Keeping A Resurrected Perspective

Do you realize that Easter is only 16 days away?  How did that happen so fast?  One week we are in 6 inches of snow, the next week we are thinking about Easter!  This week in order to get my mind focused on Easter, I began reading, "The Beloved Disciple" by Beth Moore.  This book tells of the life of the Apostle John.  Beth begins by recounting John standing at the foot of the cross where the scripture says:  "Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son, and to the disciple, "Here is your mother."  From that time on, this disciple took her into his home."  John 19:25-27, NIV

The scriptures do not tell us anything further about Mary once John takes her to his house.  So this got my mind wheels spinning.  Did you wonder what that strange noise was?  We know that John wrote the book of Revelation on the Island of Patmos.  This was the place where he was exiled and died as an old man. So it stands to reason that Mary must have died sometime before then.  I mean if you were given the responsibility to care for the mother of the Lord, I am sure you would try to carry it out to the end, right?  Don't you just wonder what kind of funeral Mary had?  I know there was sadness, just as we all experience today at a funeral, but I would imagine it would have been certainly different because the resurrection perspective would have been much clearer. These men and women (including Christ's own mother) were eye witnesses to the resurrection of Christ!  This had to be a life changing event and enabled all the disciples the boldness to preach the gospel to the world even to the point of death, because of their firsthand resurrected experience!

Now when I attend a fellow believers funeral, I have to keep reminding myself where my loved one is, and remind myself through scripture that I will indeed see them again.  But the disciples saw firsthand what true resurrection looks like.  Christ stood among them (John 20:19) in  bodily form, He conversed with them (John 20:21), ate with them (Luke 24: 41-43, NIV) and  even appeared to them behind locked doors! (John 20:26)  Why wouldn't their lives be changed forever?   But the question remains, why wouldn't ours be also?  We serve the very same Lord they saw!

Another great eye witness account was at the stoning of Stephen.  Scripture says:  "But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (Acts 7:55-56, NIV)  And it goes one to say in Acts 8:1 "And Saul (soon to be Paul) was there, giving approval to his death.  I just wondered, after Paul surrendered his life to Christ, he remembered the words Stephen had said giving him the courage to take all the beatings and times in jail that he experienced in his life.  He had a healthy resurrected perspective to be sure as found in Philippians 1:21 "For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain."

It's hard sometimes to keep this resurrection perspective isn't it?  Especially when our mom or dad dies, or we lose another loved one, but we have to keep this resurrected perspective mindset when we go through those tough times.

"Where, O death, is your victory?  Where, O death, is your sting?"  (I Corinthians 15:55)

GOD'S TIMING

God has each thing in our life planned with a time for things to be done,

A time to be happy, a time to mourn, and a time for souls to be won.

A time for each baby to be born, as well as, a time to die.

He also gives us a time to laugh but also a time to cry.

A time for embracing a loved one and a time for a person to speak.

But there is also a time for silence and a time for us to be weak!

A time for war and a time for peace, for we're filled with both love and hate.

And yet each time is appointed and only His wisdom knows the date.

Yes, God has our days numbered yet ever constant in His sight.

Help us Lord to keep this perspective in the realm of eternity's light.

Written by Becky Swymeler in 1975, based on Ecclesiates 3:2-8