Thursday, April 14, 2011

Day 3 - Week 8 - Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord', and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."

Isn't God amazing?  Sometimes I just step back and stand in awe of how He does things, how He loves us, and the effort He has gone to on our behalf.  And all He asks of us in return is to acknowledge what He has done --- sent His Son for us to conquer our enemy, and then in a display of His supernatural and unlimited power, raised Him from the dead so we could have visible proof of the life that we, too, have been promised.  If you were God and needed to design a plan to convince humanity of your total love for them and of your plan for their future, could you make it any clearer?

And yet, as we talked about yesterday, there are those who want to argue with God's plan.  They would have done it differently, I guess.

But I'm going with God's plan, and I'm very willing to comply with what He has asked of me to fulfill my part of this plan...I am confessing with my mouth "JESUS IS LORD!"  I have no hesitancy in stating this and no embarrassment in doing so.  I love The Message's  paraphrasing of Romans 1:16, "It's news I'm most proud to proclaim, this extraordinary Message of God's powerful plan to rescue everyone who trusts him."  We have a powerful, extraordinary message...let's not be hesitant in proclaiming it!

I know, and I believe I know this because of the Holy Spirit's conviction, that one day, "When the name of Jesus is spoken, everyone's knee will bow to worship him. Every knee in heaven and on earth and under the earth will bow to worship him. Everyone's mouth will say that Jesus Christ is Lord."  Philippians 2:8-11

And yes, I do so believe that Christ was raised from the dead.  There are those who struggle with the physical resurrection of Jesus.  I'm not sure why.  Is anything beyond the ability of God?  Why wouldn't He want to visually show us that He is fully capable of the resurrection of His Son so that we could easier believe Him when He tells us that we too will rise to a new life.  Jesus talked to His disciples about their new lives prior to His death, but they didn't understand very well----don't you think it was a whole lot clearer when He talked to them about it when they were seeing Him after His death and resurrection, when they were touching His wounds?  And He didn't appear to just a few people, read what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 15, "What I received I passed on to you. And it is the most important of all. Here is what it is. Christ died for our sins, just as Scripture said he would. He was buried. He was raised from the dead on the third day, just as Scripture said he would be. He appeared to Peter. Then he appeared to the Twelve. After that, he appeared to more than 500 believers at the same time. Most of them are still living. But some have died. He appeared to James. Then he appeared to all the apostles."

Jesus Christ is Lord - Jesus Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God!   Accept that, profess that, and you will be saved! 

It's not a tough plan...it's a plan of love.

(I will be away until Sunday night attending a women's retreat at the beautiful Glen Eyrie Christian Conference Center outside of Colorado Springs, Colorado.  Please keep our group of women in prayer as we enjoy this special time of spiritual retreat and enjoying God's beautiful creation.  Keep His words in your heart as we are apart!)

1 comment:

donna said...

It is a simple request for a huge return of God's Love and his promise of Eternal Life. God's plan is for everyone to be raised and to live by His Side. God is perfect and his plan is perfect. There is no better way for God's children to learn the story of Jesus Christ and how he died for sins. The Bible tells God's story.

I pray for you and your group's safe travel to Colorado. I look forward to your return.