The Jesus of the Empty Tomb

I've been thinking about the empty tomb this morning. It's not like Jesus was severely beaten and His body destroyed to near death and then He slowly recovered. He actually died. No heartbeat. No breath. Just a shell of a body laid in a tomb. No life. DEAD. And then, He arose from that death to LIFE. Not 5 minutes later. No doctor shocked Him to life. It was over two days later that the tomb was empty. Who can do that? NO ONE BUT JESUS CHRIST - OUR BEAUTIFUL AND POWERFUL SAVIOR OF THE UNIVERSE. Nothing and no one could hold Him back.

Right there. That is power. How small we often make Him with our soft prayers, only daring to give Him a fraction of our heart's desire; our mind only able to conceive a grain of sand on a 500 mile beach. Today, when you pray and you share your heart with Jesus, imagine the empty tomb and keep in mind Who you are talking with. To Jesus be every single bit of glory, trust, and honor. Have faith. Pray boldly. Man, are we ever LOVED.

Dee M. Kostelyk

Emmanuel

I've been thinking about change and how some is for the worse and some for the good, and often it can be hard. We lose loved ones, walk away from jobs or relationships, change homes, lose health or friends, enter new seasons of life, or even simply lose confidence. As quickly as I thought this, God impressed on me that I would never lose or have to miss HIM. I could go to the other side of the world and HE would still be with me. I could sit in solitude or be in the middle of a thousand, and HE would be with me. Through peace and calamity, gain and loss, joy and sorrow, here and there, HE would be with me. What a wonderfully comforting truth I could wrap around myself and so can you. "O Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways." (Psalm 139:1-3)

God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5)

What a great treasure we carry, knowing that Christ lives IN us - alive, warm, bright and powerful. We will never have to find out what it would feel like to have Him gone.

Emmanuel!

Dee M. Kostelyk

In Tact Roots

 I have been studying the book of Job and this morning it struck me how important it is to know God's word and to seek after His heart. The deeper we move into that, the better we know who we are as His child as well. Imagine the the additional grief, self condemnation and shame Job would have felt after his three misguided friends spoke to him, wrongly assuming Job's circumstances were a result of his sin. Instead, he was able to KNOW that they were off base. Granted, he was desperately confused and I believe wounded by his belief that God had abandoned him and was indifferent to his suffering. But, he knew there was something more going on and he knew it wasn't a result of his wrongdoing. He was aware that he needed to put these friends to the side and go straight to the Lord on the matter. The closer we get to the Lord, the more understanding and discernment we have about where we are and Whose we are. It will be easier to decipher when what we see and hear are not of God. This stuff can be tricky. Much of what these men spoke was truth but Job was healthy enough in his relationship with the Lord to acknowledge the friends were misguided, and their words pretty much worthless hot air.

This was Job's response after the third friend spoke:

"My eyes have seen all this, my ears have heard and understood it. What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you. But I desire to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God. You, however, smear me with lies; you are worthless physicians, all of you! If only you would be all together silent! For you, that would be wisdom." Job 13: 1-5

Job was deeply suffering on every level and he lamented this. He was full of grief. He couldn't see or understand. He felt hurt by God and disgusted with his friends. But, in the depth of that, there is no doubt He KNEW God and his roots in Him were very much in tact.

Dee M. Kostelyk

Offer Your Dream

Have you ever wanted to see something happen that you knew was pretty much humanly impossible? Have you ever hoped for something that you believed was probably out of the question? I have. This morning I was thinking about a small, yet very big, dream. I imagined what it would look like and how it would feel. Tears welled up in my eyes because I knew it was unlikely, maybe even silly. Childish. It was something I don't think I would even speak out loud with a friend. I felt almost embarrassed bringing it before God. But, I did anyway. I spoke my request to Him. As I did, I could feel the love of the Father come around me. He didn't make fun of me or think it was stupid. He delighted in my faith. He held the request in reverence. And, I felt better for having asked. Hope in God is a good thing. So is faith in things unseen.

Today, if there is something on your heart, maybe a dream, a need, or a miracle, don't hold back from God. He is safe and trustworthy. Offer your prayer with bold and unwavering faith. For goodness sake, we are not fools for having dreams. We aren't simple minded for believing in what we cannot see. We aren't crazy having hope and thinking, 'maybe this can happen.' The Bible is full of such people praying their heart out for the impossible and seeing it come to pass.

This is not the same as blowing out our birthday candles as we make a wish or speaking into the universe and hoping for good luck. This is approaching the God of the universe with boldness and confidence. It's walking into holy territory where our Abba Father is waiting. It is where courage blooms and hope ignites as we are seen, known, and heard.

Have faith, be bold, and trust God! Go ahead and offer that dream.

Dee M. Kostelyk