Monday, June 11, 2018

“The Risen Christ… Resting Christians”

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…


"The Risen Christ… Resting Christians"


    The more we rest in Christ, the more we work from Christ.

    "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works" (Ephesians 2:10).

   Growth in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus and His redeeming work on our behalf results in increasing motivation and enabling to do the will of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.  First, gratitude fills our hearts as we realize the holy means whereby our Lord made our salvation possible.  In terrible agony of heart and body, Christ both "bore our sins" and "was made to be sin for us" on the cross of Calvary" (I Peter 2:24; II Corinthians 5:21).  Such realization serves as the basis for remembrance of the resurrection.  "Thou wilt not suffer Thine holy One to see corruption" (Acts 13:35).  God raised His Son from the dead and seated Him at His own right hand as the risen King of kings.  As the old hymn exults, "We serve a risen Savior!"  Such truth finally leads us to the affirmation that we live by the power of His "endless life" rather than by our own human means and devices (Hebrews 7:16).  The Apostle Paul prayed that the Ephesian believers might know "the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:19-21).  The same glorious power by which God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead is the same glorious power by which we live in faith and faithfulness.
  
    Such truth leads to a heart of peace and rest.  Reality - the risen Christ - leads to reason - Truth - which leads to reception - faith - resulting in rest - confidence in His working - and culminating in the resolve that leads to our labors as motivated, guided, and empowered by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  A resting heart leads to an active mind and engaged hands and feet for the glory of God.  Thus, we must perpetually "grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" in order to grow in a life lived for God, as lived from God (II Peter 3:18).  This is the Christian life, or more literally, this is the life of Christ revealed in and through those who realize and affirm that the standards to which we are called require a power far beyond our human capacities.  "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).  A growing knowledge of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus on our behalf motivates and enables a growing harvest of genuine spiritual fruit.  Nothing else suffices because there is nothing else that empowers the Life beyond life to which our Heavenly Father calls us, the life of the risen Christ revealed in resting Christians…

"He that hath entered into rest, He hath also ceased from His own works."
(Hebrews 4:10)
"He is thy life."
(Deuteronomy 30:20)

Weekly Memory Verse
    The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.
(Psalm 126:3)
    


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