22)
Ye men of
23)
Him, being delivered by the
determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands
have crucified and slain:
24)
Whom God hath raised up,
having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be
holden of it.
25)
For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before
my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved:
26)
Therefore did my heart
rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope:
27)
Because thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine
Holy One to see corruption.
28)
Thou hast made known to me
the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance.
|
T |
his
is a profound statement that should be able to be made by us. It was originally
made about Jesus, but in that we are born of Him, it is not too much to be
asked of us. How can those born of Him have any less of a stand than Him?
Undoubtedly,
we live in a time and society in which people find it difficult to establish a
commitment—to anything! The world has entered a "place" and time ripe
for the Enemy to convince man that it is necessary to be totally consumed with himself. The irony of this is that we are incapable of
caring for ourselves. The Lord has set things in motion to ensure that we need
Him, for if we were ever to become convinced that we can, or be allowed to,
care for ourselves, we would conclude that we can exist without His help.
There
is absolutely no room for the child of God to be shaken by anything that
assails him. We must be sure-footed and stable in all things or we are of
little or no use to the Lord. Of course, the devil is well aware of this and
does all that he can to assure our instability. As
long as he can keep us with "one-foot-on-a-banana peel," there is not
much more that he needs to do.
It
should come as no surprise that the devil is greatly aided in his goal by
selfish Man's focus upon his own well-being. As long as the Adversary can keep
our focus on ourselves, he blocks out any true concern about the work of the
Lord.
One
may be tempted to wonder about the Lord's overwhelming emphasis upon the truth
that all that needs to be done has already been done. He wants us to understand
how therefore useless it is for us to continue to try to do that which has
already been done. What a tragic waste of time and "manpower."
That
for which we search and yearn has already been given. It is particularly
distressing that it often seems as if redeemed man has no idea of that for
which he is looking. All of the power in the world is not enough; all of the
victory is not enough; all of the love is not enough. By now we should know and
accept the fact that the Lord loves us enough to go to great lengths to ensure
that we are saved. But the very expression of His love is that about which we
most frequently complain.
Though
we speak of the concept of "pressure" being applied by the hand of
God, what He really does is to provide a "touch" to draw out of us
that which is not pleasing. These circumstances are definitely not to
"move" us from any position, but rather, "reposition" us
and "cement" us in the optimum position for God.
Too
many times, we act as if we are totally "lost" in our life in God,
when it is not as if the Lord has not provided us with "road marks"
that we might know that this life is proceeding as it should. The reason that
we do not recognize these is that we have not really examined the life of
Christ closely enough to know what is consistent with it.
One
thing we will never be able to escape is the "light" that God sheds
on the individual life. What He does; the miracles He performs are never done in a corner, but for all to see. You see, Christ's ultimate
goal is to win others to salvation. This is exactly the way that it is supposed
to be: the people of God enduring victoriously so that the Kingdom might be
expanded.
There
are "impossibilities" with God—it is impossible for Him to lie; it is
impossible for Him to act outside of His established laws; it was impossible
for death to hold Him down. It was impossible because He died without sin and
therefore, after we partake of His death and as we walk in His footsteps, we
will find that there is absolutely nothing
capable of holding us down.
Everything
about the world, today, is unsteady; shifting, but God has given us certainty
in His word and this certainty is in no danger of ever being changed. We can
know the end from the beginning. We can be certain of every move that we need
to make. We can live every minute of every day without fear. The very mysteries
of existence are opened to us if we will just give ourselves to living a life
wholly dedicated to the will of Someone else. If
we can never bring ourselves to do this, we will remain lost, lifeless and
useless.