“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
The meaning of the resurrection is that God is for us. He aims to close ranks with us. He aims to overcome all our sense of abandonment and alienation.
The resurrection of Jesus is God’s declaration to Israel and to the world that we cannot work our way to glory but that he intends to do the impossible to
get us there. The resurrection is the promise of God that all who trust Jesus will be the beneficiaries of God’s power to lead us in paths of righteousness and through the valley of death. Therefore, believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is much more than accepting a fact. It means being confident that God is for you, that he has closed ranks with you, that he is transforming your life, and that he will save you for eternal joy. Believing in the resurrection means trusting in all the promises of life and hope and righteousness for which it stands. It means being so confident of God’s power and love that no fear of worldly loss or greed for worldly gain will lure us to disobey his will.
That’s the difference between Satan and the saints. O, might God circumcise our hearts to love him and to rest in the resurrection of his Son.
00Philip Holderhttp://www.hoperoadnazarene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/hrn-logo-520x140-1.pngPhilip Holder2015-08-21 07:48:252015-08-21 07:48:25WHAT THE RESURRECTION MEANS
Whoever desires to love life and see good days . . . let him turn away from
evil and do good. (1 Peter 3:10–11)
There is only one basic reason why we disobey the commands of Jesus: it’s because we don’t have confidence that obeying will bring more blessing than disobeying. We do not hope fully in God’s promise. What did he promise? Peter passes on his teaching like this: Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called that you may obtain a blessing. He who would love life and see good days . . . let him turn away from evil and do good. You will always be better off to obey than to disobey, even if it costs you your life. Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and the gospel’s, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time . . . with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10:29–30) The only way to have the power to follow Christ in the costly way of love is to be filled with hope, with strong confidence that if we lose our life doing his will, we will find it again and be richly rewarded.
00Philip Holderhttp://www.hoperoadnazarene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/hrn-logo-520x140-1.pngPhilip Holder2015-08-20 14:02:242015-08-20 14:02:24HOPE TO OBEY HARD COMMANDS
“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1)
The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord—and preaching to the angels and the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s hands. The psalm is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord? It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness. What David is doing in the first and last verses of this psalm, when he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” is saying that speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul. Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself that it not happen.
Come, soul, look at the greatness and goodness of God. Join my mouth, and let us bless the Lord with our whole being. (Tozer)
00Philip Holderhttp://www.hoperoadnazarene.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/hrn-logo-520x140-1.pngPhilip Holder2015-08-19 00:17:442015-08-19 00:17:44WHAT IT MEANS TO BLESS THE LORD…
WHAT THE RESURRECTION MEANS
/in Discipleship, Steadfast Hope“Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
The meaning of the resurrection is that God is for us. He aims to close ranks with us. He aims to overcome all our sense of abandonment and alienation.
The resurrection of Jesus is God’s declaration to Israel and to the world that we cannot work our way to glory but that he intends to do the impossible to
get us there. The resurrection is the promise of God that all who trust Jesus will be the beneficiaries of God’s power to lead us in paths of righteousness and through the valley of death. Therefore, believing in your heart that God raised Jesus from the dead is much more than accepting a fact. It means being confident that God is for you, that he has closed ranks with you, that he is transforming your life, and that he will save you for eternal joy. Believing in the resurrection means trusting in all the promises of life and hope and righteousness for which it stands. It means being so confident of God’s power and love that no fear of worldly loss or greed for worldly gain will lure us to disobey his will.
That’s the difference between Satan and the saints. O, might God circumcise our hearts to love him and to rest in the resurrection of his Son.
HOPE TO OBEY HARD COMMANDS
/in Discipleship, Steadfast HopeWhoever desires to love life and see good days . . . let him turn away from
evil and do good. (1 Peter 3:10–11)
There is only one basic reason why we disobey the commands of Jesus: it’s because we don’t have confidence that obeying will bring more blessing than disobeying. We do not hope fully in God’s promise. What did he promise? Peter passes on his teaching like this: Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called that you may obtain a blessing. He who would love life and see good days . . . let him turn away from evil and do good. You will always be better off to obey than to disobey, even if it costs you your life. Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and the gospel’s, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time . . . with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. (Mark 10:29–30) The only way to have the power to follow Christ in the costly way of love is to be filled with hope, with strong confidence that if we lose our life doing his will, we will find it again and be richly rewarded.
WHAT IT MEANS TO BLESS THE LORD…
/in Discipleship, Steadfast Hope“Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name!” (Psalm 103:1)
The psalm begins and ends with the psalmist preaching to his soul to bless the Lord—and preaching to the angels and the hosts of heaven and the works of God’s hands. The psalm is overwhelmingly focused on blessing the Lord. What does it mean to bless the Lord? It means to speak well of his greatness and goodness. What David is doing in the first and last verses of this psalm, when he says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,” is saying that speaking about God’s goodness and greatness must come from the soul. Blessing God with the mouth without the soul would be hypocrisy. Jesus said, “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me” (Matthew 15:8). David knows that danger, and he is preaching to himself that it not happen.
Come, soul, look at the greatness and goodness of God. Join my mouth, and let us bless the Lord with our whole being. (Tozer)