He Is Risen! Part 1

Luke 24: 1-12 NASB

¹^"But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb bringing the spices which they had prepared.

²And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb,

³but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

⁴While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men suddenly stood near them in dazzling clothing;

⁵and as the women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, "Why do you seek the living One among the dead?

⁶"He is not here, but He has risen Remember how He spoke to you while He was still in Galilee,

⁷saying that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again."

⁸And they remembered His words,

⁹and returned from the tomb and reported all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

¹⁰Now they were Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James; also the other women with them were telling these things to the apostles.

¹¹But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them.

¹²But Peter got up and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings only; and he went away to his home, marveling at what had happened."

Matthew 28: 1-15 NASB

¹Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.

²And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.

³And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.

⁴The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.

⁵The angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.

⁶"He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.

⁷"Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you."

⁸And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.

⁹And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.

¹⁰Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me."

¹¹Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.

¹²And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,

¹³and said, "You are to say, 'His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.'

¹⁴"And if this should come to the governor's ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble."

¹⁵And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day."

Mark 16:1-13 NASB

¹When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him.

²Very early on the first day of the week, they came to the tomb when the sun had risen.

³They were saying to one another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb?"

⁴Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large.

⁵Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed.

⁶And he said to them, Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him.

⁷"But go, tell His disciples and Peter, He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.'"

⁸They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.

⁹Now after He had risen early on the first day of the week, He first appeared to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had cast out seven demons.

¹⁰She went and reported to those who had been with Him, while they were mourning and weeping.

¹¹When they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they refused to believe it.

¹²After that, He appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking along on their way to the country.

¹³They went away and reported it to the others, but they did not believe them either."



John 20: 1-18 NASB

¹Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw

the stone already taken away from the tomb.

²So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him."

³So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb.

⁴The two were running together; and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first;

⁵and stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there; but he did not go in.

⁶And so Simon Peter also came, following him, and entered the tomb; and he saw the linen wrappings lying there,

⁷and the face-cloth which had been on His head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself.

⁸So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and believed.

⁹For as yet they did not understand the Scripture,that He must rise again from the dead.

¹⁰So the disciples went away again to their own homes.

¹¹But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb;

¹²and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.

¹³And they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping?" She said to them, "Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him."

¹⁴When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus.

¹⁵Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, "Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away."

¹⁶Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, "Rabboni!" (which means, Teacher).

¹⁷Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, 'I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.'"

¹⁸Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her. "

I know, some have said "Look, the accounts don't agree with one another! They can't even get their story straight, how can this possibly be true?!"

Bible scholars agree that fact that the four Gospels are different from one another actually give them more credence, not less. Why? Well because if they were all the same, exactly the same, then you'd smell a rat. You'd be able to say "They all got together in a room somewhere and worked out their stories! Liars!" Police call that collusion, when witnesses stories are exactly the same, and the testimony of such is counted as unreliable. The fact that the four Gospels are different, mean in fact that they are telling the truth from four different points of view.

Lets see where they are the same first, and then we can look at the interesting points that each brings up.

A.) First Day of the Week the Women Visit the Tomb.

Luke 24:1

Matthew 28:1

Mark 16:1

John 20:1

B.) Stone Rolled Away

1.) Luke 24:2

2.)Matthew 28:2

3.)Mark 16:3-4

4.)John 20:1

C.) Jesus' Body Is Missing

1.) Luke 24:3

2.)Matthew 28:5-6

3.)Mark 16:5-6

4.)John 20:2-8

D.) Angels Present At the Tomb

1.)Luke 24:4-5

2.)Matthew 28:2-5

3. Mark 16:5-7

4.) John 20:12-13

E.) The Women Go And Tell The Disciples That Jesus Has Risen

1.)Luke 24:8-9

2.)Matthew 28:5-8

3.)Mark 16:9-11*

4.)John 20:17-18*

*Mary Magdalene alone tells the disciples.

Micro Studies and PopCorn Verses Part 2

I shared that little bit down below with a customer at the store a couple of days ago and she looked at me and tears welled up in her eyes and she shook her head, and said that that verse showed pre planning. I agreed, that idea had been running around inside my skull too. I mean I've heard pastors say for years that "before the foundations of the earth were laid, God had a plan" and usually right after that if I'm going to be 100% honest here, my mind wandered off somewhere else. After all, I knew the story. I could recite it with them, in fact I taught it to kids for years.

I've gotten too familiar with the idea I think, of His pre-planning things. I've heard it so much that I've become numb to the idea. But, the idea came today about this popcorn passage, what if the pre-planning there wasn't so much about knowing what decisions Adam and Eve would make in the garden (sinning, turning away from Him, wanting to be gods themselves and not needing Him at all) but about wanting to communicate with those He had lost. He didn't need to put the stars in the heavens and have their first duty be to be heralds of His rescue plan (for that's what signs are I believe, things to tell us what is coming) He could have left Adam and Eve bereft. He could have walked away and said "You had your chance, sorry Charlie, game's over." He had every right to abandon those who walked out on Him, after all we'd covered ourselves in the one thing that He can not abide.

