Resurrection
Day (or Easter for others) is now over. We preached our Resurrection Day sermon
or taught a lesson explaining to the best of our ability what happened at
Calvary. Some of us did our best preaching this weekend. Services planned,
performed, and powerful for people to experience the Resurrection story. We
wore our new clothes. We sung our songs. We gave our baskets. We had dinner
with friends and family. We loved on our kids. Easter Egg hunting picnic was a
blast. We had a wonderful Sunday afternoon. The sky was blue with the radiance
of the sun shining throughout the day. It wasn't too hot or too cool it was
just right weather to go to the beach. Overall, we can sum it in the words of
Ice Cube...today was a good day.
Now that it's
over, what's next? Do we go back to doing what we've always done? What do we do
with what we've heard in churches all weekend long starting with Good Friday?
What do we teach our children about Christ after He resurrected? How do we live
after this weekend of Christian activities? Where do we go from here?
You think I'm
about to go deep with a Rhema (fresh) word from on high but I'm not. It's a
simple response to how we should respond after this weekend of activities. Here
it is....wait a minute....
Change your
life's habits!
It should be
difficult for you and I to go the rest of our days without making some
sacrificial adjustments to live out our days in glorifying God. The
resurrection of Christ calls both the unbeliever and believer to do and be
better today than you were yesterday. Jesus died but when He got up He was not
the same after His death.
I want to know Christ—yes, to
know the power of his resurrection and participation in his
sufferings, becoming like him in his death,11 and so, somehow, attaining to the
resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have
already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for
which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to
have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and
straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for
which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 3:10-14.
The
goal to win the prize is to look more like Jesus every day.
How
do we grow?
1.
Growth is intentional and not incidental.
2.
Set boundaries or as a dear friend said to me over a year ago..."Smith,
guard your boarders!" Thanks bro!
3.
Check your pride at the door
4.
Don't take everything personal. It's not an attack on you its an attack what
you're trying to become.
5.
Pray before you say or do anything
6.
Read and process the information before you respond to a text, email, FB post,
rumor, or negative comment(s). Call to fix it and don't type back
7.
Meditate on the Word of God
8.
Don't use social media to air out your personal issues
9.
Show the love of Christ at all times. You don't have to like everything about a
person to love them. No one person is perfect
10.
Talk it out! I'm a very private person to a fault at times. But lately, I've
been doing my best to talk things out with those closest to me. It works and helps
when two people communicate in listening moreso than trying to get a point
across.
One
final exhortation here before I go and this one is a good one.... TAKE IT ONE
DAY A TIME!
May
God grow you and I after this resurrection weekend.
