You' got this! last look at Easter, 2019

You' got this! last look at Easter, 2019

click to listen to podcast:

http://www.pastorwoman.com/…/c38f79d7-84a4-4a9a-b97a-b7cc79…

More than anything else in the whole wide world, the events we celebrated in the last several days mean you are loved by God.

And your perspective of the impact of the resurrection of Jesus on your life is critical. Because Jesus rose from the grave, it sets him apart in all of history - if he had not, he would have been just another good teacher, who maybe wasn't really so good, because he was a liar. 'I still fail to see why that event/the resurrection impacts my daily life,' said the honest skeptic friend of mine I often hear in my head.

Here it is, my friend. 
1. When you choose to cast your lot with the resurrected Savior, you are a new creation. Paul said it this way: "if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here!"1 We are no longer who we used to be. We are not who the world tells us we are . . . and in some cases, not who we are in our own heads! We are who he tells us we are when we cast our lots with his--redeemed children of God.

2. The historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ means as his children we have eternal life. "For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life."2 That is why the Gospel really is good news.

3. Resurrection means death does not have the last word. Again, Paul: But the truth is that Christ has been raised from death, as the guarantee that those who sleep in death will also be raised.3 You and I will see our loved ones who believed in Jesus again; we will be reunited with them!

4. Because all things are made new in Christ, we are not bound by religiosity or the Law.4 That means the most to you if you have been under the oppression of rules and regulations. Ask a Muslim woman who has found Christ. Now she can pray even if she is on her feminine cycle, even if Allah forbid, she is wearing nail polish. Ask a former Orthodox Jew who no longer has to get rid of all leaven, ask anyone who has tried to work out their faith or righteousness through upholding regulations imposed by people, aye, especially religious people. Ugh.

5. Because of the resurrection, because we serve a living God, we not only can be renewed, we can be transformed! We do not have to be conformed to some rigid construct, or held in bondage to anything, rather we are called to be transformed. That's because Christ came to set us free - even free from our own thinking. 
How I love the reminder that my loved one who has been caught in addiction can be radically transformed through Jesus Christ! Check out the invitation in Romans 12.1-2.

And then I remind you today - wherever you find yourself in the world in whatever circumstance-crippled by physical or emotional pain, trapped in a wearing-out body, lost in a lonely marriage, despairing over your loved one, fearful of the first of the month bills that will come to you . . . you have the power of the risen Lord in you.5 Jesus told the disciples that they would do even greater things than he did because the Holy Spirit would be in them. Believing friend, that is you. You are not powerless-far from it. You have the Holy Spirit of God living within you; in him, you have strength, endurance, perseverance, self control and discipline.

Once again, all of this comes to you, ready for you to grab a hold of because you are loved by God. Listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OmYhgvwQa8
"I Am Loved" ~ new song by Mack Brock.

With love,

Christine Todd DiGiacomo

PastorWoman.com

1 - 2 Corinthians 5.17, NIV
2 - John 3.16, Christian Standard Bible
3 - 1 Corinthians 15.20, GNT
4 - Galatians 6.15
5 - Romans 8.11