His Presence!

It is true! The Lord has risen! He has risen indeed! Luke 24:34

This week we, as Christians, experience Holy Week. The week takes us from the Last Supper to the arrest of Jesus and subsequent mock trial,through the crucifixion, and finally to the resurrection.We experience a roller coaster ride of emotions as we walk through the week.

Many times, but especially during this time of year, I am extremely aware of things in this world that tangibly show the presence of Christ. Early Friday morning as I looked out the kitchen window, I saw the first hummingbird of the season. He drank from one feeder and then quickly buzzed by the others on his way to inform his friends of the find! These small creatures are poof of God’s presence in this world!

These “presences” remind me of the great sacrifices Jesus made on my behalf, and the crown He has for all of us in glory. Only one man who promised to rise from the dead kept his promise, and that man is Jesus. There are countless examples of others who made this claim, but Harry Houdini, the magician, is one who promised he would come back from the dead and talk to his friends. Some of his friends actually consulted mediums to see if there was any word from him from beyond the grave! There never was!

In order to keep His promise to us, Jesus suffered a horrendous death on the cross. The nails which pierced him represented all of our sins. He took on and felt the pain of our envy, anger, shame, discouragement, guilt, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Through all the suffering, not once did Christ use His powers for personal comfort. With just a word, He could have transformed the hard earth into a soft bed, hurled the spit of His accusers back in their faces, and paralyzed the hands of those who drove the nails into his flesh, but He didn’t. Instead, He cancelled the record of the charges against us and took it away by His suffering and death on the cross.

Satan set God up in order to bring him down, and for three days, it looked like Satan had won. Then, on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and turned Satan’s plans upside down. He disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities and shamed them publicly by His victory over the cross. The resurrection is ultimate proof that He is Lord!

The greatest proof of the resurrection is found in the transformed lives of people all over the world. The story is told of the first world meeting between Bush and Putin where President Bush wanted to be sure they connected on a personal level. In order to do this, Bush brought up a story he had read about Putin. The story goes that Putin’s mother had given him a Christian cross, and Putin had it blessed while he was in Jerusalem. Bush had been touched by the story.

Putin told a story in response. He said that he had taken to wearing the cross, and one day he set it down in a house he had been visiting. Strangely, the house had burned down and all Putin could think about was that his cross was lost in the ruble. He visited the site after the fire, and he motioned for a worker to come to him so that he could ask him to look for the cross. The worker walked over to Putin, stretched out his hand, and showed him the already recovered cross.

Putin said to Bush, “It was as if “something” meant for me to have the cross,” inferring that he believed in a higher power. Bush replied, “President Putin, that’s what it’s all about, that’s the story of the cross.”

The story of the cross is that God intended it just for us.

The songwriter A.J. Ackley puts it like this: “You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.” Today Christ is working in this world. The thing Satan feared the most, the birth of the church with the power to change the world through the gospel has come to pass.

As we anticipate the celebration of Easter, I encourage you to look for the presence of God in the everyday things of this life.

Happy Easter!