Praise God for Our Generation’s Best Easter Ever!
God has brought a Victorious New Meaning to “He is Risen” this year!
Well, “new” is relative. It’s new to us.
But it’s just as Victorious — and Glorious! — as it’s always been.
The message He is sending us with this, uh, very unique Easter (need I even bother with this quick reminder that most church leaders have urged their congregations to stay home today?) is as bold and exciting — and did I mention VICTORIOUS! — as the one He delivered through the Prophet Isaiah at the end of His People’s long exile in Babylon.
“Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.” — Isaiah 43:19 ESV
That message comes in Isaiah just as Babylon is defeated and Israel is set free from its decades of captivity. And, while I’ve been hearing — and quoting — that first sentence a lot lately, it’s the second sentence that’s key:
As God’s New Thing sprang forth for Freed Israel, it was clear His People still had much work to do. For starters, a long trek across a dangerous desert still separated them from their home Jerusalem. And they knew they would be returning to a Jerusalem long since abandoned and destroyed.
We modern folks already know that Jerusalem — and God’s Holy Temple — ended up fully populated and restored. But those long-suffering former captives needed God’s assurances in that all-important second line.
My blessed modern friends, let’s CELEBRATE God’s renewal of that same promise today.
His Church is far from “closed” today! Praise be to God, it is more alive than ever!
Our little ole’ Father’s House Church down here in rural Texas, for example, has reached 1,000 people or more with its online worship services each of the last three weeks. With those numbers, you might never know we usually have 25-30 show up for “regular” services. Ha! Take that, devil!
Ministries across the world are likewise THRIVING these days in countless ways via the Internet. Christians are CONNECTED. And they are CONNECTING like never before. (I was about to turn to linking to the many church and ministry websites I know of that have been abuzz for weeks with Glorious activity. But I’ll save that for another post.) Just look at Facebook! Just check your email or text messages. Just watch the videos of our US President PRAYING publicly and passionately. (And many of his most passionate critics and opponents praying FOR him, too.) You can’t get away from God’s Good News in social media these days! And, yes, that’s a typical hallmark of Easter. But this has been going strong since well before Holy Week this year!
And there’s more! Praise be to Him!
Several neighbors and I woke to a blessed front yard worship meeting (maintaining our safe social distance, of course) just after sunrise today. We are all members of different churches, and we all agreed that our blessed fellowship would have never happened on a “normal” Easter.
But now, we have a new tradition, and I’m guessing it’ll happen again well before next Easter. (And, to think, just a week ago, most of us in this blessed little group would have been hard pressed to put an accurate name to every face. Today, we are all fairly well versed in each others’ life stories. )
I have heard tell of similar little miracles brewing these last few days all across our world. Testimonies are a plenty: families are closer than ever! Old high school and college friends are reuniting! Relationships are healing! Prayers are abundant! Fear is LOSING!
Do you perceive this New Thing, friend? Lord, I certainly do! Praise be to You for all that is!
Alas, for some, it’s clear our future will be “bleak.” And, let us not be fooled: we believers certainly still have our own desert trek before us. We’re not yet even clear of COVID-19, of course, and there’s a “potential worldwide economic depression” looming. And, on top of all that, there’s the “more active than usual hurricane season” many experts have predicted for the coming weeks.
But, for believers, it’s time to rejoice in God’s New Thing! We are free from the “captivity” of our old ways! Let us celebrate! Let us move forward on His path to victory!
I am excited to note that I am far from alone in my joy over this! I’ve already seen it declared several times social media today: “This is our BEST EASTER EVER.”
Again, I say, Praise the Lord for All That Is. He stands ready to make our Future even better than this Easter!
Through this world-wide shutdown — which I’ve come to think of as God’s forgiving reset for humanity — the Lord has our attention like never before. In that, we can all now empathize (at least a little) with the emotions our first Christians must have felt upon The Crucifixion. God certainly had their attention on that Saturday, did He not?
But on this, Our Best Easter Ever, we can now also have a small taste of what those early Christians felt upon their Holy discovery on that First Easter.
He is Risen, Indeed!
And that means the same for us as it did for the first Christians. It’s Go Time, brother’s and sisters!
It’s Our Time, dear friends, to Trust in His Path to rebuild our “Jerusalem.”
Lord, let us go! Praise be always unto You for all that is!