He is (still) Risen!

07 Apr He is (still) Risen!

7 April 2026

He is (still) Risen!

It’s a worthy reminder…Easter is not a day. Easter IS a season and a lifestyle!

The resurrection, & the whole-creation-restoring good news that it brings is more than a single day on the yearly calendar of holidays. The church notes a season to focus our hearts on what the resurrection of Jesus from the dead actually means & does for us. Then, Easter, Christ’s victory over sin, death & evil, becomes the lifestyle of all who trust that Christ’s triumph is also on-going in them. In that light…

Please join Living Water, & invite your friends, for the worship & teaching series, Knowing the Why… for the 6 Sundays immediately following the Easter Resurrection Celebration we enjoyed last Sunday. Jesus risen from the dead does makes a difference in our everyday lives. Jesus living still among us by his Spirit, reshapes our identity, transforms our purposes, & empowers our witness. Daily walking in & living from the power of the resurrection that Christ plants in you shapes your ordinary life into opportunities to bear witness to his life-changing grace. This will take us through Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians…all 6 chapters. You can read ahead if you’d like. It’ll help you get in to the discussion more quickly…and maybe invite you to ask a question or two of the preacher.

And…as we move into this next part of our year together in mission to Wagga Wagga…

• Thursday 9^th April – Ladies Fellowship @ Eunice’s home. (Romans 3:21-31)
• Sunday 12^th April – Knowing the Why… teaching series kicks off Knowing Who You Are – a deep dive into Ephesians 1
• Sunday 19^th April – Morning Tea
• Sunday 26^th April – Compassion International special guest! Our GBO last week supported or sponsored child in Mexico, Mesac. This week Di Male brings the stories of success & deep need so we get a clearer picture of what your gifts allow in the lives of those we support.

Back to that original thought of Easter becoming our lifestyle…I was reading the book of Judges these last 2 weeks. Judges 17:6 is one of those verses that is simple, straightforward & right to the point…and you’d miss it if you left it there by itself: “In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.”

It seems simple enough…There was no throne nor a king to sit on it. The loose tribal confederation of the 12 tribes of Israel was not centrally governed. There was no codified set of rules or laws governing the nation…Oh wait! Yes there was. Israel HAD a king…Yahweh. Israel HAD a set of laws to guide them…the Covenant they had submitted to under Yahweh’s rule.

But as soon as Joshua & his generation died, they had given into “their own eyes.” They had chosen to allow their desires be their master. Their daily wishes & whims, whatever was expedient, easy, or self-gratifying was their god. What follows is a series of moral & national disasters…one after another. The stories in this part of the Bible are horrendous & at times befuddling. But truly not surprising. When I am king for myself…there are no limits to the destruction I can bring down upon my own head. It was especially true for this fledgling nation.

In complete contrast, the early church experiences an initial wave of persecution not long after Jesus rises from the dead & ascends to his place at the Father’s right hand. Stephen is martyred & Acts 8 opens with the words, “A great wave of persecution began that day, sweeping over the church in Jerusalem; and all the believers except the apostles were scattered through the regions of Judea and Samaria.” But in just 3 verses we read, “But the believers who were scattered preached the Good News about Jesus wherever they went.”

It’s striking…the difference between living under the sovereign rule of the Risen Jesus Christ and the new covenant with its mission to the world, over against living for one’s daily wishes & whims, whatever is expedient, easy, or self-gratifying. One group is still here today & still carrying out that mission. The other is lost to history. It’s a compelling choice…Do you live like the resurrection matters? Or… Do you live like your own eyes are all that matter?

We’ll have more of that conversation over the course of the next six Sundays…Don’t miss a minute!

John