"The SON has Risen!" a reposted repost...

This is a repost of an old blogpost originally posted in 2012, reposted in 2014, and now again in 2016.  I guess every 2 years is okay...probably most everyone has forgotten it by now...or there may be some folks seeing this for the first time. Either way, it is still appropriate for Easter day, so here goes.  Not sure if the link in this is still active, but the rest of it should be a timely message for what is happening in our lives today.  I pray your Easter has been filled with the joy of the Resurrected Lord...He Is Risen Indeed!!

(Originally posted April 8, 2012)

As I mentioned last weekend, some of my blogging friends have started a "Random Journal Day" (see the Random Journal Day Link Up) on the weekends, where we are encouraged to pick an entry from a previous journal at random and share it with you...so I looked back through one of my old journals and happened upon a writing that is appropriate for today, Easter. This was originally written on May 3, 2001, but it is still and always will be a message for today.  So here goes:

Thursday, May 3, 2001, 6:55 a.m.

"I am sitting on my back porch, watching the sun rise.  It is magnificent in it's glory and beauty.  At first I thought the clouds were going to overshadow it, but not so! 

Light has conquered darkness...the sun has risen!

Today's reading in Psalms was Psalm 19:1-6~

'The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth,

and their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

and rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

Its rising is from one end of heaven,

and its circuit to the other end;

and there is nothing hidden from its heat.'

Yes, the true Light, Jesus, has conquered the darkness...the SON has risen!!!
Hallelujah to the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world!

Now, I must go out into the world...and be Christ's "Greatest Sacrament"

to a lost and dying world.

'Lord, give me the time and the faith to BE and DO all YOU would have

me BE and DO.  Amen.'

I continued on in my journal that day with several quotes from the book, Keep Climbing, written by Gail MacDonald. (Tyndale House Publishers, Wheaton, ILL, 1989) I will quote them here for you...and I highly recommend the book. 

"From an inscription taken from a Cologne, Germany, cellar where Jews had been hidden during the Holocaust..."I believe in the sun even when it is not shining.  I believe in love even when I am not feeling it.  I believe in God even when He is silent."  (Keep Climbing, Gail MacDonald, page 159)

Another quote from this same book, where Gail is quoting Teresa Burleson as follows:

"We ponder God's withholding or bestowing and while we pine for what was never given and what was taken, today slips through our fingers..."  (page 167, Keep Climbing)

I guess I was really absorbing all of these very pertinent and thought provoking quotes, as I continued to write down one after another.  I will not list them all for you here...but here is one more that seems to still strike home in my heart...

"(quote from page 173, re: Lot's Wife)  "Lot's wife had tried to hold on to things that had never really belonged to her..."   (page 174)..."God caused me to realize that He had come to make His 'home' in me and that I could go anywhere and have the assurance that He would precede me...."  "By slowly learning to renounce ownership and think stewardship, I came to discover that one never really loses anything."  (Gail MacDonald, Keep Climbing).

I completed my thoughts on that day with yet another quote found in the introduction of Gail's book, on page 16, which is a quote from Amy Carmichael's Gold by Moonlight (Fort Washington, Pa.: Christian Literature Crusade, 1951):

"Anything but that, Lord" had been your earnest prayer.  And then, perhaps quite suddenly, you found your feet set on that way.  Do you still hold fast to your faith that he makes your way perfect? It does not look perfect.  It looks like a road that has lost its sense of direction; a broken road, a wandering road, a strange mistake.  And yet, either it is perfect or all you have believed crumbles like a rope of sand in your hands.  There is no middle choice between faith and despair.  Life is a journey; it is a climb; it is also always a war!"

~~~~~~~~~~~

I know that during that time period in my life we were experiencing some severe trials in our family.  There were days that I honestly could not begin to comprehend what God was doing...or why He was allowing those things to happen.  I know that more often than I like to remember I wondered if the darkness would overcome the Light in us.  But I am here today to proclaim again, as I did in the beginning of this old journal entry,

"Yes, the true Light, Jesus, has conquered the darkness...the SON has risen!!!

Hallelujah to the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world!"

God is faithful to take care of His children...during dark times and times of light...

It is God Who is carrying us through.  We can count on Him...regardless of what this old world throws at us.  Christ as conquered death...He has risen...therefore, I too shall rise and live!

Amen!!

P.S.:  Re: the book Keep Climbing by Gail MacDonald.  (she is the wife of Rev. Gordon MacDonald) I have written in the flyleaf of my copy of this book  that I first read it in 1993 in New Hampshire.  I read it the 2nd time in 2001, in Florida.  The book was a gift to me from our former District Superintendent's wife when we were serving the Lord in Michigan. This dear lady ("Joyce") was a mentor to me in ministry...one whom I will always appreciate for her words of encouragement and Christian love during difficult times. I am so thankful for how God brings people into our lives when we need them most.  Aren't you?