OzThoughts Friday 31st October 2008

OzThoughts Friday 31st October 2008

As you focused on the Suffering Servant and his cruel death on the cross, and read again, and maybe listened to some appropriate hymns, did you hear the words coming as a constant intrusion: “He is not here; he has risen!” Luke 24:6(NIV).

The Disciples were convinced Jesus was alive. They saw him. They talked with him. They ate with him. They saw him ascend into heaven. Jesus had fulfilled his promise and sent the Holy Spirit. They had felt and shown the power of the Holy Spirit in many ways.

Paul, too, was preaching “Jesus and him crucified” but no one could think that Paul’s message came to a dead halt at the cross. Paul’s message was Jesus was alive and he was proof of that. Paul writes to t he Ephesians which shows how “Jesus crucified” was God plan for us .
Ephesians 2:1-10 (The Message)
1-6 It wasn't so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn't know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It's a wonder God didn't lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It's God's gift from start to finish! We don't play the major role. If we did, we'd probably go around bragging that we'd done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
[Listen: http://www.salvoaudio.com/audio/music/mus_752.mp3 ]

O boundless salvation! deep ocean of love,
O fullness of mercy, Christ brought from above.
The whole world redeeming, so rich and so free,
Now flowing for all men, come, roll over me!

My sins they are many, their stains are so deep.
And bitter the tears of remorse that I weep;
But useless is weeping; thou great crimson sea,
Thy waters can cleanse me, come, roll over me I

My tempers are fitful, my passions are strong,
They bind my poor soul and they force me to wrong;
Beneath thy blest billows deliverance I see,
O come, mighty ocean, and roll over me!

Now tossed with temptation, then haunted with fears,
My life has been joyless and useless for years;
I feel something better most surely would be
If once thy pure waters would roll over me.

O ocean of mercy, oft longing I've stood
On the brink of thy wonderful, life-giving flood!
Once more I have reached this soul-cleansing sea,
I will not go back till it rolls over me.

The tide is now flowing, I'm touching the wave,
I hear the loud call of the mighty to save;
My faith's growing bolder, delivered I'll be;
I plunge 'neath the waters, they roll over me.

And now, hallelujah! the rest of my days
Shall gladly be spent in promoting his praise
Who opened his bosom to pour out this sea
Of boundless salvation for you and for me.
Author: William Booth (1829-1912)
The Salvation Army Song Book: Song Number: 298

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