From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. 46About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). 47When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “He’s calling Elijah.” 48Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge. He filled it with wine vinegar, put it on a staff, and offered it to Jesus to drink. 49The rest said, “Now leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.” 50And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split 52and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. 53They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. 54When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”
Ohhhh it was a glorious day! One of the very first warm and sunny spring days, so we decided to go for a walk at the park. Well, we HAD to go down by the river. It could not be ignored! It was loud and violently crashed against every rock and branch in it’s way. It was extremely combative and aggressive as it forced it’s way down the river bed taking debris, leaves, small stones and any other matter that dared get in it’s way! The Lackawanna River would not be stopped. You could say it was militant in the violent way it rushed to get, well, wherever it was going! It certainly had a goal, and I did not want to get in it’s way! Now. I have seen the river when it was not militant, but it was just casually meandering it’s way down over the rocks, staying quietly in the path that much water had made before. But, not today! Today it was militant!
The celebration of Christ’s Resurrection is coming soon. What kind of power do you think it took to crack open that grave and raise someone from the dead? Or split the curtain, and the Temple with an earthquake? What kind of power do you think it took to bring the dead out of the graves? Or, cause the sky to darken in the middle of the day? Militant power!
Funny thing about that militant power. The Bible tells us, THAT SAME POWER LIVES IN US! What? That’s right, in Romans 8:11 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
Our mortal, frail bodies have the spark of the Resurrected Christ living with us! As a result, we have the power within us to do whatever He asks us to do! We may be facing some things ahead of us that we have never faced before. As our nation becomes more and more liberal with ungodly decisions being made in the government that will affect us, we just might have to stand up and say NO! It will be uncomfortable, it may even be costly, yet many have done it before. In fact, many of our own ancestors had to face extreme conditions to insure that we would continue to hold on to our God given rights.
Easter, flowers, bunnies, chocolate, new clothes. None of that will prepare us for what may lie ahead. Remember how the enemy likes to trip us up? We need a militant spirit now. The same spark of spirit that caused Jesus to come out of the grave, the Temple to split, dead to walk into town and the sky to blacken at noon. We have that militant spirit, if we have Christ living in us!
Ask yourself; ‘do I have that resurrected spirit living in me? ‘ It’s easy to acquire-ask Jesus into your heart-His resurrection power comes too! Remember, it’s not about the bunny, it’s about the Lamb!
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