On the Third Day

fear not God can be trusted.

Thank you for your prayers.

The phrase "On the third day"
appears 84 times in the Bible.
Jesus turned water into wine on the third day,
and Moses and the elders of Israel went up the mountain 
to eat and drink with God on the third day,
and Israel walked through the Red Sea
on the third day.

Scripture is many things:
a tapestry,
a foreward looking book,
and a mysterious text that points to things beyond us.
And so when this book gives so many hints about a third day,
it should not surprise us
that Jesus would rise from the dead 
on the third day.

God entered the world,
died on a cross,
and death
was confronted 
with the face of God.

And death was defeated.
God used death as a weapon 
to destroy death 
and undo the curse.

And the blind have seen, 
and the deaf have heard.
The poor have received the gospel,
and dead have been raised.
And now the gospel has been preached to the whole world.

Jesus told his disciples he must die
and that he would rise on the third day.
They did not understand,
and then they ate dinner with him
after he rose from the dead.

And we have been living in that third day ever since,
a new creation,
and a new order.
Jesus was the first,
and the day is coming when all who died in Christ will live again.
And when Jesus raises something from the dead,
it is more alive than when it was before.

Some of you reading this have hopes and dreams 
that seem to be in the grave.
We artists and creative people
dream big dreams and get big ideas
as our normal state.
And the trouble with big dreams
is they need a big God to make them happen.

Jesus Christ,
the one who looked death and hell in the face
and won,
is that big God.
Every day can be the third day.
Give God all those things in the tomb,
and ask him to breath into them
the breath of life.

Alleluia, Christ is Risen!
The Lord is risen indeed, Alleluia!

He Never Fails, 

+Christ