"GOD HAS A PLAN!"

John 20:1-9

"1 The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre.
2 Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter, and to the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.
3 Peter therefore went forth, and that other disciple, and came to the sepulchre.
4 So they ran both together: and the other disciple did outrun Peter, and came first to the sepulchre.
5 And he stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen clothes lying; yet went he not in.
6 Then cometh Simon Peter following him, and went into the sepulchre, and seeth the linen clothes lie,
7 And the napkin, that was about his head, not lying with the linen clothes, but wrapped together in a place by itself.
8 Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.
9 For as YET they knew not the scripture, that he must rise again from the dead."

But wait......hadn't JESUS had told HIS disciples HE would only be in the ground three days?  If HE said that was going to be the way things would unfold, were they not listening or did they just refuse to believe what JESUS had told them?

The people who lived on earth the same time JESUS did heard HIM speak truth to them, but they did not "KNOW" until the TRUTH was revealed to them (John 20:9).  Even today, I can hear something being told to me for months or years, and yet when I finally have it REVEALED to me, it is as though I have heard it for the first time!  Until I was willing to SLOW my life down to get on GOD'S timetable and get off of the worlds timetable, I could not see what GOD was trying to reveal to me.

In the book of Romans 9:18 it is written "Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth."  I used to think that Pharaoh was a hothead who was mad because his son (and all other Egyptian firstborn) was slain.  But in Exodus 14:4 scripture records that GOD hardened Pharaoh's heart to chase after the Israelites. Had the Egyptians not chased after the Israelites, GOD could not have drowned ALL of them!

We may be on the banks of our own Red Sea with the Egyptians chasing after us.  Or we may be as the disciples were when JESUS had been crucified and all hope seemed to be faded. But GOD was directing Pharaoh into a grave, and GOD was leading JESUS to overcome the grave!  "GOD HAS A PLAN", I just have to have faith in HIM and fulfill HIS PLAN for my life!