The month of April is a wonderful and exciting time of year. We witness the full array of God’s creative hand as spring bursts forth with new life as flowers bloom and trees display various shades of green. Temperatures are generally nice – cool evenings into early mornings with warmer temperatures during the day. April is a time that we transition into more outside activities, softball and baseball, and thoughts of summer vacation begin to come to mind. We are generally positive and upbeat about life in spring and our energy levels seem to increase.

April 2017 also brings the celebration of the most sacred events of history – the passion and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. From Palm Sunday into Holy Week, we are reminded of the course of events that culminated the approximate 33 years of life of Jesus on earth and that brought to an end his three years of earthly ministry. During this three year period, Jesus called in action His 12 original disciples, spent time preaching and teaching, challenged the religious establishment of the day because of their hypocrisy and self-righteousness, reached out to the masses of people and ministered to all rather than the few, and prepared for His ultimate sacrificial death on Calvary.

At Calvary, we witness “love in action.” It is the love of God as manifested in the sacrificial death of “His only begotten Son” (John 3:16) – it was the intervention of God into the course of human history that was necessary because of the sin of humanity. Jesus died a horrible death on “The Old Rugged Cross.” Why? He died on the Cross because of your sin and my sin! And His was a voluntary death because of His love and grace.

But then on the third day, as the women went to the Tomb to anoint His broken body as was the custom of the day, they found that the tomb was empty. How could this be? Had His body been stolen? No, Jesus was alive! He arose from the dead! The tomb was empty!

More than 2,000 years later, we live in the Resurrection! We are people of the Resurrection! The Resurrection Power is in us through the indwelling presence of Jesus Christ through the living power of God’s Holy Spirit.

He’s alive – how is that truth impacting our lives today? Does our Christian witness truly reflect the Living and Resurrection Power of Jesus Christ?