Easter Message
Dear Partner,
Tomorrow is the international day designated for Easter. Beginning at 0900 in Greenwich, England, worship and praise to God will be offered for sending the Lord Jesus to make himself a sacrifice for all mankind's sins should they avail themselves of His invitation.
At 0900 tomorrow, the sun will begin its treck in circling the planet. It will cross 24 time zones until it once again passes over the Prime Meridian in Greenwich. This continual worship and praise will transcend race, locale, ethics, wealth, education or position. The Body of Christ will once again unite as one around the resurrection of our Lord from the dead. Because He and the Godhead raised Him from the dead, we believers have the calm assurance that He also will raise us from the dead.
The brith of the Messiah, God assuming flesh, body and blood, was an earth-changing event. However, man would still retain his estrangement from God because of sin. In His incarnation, Jesus walked on water, multiplied food, opened blind eyes and deaf ears and raised the dead to live again. In witnessing, these were only band-aids on man's need for eternal deliverance. It was the Lord's resurrection that assured eternal deliverance. The apostle Paul informed the church at Corinth, "if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, ye are yet in your sins...but now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept."
The Lord's final incarnation act was awe-inspiring to the multitude on the Mount of Olive. He promised that they would be baptized not many days hence. Actually what Jesus said was that they would be overwhelmed with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. He further stated that they would receive force in the form of miraculous works that would point to new and higher forces that had entered and are working in this lower world. "And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight."
The church has long accepted that he began to levitate upward until he was engulfed by clouds of water vapor. No, he began slowly to transfer himself from the terrestrial environment into the celestial environment until a cloud of Shekinah glory engulfed him. "While they beheld him, he was taken up." Actually what happened was that he was being exalted and brought forth into paradise. This was the same manifestation that he did on the mount when he was transfigured in the presence of Peter, James and John.
The third heaven is not beyond the stars, but in another dimension. The cloud of witnesses are the angelic host who desire to look into our happenings.
Tomorrow, as you ponder the importance of your part in the 24-hour sun's movement, I pray you have a sound fellowship in which to serve God. Many in their time zone will be forced to worship in secret, alone, or with only a few intimate other believers. No matter the number or where on the encirclement, God will still spiritually manifest and receive worship and praise being given for the greatest blessing that was ever delivered to man after Adam's sin.
Tomorrow we will worship together in the spirit.
Dr. Lee