THEN CAME THE MORNING! 3/31/13

I KNOW that every day comes with God’s blessings, but on the mornings that I am privileged to witness one of God’s sunrises, I am filled with anticipation that this day indeed, comes with God’s blessings. That is how I feel on resurrection Sunday; Easter; the GREAT DAY! Today is such a day! When I was young, nothing thrilled me more than to get up early on this day, and go to the early sunrise service. Today I often get up early, and on occasion I get to see the sunrise!


ARE YOU a morning person? I can’t say that I am, but when I see the sunrise, I am filled with such awe and wonder of His mighty works, that I have to share it with someone and of course I know Jim is around somewhere, so I call him to come and see. Jim is a morning person!

THIS MORNING I am reminded of who I am in Christ. When the morning comes, do you think about who you are? Who you were yesterday? Who you are going to be tomorrow? Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever; is it possible for you to be the same everyday?

ON THE mornings that I am filled with immeasurable problems I don’t even want to open my eyes; but as the song goes; “Open my eyes that I may see, glimpses of truth, thou has for me!” Today I ask the question; “Who are you in Christ? When you knew that Jesus was the Christ and that He did indeed rise from the dead, what was the revelation you experienced that caused you to want to give up your old life and put on the new life He offered you?

WHAT HAPPENED when the morning came on your first morning in Christ? Did you put on your new outfit or did you continue to wear your old clothes. It has taken me a long time to refit my closet so that I could become the new me, and believe me, I am still receiving my new clothes from God’s store; His Word! Self gets in the way of God’s design for us, but when we begin to realize that the morning didn’t only come for Jesus when He walked out of the tomb, but it came for us when we came up out of the watery grave of baptism.

UPON our baptism into Christ we received the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit came with the fruit that God wanted us to have. “But the fruit of the Spirit is Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-Control; against such there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23    Along with the fruit God gave us faith! “For by the grace given to me I bid every one among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith which God has assigned him.” Romans 12:3 God gave us faith so that we might do good works.

“DO YOU not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?”  1 Corinthians 3:16    God use to dwell in the tabernacle and the Temple, but now He chooses to live within us. How are you doing in the fruit and faith department, especially knowing that God has already given them to you? Both require an effort on your part. God supplies and you develop it!

“WE WERE buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life!” Romans 6:4   Right away we were to walk in our new life. The old life was gone and the new one began. We are new every morning but that first morning as a new creature in Christ, was the beginning of the adventure that God had designed for every one of us.

“IF WE confess our sins, He is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9 Each time He forgives us, we are clean, and the morning comes once again! We are more than conquerors! We are in Christ and He is in us! No matter the storms that come, we can go through them because God’s Word says; “Know, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!” Romans 8:37     I don’t know what Easter means to you but I do know that Jesus is ALIVE! He has RISEN; yes, He has RISEN indeed! By Jane Ann Crenshaw 3/28/13