He is Risen!
It’s now a few days after our Resurrection Celebrations World Wide. I’m still rejoicing and humbled how every year the Crucifixion & Resurrection take on a deeper meaning for me.
I’ll never forget that very first Sunrise Service I took part in when I was 15 years old. It was little Azalea garden in Smiths Station, Alabama where a small number of people gathered together to see the sun come up, sing a few songs and read the Resurrection Story. Even though I had not formally accepted the call to preach, other people realized there was a calling to some kind of leadership on my life and they asked me to read the story.
This was my first real encounter with the Holy Spirit! I had never sensed the Power of God like I did that first Resurrection morning. I wonder if the women felt the same thing. Or were they still so overwhelmed with the grief of seeing the Lord crucified on the Friday before, they didn’t realize the magnitude of what was taking place?
Luke tells us that after His resurrection “He showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs” (Acts 1:3). Ever since that fateful day as a 15-year-old, Jesus has proved Himself to me with “many infallible proofs”; so many proofs that I want to stand on top of the highest build and scream “JESUS IS LORD!!!!!”
But why do we say when speaking of the Resurrection, “He is Risen?” I was thinking of this recently when the thoughts ran through my inner man, “because His name is not, I was, or I will be: He is I AM that I AM!
Just as faith always IS and never WAS, He IS risen because He is our very PRESENT help in trouble. [Psalms 46/Hebrews 11:1] Because He lives, He will always be present because He will never leave us nor forsake us.
Yes, he was raised from the dead by the Spirit of His Father; and will forever be IS Risen.
It’s Tuesday after the Resurrection; and He is STILL Risen.
