[Discoveries] 04-23-07 Who are we?

[Inspiration in Your Inbox]

/*... you have been raised with Christ ... -- Colossians 3:1*/

Stop and think about our resurrected Lord. Is He depressed? Is He 
anxious? Is He intimidated by Pilate or Herod or Hitler or your boss or 
any bully you can think of? Is He cowering in the presence of the evil 
one? Is He a somber sourpuss? Does He sneak away to deaden His pain with 
a bottle of liquor? Is He struggling with impure thoughts? Does He eat 
too much? Does He look in the mirror and cringe?

I don't know what your struggle is, but whatever it is, substitute it 
for the questions I am asking.

Now think about our resurrected Lord. How much energy does it take for 
Him to be happy? Is He trying His best to have fun? Is He struggling to 
maintain His peace? Is He gritting His teeth to muster the courage to 
face another day?

Don't joy and peace and strength and courage and every other virtue that 
is good -- don't these things flow right out of the center of who He is? 
Aren't these things automatic and inseparable from Him?

Our resurrected Lord is victorious. Nothing can or ever will defeat Him. 
Nothing can overcome Him. Nothing can challenge Him. My kids used to 
sing a song: "Jesus is the winna mon." He is triumphant.

Now we move on to you and me. How hard do we need to try to be 
victorious? If we already are (underline are) raised with Christ, why 
would we need to act (underline act) like we are raised with Christ? We 
don't need to parody ourselves. We are victorious. We are the 
indestructible children of God.

The biggest part of Satan's scheme is to hide from us our true identity. 
If He can make us believe that we are hopeless sinners instead of holy 
saints, then he will forever hold us to the treadmill of works 
righteousness, keeping from us the opportunity to do good works because 
we are already righteous in Christ.

Think it over.

Be encouraged!
Dwight


A big "Thank you!" to those of you who support our ministry.
_http://www.dwightclough.com/donations.html_

Contact us here: _http://www.dwightclough.com/contact.html_
Live near Madison, Wisconsin? Check out _http://www.Kim51.com_
Change your subscription: 
_http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/discoveries_


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://six.pairlist.net/pipermail/discoveries/attachments/20070421/5e2f173c/attachment.htm>