Resurrection Hope!
Pastor Denny Wayman, Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara (CA)

We are living in important days. You don't have to be a Christian to realize that the world's stage is full, and we are at a climactic moment in the story of the world. The crescendo of concern has been rising for some time, and you can feel the tension of many in our world as we live amid a flood of information that confirms our fears.

But as Christians, this rising level of fear produces an equally, or even greater, rising level of hope. The basis of this hope is our core belief that no matter how turbulent the world or our personal lives become, we serve a God who not only will walk with us through the "valley of the shadow of death," but will also bring resurrection life out of it. The result of this pervasive faith is a seemingly illogical and certainly paradoxical joy as we become convinced that the worse things become, the more miraculous will be God's power at work. The more we need God, the more God will meet our needs.

The foundation of this hope is our belief in God's resurrection power displayed in Jesus Christ. Easter, in all its wonderful forms, is simply a celebration of God's power to take the worst that can happen and not only make it good, but make it the best. The more evil seems to have won, the more victorious is the power God uses to overcome it! The darker the loss, as in the death of God's only begotten Son, the brighter the victory, as when His dead Son becomes our resurrected Savior. When sin's sentence of death is conquered by our Savior's life, we too can live — and live abundantly.

The primary gift we have to offer others living in this difficult world is the love and power of Jesus Christ to resurrect their losses into eternal gains. We first experience this for ourselves, and then He tells us to bring others so that they too can have hope in Him.

This Easter as we pray for our world and for those we know and don't yet know, let's pray to bless them by helping them come to know the saving power of Jesus Christ. Plan now to invite your friends, family and neighbors to experience the worship of God on Palm Sunday, the self-sacrifice of Jesus on Good Friday and His victorious resurrection on Easter Sunday so that together you might have "Hope in Christ."