Monday, April 06, 2015

Inspire Me Monday: Claim Your Inheritance!

 "Lord, You alone are my inheritance, and my cup of blessing!" Psalm 16:5
There is literally billions of dollars of unclaimed money and property, stocks, insurance policies, and jewelry in safety deposit boxes around the world. Many people don't even know they are entitled to that money or property. I saw this TV show where they tried to contact people who had some money they knew nothing about. Depending on how much the money was, the reactions of the recipients were hilarious!
 Have we claimed our inheritance as children of God? It is worth much more than anything this world can offer! And it's not something we inherit only when we die. Christ gave us something of incredible value when He died on the cross for us, and it has our name on it! Our eternal life in God, starts in the here and now. The fullness of life we can have as His children is available to us, if we do our best to obey God, to be faithful. "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and obey it." Luke 11:28

 The angel said, "Do not be so surprised, You are looking for Jesus, the Nazarene, who was crucified. He is not here! He has been raised from the dead." Mark 16:6

The belief in the empty tomb, that Jesus rose from the dead is indispensable to being a Christian. If we don't believe that, we might as well not be a Christian. Very early on Sunday morning, the women went to the tomb, fully expecting to use the burial spices they had brought to put on Jesus' body. But instead they found that the stone had been rolled away. It was a very large stone, very heavy, and they discussed this puzzle for a while. When they went in, an angel greeted them and told them that Jesus had gone ahead to Galilee. "You will see him there, just as He told you!"

You can imagine how frightened and bewildered these women were. They were already in such a mix of emotions at what had happened to their beloved Jesus, and now this! Even the men dared not visit the tomb until the women told the implausible story of the empty tomb. They were all so afraid for their life, that this is proof that the story of the empty tomb is true. Why would timid, frightened people become suddenly so brave and committed, ready to face opposition from the powerful Roman leaders ?
"German theologian David Strauss first advanced a theory nobody has been able to refute since 1835. A person in Jesus' pathetic condition would never have inspired his disciples to go out and proclaim that He is Lord of Life who triumphed over the grave. They wouldn't have started a worldwide movement based on the hope that they too would have a resurrection body like His." (p. 271, Case for Christ by Lee Strobel)

Theologian Gerald Collins said: "In a profound sense, Christianity without the resurrection is not simply Christianity without its final chapter. It is not Christianity at all." The resurrection is the very basis, the very heart, the rock of our Christian faith. 

We celebrate that Jesus is risen, He is risen indeed!!!

4 comments:

  1. Beautiful post in both thought & artwork. It can be so easy to forget that these were women just like us. You reminded me so beautifully to think about their emotions that day. So glad to have stopped here from #SmallWonder. Blessings!

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  2. I love your art! You inspire me to try to do more with visual images on my own blog.

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  3. Wonderful, heart-stirring post and so beautifully illustrated. Thank you, dear sister and friend. You are a jewel.
    Hugs
    Teresa
    PS - He is risen indeed!

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  4. lovely illustrations - visiting from CED.

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I am so glad you dropped by! You are a blessing!
:^) Patsy