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| Monday, October 15, 2007 |
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Lasting Rest
By Semere @ 8:46 AM :: 316 Views ::
4 Comments ::  :: Jesus, Seeking The Lord
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"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty." Ps. 91:1
Here we have one of the most popular Bible verses promising rest in the Lord. Let us take three words out of this verse and have a closer look. The three words are dwell, shelter, and shadow.
To dwell means to live. Dwelling implies a consistent presence. The place you dwell in is the place you live in. It is your address, your residence or even your domicile.
Shelter is a cover over your head, a resting place, a refuge, a place to run away to, and a safety place. Your house for example is your shelter from the sun, the rain, the cold, the snow, the wind etc. A shelter also implies trust. When you go in your house, you are showing trust. You are showing trust that it will not fall on your head and that it is strong enough to protect you from whatever the weather brings.
The last one is shadow. A shadow is cast by someone or something. If you have to be under someone's shadow, you can't do it from a distance. You have to be there where the person is and when the person moves, you have to replicate the movement and move in the same direction.
If you trust the most high to make him your shelter, if you come under him and be close enough to be under his shadow and follow his directions, his leading, his movement and make your dwelling there, you will find rest.
Rituals don’t give us rest. Good deeds don’t give us rest. Coming to Christ and making our dwelling in his presence is the only source of lasting rest. That is why Jesus said " Come to me.....You will find rest for your souls" in Matt 11.
The Cyber Evangelist |
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 By
girmator @
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 1:39 AM
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How many of us ( Christians) know that Christ had to come because we CAN NOT please God by our performance, and we got saved by HIS GRACE? But then again how many of us are TRYING REALLY REALLY HARD TO PLEASE GOD on our own after accepting Christ as our Saviour? But God only wants us to KNOW AND LIVE IN CHRIST...REALLY KNOW AND LIVE IN HIM...not try out if we can try to please God...the Beauty of Christianity and what makes it unique to any other religions is the Person CHRIST AND OUR PER-SON-AL RELATION-SHIP with HIM. aLL OTHER RELIGIONS MAY TEACH US HOW TO BE GOOD PEOPLE, BUT CHRIST WOULD MAKE US GODLY PEOPLE ...THE KEY TO LIFE IS NOTjust merely studying and knowing the scriptures but KNOWING AND RELATING TO THE PERSON JESUS CHRIST! Jesus once told the Pharasies, ".. you are searching the Scriptures and they testify about me, but You do not want to Come to me so that YOU MAY HAVE LIFE!..". iT IS KNOWING AND FALLING IN LOVE WITH JESUS THAT WOULD ENABLE US TO LIVE IN OBEDIENCE TO THE LEVEL AND THE RIGHTOUSNESS THAT GOD WOULD TREQUIRE US TO LIVE...Imagine the family you were born into..you have inherited a lot from your parents and learned a lot of the behaviours in your family, with not a whole lot of efforts...In fact you may even take one of your favorite persons as an example and if you are asked to be like him or her you probably would pursue it gladly and without too much of a struggle, depending on the depth of your Love to that person. The deeper you love the person the stronger your desire to do what is pleasing to that person. We need to realize that Christianity is THE ONLY LIFESTYLE THAT LIBERATES PEOPLE BY ENABLING PEOPLE TO LEAD A LIFE OF LOVE, WHICH IS THE MOST POWERFUL SOURCE OF LIFE! THINK ABOUT IT !?!
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By
Girmator @
Wednesday, October 17, 2007 2:29 AM
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God Bless you Semere for revealing the kind of sins that are mentioned in the new testament, the first being "Everything that does not come from faith is sin” Romans 14:23. In fact the writer of Hebrews said that It's impossible to please god without faith. The sin of Israel that resulted in not being able to enter the promised land was that they did not have Faith in God. What does it take to have faith, you may quote part of Romans, "Faith comes by listening to the word of God".. But then again the same scripture says that, "How can you believe/have faith if you do not know the PERSON, JESUS CHRIST?" It's knowing and FALLING DEEPLY IN LOVE WITH JESUS Tthat would build our faith! Most of us would really love our parents and trust them more than any other person when they tell us something. It's our love and relationship that really resulted in that trust! If we only focus on falling in love with Christ our confidence in HIM would be built up so much so that we would not have an iota of doubt when we declare Him and His words upon anyone or anything.
The Other/ SECOND SIN of the new testament is the practical application of the first one. That is to the 'One who knows what is good and not do it then it's a sin'. Here also one has to Depend on the Love of Christ and His Enabling Power, a.k.a. the "Grace" . It's only by His Grace that we can become and do Godly and good things during our journey on earth. Anything outside, our efforts etc. would not be sufficient. It'd be like the rich young man who came to Jesus and walked in obedience to what he's been taught in the scriptures, which gets him near (NOT INTO) the Kingdom. But if we take the disciples, who fall in love in Christ, who could not be able to keep the commandments before they meet Christ, but they could let go everything in their life for the love they had encountered in Christ...which was very difficult to do for the rich young man...Alas, our efforts would only get us so far, so why not just fall in love with Jesus and depend on His Grace, which would be sufficient !?!
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By
addisu @
Monday, October 22, 2007 10:13 AM
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GirmaTor,
It looks you also postes another devotional. God bless you too!
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By
Semere @
Monday, October 22, 2007 10:33 AM
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Yes, yes, Girmish. i try to do one every week. Thanks.
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