Wednesday, February 4, 2015

GOD’S DELIVERANCE (PART 4)



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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Lord, Your discipline is good, for it leads to life and health. You restore my health and allow me to live! You have rescued me from death

Isaiah 38:16-17a (NLT)

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

These words of the Apostle Paul proclaim the dire state of all men and women short of having someone to rescue them from the grave:

What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Romans 7:24

Indeed, it is a question we will all come to face sooner or later because one certainty is that those who have life will eventually lose it. Everyone is going to have to face the matter of death, a death that is sure to come unless we have someone with the means to deliver us from it. Someone like God.

Paul came to understand this in his life. He realized he was a sinner, a wretched and wicked man who was without hope from death unless some miraculous power rescued him, a power he came to know through the gospel by the name of Jesus. He testifies as much when he said:

Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! Romans 7:25a

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son (John 3:16-18). Jesus speaks these very words to Nicodemus as He teaches him about the need to be born again, to start afresh in life making the life of Christ his own through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was urging Nicodemus, and us as well, to become new creations in Him, putting the past behind and advancing into a new future where death no longer has any sting, a future where only eternal life awaits (2 Corinthians 5:17). Paul had discovered this truth Jesus was conveying and properly gave His praise to God for His deliverance from death.

We need to do likewise.

The scriptures are full of confirmation regarding God’s death delivering power through Jesus, His Son, our Savior. Look at these excerpts from His holy word:

Our God is a God who saves; from the Sovereign Lord comes escape from death. Psalm 68:20

During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, He offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the One (God) who could save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverent submission. Hebrews 5:7

I am under vows to You, my God; I will present my thank offerings to You. For You have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. Psalm 56:12-13

But I have been the Lord your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but Me, no Savior except Me. I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Hosea 13:4, 14

Very truly I tell you, whoever hears My (Jesus) word and believes Him (God) who sent Me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. John 5:24

Friends, we serve a God who delivers us from trouble, sin, and illness as we have seen through the last three devotions, helping us along through this thing we call life. But when this earthly life is through, it’s such an awesome comfort and assurance to know that death need not be the end but only the glorious beginning of living eternally with God the Father and Jesus His Son, all because God loved us all so much that He was willing to save us and deliver us from death.

My prayer today as you read this is that you have accepted Jesus as Savior and in doing so have received His salvation promise that elevates you from death to everlasting life. If you have yet to do this, I ask that you make today the day to change your life now and forever. Give your life to Jesus and allow God His Father to bring you deliverance from death through Him. You’ll never regret your decision.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com

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