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April 11, 2009
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
Who Will Roll Away the Stone, by Bill Sherrill
And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother
of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might go and
anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week they went
to the tomb when the sun had risen. And they were saying to one
another, "Who will roll away the stone for us from the door of the
tomb?" (Mark 16:1-3 RSV).
The women were faced with the sad and depressing task of preparing the
body of Jesus for permanent burial. Because the Sabbath laws were
strict, they had time only for the barest necessities of burial on
Friday afternoon. And even that had cost them. They were ceremonially
unclean and had to miss much of the holy celebrations taking place at
the time of Passover. Now the problem they faced was how they would be
able to roll away the great stone which sealed his tomb.
Isn't that really something? All about them the very Heaven of Heavens
was bursting with jubilation, yet they could only see the common and
mundane.
They never see the power of the One True God.
Friday, the sun had darkened, earthquakes terrified Jerusalem, and the
veil of the Temple which separated the Holy place from the Holy of
Holys had been ripped in two by unseen hands. The dead rose from their
tombs and walked the streets. Yet this morning, the women who knew
Jesus best just wondered, in their grief, about a rock over the door of
the tomb. And then, the mystery of the ages began to be revealed to
these humble women. Jesus is not dead! Even then, neither they nor the
men who had followed Jesus could possibly grasp the power of that
statement. The work of God, planned from before the foundation of the
world had come to pass!
Almost 2,000 years later, mankind is not much different. While "The
heavens are telling the glory of God; and the firmament proclaims his
handiwork" (Psalm 19:1), mankind is still concerned about who will move
the stone! The women never dreamed of the resurrection. They certainly
would not have expected angels to remove the stone. In spite of the
years they spent hearing Jesus' words and seeing his miracles, they
looked for no help from the God of the universe.
Today, people still live in the presence of the mighty hand of God and
wonder. They do not wonder about heavenly glory or chariots of fire.
They never see, through faith's clear eye, the power of the One True
God. They simply walk in doubt and are concerned about the simplest of
earthly things, deaf to the thunder of His might and blind to the
brilliance of His Glory. The women fretted about who would roll away
the stone to open the tomb and let them in to show their faithful love
to Jesus, but they never dared to dream that God would open the tomb to
let us all out. But, that is what God did!
---------
(c) 2009 Bill Sherrill <sherrill@cox-internet.com>'s Thought for
the Week. Used by permission.
RELATED LINKS:
* There You Will See Him!
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200704/20070409_seehim.html
* Resurrection Day!
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200704/20070408_resurrection.html
* A Great Gift, A New Day
http://www.heartlight.org/wjd/matthew/1225-wjd.html
* Bill Sherrill's Thought for the Week
http://new.vchurches.com/northstreetcoc/home.aspx?igid=45081
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200904/20090411_rollawaythestone.html
=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
HOLINESS, by Henry Blackaby
Discover why a healthy, holy fear of God must come first if we are to
experience true revival.
http://shopping.heartlight.org/cgi-shl/link?258
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