That changes everything

The resurrection of Jesus changes everything, and unlike the iPhone it really does change everything: everything, for everyone, for ever, once and for all.



The resurrection means we can know our past dealt with - forgiveness, peace, a new beginning. Our future need no longer be defined by our past, but by the fact that can be children of God.

The resurrection means that we see things in a whole new way. A way that recognises that God's ways are not our ways - who would have thought that death on a cross was anything other than defeat? A way that believes that in all things God is working out his plans - no matter how bad things actually seem to be. A way that recognises that at the darkest moment God not only knows what it's like, but God has promised to be there with us.



The resurrection shows us that Jesus was right when he preached love and forgiveness. On Good Friday the disciples would have been forgiven for thinking that this whole forgiveness/love/way of peace... approach was a waste of time - it had got them nowhere and it had got Jesus killed - they may as well have taken down a few Romans with them at the same time! But Easter reminds us that Jesus knows what he's talking about - when Jesus asks us to forgive our enemies there is no point arguing about how he doesn't know how tough it is, how painful it is. There is no point trying to argue that loving those who hate, turning the other cheek..are all a waste of time and will never work. Jesus knows. He will keep on bringing us back to the cross. Until we get it.

The resurrection - it changes everything

Resurrection

I Will Rise

As I was getting the bus this morning, on my way to a funeral, I was listening to one of my new Chris Tomlin CDs and the track 'I will rise' from the 'Hello Love' album started - and I just played it over and over all the way, on the bus, the tube and the 10 minute walk at the other end. It is such a beautiful song, and so totally appropriate for a Christian funeral.

Happy Easter

Easter Sunday has arrived - and it makes all the difference. It made all the difference to the disciples who had just lived through the worst hours of their lives, and it can make all the difference to us, two thousand years later. The truth that Jesus is alive makes a world of difference. It means a world where we can know love, forgiveness, peace. It means we live in a world where God is able to transform even the most hopeless of situations. It means we live in a world where even death does not have the final word - we live with the hope and the promise of resurrection. We can know life in all its fullness - now and in the future.