The Middle Again

6:26 AM - Coffee is made and the deck has no clue that it is 42 degrees, but my feet are sensing the chill. Between the branches of the trees the songs are ringing out to the field below. The Alpaca couple is stirring because of the different array of songs being flung into the air by every bird that chooses to rejoice in the light of another day. They have no clue that much of the Western Human world has set this day apart and called it Easter or Resurrection Morning.

Did you know that the first message of Easter Morn was one of potential further despair? THEY WATCHED JESUS DIE AN EXTREMELY GRUESOME DEATH... IT WAS HORRIBLE .... "I have been to the sepulcher and they have taken his body away!" so said Mary. The disciples had raced to the tomb to find it just as she said - John got there first and peeked in, Peter finally arrived and stepped in -- they saw the empty grave clothes, the linen that was wrapped AROUND HIS HEAD... then when John went in "he saw, and believed." John 20:8. They did not believe that Jesus had risen, because that concept was not yet mentioned, realized or known because they were "caught in the middle." They believed someone had taken the body of Jesus.

Several days prior in the garden of betrayal, they had experienced a strange phenomenon. All Jesus said was "I AM he", when the guards came asking for him prior to Judas kissing him in betrayal. That "I AM" from the vantage point of the observers of the moment was a blur. It actually was more than just a few guards falling backwards at the sound of Jesus' word.

The power unveiled at that moment, literally took every listener from where they were and pushed them backward placing them helplessly right in the "middle". Between night and day, between darkness and light, between right and wrong, between now and then, between the present and the past, between going forward and falling backward, between error and truth, between evil and good, between unclean and clean ...(this "middle" could go on forever) ...between death and life, between Heaven and Hell.

The next events in the history of mankind literally would hold things in the middle. Jesus, the unveiled great "I AM", had the power at this juncture to stop the on- coming circus of suffering and sorrow, call the multitude of Heavenly Warriors in waiting, and throw all mankind completely into eternal destruction. Our Savior moved forward into the events that we still study as "through a glass darkly". Until that day come when we, His beloved, will know Him as we are known ... face to face, we will continue to revisit these events in awe and wonder.

The scriptures kind of leave us in the dark as to "doings" and full whereabouts of the disciples in the "sealed tomb" days. But we know they were together, and we know that they all ran to the tomb early on the first day of the week (Sunday), and we know that they all believed that His body had been taken. Later that morning the rumors started coming of "Why seek ye the living among the dead?" and "He is Risen!"

Gathered in that room of great grief, immense sorrow, confusion via rumors, and tragedy forced disappointment, the disciples were the perfect picture of the heart of a man without the hope of a Risen Savior. There is no doubt that in that moment that the followers were numb with emotion ... THEN HE APPEARED ... and stood right in the Middle. Now it was day, now it was light, now all was right, now, the present had purpose, now moving forward, truth to proclaim, righteousness reigns, cleansed by His blood, life secured by His life and Heaven now is won and Heaven now is home.

It is now 48 degrees, the sun it trying to burn off the clouds ... my feet are still chilled, but the joy of forever has been secured ... Hallelujah He is Risen!!!

Let's Keep Loving Jesus Openly!!

HLFA,

Jeff