Brown's Daily Word 4-6-10

Good morning,
Praise the Lord for this new day. It is going to be a warm Spring day here today, with a chance of thunderstorms and weather in the seventies, but like Summer here tomorrow, with sun and eighty-plus temps. The forsythias and the daffodils are in full bloom, and the crab apple trees are budding brilliantly. It is beginning to look a lot like Spring all around. Praise the Lord that He is the Lord of all seasons and He is the Lord in every season. He is beautiful beyond compare and beyond our description. He makes beautiful all things in His time.
In Rudyard Kiplings', "The Jungle Book", Mowgli, the man cub, asks the animals what is the most feared thing in the jungle. He is told that when two animals meet on a narrow path that one must step aside and let the other pass. The animal that steps aside for no one would then be the most feared.
Mowgli then wants to know what kind of animal would that be? One tells him it’s an elephant. Another tells him it’s a lion. Finally the wise old owl exclaims, “The most feared thing in the jungle is death. It steps aside for no one.”
We find this statement to be so true. It matters not how physically strong, financially rich, fantastically popular, or overwhelmingly powerful we may appear to be. Death comes as easily to the strong as to the weak, to the rich as to the poor, to the popular as to the outcasts of society. Death is an absolute truth for all of us. No one is exempt.
Hebrews 9:27 states, "It is appointed to all men once to die and after that the judgment." Death, however, was not the ultimate destiny of Jesus Christ. Praise the Lord that Jesus Christ is the Resurrection and the life, who triumphed over sin, death, and the grave. He is alive and well and He is at large in the world, changing lives, transforming each one who comes to Him by faith through His grace.
One of the brilliant Christian writers alongside of C.S. Lewis is Malcolm Muggeridge. Malcolm Muggeridge, who hails from Great Britain, was a Marxist before he found Christ. During the Cold War he traveled to Russia to write a story about the Communist party and the decline of religion in that atheistic regime. After conducting a series of interviews with officials in the Kremlin, he attended a Russian Orthodox Easter service. The church was packed. At the close of the service the priest announced, “Christ is risen”, and the people shouted back, “He is risen indeed!” Muggeridge looked into their faces and instantly realized that they were right and that Stalin was wrong. He said it was the reality of their joy that tipped the scales of his soul toward Christ. The reality of Christian joy is compelling!
Easter is about victory over death. We have joy in knowing that Jesus holds the keys of death and hell. Because Christ is alive and upon the throne we can live with renewed peace, joy, hope, and a firm sense of mission, which can affect our entire outlook on life. We become purpose-driven to serve Christ with joy and obedience.
He is Risen,
Brown



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN77HjfAc8k