•Thursday, April 12, 2012
“And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.” I Corinthians 15:14 NLT
When I was young, my family would visit my grandparents in Tennessee each year for Easter. It was always a novelty to attend their church on Easter Sunday and listen to those Southern drawls and hear, “Ya,ll come back now!” They had a large “choir” that consisted of anyone in the congregation who wanted to sit in the front of the church and sing, no practice required. They were loud and off-key as they belted out those hymns of triumph in their Southern accents, full of genuine enthusiasm and excitement for the greatest victory of all time.
Now, as an adult, there’s always something lacking to me in the restrained and organized worship of Easter morning. The unique flavor and zeal of that Southern choir will always stand out in my memory when I hear, “Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes!” Their preacher would jump up and down behind the pulpit as he proclaimed, “Christ is RISEN!” like it had just happened that very morning.
I wish that each spring I could personally reclaim that fresh passion for the resurrection. For every tenet of our faith hangs upon it. If Christ was only a prophet who lived and died, our faith is useless. If we believe that he did, in fact, rise from the grave victorious, we have a living faith worth celebrating! Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have freedom from sin and the hope of salvation. That’s worth jumping about.
When I was young, my family would visit my grandparents in Tennessee each year for Easter. It was always a novelty to attend their church on Easter Sunday and listen to those Southern drawls and hear, “Ya,ll come back now!” They had a large “choir” that consisted of anyone in the congregation who wanted to sit in the front of the church and sing, no practice required. They were loud and off-key as they belted out those hymns of triumph in their Southern accents, full of genuine enthusiasm and excitement for the greatest victory of all time.
Now, as an adult, there’s always something lacking to me in the restrained and organized worship of Easter morning. The unique flavor and zeal of that Southern choir will always stand out in my memory when I hear, “Up from the grave he arose, with a mighty triumph o’er his foes!” Their preacher would jump up and down behind the pulpit as he proclaimed, “Christ is RISEN!” like it had just happened that very morning.
I wish that each spring I could personally reclaim that fresh passion for the resurrection. For every tenet of our faith hangs upon it. If Christ was only a prophet who lived and died, our faith is useless. If we believe that he did, in fact, rise from the grave victorious, we have a living faith worth celebrating! Because of Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have freedom from sin and the hope of salvation. That’s worth jumping about.
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