SPRING FORTH

Spring is a beautiful time of the year - new life "spring"ing up all over the place. I love perennials, the flowers that you plant once and they spring up again year after year. You know they are going to be there and it's exciting to see the first green signs of them pushing through the ground. They are dependable.
I was embarrassed today when I prepared for my dear friend and website updater, Tracy Ruckman, needed changes to the site. I read there that I have a weekly blog. Hmmm, since my last blog was posted on October 14, it has been six months and one week since I wrote a blog. And it was over two months before that the previous one was written. I have done, according to my FBI agent Daddy, the worst sin of all. I lied. I have not kept my word and written a weekly blog. Unlike the perennial flowers, I have not been dependable.
Now I have confessed my sin and been forgiven and hopefully will allow myself to be cleansed of the unrighteousness that caused it. I John 1:9 is my favorite scripture, probably from familiarity of usage! Hopefully you will see my blogs springing forth on a weekly basis from now on.
In a few days we will celebrate the springing forth of Jesus Christ from the grave. Halleluia! He IS alive! And because He is alive, those of us who believe and accept His life are also alive with eternal life.
Yes, there are times when we don't see Him, and times we don't see evidence of our own new life. But He's there and so is the New Creation nature that is the true us. And how exciting when we see Eternal Life pushing through the ground of earthly situations!
One of my favorite scenes in scripture is that of Mary Magdalene at the tomb on that third day after Jesus entered into His Passion. She was weeping because even Jesus' dead body was not in evidence. Nothing was there in that empty tomb on which to pour out her grief. Where was the One she loved so much? I find it interesting, when I read that passage in John 20: 1-18 that two angels were seated where Jesus' body had laid, and they spoke to her, yet she didn't answer them or even show surprise that angels were speaking to her. Then Jesus asked, as they had, why she was crying. He also asked who she was looking for.
She didn't recognize the One she was looking for but thought he was the gardener, and she begged him to tell her where the body was so she could get it back. Then Jesus said something else. He said her name. Just that, "Mary."
And then she knew Him. Recognition sprang forth into her heart. And joy sprang forth into every part of her being. Jesus made her the first post resurrection evangelist by sending her to tell others that He is alive and going to the Father God.
It's like that with us too. We can search among the tombs of doctrines and speculations. We can even believe the historical facts of an empty tomb. But it is when we are able to hear His voice calling our name that true recognition, true faith in the risen Christ, fills us with joy. And when we are able to hear His voice, we can truly be sent by Him with the good news of Eternal Life to all who will hear and receive.
Christianity was born the day Jesus rose from the dead, the day He sprang forth from the ground and manifested Life in all it's Glory. And true Christianity is not a religion but is always a relationship with the living Christ, Jesus the Savior and the Redeemer.
May His Life spring forth in you and in all your circumstances! And may you plant truth in the hearts of those around you and watch His Life spring forth in and for them.
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. Colossians 3:3,4