JESUS SPEAKING

                When he arrived at the house of Jarus, he did not let anyone go in with him except Peter, John and James, and the child’s father and mother.  Meanwhile, all the people were wailing and mourning for her.  “Stop wailing,” Jesus said.  “She is not dead but asleep.” 

                They laughed at him, knowing that she was dead.  But he took her by the hand and said, “My child, get up!”  Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up.  Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat.  Her parents were astonished, but he ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened.

 

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

                Do you believe in miracles, or do you laugh just like those who were morning laughed at Jesus?  What miracles are going on around each and every one of us right now?  We are currently hurtling through space at 67,000 miles per hour, on a round globe that circles a sun 1 million times its size.  (Huge asteroids can crash in to the earth at any time.)  We circle at exactly the right distance so that we are not burned alive, and we are not frozen solid.  As the earth hurtles, the moon stabilizes it’s rotation in just such a way so as to make the weather mild enough for living things.  The earth’s core rotates in such a way as to deflect deadly radiation away from you and me.  The astronauts have not been able to shoot off to discover another planet because this radiation will kill them if they leave the earth’s protective barrier.  This globe is peopled with creatures of unique character.  Every creature has within it, a code, we know as DNA.  The DNA from a single person’s body would fit into two table spoons if it was stripped out.  The information in those spoons is so complex, that if it was written down in books, you could fill the Grand Canyon with them.  If this information from just one human being was unraveled, it would stretch back and forth from the earth to the moon and back…Five million times.  One tree has enough atomic energy in it to power the entire United States for one whole year; atomic energy comes from the splitting apart of atoms; strangely enough though, there is nothing identifiable that is holding them together to begin with…I know it is God; he holds everything together.  There are spiders that spin webs that resemble a parachute, and the wind carries them up higher than where 747’s fly.  These little spiders have populated the globe using their unique webs, as they were designed by God to do.  There is a seed in South America that can sit around for 1000 years, and all that seed needs is water and dirt, and after all that time, it will grow.  If all of the worms on this planet suddenly died, so would most of the plants, because the worms ventilate the soil, as God has designed them to do.  The honey bees’ brain calculates over a billion calculations per second, and the space shuttle’s computer, so big and bulky only calculates in the millions.  A woman’s womb, barren and empty, brings forth new people each and every day, from something that begins as nothing bigger than the period at the end of this sentence [.]  In that period is all of the information to build a machine that contains millions to billons of cells, each cell more complex than the computer on which you are reading these words right now.  One woman however, a virgin, whose womb was barren, brought forth someone over two thousand years ago who revealed the reason for all of these miracles.  His name is Jesus Christ.  In this scripture, that man raised a little girl from the dead.  Does this seem any more impossible than the other miracles I’ve mentioned?

                The impossible is scoffed at by those who are under the illusion that they are in control, and who are not very perceptive or observant of their surroundings.  These types of people laughed at Jesus in this scripture because he told them that the little girl was not dead, but sleeping.  He was about to accomplish something that was beyond their’ comprehension.  Yet Jesus didn’t do this miracle for the purposes of proving God’s power to anyone.  He told them not to tell anyone; so if this wasn’t to glorify God (although it did) what was the purpose?  The purpose was to reunite a Father and mother with the daughter they loved.  Compassion is the miracle.  Jesus came to reveal to us the heart of God.  Is God a God who sits on a throne and sees human beings as insignificant?  Or does He care?  Jesus reveals that God is loving; He is willing to forgive, He is concerned with the relationships between fathers and mothers and their children.  God, the eternal Father, and creator and guiding force of all of creation, is concerned about the personal relationships you and I have with one another.  He feels our pain, and he knows our trouble, and his heart is filled with compassion.  The compassion of God is what is so miraculous in this story.  In a sea of impossible things, God decided to make his love for us, the miracle he wanted us to focus on the most.

