t has only been a week since many were focused on the Resurrection of Jesus. The question for today and every other day is "How is my life different because of it "? Last Sunday at Hillside we looked at the life of Peter a few days after Jesus had been raised. Peter and some of the other disciples weren't out telling anybody the incredible news. They weren't spreading the gospel. They, instead, decided to go fishing. John's gospel tells how they fished all night and caught nothing till Jesus, from shore, told them to fish off of the other side of the boat. The rest of the twenty-first chapter tells how after coming back to shore and talking with the Lord they again began following Him. During His conversation with Peter, Jesus questioned Peter's love for Him. He had to teach Peter that if we really love Him we would serve Him. We will care for and feed His flock.

Peter is much like we are. We become so deeply involved in the things we do and the comfort zone we have built around us that it is very difficult for us to truly change our routine or our thinking. Jesus' terrible suffering and death were just a few weeks back. The Resurrection was still news around Jerusalem, yet Peter and some of the others decided they'd just go fish. Would we do that? After seeing Jesus alive twice since His return from death, would we find ourselves going back to the same routine as before? Peter needed another encounter with the Lord face to face to set Him straight on his priorities. Days later he preached the first gospel sermon and three thousand responded. Getting the presence of Christ back in the center of his thinking got Peter back in focus in his life. It gave him the power to be what God had intended for him all along.

The same is true with us today. If we allow our hearts and minds to drift away from the presence of Jesus and lose sight of His Resurrection we go back to the same old routine. We are creatures of habit. The truth of God's demonstrated power in the Resurrection becomes just church talk if we don't keep it real to us. It becomes swallowed up in our busyness and all those things that are normal life. This makes us weak and predictable. We have to take our minds back to the presence of the risen Lord. We have to meditate on it and refer to it in our thinking. We are incomplete in our spiritual view without it.

Serving a risen Savior who loves us enough to die for us is the most fulfilling path to eternity. It makes perfect sense and is God's plan for life. Just working for a good but dead man is just work and leads nowhere. The difference is obvious; the choice is ours. Will we sacrifice our routine and normal thinking to serve and love back the One who was raised to life for us?

Camp season will be here in a few short weeks. Many of our youth will be going to Maranatha Bible Camp for a great time and spiritual growth. Our older teens will travel to a "Christ In Youth" rally for inspiration and fellowship. If you are interested in your child's walk with God we can help. Hillside offers a strong, relevant youth program that reaches out to all.