What Are You Looking For?
There use to be a time that I dreaded the thought of writing, of putting pen to paper because I felt who am I to write, what do I have to share?
A few weeks ago I read an article in the Pentecostal Evangel , March 27, 2005 issue by Pastor David B. Crabtree that really touched me. The Lord used to it to open my eyes to another aspect of who He is and what He has accomplished. The article was titled “Living Life With An Empty Tomb Mentality.”
On Page 20, he made the following statement: “Christ is risen! We cannot follow our living Lord and hold onto our dead past. He died to make men free! Why then are so many huddled around old tombs? The funeral is over. Please exit the graveyard. The tomb that matters is empty. It is time to leave the past behind you and follow the one who goes before you.”
If there is anything I have learned over the last two and a half years is that we indeed serve a living Lord, that He has risen. The tomb is empty. We have to let go of the past. To move forward in the new life that we have been given. That resurrection life.
He died and arose from the grave to set us free. To break the bonds of the old life, of the past and has made the way for us to move forward in our walk and relationship with Him.
He has already prepared the path before us. He is showing us the way. That His word is a lamp unto our feet and it is in the word, in the presence of the Lord, in fellowship with Him that we learn to walk, to shake off the burial clothes, those things that bound us!
The Lord is speaking to us, saying come forth and walk in that which He accomplished on the cross. He has set us free to walk in this new life that He has given us. Our Father has given us His spirit to teach us, to reveal the Word, to reveal Himself to us.
Pastor Crabtree goes on to say: “Because the tomb is empty we have joy instead of mourning, love to conquer fear, and the word of God to feed the soul. I can do more than face my tomorrows — I can run to the fight, hope for the best, reach for the highest and sing when the storms gather. When Satan would taught me with my graveyard past I can point to an empty tomb and shout, “I am risen with Him!”
How awesome is that?
I have and I am experiencing the joy of the Lord. Learning to conquer the fear and allowing the word of God to bring substance to my soul, to my spirit. Our Father is bringing restoration to our whole being, all because of what was accomplished upon the Cross.
We can, run to the battle with the assurance that victory is ours. It was won on the cross. In the midst of the storms and the attacks of the enemy, like Pastor Crabtree, we can point to any empty tomb and shout with all that is within, “I am risen with Him!!” Indeed the funeral is over. The tomb is empty and it is time for us as Christians, as brothers and sisters in the Lord to move on!
In answer to my question earlier, Why write?
How can I not, when there is such a burning in my heart, in my soul and in my spirit, to share the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ, to share the things that He speaks to me, that I might share that which will uplift others. To encourage others in their walk with the Lord.
To use the gifts that they have been given to build the body of Christ, to bring hope to families, to let others know, that the Lord I serve, indeed is risen. That He sits at the right hand of the Father, interceding for you, for me, that we might walk in the fullness of all that He has for us.
The tomb is empty my friends. It is indeed time to exit the graveyard of the past and move on in the Lord!!
He is RISEN!!
Till later,
Paul