On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and the stone had been moved away and the tomb was empty! She saw the gardener and thought he had taken Jesus’ body. "Tell me where you put Him so I can take him away." Then she realized she was speaking to Jesus. He told her to quick clinging to Him that He needed to ascend to His Father and Hers.

Easter, it represents the empty tomb and the risen Messiah. Have you ever considered your body to be a tomb? Isn’t a tomb a container for dead people? Romans 7:24 says, “who will set me free from the body of this death?” Paul is bemoaning the fact that his holy and righteous being is confined in the tomb of his body.

But before Paul could declare the victory of this dilemma, the stone had to be taken away. The prophet Ezekiel spoke the words of God prophesying the reality that the stone would be rolled away. Ezekiel 36:26 says, “Moreover I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Paul suggests that we were all tombs before Jesus emptied them out. In Colossians he says. “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.

So here is the deal with the empty tomb. You were born dead. Your poor itty bitty baby body was a tomb that encompassed your dead spirit. And while you were dead, JESUS, lived, died, resurrected, ascended and then made Himself available to take up residency in those who know Him.

He rolled away the stone of your old self and gave you a new one; a hope and prosperity not found in the material realm but one found in the spiritual realm that has blessed you with every spiritual blessing.

If Jesus lives in you, your tomb has LIFE in it. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

As you look around this Easter, enjoy Him who gave life to your mortal body and love those in your path that have yet to know and experience the greatest of blessings. HE LIVES!!

Keith

For the last 12 weeks our family has visited several area churches. These churches have ranged in size from 75 to 400 to 3,000. It has been an interesting journey for us as we try to redefine the term "church" for our family. We know what it has been for the past many years and we see that it is currently very similar around our community.

We keep hearing and reading about the terms "transformation" and "community". It is what the people want and they are trying multitudes of ways to grasp and claim these experiences for themselves and their families. Some are looking for formulas, "silver bullets", programs, curriculums, retreats, pastors or truth that will lead them to this oasis. When they "hit a wall", they pick up their ball and move on to the next playing field. I can say that, because that is exactly what God has lead me and my family to do. I am absolutely OK with that change as long as it is a God-move rather than a selfish-move (that is another whole issue in itself).

Today was a huge eye-opener for Michelle and me. We attended one of the largest churches in our community and they were celebrating with a baptismal service. At one point they asked each of the attenders to participate. Around the room, they formed a river like mural by placing hundreds of pieces of paper with one word on them. The words they used were "peace", "joy", "awe", "surrender", etc. multiple times. As the worship continued they encouraged each attender to get up and go get one word off the wall that best described the experience of their baptism and faith walk. When the song had ended and virtually everyone had returned to their seat, Michelle and I were devastated as we looked at the remains on the wall. My opinion is this church is representative of the majority of churches across our country. It was apparent today the church had been indicted. During the whole service, the end of this song was the one moment that God spoke to me (and Michelle) the loudest. As we scanned the room and especially the front walls, it was apparent that all the words were chosen by the people except one. In fact, it was the only word left posted on the front walls. Can you imagine which word it was? I would have never imagined.

"AWE" was left on the wall.It was absolutely apparent that "awe" had very little impact on the church. Without "awe", the church is doing stuff in their own strength. They may be getting a lot accomplished but imagine if "awe" was part of the experience. Then the whole world would be talking about it. Immediately I began to see the difference between today's church and the church we read about in Acts 2.

38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." 40 And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, "Be saved from this perverse generation!" 41 So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls. 42 They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe; and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles. 44 And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common; 45 and they began selling their property and possessions and were sharing them with all, as anyone might have need. 46 Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved.

You know what stands out to me in that passage besides "awe"? "Transformation" and "community". Pretty simple... The Holy Spirit showed up, lives were transformed, there was a sense of awe and they chose to hang out in community because of these things.

This is the church in its most true form. Can we really strip away all the other stuff we have made it to be over the many years? That is my prayer as the Leavener Community gathers.

See you Friday,

Rusty