Ah…Spring! Don’t you just love it? Martin Luther wrote, “Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.”
In Panama we had only two seasons…Dry Season and Rainy Season. I used to miss spring in the jungles. With the introduction of spring comes Easter, refreshing the garden and the promise of new life everywhere!
As Moms, we try to make every holiday one that will commemorate the occasion and create a family tradition. We decorate and plan special family gatherings with a menu that is reminiscent of the day being celebrated… Christmas Dinner, Fourth of July B-B-Q’s, and Easter Brunch with Easter baskets filled with colored eggs! Our homes become “show pieces” for enhancing the lesson of the season. Easter affords us one of the most amazing opportunities to rehearse again the enormous sacrifice of our Savior and His Resurrection that is our living hope after death!
Easter reminds us of the Life the invisible Creator has given us. Rom. 1: 20 The barren ground exploding with magnificent splendor, as far as the eye can see. The magic of new life bursting from the earth bringing forth flowers of every imaginable color and size…tulips, lilies, lilacs, daffodils… Tiny bunnies, fluffy chicks popping out of eggs, foals, fuzzy lambs and every other living being confirm the wonder of revival of life after a long winter.
Revival can also be personal and immediate. It is the power of the Holy Spirit transforming God’s Word into our soul. There has never been a need, as great as today for revived lives, revived families, fellowships, communities and nations. The desperate need is there but the realization of our personal need is not! And revival starts with us!
“For revival is not a green valley getting greener, but a valley full of dry bones being made to live again and stand up an exceeding great army. (Ezekiel 37) It is not good Christians becoming better Christians—as God sees us there are not any good Christians—but rather Christians honestly confessing that their Christian life is a valley of dry bones, thus qualifying them for the grace that makes all things new”! (Roy Hession) For the Christian, death is a promotion! New Life springs from our continual choosing to die to our pride and selfishness.
“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy,
to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God,
which is your reasonable service.” Rom. 12:1
Some give Him a place; some give Him prominence; but what Christ wants in our lives is pre-eminence. The fruit of His being pre-eminent in our life is a spiritual renewal that restrains the anger of God, restores our God-consciousness and reveals His continual activity in us.
For those who have humbled themselves under the mighty hand of God at that place where sin is washed away, it has meant revival of their Christian lives in the truest and simplest sense of the word.
As we look forward to celebrating our Savior in the coming days, let’s use this time to revisit our need for personal and continual revival. His death and resurrection came with plan and purpose. It was to give us life from death. New life does not begin with someone else. It begins in each of us!
Let’s exchange dry bones for New Life!
“If you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.” Col. 3:1
~Jackie Johnson - I am a former tribal missionary to the Kuna Indians on the Colombian border in Central America. Fluent in several languages, my husband and I currently pastor a Spanish-speaking church in Southern California. My passion is discipling and equipping dedicated young women for life, marriage, motherhood, and beyond. I am the mother of two daughters and the grandmother of three Princesses and four young Knights.
