Saturday, May 10, 2014

WHAT JESUS DOES FOR US

One of the traits of a stifling life in the Spirit is to balk at change.  Jesus changes things.  He changes our drive as well as our destination.  He changes our perspective and brings us unique peace.  Jesus did not die on a cross and arise from the grave to give the world status quo.

No.  Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly.

What Jesus does for us is to set us free from self-imposed as well as other-imposed prison sentences.  We are no longer locked up by incoming threats nor are we locked down by our own interior doubts.

I like Henry Blackaby's words: Perhaps the greatest change caused by the resurrection was in the character of the disciples.  They had previously been timid, afraid, and depressed after witnessing the arrest and suffering of Jesus.  But after His resurrection they became aggressive, bold, and full of joy.  

Peter is a prime example.  He was the one who had earlier denied the Lord to a lowly servant girl.  But after the resurrection, he stood in the temple courts defying the very men who put Jesus on the cross.

There is such a new message needed in even our religious world that promotes more than knowing God so one can go to heaven.  We are to know God so that we can arise to walk a new sort of life while still upon earth.  Jesus changes who we are from the interior that we might take the very things that once imprisoned us and convert them into positive forces for a new kind of kingdom adventure.

What Jesus does for us is hand us heaven's power while walking in earth's sandals.

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