                Who is God to you?  Do you realize that He cares for you, and He loves you like a child; like Christ loved this little girl?  God desires that we be just as compassionate and loving as He is.  We are to emulate Jesus Christ.  His concern for a Father, a mother, and a child shows us that God is isn’t just all powerful, he is all loving, and all compassionate.  He wants to be reconciled to those we love, and to those he desires us to love.  So let’s be filled with compassion as we go out to minister to others.  Let’s see the world with God’s eyes, and let’s love others with His heart.

                “Lord Father, Lord Jesus Christ, we come before You humbled, and we truly want to know more about who You are, and we ask that You will not deny us when we wish to draw nearer to You.  Father, we love You, we love Your Son, and we want to be like Him, and we want to be like You; help us to be Your servants.  Help us Lord to be more like You.  We thank You, we praise You and we love You and we ask all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.  

JESUS SPEAKING

             “Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven.  For the son of Man has come to save that which was lost.  What do you think?  If a man has a hundred sheep, and one goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying?  And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.  Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish” (Mathew 18: 10-14.)

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

            Jesus gives a warning here, and when he gives a warning, it’s best to take it very seriously.  Indifference and distain for sinners is a symptom of an inner sickness.  Pride is the cause; those who fancy themselves as ‘good’ in comparison to those who are engaging in evil have become distant from God.  Followers of God share His heart and God’s heart beats for all people; sinners and saints alike.  Many of the religious leaders were criticizing Jesus for being friendly to tax collectors and prostitutes.  Those who were self-righteous misjudged God’s love for all of His children.  God loves sinners so much he sent his Son in to the world as His shepherd; his purpose, to gather together the lost sheep and to bring them back in to ‘the fold.’  God, contrary to popular belief, is not some distant, vengeful, angry God, but rather a loving Father, eager and ready to forgive [but many refuse to accept His love and His forgiveness.]  God feels pain when he sees one of his children destroying themselves.  So if God feels compassion and sorrow and love for the lost, those who call Him Father should share his concerns, his desires, and a love.  A love for God Himself, a true love, spills over in to a love for the things that God loves; and God loves the lost.

            Jesus illustrates this when he describes the story of the Prodigal Son.  I will paraphrase the story for you, ‘There were two sons of a wealthy Father [the Father represented by God.]  One of the Sons asked for his inheritance early, and he went in to a far country and spent it on wild living (women, parties.)  When the money was gone, he tried to work, and he began to be starved; as he was feeding the pigs, he wanted to eat the food he was giving to them.  He came to his senses, and decided to return home, hoping that his Father would take him back as a lowly servant and not a son.  When he came home, his Father ran to him, kissed him, put sandals on his feet, and a robe on him, and demanded that all of the household celebrate.  They killed an animal to cook and went in doors and began to dance and play music.  The Father said ‘my son was dead, but is alive again to me.  He was lost and is found.’  The father had gotten something back that was irreplaceable.  The Son was mistaken about his Father’s reaction to his return, because he misjudged the love of a father for his son (much like we do today as well when it comes to God.)  As they were all celebrating, the Son who had stayed (the one who had acted and behaved properly all of those years) refused to celebrate.  He wasn’t happy that his brother was alive, and that his brother had returned.  The Father came out from the party and begged his Son to join them as they celebrated; but he hated his hatred for his brother created a rift between he and his Father.  (In this parable, the Jews who were self-righteous were represented by ‘The Good Son.’  The sinners and prostitutes who were coming to Jesus to give their lives back to God were represented in this story by ‘the son who returned home.’  The Party is heaven, where God is, which the second son refused to enter because he hated his brother so much.)  Instead of celebrating and being happy that lost people were coming back to God in the days of Jesus, the religious leaders condemned Jesus, because they had always valued themselves in comparison to the ungodly and unrighteous.  (Suddenly, they were losing their value) and so they turned on Jesus and refused to join in on the celebration.  This hatred, this pride, had separated them from the very God they proposed to worship and love.

            Today, in this place, anyone who comes to believe in Jesus Christ becomes a shepherd, sent out in to the world to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ.  The shepherds share the same heart with God.  As shepherds we must never look down upon sinners or separate ourselves from them.  Rather, we need to love them and let them know about the loving Father they have that has sent us out to seek after them.  Has God called you to reach out to the person sitting next to you?  Are there any people at your work, in your family, on the bus, in the coffee shop, that need to hear about this Father?  The message is love, and we are His messengers in this place.  Let’s reach out to our brothers and sisters who are struggling, and let’s do it with the love of God in our hearts.

