Day 23: Full Emptiness

I am closer to JESUS 

when I don't have to be.

Sounds strange, doesn't it.

When it is EASTER

I feel a forced celebration

of HE IS RISEN.

I know that it is a day of REMEMBRANCE,

but I can't force a CELEBRATION

when JESUS has already RISEN in my heart.

I don't like putting HIM back on the CROSS on GOOD FRIDAY. 

I don't like going into the upper room on HIS LAST SUPPER.

I don't like WAITING for HIM to do something, or someone to do something,

while HE is BURIED in the TOMB. 

And to wake up on EASTER MORNING

to FINALLY have HIM RISE,

I feel more like MARY MAGDALENE

who she sat by HIS grave

weeping,

"WHERE ARE YOU JESUS"?

"Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying

. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb

 and saw two angels in white,

 seated where JESUS body had been,

one at the head and the other at the foot.

They asked her, 'Woman, why are you crying?'

'They have taken my LORD away,' she said, 'and I don’t know where they have put HIM.'

At this, she turned around and saw JESUS standing there,

 but she did not realize that it was JESUS.

 He asked her,

'Woman, why are you crying?

Who is it you are looking for?'

Thinking he was the gardener, she said,

 'Sir, if you have carried HIM away,

tell me where you have put HIM, and I will get HIM.'

JESUS said to her, 'Mary.'

She turned toward HIM and cried out in Aramaic,

 'Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

JESUS said,

 'Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the FATHER.

Go instead to MY brothers and tell them,

‘I am ascending to MY FATHER and your FATHER,

to MY GOD and your GOD.'

 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news:

“I HAVE SEEN THE LORD”

And she told them that HE had said these things to her"

(John 20:1-18).

A WAKE UP CALL.

JESUS DID WHAT HE SAID HE WOULD DO,

so maybe I do need a reminder on

EASTER

to retell what JESUS DID DO.

Maybe I need a REVIVAL in my heart

that

I HAVE SEEN THE LORD.

To REMEMBER way back,

when I thought I knew JESUS,

yet HE was still in the GRAVE in my life.

 For HE was just someone who I learned about in church,

who was dead on a CROSS

and I was supposed to be GOOD. 

But

I HAVE SEEN THE LORD.

HE HAS RISEN.

THE TOMB IS EMPTY.

I can't go backwards.

Do you need a REVIVAL in your heart?

JESUS IS JESUS every second of every day,

and HE can't stop being JESUS.

Get Ready. Get Set. Go.

RUN THE RACE,

for

"I KNOW MY REDEEMER LIVES"

(listen to the song below)