"He is not here, He is risen!"

On Easter morning Jesus rose from the grave and conquered death. Jesus wants all people to get up and walk. He beckons us as He did the man crippled for 37 years lying beside the Pool of Bethesda, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk” (John 5:8). We know from the story that at once he got up and walked because he was healed. But notice in this story that Jesus also asked this man if he wanted to be healed. Why? Because he had lain at the poolside so long he had become accustomed to being a cripple. Are you used to being a cripple? Do you just accept your lot? Have you given up trying to reach up?  “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.  Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). Paul kept going saying there is “one thing” for him and that is pressing on toward the goal Christ has called him.  Have you given up because the world is just too much for you? Yes it is without God’s power in you.

 “Come”  (Matthew 14:28) Jesus said to Peter as He exhorted him to get out of the boat and walk on the water, and he did. Yes, Jesus and Peter walked on water overcoming nature. Jesus is God and can overcome all things. He has given to His believers the same ability. He has risen from the grave, ascended to heaven and sent His Holy Spirit to live with and within us. He beckons to us saying, “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it” (Isaiah 30:21).  God wants us to get up and walk. “He will teach us His ways, so that we can walk in His paths…let us walk in the light of the Lord”  (Isaiah 2:3&5).

God wants all to walk in the light as He is in the light (1 John 1). But so many walk in darkness or the ways of the world. “God is light and in Him there is no darkness at all” (1 John 1:5). It takes courage to overcome our fears and bad habits. We may indeed have troubles, we all do. But Jesus said, “In this world you will have trials, but take heart I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).

This Easter morning, walk in the light of His resurrection, “He is not here, He has risen” He has risen indeed!