Power of Rising

Yesterday was an amazing day for my home church. In a span of time covering four separate worship services, over 1,800 people came together to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave. The singing was great, the sermon was great, the brunch buffet and fellowship was great, all the kids hunting for over 8,000 Easter eggs was great... but there was something more.

Having been in ministry for a long time and attended and led more Easter worship services than I can remember, but yesterday brought a new quality for me. It was something deep within my spirit -- a longing that was touched in a new way. Could it be the power of rising?

The apostle Paul once wrote, "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death..." (Phil. 3:10). Having read that passage thousands of times, preached or taught it hundreds of times, I'm beginning to wonder if I've ever really understood what Paul meant when he wrote it. Have I ever really been close to that power, the power that takes Jesus out of the grave? What would it be like to somehow live in that power on a daily basis. Could this have been what Paul was seeking? I hear him differently know. I hear his "wanting" in a way I haven't before.

To live life under the restriction of merely human power is so limited. Even those who claim to know Christ and believe in him as the Risen Savior try to live life and fight sinful tendency with human power. We pursue righteousness with human will, rather than accessing the spiritual power that brought Christ from the grave. There must be a deeper power that does not come from within, but comes from "beyond" and makes us the people of the resurrection. As the same author said to the Christians in Corinth, "if only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men" (1 Cor. 15:19).

Yesterday, something deeply touched me. It didn't come from a specific spoken word, or song or prayer. It was more a sense of "being" -- an awareness that something (or Someone) was so near and so powerful that I actually could feel Him near. For a fleeting moment, I wondered if perhaps I was getting just a little bit closer to what Paul was writing about. Like Paul, I want to know it and share in it, so that I might become something (or someone) more than I have been.

I want to know Christ and the power of rising...