The Real Measuring Stick!
He Has Risen
Leola is very excited about this Sunday’s performance at church. They have been talking about it for months and practicing too. She knew the significance of this weekend but the promise of it was still lost to her. The daily Bible readings have done something to her yet she couldn’t use words to describe it to anyone. She was just living day-to-day trying to measure up to some standard she knew nothing about. She knew she didn’t worship God enough, didn’t tell the truth enough, coveted someone’s stuff, lied, stole, and other sins she can’t control. The Scriptures remind her constantly about her total lack of strength to avoid these sins. Her character needs a lot of work because she tries to not sin but she sins all the more. She is a wretched body of sin!
She sits, not in her own seat, but near the front between two women with children. Leola longed for her children and her husband to come to church with her but she knew her example would not be the cause of them coming. She knew she was lacking in all the things God saw righteous – everything! The lights went out and the sanctuary went silent. One light appear shining on the cross at the back of the platform. There was a man on it with what looked like blood all over him, Jesus! The commentator appeared on stage to announce the play, “He has Risen, We have Risen!” Leola started crying and never stopped during the whole play. Her heart ached to rise from the dead!
Our state of ‘risenness’ is measured, not by what we aren’t doing, but by what we are doing. There are many promises in the Scriptures Elohim will complete but we spend more time concentrating on the negative words in the Scriptures, such as the ten commandments, which leave us open to the devil to move us right into that sin. We know the more we try to concentrate on avoiding sin the more sin springs to life. (Romans 7:7-9) We need to measure the good in us rather than the bad that the good springs to life. The real measuring stick for us is Jesus and the good He did on the cross for us.
We Have Risen
The play ended and Leola went through what looked like a box of tissue beside her on the seat. The whole time she was watching the play she felt alone in the sanctuary. Someone handed her the tissue but she doesn’t know who she just began using it. “Jesus rose from the dead even after He took on everyone’s sin therefore we need to rise out of our sin too! The Scriptures make us aware of sin but we do not have to be sin. When we take on our sin we are making the cross of no affect,” the commentator said.
Leola left the play with a new perspective. She had been spending too much time measuring herself to the sin listed in the Scripture rather than the promises of God to encourage her. She looked inside her Bible to see what she had underlined and found the verses she underlined were the verses about sin especially the sin she deemed herself guilty. She needs a new Bible because she has learned the lesson well. When she purchased the new Bible the first thing she did was go to Romans 4:13-25 to underline and colour in the words. She went to the front of her Bible to add these verses to the front in red. She wants to spend the rest of her life remembering this point – He has risen therefore we have risen! The writers of the Words of God wrote these Words to encourage her not discourage her. They want her to measure herself to the cross, the real measuring stick. This Easter weekend will be the weekend she changes the way she measures herself with her new measuring stick – the CROSS!
When we measure ourselves to sin we will see the devil in us but if we measure ourselves to Jesus we will see Jesus in us. Let us begin this Easter to measure ourselves with a new measuring stick!
This weeks meditation verses: Romans 4:23-24
