HE IS RISEN!!!

Once again, just as Christmas is not a once a year celebration for the believer, but is an every day experience of God’s unspeakable gift to us; even so the truth of the resurrection that is celebrated on Easter should be an every day reality in the life of the believer.

We were born into this world spiritually dead.  When we are born again, we are made alive to God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  If you have been born again, you have already been resurrected from the dead!  

While the truth of the resurrection gives us the hope (confident assurance) of a new body free from indwelling sin one day in the future, the truth of the resurrection also enables and gives us the hope (confident assurance) to live unto Christ every day in the present.

HE IS RISEN INDEED!!! 

 

There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger; neither is there any rest in my bones because of my sin.  For mine iniquities are gone over mine head: as an heavy burden they are too heavy for me. Psalm 38:3 & 4  

I grew up in a rural area of the Midwest.  Most of my swimming as  a kid was done in farm ponds or a local creek, if there was enough water running during the hot summer months.  We learned to swim however, in the city swimming pools.  

During a predetermined week in the early summer the local school district would provide a school bus and driver to haul the country kids to a city swimming pool for lessons.  Since it was done in early summer, the mornings could be very cool and overcast, resulting in many blue lips and giant goosebumps.

After a morning of swimming we were always ravenously hungry.  I remember kids consuming paper grocery bags full of popcorn and whatever else was available on the way home from swimming lessons.

The one thing that always sticks out in my mind from swimming lessons is how close I came one morning to drowning.  Actually, it was quite uneventful.  I seriously doubt that anyone else remembers the incident; not even the kid that saved me.

Brimming with confidence, this particular morning, I jumped with-out hesitation into a section of water that was over my head.  I surfaced coughing, sputtering and struggling to stay afloat just out of reach of the edge of the pool.  I was in over my head.

Fortunately for me, a schoolmate friend was sitting on the edge of the pool.  He calmly extended his arm, I grabbed his hand and he pulled me to safety.  It was a simple life saving action on his part, the magnitude of which he probably has never realized.  As a matter of fact I didn’t realize the impact of what he did until reflecting upon it as an adult.  I was just always glad he was there.

The opening verse above from Psalms says; my iniquities are gone over my head.  Iniquity is sin.  Unless you and I are rescued from our iniquity, we will perish.  We are in over our head.  

Jonah cried out from the belly of the whale; Salvation is of the Lord! When he was in over his head, Jonah cried unto the Lord and was delivered from certain death.  

We need to be delivered from spiritual death.  The Lord Jesus is within reach and He is reaching for you.  Will you trust Him?

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  

For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  

For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.  

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.  

For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:9-13).

In my distress I cried unto the Lord and He heard me (Psalm 120:1).

The title above is to a song that was written by Ron Hamilton in 1978. He wrote the song as a result of losing an eye to cancer.

As I remember it, when he went into surgery he didn’t know what the outcome would be. He would either wake up from surgery with both eyes or with just one. Ron lost an eye that day and wrote “Rejoice in the Lord” shortly thereafter.

Ron was and is a very talented musician. When a youngster at church tagged him with being a pirate after seeing him wearing the patch, a music ministry to children was born and Ron became known as “Patch the Pirate”.

Our kids grew up listening to Patch the Pirate songs and stories. God turned Ron’s misfortune of losing an eye into a blessing for hundreds of Christian families through Ron’s ministry of music to children.

Ron’s song “Rejoice in the Lord” was an encouragement and blessing to me soon after he wrote it, as I faced trials and testing of my own during that time.

I have been thinking of the words to that song lately and today (thirty seven years later) it played on the radio as I pulled into our driveway after work. Here are the words he wrote:

God never moves without purpose or plan when trying His servant and molding a man. Give thanks to the Lord though your testing seems long; In darkness He giveth a song.

I could not see through the shadows ahead; So I looked at the cross of my Saviour instead. I bowed to the will of the Master that day; Then peace came and tears fled away.

Now I can see testing comes from above; God strengthens His children and purges in love. My Father knows best, and I trust in His care; Through purging more fruit I will bear.

Chorus:  O rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake. He knoweth the end of each path that I take. For when I am tried and purified, I shall come forth as gold.
                                                                                                        By Ron Hamilton

Rejoice in the Lord – Copyright 1978 by Majesty Music, Inc.  

The lyrics are used by permission. 

When our children were little we had a song that we liked to sing with them.  It taught them a Bible truth.  The name of the song is God Made All Things and it went like this: God made all things, God made all things, God made all people too;  I’m so glad He made them all; yes, God made me and you.  Author Unknown.

Here are some verses from scripture on what the  Bible has to say about God making all things and all people too:

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.  Genesis 1:27

When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  

For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  

Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:  Psalms 8:3-6

I was cast on thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.  Psalm 22:10

For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.  

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.  

Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.  Psalm 139:13-16

Did not he that made me in the womb make him?  and did not one fashion us in the womb?  Job 31:15

Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,…Ecclesiastes 12:1.

Hast thou not known?  Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary?  There is no searching of his understanding,………Isaiah 40:28.

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.  Jeremiah 1:5

For in those days shall be affliction, such as was not from the beginning of creation which God created unto this time, neither shall be.  Mark 13:19

Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God?  Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?  Romans 9:20

Neither was the man created for the the woman; but the woman for the man.  I Corinthians 11:9

And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:  Ephesians 3:9.

For by him (Jesus Christ) were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:  Colossians 1:16.  

Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.  I Timothy 4:3  

Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.  I Peter 4:19

Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.  Revelation 4:11

And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up his hand to heaven.  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things that therein are, that there should be time no longer.  Revelation 10:5&6

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.  

Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,  

And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like unto corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.  

Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleaness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever.  Amen.  Romans 1:20-25

As you can see from a couple of the references above, Jesus Christ is the Creator. He proved this during His earthly ministry by walking on the water, calming the storm, healing congenital birth defects, feeding the five thousand, and raising the dead, thus demonstrating His power, His authority, and His ownership of nature and nature’s laws.

Can a Christian believe in evolution and not be guilty of denying the doctrine of Christ?