April 1, 2024
Melissa Valerio
Can you imagine what it must have been like for Mary to find the tomb empty? That’d be like going to the cemetery to visit your loved one, only to find the coffin dug up and empty. Bewildered, shocked, confused, angry. I’m sure her first thought wasn’t that He woke Himself up and walked out of the tomb. She must have thought someone took Him out of there to move Him elsewhere. Yet when the angels told her He had risen back to life, that must have been the shock of lifetime! He came back to life?!?! Incredible that anyone could rise from the dead. But with God, all things are possible! And what I find equally incredible is that He can do the same thing for us.
Resurrection, however, cannot happen until there’s a death. Until we completely and totally give our lives over to the Lord, we cannot see the resurrection power He is willing and waiting to give us. As Jesus proclaimed “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24 NKJV)
Here’s what was super hard for me …. giving up MY desires, MY plans, MY way of doing things, MY agenda, MY wishes, MY timeline, and MY future. But this is exactly what Jesus is asking us to give up in exchange for HIS desires, HIS plans, HIS way of doing things, HIS agenda, HIS wishes, HIS timeline and HIS future for our lives. Why is that so hard? Because we naturally think that HIS plan for our lives will be less fulfilling, less fun, with less happiness than what we could achieve on our own. But that is so far from the truth! We’ve been lied to and deceived for most of our lives thinking that we can create happiness on our own by living for ourselves. Once we understand what it means to die to ourselves and live for Christ, we can finally be on the road to resurrection of the spirit. An exchange of our spirit for His spirit. And He will do in us what He did in that tomb. Come back to life!
Prayer: Father in Heaven, You are the life giver. Because of what You did on the cross, and because You raised Your Son back to life, we can experience a resurrection as well. Thank You for sharing Your goodness with us. We are forever undeserving of Your grace. In the name of Your precious Son, Jesus, Amen.
Action: Make resurrection rolls. They’re super yummy and it gives us a picture of what happened in the tomb. Jesus lived a sinless life, died an undeserved death, and rose back to life all by the power of the Holy Spirit. He offers to do the same thing in our spirits, if we’ll only let Him in.
Resurrection Rolls
1 package refrigerated crescent dough
8 large marshmallows
½ cup butter, melted
¾ cup white sugar
2 TBS cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a muffin pan and set aside. Melt butter in a small bowl. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar in a separate small bowl. Unroll the crescent dough and separate into triangles (along the dough perforations). Roll a marshmallow in butter and then in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place marshmallow onto a dough triangle near the larger end. Wrap each side of the dough up and over the marshmallow. Roll the dough in your hands until all of the marshmallow is covered and sealed. Dip the rolled dough in butter and then dip in the cinnamon/sugar mixture and place in the greased muffin tin. Repeat until all of the dough has been used. Bake for 15 minutes. Allow to cool, then cut the “tomb” (rolls) down the middle. Cut through the roll and see that the “tomb” is now empty.
image: freepik.com