Monday, February 18, 2019

“The Life Of Our Lives”

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


"The Life Of Our Lives"



   Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus Christ hoping to receive spiritual education.  "Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God."  The Lord Jesus responded that Nicodemus actually required spiritual birth.  "Ye must be born again" (John 3:2; 7).

  The problem with human hearts before salvation primarily involves the absence of the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, or "being alienated from the life of God" (Ephesians 4:18).  Humanity was made to serve as "the habitation of God through the Spirit" (Ephesians 2:22).  Without such Presence, we exist without life as defined by God.  We possess the capacity to relate to the world around us, but not to the World above us, particularly, the the Lord of Heaven who alone quickens our innermost being by His indwelling.  Salvation through the Lord Jesus provides such life in the new birth as we become alive through the One who is the very Life of our lives.  "To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).

   Forever after our spiritual birth in Christ, we "live through Him" (I John 4:9).  In our present existence, response to this reality of Christ in you, the hope of glory" is far from perfect in either our remembrance or our practice (Colossians 1:27).  We can still think, speak, act, and relate as empty temples.  We never actually are those empty temples, however.  "I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" promised the Lord Jesus of His presence so blessedly near that He is more than with us.  "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (Hebrews 13:5; II Corinthians 6:16).  It is sad and inexcusable when we live as if the Spirit of Christ is not present within us.  But it never changes the reality.  We are who we are in Him as a fixed, inviolable gift of God.  "For in that He died, He died unto sin once: but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:10-11; emphasis added).  Yes, once born in Christ, born forever; once alive in Christ, alive forever.

   This is written as a simple reminder to my heart and yours of God's greatest gift to us, the Gift of Himself.  He lives nearer to us than our next breath, and loves us so much He was not content to be merely with us.  What a "hope of glory" indeed, and what a present reality in which to rejoice as we live not merely as ourselves, but as ourselves inhabited by the living God

"Whoso shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God."
(I John 4:15)

Weekly Memory Verse
   In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."
(I John 4:9)


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