Dear Friends,

Greetings in Christ!

In this Resurrection Day post, we come to one of the many resurrection verses in the Book of Acts. Let us pray for God to open our hearts and minds to his word before we read it:

Father, thank You for the precious Bread that came down from heaven, which is more than our necessary food. Open our understanding as we read it, that it may renew and transform our minds, that we may be conformed into the image of your Son, that He may be pleased to dwell in our hearts, that we may know the power of his resurrection. We ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen.

1 Now when they [Paul and Co] had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was a synagogue of the Jews:
2 And Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them out of the scriptures,
3 Opening and alleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ.
Acts 17:1-3

As we have been going through Acts, I have been thinking a lot about how to be led of the Spirit, how to be filled with the Spirit, and how to walk in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. Yet I find that sometimes this is easier said than done.

I know that Christ is risen. I want the power of his resurrection in my life. But when I get behind the wheel to jockey for position in the rat race, my old man takes over. I then wonder, Why do I get defeated this way? In other words, if I am born again and raised with Christ in newness of life, why does my old man dominate as if I am still dead in my sins? For the believer, the resurrection ought to be an ever-present reality that powers us through each day, as the risen Christ now lives in our hearts in the Person of the Holy Spirit.

I recall reading an article in Car and Driver magazine, some 30+ years ago, titled “Snake Dance.” The author relayed her experience driving a Shelby Cobra 427 on a road trip, while her partner drove a Dodge Viper. At one point in the article, a guy on a beater motorcycle with a plastic milk crate bungeed behind the seat notices her and says, “That’s a Shelby Cobra 427,” to which she replies, “Yes, it is.” He then said, “That car should not be driven.” The author then wrote something like, Is it possible that I have just met the stupidest man alive? (1)

I think a lot of us are like the guy on the motorcycle. We have immeasurable power at our disposal through prayer, yet we do not pray. We have a supernatural Book at our fingertips, a Book that some people on this planet would do almost anything to obtain, yet we do not read it.

So we get defeated because we have forgotten the basics. The demands and pressures of life pull us away from our lifelines to God (prayer and the Bible). As we neglect prayer and the Bible, our old man asserts himself. Before long, instead of being raised with Christ in newness of life, we are slipping back into our crypt where the old man feels at home.

Recently, after calling unto God for help concerning this matter (Ps 86:7; Jer 33:3), I heard a preacher on the radio saying research shows that looking at your phone the first thing in the morning is about the worst thing you can do to start your day. That sounded to me like the answer to my prayer, so I made sure to take the preacher’s advice and spend 10 minutes praying with my Bible when I woke up the next day before I did anything else. The effect was nothing short of miraculous. I had a great day and felt 1000 times better than before. A couple of days later, I heard a DJ on the radio say the same thing. (II Cor 13:1)

The morning news feed is usually about death, but God is life and light. Our cellphones point us to the technocracy, which is fostering a dying culture of death, but prayer and the Bible link us to God, who is creating a living kingdom of everlasting life. The times in my life when I felt the most victorious and the most Spirit-filled were times when I was spending every spare moment either praying, reading the Bible, preaching, witnessing, or getting Bible instruction of some sort. When we live that way, the old man does not stand a chance. He is too weak to put up a fight because he has not had anything to eat.

Jesus is coming back soon. He is putting the finishing touches on the New Jerusalem, where we will live for eternity if we have received Him as our personal Saviour through faith alone. In the meantime, Jesus wants to be risen in our hearts and minds each day, that the world may see Him living in us; but they will not see Him in us unless we do our part.

    Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
    And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?
John 11:25-26

If I believe this, I’m going to pray and read the Bible. When I pray and read the Bible, I start thinking like a Christian. When I start thinking like a Christian, I start feeling like a Christian. When I start feeling like a Christian, I start acting like a Christian. Then I see I do not just want to act like a Christian, I want Christ to live through me. And He will, when I focus on Him and not on the world.

In closing, we can either feed on the rotting fodder the world offers, or we can feed on the Bread that came down from heaven. We can stumble about like the living dead, or we can walk in the power of the Holy Spirit like the living stones that Christ has called us to be.

Lord Jesus, cleanse my heart with your perfect word, that You may feel at home in my heart, that You may be risen in my heart as King of my soul, a Light that shines brightly through me, lighting the way for myself and others each day as I follow You in all things. Amen.

1 Louise Ann Noeth, “Snake Dance,” Car and Driver, July 1992, 104-109.

PS: When you wake up tomorrow, remember to pick up your Bible and give God 10 minutes before anything else. Whatever it is, it can wait.

55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
I Corinthians 15:55-58