But He didn't.

The Lord knew what choices would be made in the garden, but he created the decision makers anyway.

The Lord knew what would happen in that garden if He showed Himself to those that dwelled there, and He came anyway.

And before either of those things, He wrote a message for them in the heavens, which said:

"I love you. I miss you. Don't be afraid, I'm going to rescue you."

Micro Studies and PopCorn Verses

I've always been fascinated by the way popcorn behaves. You've got a tiny little kernel, and with the right amount of heat and time, *BANG* it turns itself inside out and becomes at least three times as big as it was before. Also, anyone who knows me knows I love explosions, and really, what other food can you eat (within reason) that has come through an explosion?

Since I've been working to get myself back to where I was before spiritually, I've dueled with self-doubt and I've sparred with guilt and wrestled with condemnation. If you check the scoreboard, I'm afraid you're going to see more losses than wins tallied for me. I keep waiting to be pulled out of the game completely, because you know if I was in charge, that's what I'd do to me.

I'm so glad I'm not in charge, because the One who is, hasn't sidelined me (I think He knows I don't want to be a bench warmer) permanently but He has set me down where I can rest for a bit. And while I'm here resting and enjoying His company, He's brought me a box of popcorn verses. Here are the ones that I've been munching on for a week now, trying to wrap my comprehension around all the wildness that's inside.

Genesis 1:14-19 (New Century Version)

¹⁴ Then God said, "Let there be lights in the sky to separate day from night. These lights will be used for signs, seasons, days, and years.¹⁵ They will be in the sky to give light to the earth." And it happened.

¹⁶ So God made the two large lights. He made the brighter light to rule the day and made the smaller light to rule the night. He also made the stars.¹⁷ God put all these in the sky to shine on the earth,¹⁸ to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from the darkness. God saw that all these things were good.¹⁹ Evening passed, and morning came. This was the fourth day."

Okay, anyone else catch that the first time you read it? Because I'm pretty sure I've slept through that part every time I've read it, and when I came across it last week it slapped me between the eyes. I'm pretty sure I rubbed my fore head and went "ow".

He put in the stars in the heavens, hung them there with their first orders to act as signs. He did this on day four of the Creation story. Man's not made until day six, and animals aren't made until day five. But on day four, the stars are settled into place and the sun and moon are shown their routes, with explicit orders that their first duties are to act as signs.

Why?

Adam is still a twinkle in the eyes of the Trinity, and Eve just an idea, coddled in His heart. This is a perfect world, lush and good and full of plants and flowers and every kind of green and growing thing. It's a beautiful garden, peaceful and harmonious, there's no one really to talk to, but there's also no sin.

Sin's the thing that separated us in the first place from Him, before that He and Adam and Eve spoke face to face in the garden.

This Face to the Public

You know, both Rhu and m'lord Batson have been commenting on the fact that this place has been silent as a tomb since the summer. The sad thing is, I must have thirty posts in here that will never see the light of day---they're too personal and too filled with pain. It's weird, some writers, like her Rhuness will blog about the hurt and feel better. I put my feelings on paper and feel shame, embarrassment, and like I'm whining about life and should in the words of my brother ''Man-up Princess" and just keep going. So, instead I'll blog about what makes me feel better.

This got me laughed at most of December by the staff where I work--but I don't care. See, in EB it was a christian fantasy kinda Christmas because;

We sold :

2 The Door Within
2 Rise of the Wyrm Lord

(I love this little book passionately, cos it always has issues with printing, selling, being loved)

1The Final Storm

10 Isle of Swords
4 Isle of Fire

(That's 19 books of Wayne Thomas Batson's in twenty-four days for those counting)

2 Eternity's Edge

1 Legend of the Fire Fish

1 Hand that Bears the Sword

1 Battle for Vast Dominion

1 Rise of the Dibor

2 Hunter Brown and the Secret of the Shadow

And then we also sold by Sharon Hinck

2 Stepping into the Sunlight

1 Symphony of Secrets

1 Restorer

So, seeing all those lovely books go to eager readers was very comforting and really, with all the other crap that went on in December, it was a lovely bright spot to think of all the truth, all the love, and all the hard work that was being delivered, enjoyed, and consumed at the last of 2008!

Updates and Other Things

Ah, God is good.
All the time.

Even when the world is upside down and backwards, especially when the world is upside down and backwards.

My family member who was in the hospital for mental instability is home, and the medication is working better than any of us could have dreamed. Tears are flowing, but this time of thanks, of gratitude, of being undone by His work. This is a chance at a real life for them, this is a chance for life and life more abundantly, for He came, and comes to bring life and not just life which is precious enough when you consider that we were all dead in our sins, but life abundant here on earth, and life everlasting with Him. Gloria a Dios. Somehow that seems more fitting than saying it English, maybe because I remember with great affection the passionate way the Christians in Argentina said it, with all their life and breath and heart behind the words. I am so very grateful, for so many things but for that work in particular.

