More than just Easter

         Go back in time....all the way back to when Jesus actually walked this earth as a human. First off you would not be wearing your favorite Levi jeans or your favorite American Eagle Sweatshirt. I can imagine the dress back then was simple and not about appearance or appeal. They walked around in robes and sandals and body wraps that they probably made themselves or bargained for. It was just that simple...nothing fancy from Saxon Avenue. The people of the biblical times seemed care free to me...they seemed to be there because they were living. And yes I know that makes them sound just like us because well... we are living too. Look deeper and act as if you are a part of the biblical times. You look down to see the sandals that you just bargained your sheep for because your feet are starting to bother the way you walk. As you walk through the town of Jerusalem you see all the hopeful vendors set up around you while they chant out to those passing. Everyone around you is there to make life. To live. I bet you do not see anyone worrying if they fit into their prom dress or if their kids are at soccer practice on time. As you keep gazing while you walk through town back to your home, you look to your right to see this Messiah that claims to be the son of God. You have heard of this man and the great miracles that he has preformed but you have never seen one for yourself. You are not one to believe in a bunch of mumbo jumbo but there is something about this Jesus guy that sticks with you. As you walk over you discover a large crowd surrounding the Messiah as he is preaching to the young children. Moments later a blind man walks up to Jesus asking him to heal him with everything in his power. The next thing you know the man that had a dark world, the man that saw nothing but dark empty space has now broken the seal of disease to open his eyes to the man that healed him. You see Jesus heal a man that was blind and that was enough for you to follow him. Because even though life may seem simple, their are diseases and horrible events that shatter your everyday surroundings.

      This vision that you just journeyed on may have been the case for several everyday people in biblical times. Can you just fathom what it would be like to have the choice or rather the privilege to follow Jesus with him actually being in front of you in HUMAN FORM! The people of this time had such a gift of having Jesus on earth with them but at the time most of them did not know it or refused to know it. But some had chosen to follow this man that claimed to be the Messiah, son of God. And you can only imagine what thy encountered. Th most popular followers of all time that followed Jesus were the 12 disciples. These 12 men followed Jesus everywhere leading up to his death. They experience a lot of miracles and actions of the Lord, why so you suppose that was? Have you ever thought that maybe God made 12 disciples because he needed strong willed people to spread his word and stand firm in their faith? When Jesus sat down at the last supper he knew that he was going to die and he knew that several of his followers were going to betray him. This would make anyone think....why didn't he just split and leave everyone in the middle of the night? I think that we view Jesus dying on the cross as a horrible sinful act of humans that just ruined a wonderful thing. Well it was....but it was suppose to happen. It is hard not to get angry and upset when we realize that Jesus was killed on that cross. But really, we should be rejoicing because we know that his glory is to only get better. If you think back to the biblical times again...they had Jesus on earth so they experienced a lot of things. And today Jesus is not here as a human but we see and hear his word just like those did in the biblical times. Our time is a time of growing and learning lessons. Our time is a lot different from the past times but no matter what God had made it into every era.

       As you experienced in your walk through Jerusalem, you noticed that people started to follow this Messiah once he started showing true signs of miracles. But once the Pharisee's started questioning his authority his followers started to back down. Because they would rather believe the people of this world rather than the one who created it. And maybe the Pharisee's questioned the nature and authority of Jesus, to later get him killed, because they never wanted something that could succeed their success. Jesus coming to earth was meant to happen and he was meant to die on that cross for us or we wouldn't be here today. We need to stop focusing on past tragedies that we cannot change and work on what we are to do now that we are given a chance to prove our faith. Following Jesus is not enough. He needs to know that you will stay behind him even if the whole world rejects his existence. We need to be able to die for our beliefs because Jesus did the same. I know it sounds harsh to say you need to die for what you believe in. And you might think that you have a lot to live for on earth. Actually...without God we have nothing to live for. If we were told tomorrow that God never existed then we would have no reason to live for. But we have to have a reason to live because we are breathing and alive which makes believing in God so prominent. We are meant to follow him, we are meant t be tried, we are meant to love him, we are meant for his miracles, WE WERE MEANT to look to him and know that he is Lord no matter what. God is the man that can speak to you about anything and do it with authority. He knows everything about you because he was meant to create a story with you! Don't be like the Pharisee's by looking at God in knowing that he is almighty and that he is something beyond anything that has every crossed this earth so you deny him. Jesus states in John 13:36, "You can't go with me now, but you will follow me later." You might not see Jesus but he is still there because he came back and he is better than ever. His resurrection beat all evil and all earthly power. You need to realize that nothing can hold the Lord down.

     God walked this earth as a human. He thought and talked, walked, ate, slept, cried, worried, and did everything just like you do. So when you look at the prayer of the Lord that he prays once he is about to die, and say that God needs to toughen up because he is God! Know that he was scared, he was to be hung on the cross for everyone but himself! Never think for a second that defeat and death is the end of the line. Look at the resurrection.




Word of the Day: " Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into my wound in my side. Don't be faithless ant longer. Believe!"
                                                      ~John 20:27




Watch how easily others "followed" and "unfollowed" Jesus they we do today.