What of wars and fightings in the world? What of man all over the planet, in each country seeking to rule his part of the paltry little kingdom he has forced into subjection by violence, hatred and tyranny?
What of famines, floods, fires, drought, earthquakes, tornados, tsunamis and pestilence? What of kings, despots, prime ministers, congressmen and presidents who know no bounds in their desperate desire to rule over everyone?
What of sickness, death and destruction in every aspect of society, in our country as well as the lowest third world country on earth? What of the "deeds of passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry and selfishness?" What of sorrow, loss and death?
In all this, what is the message of Easter? Is it not that there is a great God who rules in the affairs of men, who puts one down and raises another up? It not the message of the resurrection that God has rule over all things, men and events in this world, and in the world to come?
In the words of Harriet Beecher Stowe,
"To him who strives in vain with the giant forces of evil, what calm in the thought of an overpowering Will, so that that Will be crowned with goodness. However grim to the distrusting looks this fortress in flowery times of ease, yet in times when the waters roar and are troubled, and the mountains shake with the swelling thereof, the Sovereign will of God has always been the refuge of God's people."HBS, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands, 1854
The great message of the resurrection is that God indeed rules the world and all things in it. He speaks and the wind and sea obey him. He says "Peace, be still," and all is calm. It is He who created all things and the rights of a Creator extend a sovereign will to his Divine Plan. And in "misery's every refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority has not made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out," there is the great blessing of the truth of the gospel: that is that the death and destruction known only to this world shall one day cease, and "one like unto the Son of Man will come with the clouds of heaven, ...and there will be given to Him dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all people, nations and languages should serve Him, and His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away, and His kingdom is that which shall not be destroyed."
For thousands of years now, puny man has done his earthly best to silence the message of the resurrection, yet is has been all to no avail. Year after year, decade after decade, century after century, the message of the risen Christ is shouted from the mountaintops, and echos through all time: "He is not here, He is risen, as He said."
Looking at the current news outlets; the rank, godless display of the goings on in our world, communicated through a mindset totally devoid of the righteousness of God, or any knowledge of God, one would think that there is no method to this madness of life. It is only the message that God is at work in the world, that Christ died and rose again to save sinners from eternal death, which gives hope and peace to our world.
There is a risen Christ, there is a divine plan of an almighty God, and the message of the resurrection is that in this confusing world we live in, those of us who believe in the resurrection can surrender wholly to the divine plan of God and trust his greatness, his goodness and his sovereignty to effect his will on this temporal earth, and in our individual lives. The risen Savior said it best, for all people and for all time. "I am the resurrection and the life, he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?"
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