I am also very weary.

More doctors, more tests, more needles and more lab work for me, not for them. This body of mine, this earth suit that the immortal me wears is hurting. It's not the Designer's fault, see we (that would be all of us) decided that we didn't need Him, and because of that a fatal flaw worked itself into the warp and weave of the suit. It's not immortal, it's decaying around the immortal soul that lives and dwells within it and right now, it's actually attacking itself and undoing the warp and weave at a faster pace than it should. And, because the immortal and the mortal are bound together, I'm hurting.

I'm tired of the dead ends, of the judgments, of the humiliation, and because I am so very tired of it all, I want to hide.

You know, hide?

Oh to be four again and certain that a fort of sheets made me invisible or for a crabapple tree with gnarled branches that could scoop me up and hold me and hide me at the same time.

I don't have bed sheets, or a crabapple tree, but I did find this. And so I'm hiding, I'm hiding in Christ, and hiding in this old hymn.

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

O light that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in thy sunshine’s blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.

O Joy that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain,
That morn shall tearless be.

O Cross that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from thee;
I lay in dust life’s glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.

George Matheson

When Boulders Fall Like Rain Drops

I've never been one much for secrets or for facades, usually what you see is what you get with me. But my family, like all the others in the world I suppose, has some things it doesn't want to broadcast.

I'm well aware of how fast news can travel through churches, how prayer chains often work more like gossip networks, and I also know the sting and ache of judgment which more often than not comes with others knowing that your family (surprise surprise) isn't perfect. So this post is going to be in some places deliberately vague, to protect the privacy and sanity of those directly involved in the current crisis. I do want to share some things because I know that my real friends, the ones that genuinely care, deserve better than to have silence gnaw on their hearts and let the Enemy stretch their minds with all kinds of dark and dire fantasies.

Last Sunday, or July 6th, my family got a call that one of our own had a psychotic episode where he quietly threatened to kill himself if he didn't receive what he demanded. This person's immediate family rallied around them, and took them to the hospital where the attending physician wisely made the decision to admit the person having the episode into the psychiatric wing of the hospital for stabilization and evaluation.

Remember the scene in the movie The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe when Peter signals to the gryphons to start out and they fly in formation, carrying the great chunks of stone in their paws and then they let them go effectively doing to the White Witch's army what Germany was doing to London at the beginning of the movie? Down on the evil hoard came great chunks of stone that couldn't be deflected or reasoned with or persuaded to fall elsewhere. It is still one of my favorite scenes, and I cheer every time I watch it.

This week has felt like we've been on the receiving end of that bombardment. Every day there have been phone calls, sometimes it's nothing but the other half of the family out there, really going through the meat grinder wanting just to be encouraged by the rest of us, and more often than not it's one of them calling in to report on what's going on with the family member in the ward.

Everyone feels responsible, everyone is second guessing themselves from the person's siblings to their parents. On top of this stress comes the stress about paying for their stay, and for the MRI that needs to be done to determine some things. Thankfully the one doctor who is in charge of the others assigned to the individual is working to get the cost lowered, because the insurance won't pay for it.

It's been a long week, and it's really not over yet.

Interestingly enough, the past couple of weeks, close on a month have been pointing in this direction so while the incident came as a shock, the fact that things have changed with this individual that we all love so much, wasn't.

Tomorrow, I'll try and share some of the ways that Christ has been showing up in the midst of the boulders.

I apologize again for the vagueness, but I don't want to hurt my family, just like I don't want to leave my friends in ignorance.

For now,

Scribe.

If only it were true

I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.

Blaise Pascal

For those that have been so kind as to make certain that I haven't fallen off the face of the world (kinda hard considering its' round and not flat) I offer my thanks. I'm working on a post that will hopefully be a musing and coherently telling of what has been going on with me though for privacy's sake I can't go into everything. If I were the main character, the primary mover, well then I would let the gates flash open and the whole of the story gush out, tears and blood and puss all mixing. Fortunately and unfortunately I am a bit player in the drama that has taken my family by the scruff of our collective necks and shaken them. Can you have collective necks? Hmm.

I can say that my writing is going well, I'm really enjoying outlining/storyboarding and those closest to me that know as much of the plot as I do have been wonderful in goading me on and making sure I work on it and don't allow myself to be lulled into Summer complacency.

This past week has been especially hard as several vague problems in my family have hardened into darker reality and I find myself in the unenviable position of throwing the boulder sized problem back to Christ. Otherwise, they would crush me. I keep reminding myself that while this world and its' problems are much larger than myself, I serve a Powerful, Tender, Mighty Warrior who is much larger than this world.

My thanks to everyone who has prayed for strength for me and for my family. Even just tucking me in to the tail of your own prayers and asking Christ to bless me with the blessings you ask for your own family, as some have shared they do, means the world to me.

Really more later. Really really. I promise. Scribe's honor ;)