by Deacon Jeff Howard
April showers bring May flowers! Yes, my favorite season of spring has sprung! The fresh smell of dew is in the morning air; the array of picturesque flowers has begun to bloom; God’s creeping things has now come to the surface after hibernation; and after the death, and burial of the seeds, the beautiful, crisp green grass is now resurrected on the lawns, hills, and mountain tops. Do you see the picture?
As the spring season resurrects the seeds from the dead to give life, the month of April brings the most important celebration of a Christian’s life: the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. A believer in Christ can truly rejoice because as Ephesians 2:5-6 says, “Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death,” lets us know we were resurrected with Jesus when we were born again and surrendered our life of sin to Him. This all came with a price we can never repay. Jesus who knew no sin left his heavenly deity, born of a virgin woman, only to be mocked, whipped, beaten beyond recognition, shed his blood from every vein on his body, and hung to suffocation on a tree between criminals to die for the sins of the world. Salvation is free to all but it is not cheap. Jesus’ resurrection afforded every living human being an opportunity to salvation and escape the gates of hell!
So, if you happen to see someone in the grocery store purchasing chocolate bunnies and eggs, the PAAS Easter egg dye and decoration, or just simply a neighbor or a stranger in your path as the Spirit leads you; tell them about Resurrection Sunday—a man who died for their sins and just wants to come into their lives to save them. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God,” Hebrews 12:2. Amen.