He has risen!
Day 357, Sunday, Aug. 3
Luke 23:26 – Chapter 24
The life of Jesus is fascinating and is more than enough to justify the four books devoted to it in scripture…but it isn’t all there is to his story. If the life had ended with the crucifixion it would have been one of the greatest stories ever told—but it didn’t end there.
When the women went to the tomb to properly prepare the body for burial they were met by angels who asked them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen!”
I’ve always appreciated the question, “Why do you look for the living among the dead,” for it’s a thing we still do.
We look for life, we look for answers, among the things that are dead, and among people who are spiritually dead. There is no life to be found there; it’s time to move on and seek life where there is life.
Stop looking for the living among the dead. Stop looking for the risen Christ where there is only a shadow of dead religion.
Christ is to be found where he is know to be alive and worshiped.
He is not here; he has risen!

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Sunday meditation

Job 15:1-13
Then Eliphaz the Temanite replied: “Would a wise person answer with empty notions or fill their belly with the hot east wind? Would they argue with useless words, with speeches that have no value? But you even undermine piety and hinder devotion to God. Your sin prompts your mouth; you adopt the tongue of the crafty. Your own mouth condemns you, not mine, your own lips testify against you.
“Are you the first man ever born? Were you brought forth before the hills? Do you listen in on God’s council? Do you have a monopoly on wisdom? What do you know that we do not know? What insights do you have that we do not have? The gray-haired and the aged are on our side, men even older than your father. Are God’s consolations not enough for you, words spoken gently to you? Why has your heart carried you away, and why do your eyes flash, so that you vent your rage against God and pour out such words from your mouth?

Prayer focus
God, let us look to find you where your life and light shine in the darkness; not in the shadows, but in the light.