…”Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will. We run ahead of Him in a thousand and one activities, becoming so burdened with people and problems that we don’t worship God, and we fail to intercede. If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls. God continually introduces us to people in whom we have no interest, and unless we are worshiping God the natural tendency is to be heartless toward them. We give them a quick verse of Scripture, like jabbing them with a spear, or leave them with a hurried, uncaring word of counsel before we go. A heartless Christian must be a terrible grief to our Lord.”…

My Utmost for His Highest - Oswald Chambers

“YOU ARE LOOKING for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has been raised; he is not here” (Mark 16:8). Blessed with the hindsight of two thousand years of Easters, the church does not always do justice to the incredible nature of the news just announced. Nor do we fully empathize with the flood of emotion such words must have unleashed on its first hearers. Those three women [Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome] had just borne the brunt of history’s greatest reversal: “He has been raised; he is not here.”

It is a message whose acceptance depended solely on faith. …

The news of Easter is not sounded primarily for the sake of sanctuaries adorned with lilies, where you might expect to hear such proclamation. The news of Easter is taken back to all the usual and familiar places of our living, where death’s defeat is not a given. The possibility of new life and rebirth needs echoing in settings where we spend the vast majority of our time and energy, where our fears can be very real. We are Easter people: not because of where we spend Easter morning but because of how we bring Easter to our other days. …

“He is not here” stands defiant in the face of all the places in our lives and in this world that go about in fear of dying and thus in fear of living. …

May God overcome our fears and free our faith—for Christ is risen indeed!

Holy Jesus, risen Christ, having shaken off the tomb and death: write your raising in the handwriting of my life. Grace me to live an Eastered life for the sake of the world you love. Amen.

—John Indermark, Parables and Passion

JESUS SPENT forty days on earth after his resurrection and before his ascension back to heaven to demonstrate that he truly had risen.

Jesus speaks peace to these terrified disciples, and he speaks peace to us today. Moreover, he doesn’t just describe peace; he bestows it. Yes, they face and we face real problems. We are not to deny them. But Jesus says, “Trust me.” Sometimes Jesus takes our problems away in an incredible fashion. Other times he gives us wisdom and strength to deal with those problems. On still other occasions he does neither but walks with us as we go through a tough time. …

Lord Jesus, thank you that believing in your resurrection is not wishful thinking. Amen.

- The Upper Room Disciplines 2012