            “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You now and we lift You up; You are an awesome and mighty God.  Lord, we ask that you remove any pride in our hearts that is separating us from You.  We ask that You help us to have Your compassion, and Your love for those who are lost.  Help us to continue Your work here in this place, and guide us by Your Holy Spirit.  We love You Father, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things, in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”  God bless all of you.

JESUS SPEAKING

            Mary came to the tomb on the third day to find it empty; she was weeping and peering in to the tomb when she turned around to see a man standing before her, but she didn’t know that it was Jesus.  The scripture is what follows,

            Jesus spoke to her and said, “Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you seeking?”  She, supposing him to be the Gardner, said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.”  Jesus said to her, “Mary!”  She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (Which is to say, Teacher).  Jesus said to her, teacher, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’”  Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things to her (John 20: 15-18.) 

INSPIRED THOUGHTS

              Jesus Christ had been spit on, whipped, kicked, beaten, punched, yelled at, stabbed, and pierced with nails and a spear, and Mary Magdalene had been there to witness it all.  She had most likely held his Mother Mary who was also there to witness her Son being disrespected.  When she arrived to find an empty tomb her heart and mind were overwhelmed with grief, supposing that someone had desecrated his body even after his death.  She did not yell at the person she thought was the Gardner, but asked in humility where the body was.  The man she supposed was a stranger called her by name, saying “Mary” and her despair turned to elation.  She had desired to find the missing lifeless body of her master, but instead she discovered the living Son of God standing before her.  She was so overjoyed she wanted to embrace him, but Jesus would not allow it; instead he told her to take a message to his brothers who were mourning as well.  He wanted her to tell the disciples that he had been resurrected and was going to ascend.  What began with a search for a dead body, resulted in the discovery of the risen Christ.

             Many people have gone to the tomb looking for a dead Jesus, but when they get there, they find that he has been raised.  One man that comes to mind is Frank Morrison.  He was famous for writing his book, “Who moved the stone.”  Frank had grown up in a family where he was taught to think in a rationalistic way.  During his life, he decided to take three years off from work to disprove the resurrection of Jesus.  After examining the evidence, he came to conclude that the resurrection did in fact take place.  He wrote the book ‘who moved the stone,’ and the first chapter was entitled ‘the book that refused to be written,’ in honor of the book he didn’t write that would have disproven the resurrection.  Frank Morrison went to the tomb, just like Mary Magdalene, and just like Mary Magdalene he found a risen Lord.

             Today, the majority of the world, Christian and non-Christian alike, would concede that a man named Jesus Christ lived; they will even concede that he was crucified on the cross, and perhaps that he taught many good things.  I have met many atheists who would not debate these facts.  The great majority of them would even say, Mary did find the tomb empty.  (They may give a rationalistic explanation for why it was empty; many non-believers will say his followers came and broke in and stole the body to make it look like he had risen from the dead.)  Where do the believer and the non-believer part ways.  Might I suggest it occurs right when Mary says ‘Rabboni.’  The moment she sees Jesus Christ alive and well is where the believer believes, and the doubters scoff.  Today, the question remains.  Do you believe that Jesus Christ stood before Mary?  Do you believe he is ascended in to heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God?  If you believe, then your sadness will turn to joy, your doubt will be transformed in to hope, and your life will be sustained by a future with the Lord in His kingdom.  Christ has risen indeed, and because he has risen, we will rise with Him.

             “Lord Heavenly Father, we come before You now, knowing that Your Son is beside You, and Your Holy Spirit is within us.  We thank You that You raised Your Son from the dead and we believe; we trust that You will raise us up just like You raised Him up, and we look forward to our future with You and with Him, in Your Kingdom?  Lord, help us to bring the report of the resurrection to others that their tears may turn to joy.  We love You Father, we praise You, and we thank You, and we ask and pray all of these things in Jesus Christ’s name.  Amen.”