An Easter message for you, Friend 😊☀️✝️❤️🙏🙌🏼
Good morning, Friend!
Happy Easter!! Today is one of my favorite holidays of the year and I'm excited to share it with you! 😊
Easter is about the greatest moment in history so far - the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Messiah! It is about victory, hope, miracles, love, mercy, forgiveness, grace and eternal, spiritual life. I keep thinking about the joy on the faces of Jesus' followers when they found out that He was alive again and the excitement that followed. Now that hope is available to you and I, for all who will believe.
Easter comes at a time of year perfect for the occasion with plants coming back to life and blooming in beautiful colors. I saw this bleeding heart (below) on a walk yesterday and it made me think of God's heart - beautiful, soft, broken and bleeding, as Jesus bore the sins of the world on the cross.
God's heart began to break a long time ago at the first separation between Him and the first people He created, Adam and Eve, when they sinned in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3; Romans 3:23). The heartbreak continued as every person in history sinned and was separated from Him (Romans 3:23). But I believe the most painful moment for God occurred when Jesus took on all the world's sins and the Father had to look away, because He is holy and can't approve of sin (Habakkuk 1:13a). Jesus cried out in that moment, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" (Mark 15:34). Not only was this separation significant because it was between a Father and Son, but also because the relationship between them was eternal, longer lasting than any relationship any of us has ever been in ("In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... and the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us" (John 1:1,14); "Let Us make man in Our image" (Genesis 1:26).
God understands pain better than we do - relational pain, physical pain, emotional pain. And He understands what you and I are going through because He knows us intimately; He formed us and He knows all things.
O Lord, You have searched me and known me. 2 You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. 3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways. 4 Even before there is a word on my tongue, Behold, O Lord, You know it all. 5 You have enclosed me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is too high, I cannot attain to it.
He mourns with us, as Jesus mourned the death of His friend Lazarus and the sorrow of Lazarus' loved ones. He didn't have to, but...
John 11:35 Jesus wept.
And He is here to comfort us.
Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.
The Good News about Easter is that God provided us a way to overcome every struggle in life and be united with Him forever (through eternal life).
John 16:33 These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.
Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
May God's soft and broken heart bring you comfort, and His resurrection bring you hope and victory this Easter Sunday.
O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's a song, Christ is Risen, by Phil Wickham to enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMX9CNgRJCM
I pray you have a wonderful, miraculous day of hope, Friend. :)
With love,
Bailey
P.S. Would you like to know God personally? If so, please click here to find out how to start a relationship with God.
