Past Easter Poem

An Easter poem, a little late is better than never (maybe not):

Job 19:25

My Redeemer lives
He has strode forth,
He rose in grace and glory.
Some thought the end
Had come and gone,
But beginning is the story.
And will one day
Be His to make,
Stand upon a weary earth.
So amazed I am
That on His way,
He stopped for my rebirth.

It's So Easy

The heart of salvation is the Cross of Christ. The reason salvation is so easy to obtain is that it cost God so much. The Cross was the place where God and sinful man merged with a tremendous collision and where the way to life was opened. But all the cost and pain of the collision was absorbed by the heart of God.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: April 6 Devotional

The ease to which our salvation can come to us is often the hardest thing to grasp. We borne nothing at the Cross and gained everything. It may be hard in our pride to accept the fact that we are insignificant in our own salvation, the hard work was done without us even being a part of it. How much more a salve to pride to think we accomplished it through great struggle and significant accomplishment on our part. Our salvation is not accomplished through our great struggle but despite our great sin.

That we grasp what is so freely offered, and so painfully won to hand over to us in an incredible ease. Grace pours out of the heart of God,, the heart that absorbed the pain of our sin and freed us from it.

The collision occurred, but we get to walk away from that crash, unscathed and saved. We get to come off of His mountain because He climbed it for us.




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All Come Back

This past Sunday we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the most glorious of days on the Christian calendar. It was a day to reflect on our Savior, to thank Him for what He did for us upon the cross, what He assured for us with He rising in glory on the third day. But that is not the end of the story, not by a long ways. There is still eternity to face, and the choices one can face in eternity. Because there is someone else who is going to be resurrected: you. And me. And for that matter, everyone else as well:

Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
John 5:28-29 (NASB)

There will come a day when everyone will face a resurrection and come face to face with the risen Lord (except those believers who are alive at His return, who will not face physical death and resurrection but that is another story for another day). Jesus rose from the dead and we will rise one day and come to face Him. If we are His followers, it will be a joyous day:

Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years.
Revelation 20:6 (NASB)

Those who do not follow Him face quite a different future:

And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Revelation 20:12-15 (NASB)

The choice is simple yet profound and eternal. You either are born twice and die once, or you are born once and die twice.

Trust Him today.



Technorati Tags: Jesus, Lord, God, resurrection, born again, second death

Reconciliation

The word "reconciliation" in the Scriptures means "to cause to conform to a standard, to be adjusted to a specified standard." According to the Word of God, the world is out of balance. The world does not conform to the standard which God has set...It is very important that we should realize that God Himself is the standard by which He tests men...If we have a flexible standard, then all need for reconciliation disappears, for every man becomes a standard within himself...God brings us to Himself and causes us to be adjusted to His standards...God, in Christ Jesus, was changing the relationship of the world to Himself so that men in the world are now savable...It was Christ's death that reconciled the world to God, and made it possible for individual sinners to be reconciled to God.
Dwight Pentecost - Things Which Become Sound Doctrine

We need to conform to God's standard, which is God Himself. We cannot do it ourselves, we can only be reconciled to God through Jesus. He reconciled the world to God; He reconciles each and everyone who comes in faith and trust to Him as the only way to salvation to God.

You reconcile your checkbook every month, to keep it conformed to the standard of the bank's records. You only need once be reconciled to God, through faith in Jesus. From then on, none can pry you from His grasp.

Aren't we blessed?

The Bare Essential

The Gospel is characterized by its simplicity...Sinners, confronted with their need of salvation, frequently stumble over the very simplicity of the salvation which God offers. Since Satan cannot take away anything from the conditions of salvation or the plan of salvation - for God has already reduced it to an irreducible minimum - if Satan is to confound the minds of the sinners he must do so by addition, not subtraction.
Dwight Pentecost - Things Which Become Sound Doctrine

Today is the day of the risen Lord. But the message should be made so simple that anyone can grasp it immediately. Make the Gospel simple for the sake of sinners, for you were such a hopeless and lost sinner until you grasped this simple message yourself.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NASB)

Christ died for our sins and rose from the dead. Trust in Him alone as your eternal salvation. That's it. he is merciful, He is gracious, He is loving.

Take His hand and step into His kingdom.





Technorati Tags: God, Jesus, Lord, Easter, resurrection, Gospel

No Box Big Enough

But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!
1 Kings 8:27 (NASB)

Solomon built a temple, and spoke these words upon completion. Humanity may try to erect a temple, a structure, even a concept that can contain God. We cannot. He is within all creation, yet He is outside it, for He created it. We cannot put God in a box, but we can take him out of a book, the Bible. We can bring Him into our minds, hearts, thoughts, deeds and actions. Because He permits us to do that through His love, His grace, His mercy.

We can open a book, open a door and enter into a place He has chosen to reside, although that place can never contain Him. I take great comfort from the fact that God is bigger than anything I can possibly conceive, that He is sovereign over all. I especially like thinking about it as the day we worship the resurrection of Jesus is right before us.

Open a door, open your mind. Climb out of the box of your own sin, face the fact that only through Jesus can you reach your eternal salvation. Stop trying to package God. The door to Him is open, but your box will not fit through it.



Technorati Tags: God, Jesus, salvation, creation, Easter, resurrection

Have You Given Your All?

I have not been blogging much the past few months, and I am not sure how much I will do this month or the next. Or the next. But once in a brief while I feel I can muster together a couple of hundred words in a semi-organized fashion and spit out a post.

Such is a day today.

I have been thinking, reflecting and praying on my relationship with Jesus a lot the past few weeks, it has been growing as Easter approached, and today I have already spent some time praying about what He gave today to set me free from my sin. And it makes me think about what I have been giving Him. Yes, I work full time in ministry now, yes I volunteer a bit at my church. Yet I know I can never give Him what He has given me, although I really should try harder. The mind too often gets distracted by worldly concerns, when I should be thinking about facing Him:

A Christian worker’s greatest need is a readiness to face Jesus Christ at any and every turn. This is not easy, no matter what our experience has been.
Oswald Chambers - My Utmost For His Highest: March 29th Devotional

Mr Chambers sums it up. it is not always easy, but i find it really is necessary. If I struggle to face Jesus, at least I am thinking about what it takes to follow Jesus. If I am not thinking about facing Him, I am probably not giving Him my all.

I find it very hard to face Jesus today, especially in the hours leading up to His death. Sunday will be so easy, as I join others in celebrating His resurrection. But today is hard. I think about what I did to put Him on the cross, and I struggle to face Him because it is so painful, not to look at Him, but to look at myself. He is glorious, even in His death on the cross. I am the one not worth looking at.

Face Him today, face Him now. Give Him your all in doing so.

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