Easter Changed the World

Easter is packed with essentials:

1.  Physical life is valuable.  Life is not just waiting for heaven.

2.  There is a resurrecting presence and power around us.

3.  Dying for us is the model of ultimate love and possibly the key to resurrection.  A model for all.

4.  Every human being, in giving, caring, helping, reaching out to others, showing loving kindness is a practitioner of "dying" for others.  New Life follows that kind of dying too.  (think of the Easter model).

5.  He lives!  In us, as well as in the great beyond.  The love within us is Jesus' love.  It is giving Jesus when we love someone.

The Good Lord Heals, Repairs and Restores

We have blamed God too much!  The problems in this world are the result of human breakdown, damaged genetics, individual decision-making.  The negative happenings in life should not be referred to using the words "the Lord's will"  or "God's will".

God shows up to heal, repair, renew us after the breakdowns of life.  Here is an example expressed by a famous TV personality Robin Roberts after an excruciating challenge with cancer:  "I have learned more about myself  through sorrow than through joy.  I am a better, stronger, more complete person because of these trials and tribulations."----Yes that is where our loving Lord Jesus really shows up.  It is after we are hit by the freight train.:
 

Love One Another

We were speeding along in the car pool lane when I noticed a motorcycle coming up behind us.  I moved a little over to the left to allow him to pass more comfortably.  As he passed he raised the three fingers on his left hand, as he held on to the handle bars.  It was a signal of appreciation.  It was love!  That small gesture lifted my spirits for the next half hour or more. He might have been an ex-convict, or a bum of some kind.  He might have been a godless atheist.  Nevertheless he has the love of God inside him and he sprinkled a little of that love on us as he passed.

That is how easy it is to be an instrument of the Lord Jesus,  And one can be that even if he doesn't know it.  We want him to know.  But he may not be open to that truth for a while.  But he is far more than he thinks he is.

Bad and Good

Nothing bad should be blamed on God.  It all comes from our human brokenness or our failure to plan, build, prepare for storms, disaster and breakdowns.  They happen in our world.  And they are not sent by God.

Recovery, healing, creativity, beauty, efficiency, comes from God.    God is there picking us up, re-newing our broken spirits, stimulating ideas and solutions, holding the shattered together.