What I am about to tell you really wouldn't be coded as secret. However, it tends to go so unnoticed that such a label might be earned. I speak of a reason to possess constant drive and enthusiasm for God's system.
How do we maintain exhilaration for God's work of ministry and love? How is it that one can actually abide by Paul's admonition that we are to be new day by day? There is one word that explains, defines, and ignites.
Resurrection.
The resurrection of Jesus was not only his but is ours. Romans 4:19-24, II Corinthians 1:9, and II Corinthians 13:4 transfer the resurrected life into our courts. Something mysterious and magical happens when these and other texts are absorbed into our hearts. An new sort of energy sets our hearts on fire for outrageous living.
I don't know that you have given this much thought; but it means so much to me. Being a Christian is the greatest means of rebellion I know. No other protests are louder, more remarkable, and absolutely breath-taking than believing whole-heartedly that the dead do rise.
How the resurrection affects us is much more than the big boom at the cemeteries. It profoundly influences our attitudes and lifestyles as we do our routine mobility day by day. Resurrection power insists that regardless of what wants to intimidate or put us away has zero stronghold. Disputes can't. Discouragements can't. Illnesses can't. Nothing can knock us out.
Resurrection belief is the one factor that energizes believers. Hand us life and we win. Hand us death and we still win. Hand us stresses and we will find a way to be advantaged.
Resurrection confidence is the greatest form of rebellion against a bossy world system. Just as the religious and governmental powers felt they had indeed removed the spectacle of Jesus, they went into shock three days later. We live that pattern.
Christianity has lost its bite because believers have succumbed to whatever is....is. Not with resurrection power. Whatever is doesn't have to remain. We have energy to believe things that aren't can become. We have the drive to think the absurd can happen because nothing ever hit earth so absurdly as Jesus breaking the bonds of death.
The kingdom energizing factor is the resurrection of which we are vitally and prominently affected. We face not a threat that cannot be put in its place by such divine power....residing in us.
If not guarded, life in the church will be reduced to meeting in buildings and engaging in ministries without the ammunition of fire-power that declares we are wide-eyed and moving forward willing to defy any enemy territory. We are not normal. And we are not average. And we are not merely human.
We have the Divine Agent (the Holy Spirit of God) who, just as He brought Jesus up and out of the grave, does the consistently same thing for us who have been baptized to receive Him.
Look like it! Live like it! Love like it!
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