I wonder what the Lord's disciples were doing (the details of it) the day before THE DAY? I wonder if they had a glimmer of hope, an inclination, a pondering that at last their Savior they would see. He had said that He would rise again on the third day, but I don't know that the statement made sense to them, not yet anyway. As Jesus had foretold the Shepherd was struck down and the sheep scattered. They were put into a very brief few days of waiting, and I imagine that they were excruciating days too.
Even today I feel anxious waiting for Sunday. Today I remember Jesus in the grave. Dead. Dead for the world. Dead for your sins. Dead for my sins. Tomorrow, Lord willing, I can't hardly wait to remember that He rose again! He's alive! Alive! Alive because death could not hold Him! Alive for your salvation! Alive for my salvation! Alive forevermore!
As you remember Jesus this weekend, don't lose sight of the fact that apart from the precious Gospel we now celebrate, we are nothing and we have nothing. The only thing that we have worthy of offering up to the decaying world we live in and to the dead people that walk past us day after day is Jesus! If Jesus is in the grave we are to be most pitied Paul said...we have nothing and are deceived. However, since Jesus is in fact ALIVE we have everything and can offer up hope to a world desperate without it. I hope the Gospel influences your ministry this year in a significant manner. I pray that the following passage would instruct you and help you as you serve women. Apart from His wounds, we cannot be healed. Make sure Jesus' name is lifted up!
1 Peter 2
22"He committed no sin, and no deceit was found in his mouth." 23When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. 24He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. 25For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.
