New Life

Today, as I was driving out and about, I noticed how green everything was getting. A week or so ago there were dry shriveled grass blades, no buds on the trees and a barren look all around. It is amazing what a lengthening daylight, an increase in temperature and rain will do to bring life to the seemingly dead surroundings.

I started thinking about Isaiah 53:2  in a magnificent prophecy about the coming Messiah which says:

 2For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: 

Jesus Christ came at a dry austere time in Israel and grew up in a disrespected locale (John 1:46). He had no political clout, formal education,  homiletic training, nor busting financial bank accounts and the only note on his resume was that he was God's son.

In Isaiah 11:1-2 Isaiah prophesies:

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:  And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD;

It was the spirit of the Lord that brought life to that day and time, the green effulgence of a life more abundant. God had a purpose for his life and when the people of that time rejected and killed him, God shot energy and power in his lifeless body to defeat the negative powers of this world. This same energy is available to any man or woman that chooses his Lordship and who readily acknowledges his resurrection and the power behind it. The resurrection defeated every possible challenge laid on man by the opposer.

1 Peter 2:24
Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.

Romans 6:4Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

We were planted with him by being immersed in his death which placed us in the position of being dead to sin. We have therefore risen with him through the energizing of a loving powerful God with fresh new vital eternally abundant lives. What a glorious event to celebrate! 

Happy Resurrection Sunday!