Pensamientos para hoy (afterthought for today)

Signs of Growth

God knew what he was doing when he set the date for Passover which in turn set the date for Jesus' resurrection. Spring is the time for new life and new beginnings. God planned for his people Israel to leave behind the old life of Egypt and start a new life of freedom in spring. Passover is the yearly celebration of that new life and freedom. Jesus, who is our Passover (1 Corinthians 5:7), died on the cross so that we could leave behind the old life of sin and start a new life of freedom. This new life of freedom from sin corresponds with the new life of spring. Bright colorful blossoms and fresh green leaves bud from the trees and shrubs. The animals that have been sleeping all winter wake up and come out of their burrows and caves. The birds fly in from the south, build their nests, lay their eggs, and grace our cool crisp mornings with their singing. All nature seems to be saying: "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you (Ephesians 5:14)."¹

Some of us have been sleeping. Like an animal in hibernation we've burrowed into our own holes to escape the long cold winter, but now spring is here, and the resurrection of Jesus reminds us to wake up, get up, shake off the sleepy doldrums of spiritual winter and bask in the sunshine of Jesus' love. Jesus wants to pour out his love into your life and energize you with his life. As the Bible says, "As Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Romans 6:4)." Jesus' resurrection is the motivation for us to live a new life of freedom from sin.

So as you're out enjoying the rebirth of nature so too remember to enjoy the new birth we have because of Jesus' resurrection.

Grateful for God's inscrutable wisdom and goodness,

Pastor Steve
May 2, 2011

¹ Ephesians 5:14, NASB (New American Standard Bible). Unless otherwise noted all Scripture quotations taken from the NASB.

Jesus is the greatest teacher who ever lived. One of Jesus' techniques was to relate spiritual ideas to common everyday life. Pensamientos (afterthought) is an attempt to follow Jesus' method of teaching. Its title is in Spanish because we recognize the importance of multi-culturalism. We hope to translate some of these messages into Spanish soon.

Find more afterthoughts at Pensamientos (afterthoughts).

You can read recent sermons by Pastor Lorenz at Featured Sermon.