Tag: resurrection

Reverberations

James HoganLeave a comment

That is why I think this Grand Miracle is the missing chapter in this novel, the chapter on which the whole plot turns; that is why I believe that God really has dived down into the bottom of creation, and has come up bringing the whole redeemed nature on His shoulder. The miracles that have already happened are, of course, as Scripture so often says, the first fruits of that cosmic summer which is presently coming on. Christ has risen, and so we shall rise. St Peter for a few seconds walked on the water; and the day will come when there will be a re-made universe, infinitely obedient to the will of glorified and obedient men, when we can do all things, when we shall be those gods that we are described as being in Scripture. To be sure, it feels wintry enough still: but often in the very early spring it feels like that. Two thousand years are only a day or two by this scale. A man really ought to say, “The Resurrection happened two thousand years ago” in the same spirit in which he says, “I saw a crocus yesterday.” Because we know what is coming behind the crocus. The spring comes slowly down this way; but the great thing is that the corner has been turned. There is, of course, this difference, that in the natural spring the crocus cannot choose whether it will respond or not. We can. We have the power either of withstanding the spring, and sinking back into the cosmic winter, or of going on into those “high mid-summer pomps” in which our Leader, the Son of man, already dwells, and to which He is calling us. It remains with us to follow or not, to die in this winter, or to go on into that spring and that summer.

-C.S. Lewis, The Grand Miracle (God in the Dock, page 85)

All The Strings

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A lovely morning thus far. About to drive off to church, but grateful for a few minutes now to meditate and muse on what most brings me hope and joy. This morning woke up and went for a walk, enjoying(??) the humidity and heat that is standard fare for August here. Still yet, it was a beautiful time of walking and thinking and watching all the people on their early morning runs and dog-walks. Got to chat with Dad for a few minutes on the return leg and then back I arrived at home, sweaty and pleasantly weary. Now I’m all showered up and have had a lovely few minutes reading as a new candle burns and a symphony plays on the TV. Within twenty minutes or so, shall step out the door and once more feel August’s warm affections as we leave for church. But now? Why am I just spinning my wheels talking about the mundanities of life? Well firstly because even the mundane every day tasks of life can be beautiful, can they not? I’m grateful for what my God has given me, even little things like walks and showers. Secondly? Because I do want to talk about deeper things but sometimes I feel I must approach them circumspectly as I’m at times uneasy of my skill to properly address that which matters most.

So now as the minutes flee and I soon will run out of time, I suppose I won’t say much more about what burns in my heart, except to say that I enjoyed some precious minutes reading in John today, some of my favourite verses. Reading about the trial and death of Jesus and then the response of some of his followers. Peter initially quavered and crumbled and denied his teacher. Others stood by him to the end even as they wept. Still others who had hidden their allegiance came out after his death to preserve and memorialize his body and his name. And then on that glorious day whose memory still reverberates in the heavens and the earth? Peter returned to his Lord and marveled at the fact that something had happened that he didn’t quite understand. John approached more cautiously but still yet he was there. And Mary? Oh Mary she was there at the beginning and at the end, as the men rushed around and in their haste rushed off again while she stayed behind at that garden tomb and wept and thought and I’m sure prayed. And then she saw something miraculous – angelic beings in all their brightness and she found herself overcome and in her sorrow and her wonder she heard a voice that said her name. And what response did she have? What response should any of have in such a circumstance? She rushed to Jesus and clung to Him, crying as she held on tight. Oh how I wish I could cling to the feet of Jesus and hear him speak to me as he spoke to Mary that day. Some day, some day soon. Even though I have not seen him, I believe in Him and joy unspeakable fills my heart and I glory in the fact that someday my eyes shall see his face.

Marvelous

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And we come to it at last, a Sunday almost worthy of all the acclaim. I wish my pen had ink sufficient to write all that I wish to describe, my mind thoughts clarified sufficiently to impart them to the page here and now. Alas my pen is dull and my mind distracted and so I feel most ill fitted to the task to talk of that which most fills my heart. Is that not the way of it at times? Alas, alas. Yet still I must write. For my soul burns within me as I consider this day that is used as a fitting marker to celebrate the reason for which I live. Some call it Easter, some call it Resurrection Sunday, some have their own reasons for not celebrating it at all. For me, I simply delight that there is a day still commonly known as a day we look back to the point in time – real time, defined time – in which a man that was dead came to life. And this was not a cheap trick or temporary reprieve from that most ghastly enemy death, nay, this was a conquering triumph, a resurrection that was a turning of the tide, a proclamation that the grave no longer had any power, death no longer had any sting. For on a certain day on this very earth not that long ago as one reckons time, the man Jesus Christ rose from the dead with the power and authority that verily spoke to the fact that he was not simply a man, but God Himself, the very essence and fullness of God who had been made flesh and now walked upon this earth in a body the like the world had never seen – a resurrected body in all its glory – pointing to a hope that for those who call upon the name of Jesus will never fade nor fail. Indeed – we all who call ourselves Christians rejoice in the verity of the resurrection and delight in the hope that is ours – bought with the blood of Christ and set aside as a people to the very Lord of the universe, we too have a future that is free of death and pain, better than that, a life that will be lived forever with our Lord. Oh what glory, oh what joy! I cannot proper do justice to the song that fills my heart. All I can say now is glory hallelujah. Sometimes I cannot quite believe that God died for me. Sometimes I cannot quite believe that to accomplish this fact, my God hung bleeding on a tree. Yet I look back and sing of resurrection story and cannot deny the truth. My God loved me, my God chose me, my God set his hand upon me and declared me beloved son. What can my fickle heart say in response? Perhaps my pen isn’t quite dry, not yet. Perhaps my mind isn’t quite empty, not yet. Perhaps my song this eve is one granted to me by the God who made the stars who sing along in triumphant harmony. Perhaps – nay, for truth – I am one who can now rest secure in my God’s promised eternal security. It is a thing of beauty that my God hath wrought. I can but look upon it and cry out in praise, that my God has seen fit that justice and mercy might kiss each other at that cursed tree. Jesus Christ is my risen Lord – for now and all eternity.

