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“But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that He raised Christ from the dead.”
Can you imagine what was going through Paul’s mind as he penned these words? No doubt (just as today), many were questioning the resurrection of the dead, and of Jesus in particular. Today, as the children of God, we celebrate the empty tomb. Our faith is built and sustained on Jesus raising from the dead. As hard as this thought is to conceive in our mind, it gives us hope. Hope that one day, we too will be resurrected to live eternally with God. Every part of God’s redemptive plan has been far outside of the scope of our human thinking and reality. The Bible says His thoughts are higher than our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8) and He has proven it in every step of His redemptive plan. It’s 2022 and things are not much different than when Paul wrote these important words. The sad reality is that even after almost two thousand years, and much evidence, the world still refuses to accept Jesus and an empty tomb. However, we cannot allow this rejection to keep us from sharing the gospel with the lost. God is calling us and counting on us, to tell the story of the resurrected one, who can save anybody. Be prepared, the Summer of Salvation is just around the corner. Blessings! -Lamar As we inch ever so closely to the single event that changed the history of mankind, I am moved to share some thoughts about the cross and the empty tomb. These two facts are the epicenter of our Christian faith. Without these two, as Paul said, our faith would be futile and as a result, we would still be lost in our sins. This was a major fact in Paul’s argument back then, and it is the message the world needs to
hear today. As we enter the Summer of Salvation next month, it is important that we tell the story to all those who will listen. Mankind is drifting further and further into a spiritual abyss. They have no direction, no hope, nothing, as they are being carried away by the evil one of this world. They are spiritually bankrupt and are totally unaware of their situation. As Jesus arrives in the city of Jerusalem this week, riding on the foal of a donkey, let us set our sight on this great crescendo, which demonstrates the love of God for his creation (Romans 5:8). This is a time where the power of the cross grips our hearts one more time, as our Lord, our Savior, our King, suffers and dies to free us from a well-deserved death sentence. Stay tuned and watch as the greatest plan ever executed, unfolds before your very eyes. Blessings! -Lamar The year seems to be flying by as we enter into “hopefully” our final month of winter. It won’t be long before warm days will finally be upon us. With this thought in mind, I have dedicated the summer months to the theme “The Summer of Salvation.” We’ll talk more about that in upcoming messages.
As you may recall, we have “themed” each month thus far this year and, for the month of April, our theme is “Preparation To Perform.” Like all armies, preparation for battle is necessary, so we are engaging ourselves this month in a type of spiritual boot camp; by concentrating our efforts on preparing to be effective in spreading the gospel throughout the summer of salvation. It’s going to be an exciting summer as we look forward to a harvest blessing of monumental proportion in successful summer conversions. It’s time we take a stand against darkness in our city and surrounding communities by spreading the light of Christ to all lost in darkness. We ask all to be in prayer that many will hear and obey the invitation of Jesus Christ into their lives Blessings! -Lamar |
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