Oh Father in Heaven,
Thank you for Jesus, thank you for the Cross...we celebrate the empty tomb, we celebrate YOU and that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life! Father in heaven, thank you for the death, burial, and resurrection of our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, thank you, that through your shed blood, YOU opened the way for us to be adopted as your children, as we repent of our sins and place our faith and trust in you and your finished work, you place your Holy Spirit within us...you grant us a new birth from above, we become new creatures in Christ Jesus.
Father in heaven open the eyes of our hearts, open the eyes of our understanding that we might behold and become like Jesus. Father set our hearts ablaze, open your Word to our hearts and minds and consume us, consume us..."our God is a consuming fire." Fill us with your Holy Spirit and set our hearts and minds aflame with you and you alone LORD JESUS...for YOUR glory and our JOY in YOU!
Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Lk 24:31-33 And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him. And he vanished from their sight. 32 They said to each other, “Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures?” 33 And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together,
Lk 24:45-49 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”
Father,
Clothe your children with power from on high, fill us with YOUR Holy Spirit..."For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" 2 Cor 4:6. Enable us through your precious Word to behold your face in Gethsemane, on the Cross, and now resurrected and seated on high at the right hand of the Father. Enable us to see you, to behold you and become like you, to live transformed-conformed lives as your ambassadors in a world that desperately needs to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ! WHY DO YOU LOOK FOR THE LIVING AMONG THE DEAD? HE IS RISEN!
love,
m