Christ is Risen! He
is Risen indeed! Although it looked different
for years passed, yesterday we enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on
Easter Sunday. I hope you too celebrated
the great news that CHRIST IS RISEN!
Many, many years ago I was a teenager and received a coffee
cup from my mom as a gift. Below is a picture
of that coffee cup. I imagine my mother was
at a gift shop one day, noticed a display of coffee cups with names on them,
and hunted for one that said “Shay”. She
loves to give gifts and she intentionally found this one for me. I was grateful for this gift. I was so grateful that I took this cup and
put it up on a shelf in my bedroom and it stayed safe there for many years. It never broke, never got chipped in the
sink, it never got lost, and outside of a little dust it never got dirty. And that’s where the problem of my story
begins. I sat there and looked at that
coffee cup on the shelf for many years until it finally hit me…that cup was made
to be used! It was designed for a life cycle
of holding hot beverages and being washed.
This was a coffee cup and not simply a piece of art. So, I took it off the shelf, put it to use,
and to this day it still functions exactly as it was designed to do. I learned something important from my
experience with this coffee cup. God gave
me gifts to use.
The Holy Spirit used a coffee cup to teach me a valuable
lesson. I’m a Christian and I have many tools
that can be used to share the gospel with others. I have a bible, I have access to praise and
worship music, I have heard testimonies, I have my own personal testimonies,
and I have been given spiritual gifts. I
know the story of Jesus, I’ve heard how He was born of the virgin Mary, I know He
died on the cross, and yesterday I celebrated His resurrection! This is all good news! I need to be sharing this good news! But if I do I may get ridiculed, I may get
dirty, I may be fired from a job, I may lose friends, I may lose the respect of
family members, I may put my family in danger, and I may even face death simply
for sharing God’s story. God gave me the
gift of Jesus Christ, but He also wants me to share the news of that gift with
others. In Matthew 28:19 “He asks us to
go and make disciples of all nations…”. He
does NOT say “Here is Jesus. Hide Him in
your heart and never speak of Him again.”
Yesterday we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus
Christ. We donned our finest clothes, we
invited friends to online services, and many of us posted pictures of our celebrations
on multiple social media platforms. That’s
great! Let’s keep that up! Let’s not put Jesus back on the shelf until
around Christmas time. Let’s keep
sharing the good news of His birth and resurrection every single day until the
last ear on earth has heard it! God gave
us Jesus; let’s keep sharing that glorious gift!
Here is the fabled coffee
cup/piece of art! It still serves its purpose!
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