Passion

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So…baseball Opening Day was yesterday.  Sadly – I did not go to any baseball games, but surprisingly(and probably for the last time this year), all three of my teams won!  Rays had a comeback victory over Boston, Baltimore took out the Twins in the 11th with an Adam Jones homer…and the Astros just plain dominated with Verlander pitching like the Hall of Famer he is.  So I am happy.  Yay baseball!  Spring is now officially here.

But…far more importantly…today is what is commonly called Good Friday, despite the fact that the event it commemorates is horrifyingly brutal in the extreme.  The day man decided (once again!) that they knew better than God.  The day humanity decided (once again!) that they were better off without God.  The day we killed God.

And as shocking as that turn of events was…in the end it truly was a Good day.  For it was the day that God sacrificed Himself.  For us.  For all of us who put our faith in Jesus.  For all of us who give up our lives in submission to the only true God.  For all of us who bow the knee to the One who saves.

In honour of the events of today, I much enjoyed reading Philippians this morning…many many verses kept striking me with their brilliant truths, but I shall only quote a few of my favourites this day.  Despite the filth and lies we are surrounded by…remember:

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ
Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish
so that I may gain Christ,
and may be found in Him,
not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through
faith in Christ,
the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

and…

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ;
who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the
body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject
all things to Himself.

-Philippians 3:7-11,20-21

Let us remember these things.  Let us pause this day in the midst of our frantic lives and ponder and meditate on the One who did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped – even though He is God – but instead emptied Himself and became a Man and lived and died and rose again.  For us.

Amazing love, how can it be – that Thou my God shouldst die for me!?!

First Fruits

James HoganLeave a comment

Now I make known to you, brethren, the gospel which I
preached to you, which also you received, in which also you
stand, by which also you are saved, if you hold fast the
word which I preached to you, unless you believed in vain.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas,
then to the twelve. After that He appeared to more than
five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain
until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared
to James, then to all the apostles; and last of all,
as to one untimely born, He appeared to me also. For I am
the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God
I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain;
but I labored more than all of them, yet not I, but
the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they,
so we preach and so you believed…

…Now I say this brethren, that flesh and blood
cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does
the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep,
but we will all be changed, in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet;
for the trumpet will sound, and the dead
will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.
For this perishable must put on the imperishable,
and this mortal must put on immortality.
But when this perishable will have put on
the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on
immortality, then will come about the saying
that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory.
O Death, where is your victory, O Death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law;
but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast,
immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.
-1 Corinthians 15:1-11,50-58

Very tempted to write all of 1 Corinthians 15. I refrained. What glorious words. What beauty. What truth. Glory be to God, forever and ever. Amen.

Resurrection

James HoganLeave a comment

So sleepily I slowly put my fingers to the keyboard this eve, as I would like to share at least a little of the beauty I’ve been enraptured by. I’m feeling a little bit sick(no, must fight this off!!), but enjoyed a beautiful spaghetti dinner while watching some classic Band of Brothers. Once that finished, been reading the book of Matthew and oh – loving it so! You should really just read it for yourself to experience the glory of Jesus…but I’ll just share a bit of my favorite before I get ready for bed(it’s not even 10 on a Friday night! I am shamed).

So the “religious” Sadducees are trying to make Jesus admit the ridiculousness of life-after-death by spinning a tale of a woman marrying seven brothers, each as the previous one dies. They pose the question – so whose wife will she be in the resurrection? They sneer, seeing no way Jesus can answer this without admitting the absurdity of the resurrection. Oh how wrong they are.

But Jesus answered and said to them,
“You are mistaken, not understanding
the Scriptures nor the power of God.
For in the resurrection they neither
marry nor are given in marriage, but
are like angels in heaven.

But regarding the resurrection of the dead,
have you not read what was spoken to you by God:
‘I AM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, AND THE GOD OF ISAAC,
AND THE GOD OF JACOB.’?

He is not the God of the dead but of the living.”

And the Sadducees are quiet. And the crowd marvels.

Truly, how good these words are to my soul! When we doubt God or fear Him not, thinking that surely there can not be an all-powerful God in this messed up universe of ours…we are then gravely mistaken. Not understanding the Word that God has given us through His prophets and His Son nor acknowledging His power which we see every moment through the marvels of creation that surround us! And our God is not the God of fevered imagination or vain poetry, nay. He is not the God of the dead. And well this is, for then grim would our future be! He is our God, now and forever. When we live in this dark and bloody world, He is with us. When the day comes that we breathe our last and our mortal flesh withers, He gathers us into His arms. He is with us. We shall never die the final death, but instead, we shall live with our God and Father. Forever. Hallelujah!

And apparently I am slightly less sleepy than I thought! But still, time to get ready for bed, methinks. Have a sweet night, my friends!! Sleep well!