Looking Ahead!

Forgetting those things which are behind,

and reaching forth unto those things which are before…

Philippians 3:14

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith…

Hebrews 12:2

I tend to do what I guess is normal for many of us. I look back at my life and allow the circumstances of my past to control my future. For example, the times in my life that have been successful encourage me to push forward. However, those same successes can easily cause me to settle in and get comfortable. In the same way, while I could look at my defeats of the past and determine to change those things in the future, I find it easier to get discouraged and pull the covers over my head in the morning. Someone may argue: “Well, that is just human nature.” They would be right, but I am not supposed to be living by that old nature any more. I am a child of God! He has given me a new nature so that I can now live for Him each and every day. Every runner knows that he sets his eyes on the marks ahead of him. This keeps him from looking back. No wonder we are encouraged to keep our eyes on Jesus, because He is not only the beginning of this journey of faith, He is the at the finish line as well. How true the statement is: “I do not know what tomorrow holds, but I do know who holds tomorrow!”

Arise!

Why seek ye the living among the dead?
He is not here, but is risen.
Philippians 3:2

There are moments of awe within the Word of God. Can you imagine what it would have been like to have a cosmic front row seat to see God create everything?! How would it have been to stand on the shores of the Red Sea and watch the waters roll up to make a passageway for the children of Israel? Wouldn't you have loved to watch a young boy walk up to a giant of a man and with no fear take the giant down with just one stone? Can you fathom the thrill of the shepherds that watched the sky fill with a host of angels proclaiming the birth of their Messiah? Or, how grieving would it have been to stand helplessly at the foot of the cross as Jesus breathed His last? All of these events would have left us completely in awe, but I know that none of them would have mattered if it were not for the celebrated Easter Sunday! In a quiet garden, with only Roman guards as a witness, the ground shook and the stones gave way as Jesus ended His three day assault on and victory over death and hell. And just as suddenly as He had once spoken all of creation into being, He stepped out of the darkness that could not hold Him into His Father's glorious light. Praise God our Savior is risen! He is risen indeed!