Happy Resurrection Day!

Focus on the details

“He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again.’ ” Luke 24:6-7 

Today we celebrate Resurrection Sunday!  It was the day that Jesus got up from being dead and walked out of a dead man’s tomb.  Throughout this previous week we all have probably thought about Jesus and His death, burial and resurrection many times.  We have all probably had different thoughts about the details of the things Jesus went through leading up to His death.  Some may have focused on the beating He took, others may have thought about the crowd jeering and mocking Him.  You may have thought about Jesus carrying His own cross to be nailed to.  There may have been thoughts of His suffering as He hung on the cross.  Probably some were reminded of the words He spoke on the cross, then the tomb and the three days He spent lying there lifeless.  My point is that this is the one week each year that we really take time to focus on all the details of what Jesus actually did to save us from an eternity of separation from God and without Him we would spend our eternal life suffering in hell.  

However, what details will you be focused on tomorrow?  Will you immediately shift your attention back to the world and the current crisis we are in?  Will you scan the headlines to see what the greatest threat is for this week?  Will you learn every detail and possible outcome to discuss in every conversation you have?  Why does our focus have to change?  Why do we have to turn our attention away from the price Jesus paid to free us from the current world circumstances?  Why don’t we instead keep our attention on the details of heaven?  Can we keep our focus on the details of our God and the details of our Savior, Jesus?

Think about this:  What if you spent as much time studying and getting to know your Heavenly Father as you spend watching the news or learning about current events this week?  What if you focused on the details of heaven and the joy that is waiting for you there?  Why not learn, down to the last detail about the love of God?  How He created us to have dominion over this world?  How He sent Jesus to defeat His enemy and every evil work he ever did in this world or ever will do?  Sin has been defeated!  Death has been defeated!  Sickness has been defeated!  Disease has been defeated!  Anxiety, worry, doubt, fear, all defeated.  He hung on a cross so we wouldn’t be crushed or even threatened by any attack of the enemy, right now, here in this world! The work Jesus did on the cross was so big and encompassing, there is nothing that can stand against it.  Nothing!!!  It wasn’t just a partial work of Salvation for after we die, it was a complete work of redemption so we can live this life in total victory!  Evil is not our focus, Victory is!  

Today I want to encourage you to keep your focus on the details of your Savior, Jesus!  You already have the victory!  Please stop looking at the things that have already been defeated!  They are not a threat to God or His people, but the only way to believe that is to focus on the God details, not the world details.  We are more than conquerors through Jesus!  Let’s start living like we believe it!

Today’s scripture reading:  Luke 24:1-12

1 But very early on Sunday morning the women went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. 

2 They found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 

3 So they went in, but they didn’t find the body of the Lord Jesus. 

4 As they stood there puzzled, two men suddenly appeared to them, clothed in dazzling robes.

5 The women were terrified and bowed with their faces to the ground. Then the men asked, “Why are you looking among the dead for someone who is alive? 

6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead! Remember what he told you back in Galilee, 

7 that the Son of Man must be betrayed into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and that he would rise again on the third day.”

8 Then they remembered that he had said this. 

9 So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened. 

10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and several other women who told the apostles what had happened. 

11 But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it. 

12 However, Peter jumped up and ran to the tomb to look. Stooping, he peered in and saw the empty linen wrappings; then he went home again, wondering what had happened.