After the Crucifixion of Christ comes the resurrection.

Dear friends,

I greet you in Jesus' Precious name.

It is such a wonderful time of the year to remember what our Blessed Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, has done for each one of us. After the Crucifixion of Christ comes the resurrection.

I would like us to really meditate on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. One of my favourite scriptures in the Bible comes from Romans 8:11 (NKVJ) "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you." That is such a powerful scripture. It is a scripture that will liberate us from the burdens, from the fears and from the pressures that this earthly life puts upon each of us. You see, it is actually Christ in us, which is the hope of Glory (Colossians 1:27.) So what we need to do this Easter, is to release our affections from everything else. We need to give to God all those whom we hold dear to us and leave them in God's hands and stop worrying. Jesus tells us very clearly in His word that tomorrow has its own worries. We need to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7, NKJV "casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you".) And this will free us from distractions and enable us to seek after the Lord Himself.

One thing I've learned about the Lord, while serving Him these past years and that is, He is faithful and His word can be believed and trusted. In fact if we look at Matthew 24:35 (NKJV) the Word of God says very clearly "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away." So, in these times, when many things are constantly changing, one thing is still sure and that is God's promises. Jesus Christ is no longer in the Tomb, He has been raised from the dead. Now the scripture in Romans 8:11 confirms that if we allow Jesus' Holy Spirit to dwell within us that same Spirit that raised Christ from death will also give us new life.

I have had the privilege of going to Israel, going to the garden tomb, going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and I can assure you, there are no bones in that tomb. We can go to the memorial of King David, you will find his tomb and in his tomb, are his remains. There are many other people who walked this earth. You can go to their graves and you will see some embalmed like the mummies in Egypt, some in great cathedrals, but Jesus' tomb is empty, because He is not there. He is in Heaven; He has been raised from the dead. I want to encourage you to cast off those grave clothes that you have been wearing and to start to walk in the Spirit. Start to trust God, start to realise that you are a citizen of Heaven and not of this earth. Matthew Henry, once said "Our duty as Christians is to always keep Heaven in our eye and earth under our feet". Yes, we live on earth, but we are citizens of Heaven. That is exactly what Jesus kept on telling His disciples when He walked on the earth with them. We are mere sojourners, we are travellers in a foreign land and yet the way some of us are stressing and worrying about things, we would think that we will live here forever. We really need to start to focus on eternal life. We need to understand that this life and things that have eternal value.

Jesus only lived on this earth for 33 years and His ministry only lasted for 3 years and yet there is no one who has ever lived who has impacted this world more than Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the Spirit of God that raised this carpenter's Son from the grave, dwells in us. If we concentrate on Him and give Him first place in our lives this year, which is already well spent, we will see change in our lives and in our outlook towards the future, so trust God and go out and attempt great things for God and expect great things from God. That's what William Carey said and he did it. He impacted India like no other missionary has ever done, simply because he allowed the Spirit that raised Christ from the dead to work through him.