Hello First Family!

Today’s Code Word is Wait.

We spend our lives waiting on something or someone.  We wait for spouses, children, family members, friends and colleagues.  We have all waited for the waiter at a restaurant to come and take our order. We have all spent many hours in the waiting rooms of doctors and hospitals over the years. And we all have waited at traffic signals and red lights more times than we can even remember.

The process of waiting is part of our lives whether we like it or not. Today, O.S. Hawkins points out what was probably one of the more lonely and painful periods of waiting in all of human history.  The disciples spent this Saturday, this Sabbath waiting for something that they did not even imagine.  The did not expect that Jesus would rise from the dead before sunrise the next day. O.S. Hawkins imagines their spirits during this Sabbath of waiting:  “Saturday. Silence. Jesus had died. He was in a sealed tomb.  His disciples and followers were beyond exhaustion, numb with sorrow and disappointment. They had forsaken Him and fled in the hour of His deepest need.  In the utter despair of the moment, they exclaimed, “We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel” (Luke 24:21).

Today, we are waiting on Jesus. And Jesus is waiting too. Because of Resurrection Sunday, we know that the tomb was empty and Jesus is alive! He is with His Father in heaven waiting for the time when the Archangel shouts and the trumpet blows and He comes and takes His bride, the church, as we are caught up with Him in the air. (1 Thess. 4:13-17) This glorious event will be the last time His disciples then and now are waiting! For we will finally be with Jesus!

Apply this principle of waiting to your worship today. As you find yourself waiting on someone or something today, remember that “weeping may endure for a night, but joy comes in the Morning! (Psalm 30:5) Today’s key verse is from Isaiah 40:31, “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles.” See you tomorrow for our last devotion together in our Journey to the Cross!

Pastor Kevin