Thought for the Week - 12th April

Pastor Gareth Watkins

Acts 1: 1-3

“The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which He was taken up, after He through the Holy Spirit had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during forty days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God.’”

Romans 6: 5-8

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him

John 14: 1-3

Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

It is important we know the power and the truth of these scriptures in our hearts and lives. They teach us of the love of Christ for us as individuals, and His promise to return to lead us away from the binding sin and darkness of this world and ascend to dwell with Him in heaven.

 
Our place in eternity will be purer and more wonderful than we are capable of imagining. We are not however left to struggle under the weight of sin and death as we walk on this Earth now. The Holy Spirit was sent here to help us walk in the victory of our resurrected Lord, and to reveal these truths in our hearts as He brings us further into the hidden places of the eternal. In this place we access the presence of the living God, and draw near to our Lord in the quiet of our soul as He lovingly ministers to us. This is a place in which we can rest in His arms away from all the devastation of this fallen world. This is indeed a glorious place, a place purchased for you to enter, but only a glimpse of what is to come when we ourselves ascend to be with Christ.
 
 If our minds can grasp the victory of Christ’s coming, and our ascension to the place He has lovingly prepared, where He will ‘’receive us unto Himself’’, what troubles will hold weight against enormity of this truth? Our walk can become heavy and burdened as day to day life takes its toll. We can pick up new fears, new sins, and old issues re-emerge, but when the revelation that we will one day ascend to be with Christ Himself is known in our heart, these things once so crushingly heavy, become but the momentary troubles of this life that cannot move us from our path. Let the promise that Christ is coming back for you set you free from all the chains that would bind our minds to this life.
 

‘’We are united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection’’.. This means that just as Christ took our sin upon Himself on the cross, so too did He impart to us the triumphant, death defeating power of His resurrection. It is important that we know this, that we stand on this truth, and that we walk in it. We are to walk confidently knowing that Jesus Christ our Saviour is ascended, and has gone to prepare a place for us. And that we too, will one day ascend to the place in eternity that has been perfectly made for each of us.

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