Grace For The Journey

  The Bible records an encounter that Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome had with an angel in Mark 16:5-7, “And entering the tomb, they saw a young man clothed in a long white robe sitting on the right side and they and they were afraid.  But he said to them, ‘Do not be afraid.  You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified.  He is risen!  He is not here.  See the place where He is not here.  Se the place where they laid Him.  But go, tell His disciples – and Peter – that He is going before you into Galilee; there you will see Him as He said to you.’”

All of us who have worked in ministry or business have been involved in cancelled meetings, whether the meeting was cancelled on us or we cancelled the meeting ourselves.  And there has undoubtedly been at least one time in our lives when a boss or coworker said to us, “We missed you at the meeting.  I sent you an notice!” And we realize that we have completely missed a meeting that did take place and that we were supposed to attend.

But there is One who never misses a meeting . . .

And His name is Jesus Christ.

Not long before He was arrested and crucified, Jesus told His disciples that He would meet them in Galilee after His resurrection (Matthew 26:32).  The women went to the tomb on that glorious morning, saw that the stone had been rolled away, and looked in.  They saw an angel dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side of the tomb.  They were alarmed, trembling and bewildered, as you might imagine.  Then the angel told them that Jesus had risen from the dead and gone ahead of them into Galilee, where He had promised to meet them after His resurrection.

Even death itself could not keep Jesus

From His intended meeting.

You and I may miss meetings for any number of reasons, but make no mistake, our faithful Lord and Savior never misses a meeting!  Jesus has promised to meet you in a myriad of ways in your daily living.

• He has promised to meet you continually in prayer. The throne of grace is always accessible to those who approach.
• He has promised to meet you in His Word. The Bible is “living and active” and is always available to meet you in your deepest place of need, whenever or wherever you are.
• He has promised to meet you in church. Corporate worship is one of God’s special meeting places where we meet with our Master.

But these are not the only meeting places ordained by our wonderful Master!  We expect to meet our Master when we are on our knees in fervent prayer. We expect to meet our Master when we are meditating on and studying the Word of God. We expect to meet our Master when we come to His house to praise and worship His mighty name. We quickly give thanks to Him when good things happen: the promotion at work . . . seeing a beloved friend you hadn’t seen for years . . . deliverance from some health issue.

But Jesus often meets us

In places we would never expect.

Perhaps it is a divine appointment in the checkout line at the grocery store . . . you know the one: the shortest line with the longest wait!  Maybe it is at a sporting event or a social gathering when you bump into someone you had not seen for years . . . and you hadn’t been missing that person all that much!  Possibly you are at the doctor’s office . . . and the test results are not what you wanted to hear.

Now notice the words in our verse today, Mark 16:7 – “He is going ahead of you.”  Jesus always goes ahead of you. Jesus is always first in fellowship with His family of faith . . . and if you have trusted in Christ for your salvation, you are part of that family!

His strength goes ahead of you.

His grace goes ahead of you.

His mercy goes ahead of you,

Because your Master never missed a meeting

. . . “Just as He told you.”

Perhaps it is time for you to look more closely for your Master in your meetings.

This is God’s Word For Today … This Is Grace For The Journey

Rest and Rejoice in this eternal truth!

Pastor Terry

Ephesians 4:7 – “But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.”

Hebrews 4:16 – “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”