ELEVATION NORTH has NEWS for YOU!

IS THIS THE DAY YOU ARE WAITING FOR?  “The day that your waiting meets God’s promise?”  Think about it for a moment.  First of all, define what you are waiting for.  Think about how long you have prayed … and waited.  But let me ask you this:  have you ever in your praying and waiting season aligned your longing with a promise from God?  Have you marked your asking and waiting with God’s promise?  I believe that God has tagged our needs with His promises – but are we connecting them together? We have forgotten how to position our prayers with the promises of the Living God.  And so we wait … and that day of victory all too often seems so distant and unattainable.  It’s so easy to chalk it up to our assumption that either God doesn’t hear … or care … or plan to bring us to “THAT DAY.”  And we go on with our lives, feeling powerless and forsaken.

RESURRECTION MORNING!  Is this the day that Jesus’ disciples were waiting for?  Did they even know what to expect?  They had heard Him talking about this moment … but somehow they just could not seem to wrap their minds around His words.  Much less – understand what those words meant!  In these days before His death, the scripture records in Matthew 16:21 – “From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.”  Did the disciples get what He meant?  Well, Peter immediately rebuked Jesus and indignantly stated, “Never, Lord!  This shall never happen to You!”  He thought he was being brave and protective, but listen to how Jesus replied:  “Get behind me, Satan!  You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.”  (verses 22-23)   Wow!  Jesus brought Peter up short with His words – but He wanted Peter and the other disciples to understand that as long as they perceived only the earthly way of thinking as people do… they would never “see” or comprehend the things of God.  Let me ask you this:  don’t you long to see what God sees in you?  And what He wants to do through you?  Don’t you want to understand His ways so you can live in oneness with Him rather than being on the outside trying to look in?

And this same abrupt reply from Jesus applies to us today.  We will never fully experience the Promise held in the Resurrection of Jesus that Sunday morning if we do not filter all our thinking and beliefs through the mind of Christ.  Yes, did you get that?  WE have the mind of Christ – well, we CAN have, if we desire it.  God’s Word says in I Corinthians 2:16 – “For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge?  But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart.”  Knowing that and looking at people and circumstances and choices with the mind of Christ instead of our own will – in God’s time brings us to that day when our waiting meets God’s promises!

As the women on that first day of the week went early to the tomb of Jesus … His words dimmed in their focus on His death and their task at hand:  to prepare His body for burial.  When they did not find Him in the tomb, suddenly they were frightened by angels who asked them a most poignant question:  “Why do you look for the living among the dead?”  Luke 24:5b Then comes their explanation in verse 6:  “He is not herel He has risen!  Remember how He told you, while He was still with you in Galilee: ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.’  Then they remembered His words.”

WE, TOO, LOOK FOR JESUS IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES.  We search for Him in the dead places of our heart; in the shattered dreams; in the broken pieces.  In the empty tomb of our lives.  Like the women, we need to remember the words of Jesus.  HE IS RISEN!  He has left all the dead places – so why do we still search for Him there?  He is all about keeping His Word.  His promises!  You see, remembering God’s words keeps us focused on Him and His power ~ not on us and our limitations!  The day we finally grasp this truth is the day that our waiting will meet His promises!  What are we waiting for?  HE is Risen!  He IS Risen!  Yes, He is RISEN!  My prayer is that each of us will live in those RISEN places that His Resurrection brings to us each new day!  He is ALIVE ~ and He lives in YOU and in ME!

REMEMBER . . .

“As Jesus stepped into the garden, you were in His prayers.

As Jesus looked into heaven, you were in His vision …

His final prayer was about you.  His final pain was for you.  His final passion was you.”

~ Max Lucado  

Joyfully Serving Christ . . .

Pastor Doug and Debbie