Turn It Upside Down

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“Finally, be all like-minded, compassionate, loving as brothers, tenderhearted, courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or reviling for reviling; but instead blessing; knowing that to this were you called, that you may inherit a blessing.” 1 Peter 3:8-9

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In the days of Jesus, the cross was an instrument of death, and crucifixion, a horrible method of torture, yet in light of the Lord’s resurrection, the cross has become identified with Christian faith and has transformed into a symbol of life and hope.

Jesus was able to turn it upside down, transforming an instrument of death into a symbol of life.

Also, the tomb, a house of death where Jesus’ body lay for three days, became the exact location where death was destroyed forever, replaced by resurrection life, an entirely new kind of life with no decay, sickness or imperfection. In His death and resurrection, Jesus inverted the very nature of biological reality, and turned the tomb from a house of bones into an empty place of testimony to resurrection life. Again, He turned it upside down!

This “inversion” of reality is a pattern of God’s activity. It is a “way” in which He works, a convention of Divine intervention into human affairs. And we ourselves are permanently invited to participate in this activity.

Jesus is, by His indwelling Spirit, through faith, giving us the authority, opportunity and power to turn things upside down and inside out. Not indiscriminately, without His explicit guidance and direction, but through discernment, wisdom, and often real endurance, we experience and participate in turning tragedy into triumph, misery into joy, failure into success, mourning into dancing, and death into life. We turn curses into blessings, loss into gain, despair into hope, and even hatred into agape love!

Praise God! For by His power and will, we too can turn it upside down!