Sunday, March 23, 2008

The Lord Has Risen!


John 20:
18Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the LORD, and that he had spoken these things unto her.

19Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.

20And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the LORD.

21Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

22And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

23Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained.

24But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

25The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.

26And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

27Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.

28And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God.

I have always loved this story of "Doubting Thomas", the disciple who had been willing to go with Jesus and die with him. Then the doubt that he had when the Lord Jesus had risen from the dead.
How glorious can this be that of all the disciples, he was the one that looked Jesus right into the Lord's blessed face and declared, "My Lord and my God"....Oh he knew that that Jesus was God...oh the blessed Trinity!
Just to think that even though sometimes we are weak and unsure of the future and we doubt, the Lord will still be with us and care enough to give us the opportunity to see His working and restore to us our faith....the Lord Jesus...God Himself!!
The Man who came to earth to die for us, and raised again and gone now to Heaven and is waiting on God's command to come and take His bride!
2 Corinthians 9:15Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

10 comments:

Amrita said...

happy easter to you and all the family

Felisol said...

Dear Terry,
than you for bringing the joyful message this Easter morning.
HE is arisen.
HE's certainly arisen.
From Felisol

Anonymous said...

He is risen, indeed!

God bless you,
LPP

Adi said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Amen, Terry. Parts of that were my Easter blog scripture also. Thank you for telling of Thomas, I believe we all have doubts at times.

We all have some doubt like Thomas. Our faith in Jesus is the only thing that can override that doubt. Just faith when Jesus has called us to be His and we come.
Sometimes we wait a long time before we answer His call.
When we hear the call, The Holy Spirit does the calling with Jesus' words, we need to respond.

We don't know what tomorrow will bring, but it could bring the end of our earthly life very suddenly. For sure we want to spend the rest of eternity with Jesus.

Myself, I want to practice living in service of the Lord so that when I will be called I sort of know how to go about.

Revelation 22 tells us, as the angel revealed to John on the Isle of Patmos:

1 Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb

2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.

3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him.

4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.

5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.

6 The angel said to me, "These words are trustworthy and true. The Lord, the God of the spirits of the prophets, sent his angel to show his servants the things that must soon take place."
..

Anonymous said...

These were the words spoken to me, personally, by the Lord:

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

I had heard and read these words from the Bible, again in Revelations (Chapter 3, Verse 20), many times before. They were spoken to the people of the church at Laodicea in Turkey, many years ago.
But one day, at a revival, these words became personal to me. I had wondered for years if I were really save.

That day, in the pew, the words were whispered to me personally, from Jesus Himself, it was the strangest feeling I have ever had.
[They made have actually been spoken by The Holy Spirit, I don't know, and it doesn't matter.]

I responded right then in a short silent prayer asking Jesus to forgive my sin and that I promised to follow Him and His commands from that day on.

Since then I have no more doubt or worry that I am saved, or question whether I was saved or not before when a teenager.
I did know that just being good wouldn't save me, a person had to ask for forgiveness and commit to the Lord.
But I didn't remember anything from back then except going down the isle when my younger sister did. For sure not asking Jesus to save me.

This nagging was now gone, I knew that I was saved.

Believe it or not, my life changed also, almost like being a different person. People noticed a change. Probably it was in the way I felt towards and treated other people. There were concerns for them not just for me and things I liked to do.

I also became devoted to following the Lord gladly instead of just reading the Bible and going to church.
And God has blessed me.
..

Vicki said...

Hope your Easter was filled with much joy over our risen Savior!

Maggie Ann said...

What a privelege we have to worship and love Him too! Hope your Easter was blessed and happy. I'm having a very lazy day here. And enjoying it after a lazy fashion...smile.

Anonymous said...

Mrs. Shirkie,

Do you know when LM's blog became a reader-invited only? I was a little disappointed when I tried to view it for the first time in awhile :( I wanted to leave her a note, and couldn't...Do you know how I get "invited"? I do have several Google accounts...

Thank you in advance,
LPP

Anonymous said...

Dear Mrs. Shirkie,

About that CD I gave my sister....

A) It's our FIRST Greater Vision CD, and there is no way on earth I would have ever known about them except for you and Pilgrim always talking about them.

B) I thought you have every Greater Vision CD there is? This one is the live one in Atlanta, and I got it half-price at the local bookstore. Too bad they only had one, you know I would get one and send it to you anytime ;)

Love and Prayers,
LPP

PS My sister really liked the post. She just got to see it tonight. Now I have to keep her from off here, so she doesn't leak when my birthday is!!