Live In Hope Or Die In Despair?

1 Corinthians 15:56-58
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

Another action packed chapter and I was wondering what I would write until I reached the end where Paul sums up the chapter so well. I encourage you to read and savor this chapter to understand it in its entirety. Paul wrote about the resurrection of Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the resurrection of the body and asks the basic question, what is it we believe and what is the eventual gain of our faith, one that we cannot see but firmly believe in?

In Adam we were given form and in his fall we are faced with the reality of death. In Christ we have the way to be alive again and Jesus is the first born of all creation because He is the great I AM. He was with God before creation and shall be around forever. We have a choice to believe in this amazing truth and live joyfully or live in rejection of this truth and know that our days are few and live hopelessly. If we believe, lets give ourselves fully to the work of the Lord because our labor will bear fruit in Jesus through his Holy Spirit that resides and works in us.

In His Loving Service,
ServantBoy

1 John 5:4 For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world– our faith.

Servant King

Acts 4:24-28
“Sovereign Lord,” they said, “you made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and everything in them. You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant, our father David: “‘Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One.’ Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided beforehand should happen.”

I penned the reaction of the leaders a day too early and I suppose it is what we would expect from hard hearted people, not unlike ourselves before we were saved by God’s grace. As I read through today’s chapter, the grateful prayer of the new church caught my attention. They prayed not thanking God for Peter and John’s release but glorifying God. They praised God for how he brought about his perfect will through the meaningless sacrifice (In the eyes of the Jewish elect) of his son and servant, Jesus Christ, and that the Lord would enable them to perform miraculous signs in Jesus’ name for his glory. What could God achieve by sacrificing his own son and what glory is there to work among the common folk?

As we continue to journey through life, the reality of how short life can be keeps looming close to our hearts and minds. There are no safe havens anymore here on earth as crime and corruption have reached the very core of our souls. In these times, what hope can we have in trying to live for ourselves when nothing is for certain? However, with Jesus, we have hope of eternity in God’s presence and that’s a hope no one can ever take away. We are encouraged again this morning that our lives are for the service and glory of Jesus and that’s all that matters. His life was not one of power and authority the way the world sees it but of meekness and majesty. He is our Servant King and we are his grateful servant followers.

In His Loving Service,
Vineet

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