Dear Fellow Trekker,

April is a refreshing month; maybe it’s because Easter was just a few days ago as I write! My heart yet burns within like those Sunday afternoon trekkers on the road to Emmaeus! His presence is powerful in my life 2000 years after the fact, so I must write a bit about Easter. There are two immutable facts Easter reveals that remain throughout time. We must never forget them… forgiveness and empowerment, for all who believe.

One of my sweet blood sisters (I have four… all terrific) passed the following to me recently. She had clipped it from a devotional. I quote: “When I donated blood some time ago, a nurse gave me a card to read while a pint of the vital red fluid was flowing out of my vein. The card showed the percentage of people who have different blood types. The rarest, AB-negative, is found in only 1 of 167 people or .06% of the population. Then the card made this eye-catching statement: ‘The rarest blood type is the one that’s not there when you need it.’”

Easter is about the rarest of all blood types that is always there, and we always need it. “There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins”, as the old hymn aptly rejoices. God gave his blood for me so that forgiveness is grace given. The apostle John puts it well in his first letter, “The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” His death was necessary for my freedom, “for without the shedding of blood, there is no remission (pardon, cancellation, release) of sin”, the writer of Hebrews restates so eloquently the Old Testament scripture.

But the Gospel is also the power of the resurrection, which authenticates our forgiveness and empowers us to be trekkers for God. Good Friday was a dark day, but Sunday was ‘a-comin’. It came and never went; it stayed. The Sabbath (Saturday) is no longer supreme; Sunday (the Lord’s Day, literally in Greek) is the first day of every week throughout AD history. A favorite verse I would challenge you to commit to memory is from Paul’s letter to the Romans, Chapter 8, verse 11: “If the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead lives in you (and He does if you’ve accepted Him into your life), then He (God himself) who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit, who lives in you.” What a recipe for making it to the top of the mountain of life!

Easter people are different. They are indwelt with the Spirit of God. People created to be ‘Jesus with skin on’. “Oh God, you’ve empowered me. May I climb the highest mountains!” And let us not relegate this glorious truth to tomorrow. His resurrection is for today. We need to experience resurrection daily or the promise, “Lo, I am with you always” will be hollow indeed, another great promise and reality we fail to understand or embrace. If this risenness factor is not perceived by us, and ‘we don’t get it’… what an incredible loss.

This Easter I have focused quite a bit on Peter. Perhaps because Peter and I are cut from the same piece of cloth. Peter… a little brash, loquacious, really an up front guy, a betrayer, a little slow at times to ‘get it’ (“Oh Lord, you are not really going up to Jerusalem to die”), but ever seeking to be with Jesus, ever willing to step out of the boat, ever learning and growing in love and service.

For Peter and you and me, Easter means forgiveness and healing from the past. Let him who has not betrayed Jesus cast the first stone at Peter, the rock. We all betray Jesus similarly as Peter. We are silent when we need to identify ourselves as a friend of Jesus. We too curse and sneak off into the night. But, there is forgiveness and healing from our past.

There is restoration and help for the present. God does live in us. We simply must, as Peter did, see Jesus. We must see the spiritual dimension in all of life. We can remove God from our daily routine, but that doesn’t mean He is not there – for He is there, ever-present to bring life from death, to redeem the most forlorn and despicable, to do the impossible in man’s eyes. At the Easter tomb of life, God shows up and He is not silent.

There is also, as Peter later lived and told, eager anticipation and hope for the future. Peter penned these words: “What a God we have! And how fortunate we are to have Him, the Father of our Master Jesus.  Because Jesus was raised from the dead, we’ve been given a brand new life and have everything to live for, including a future in heaven… and the future starts now. God is keeping careful watch over us and the future. The day is coming when you’ll have it all… life healed and whole.” (The Message translation. Have you bought your copy?)

Oh, I admire Peter and identify with him. Not sure my life will end as Peter’s, but we don’t orchestrate our deaths, either. Our lives and deaths are in His hands, fellow trekker. The only issue – are we ready at any time? The hour of His return, as the hour of our death, is known only by the Father. Our lamps are to be lit. Soldiers are always ready! Easter… what a commemoration, what a communion! On the cross, God was dying to love us. He lives in resurrection glory to save us. His love forgives; His Spirit of resurrection empowers.

The end of each of our life long treks has been planned, and by God’s grace, we will reach the summit. There is nothing we can do to make it turn out better; the risen Lord has done it all.

Your fellow trekker for life,

Jim Meredith