Sunday, June 22, 2008

Alive

Look over there. The tomb is empty. The body is not there. It has risen. It is alive again!

I'm not talking about Jesus 2000 years ago. I'm talking about YOU right now!

YOU are alive! Why do you keep living as if you were still dead!

Are you still trying to eek out an existence through the letter of the law? Why not fully trust in and embrace the life given FREELY by the Spirit through the new covenant?

2 Cor 3:4-6
And we have such trust through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who also made us sufficient as ministers of the new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Rom 8:32
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?

Col 2:13-15
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, 14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

Eph 2:1-10
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

Col 3:3-4
For you died, and your life [your new life] is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

7 comments:

  1. What an awesome truth this is. I guess the struggle is believing it when all of our emotions and feelings feel contrary. It's very difficult to learn to walk in this when we're going through extreme anger or temptation to lust. It's not always easy lol. Sometimes everything in my body wants to act out in the flesh but yet I have a decision to either choose to believe who I really am in Christ and ignore my feelings and walk according to my true identity or give into the strong emotions coming from my flesh.

    Paaatience, Daniel-san.

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  2. Yep I think you've hit on a key to all this, Matthew, truth vs. feelings and emotions. We live lives full of emotions, and we need to sort out which emotions line up with the truth and which aren't grounded in truth. I know you know all this 'cause you've talked about it before, and you're right, it's not always easy to sort through all of this. Patience indeed. :)

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  3. I'm one who needs constant reminding. hehe ;)

    I have my "episodes" lol

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  4. Hi Joel!

    What an excellent “string” to tie on our fingers!

    Excellent use of the Blade…..

    Thanks…..

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  5. Hi Joel--

    This is the refreshing, encouraging, truth-reminding stuff I've missed the past few months without internet access!! So glad to be able to read your blog again!!

    How sad that we turn the radical truth of the gospel-- we are alive!!-- into something so dependent on OUR feelings, beliefs and experiences. The truth is not dependent on my experiences, but I believe my experiences will be greatly impacted by believing the truth.

    Thanks for the reminders!!

    Kathy J

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  6. LS, good to hear from you! Hope you've been doing well. I think we all need this "string" around our fingers to remind us of the truth of the goodness of God and who we are in Him.

    Kathy, I'm so glad you have internet access again! And your comment is excellent. We do tend to depend upon our feelings, etc, and think that that's truth, but instead, as you point out, the actual truth is what we need to depend upon and that will lead impacting our emotions and feelings in a much better way.

    Again, glad to have you back!

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  7. Hi Joel;

    I am doing well, I was away on vacation so preparing at work for my vacation, going on vacation, and getting things up to speed upon coming back had eaten up a lot of my blogging time….now things are almost back to “normal”…which means I can enjoy myself over at your place….

    :)

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