It is my prayer that God will give you a joyful and triumphant Easter!

History has a way of repeating itself. In 33 A.D. an angry mob stood outside the high court of Jerusalem and shouted, “We will not have this man reign over us.” Ironically, this week in Washington, D.C. another crowd stood outside the Supreme Court building opposing the Biblical design of marriage which Jesus Christ affirmed in Matthew 19:4-6. By rejecting the authority of the One Who established marriage, in essence they shouted once again, “We will not have this man reign over us.”

The first crowd influenced Pilate to deliver Jesus to His crucifixion, but from it came the power of His resurrection! This power is what we desperately need to stem the tide of evil in our day. Paul combined four factors of experiencing His power:

1. “That I may know him”
Jesus explains how we can know Him: “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him” (I John 2:3-5).

2. “And the power of his resurrection”
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection” (Romans 6:4-5).

3. “And the fellowship of his sufferings”
We must never grow weary of being reproached for Christ’s sake. “For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. . . . Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed” (Hebrews 12:3, 12-13).

4. “Being made conformable unto his death”
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Romans 6:11-14; see also Romans 5:21).

Based on these goals, Paul pressed “toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” He then added, “As many as be perfect [mature], be thus minded” (Philippians 3:14-15). May the Lord give you and your family the power of His resurrection in these critical days in which we live. We have designed our Regional Conferences this year to focus on this. I look forward to seeing you there!