOU BECAUSE EARLY ONE SUNDAY YOU GOT UP. AMEN.
To live after Easter one must believe that the Resurrection of Jesus is real. As a Preacher of the Gospel, I am certain that Christ survived death and proved His survival to His followers, appearing to them repeatedly in what Mark 16:12 says. “Another form” Think about it! Why in the world should eleven cowards, especially Peter, who were locked in a room, full of fear, go out and preach the Resurrection to those who could have made them look like bigger fools than ever and ended the Christian religion? Why should they go and die for their belief, if the Resurrection was not real? They did it because they lived on the right side of Easter. They lived after Easter. To live after Easter, one must also believe that Evil doesn’t have the last word. If you read the first Christian sermons, found in the books of Acts, you will see that they were not about the teachings of Jesus, but about His death and especially His resurrection. And they did this to prove the impeccable fact that all the cruelty and violence of Rome, or the jealousy and hatred of the Jews did not defeat God. Yes, Evil no longer had the last word. Even the early church was persecuted and threatened for centuries with the power of Imperial Rome, but listen to Paul just before he was beheaded: “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus for the divine nature was His from the first but He made Himself nothing…. He humbled Himself and in obedience accepted even death, on a cross.” Therefore God raised Him to the height and bestowed upon Him the name above all names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess, Jesus Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father.” Oh Paul couldn’t have said that before Easter. But he could and he did say it after Easter, for he knew then that evil never has the last word.
Now this seems to me to have a most relevant bearing on our lives today! You see very few of us, if any, have escaped suffering or sharing the suffering of others. Now before the first Easter, this was looked upon as a punishment of God. But Jesus tells us that each of us has a cross to bear. Into each life some rain must fall. But whatever you do, don’t live on the wrong side of Easter. For Christ never offered us immunity from the disaster. He rather implied that we would not only have to face what others face, but face more for His sake. He says, “Men will persecute you and chase you from city to city. Men will put you to death and think they are doing Gods’ service. “But He added, “He that endures to the end shall be saved. He said, “He would be with us in all our sorrows and that if we plodded on in the Easter faith we should find the way home someday.” And more ever, if God can weave a tragedy like the brutal murder of Jesus, into a plan called the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ, and the cross, once a symbol of shame like a hangman’s rope is now the symbol of triumph, then He can take your cross and make that a triumph too. For eye hath not seen, nor ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive the thing God hath prepared for them that love Him. We must learn this lesson for we live after Easter.
So Beloved, if bereavement has reduced you to unquenchable sorrow, then you are Living on the Wrong Side of Easter! If your frustration has made you believe that life has no meaning – Then you are living on the Wrong Side of Easter! If you think that your body cannot be healed from any sickness by God, Then You Are Living on the Wrong Side of Easter! If you think folk can use and abuse you and call you everything but a child of God and never reap what they sow – Then You Are living on the Wrong Side of Easter! If evil and suffering in this world has brought you to the point that your faith is gone and you believe that God is dead or out of control, Then You Are Living on the Wrong Side of Easter! Wrong side, Wrong side. Somebody say: “Wrong side!” AMEN.
This is Rev. Dr. Wm. Rocky Brown, 3rd letting you know that GOD and I Love you and we approve this message because we want to motivate your mind, body & soul. So be happy and enjoy the blessings of The LORD today my friend! Please subscribe to my web site to continue to receive these daily messages at: http://www.yourspiritualmotivation.com
This material is copy written and legally protected.
