Strong and immovable

"So, my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immovable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless." - 1 Corinthians 15:58

Paul has a lovely way of encouraging us to persevere. I know that we don't always feel immovable and strong, but his message is important for us to hear. Our work for the Lord cannot be measured in the same way as commercial success, but we need to believe that when we serve God our efforts are making a difference.

"With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don’t hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort." (The Message - Eugene Peterson)

Keep serving the Lord and leaving the results up to him. 

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Death shall have no dominion - A reflection on Dylan Thomas's words

Dylan Thomas fans will remember that he wrote a number of brilliant, and some controversial, poems. One of them was called: Death shall have no dominion. Although this is not the platform to debate his views on God, Dylan Thomas does make an excellent point on death. In fact, his views are just an echo of the New Testament writers. He writes:

Dead man naked they shall be one
With the man in the wind and the west moon;
When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone,
They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.

Nineteen hundred years earlier, the Apostle Paul wrote: 

“Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”

For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. But thank God! He gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Corinthians 15:55-57

We are living in very sobering times at the moment friends, but let us remember that the worst of things (death) has been swallowed up in Victory.

Thanks be to Jesus.

Living in Grace

D3LM3

Live as if ....

"Live as if Christ died yesterday,
rose this morning,
and is coming back again tomorrow." - Martin Luther

This quote sums up how we should live our lives - conscious of Christ's sacrifice for us, blown away by the miracle of his resurrection and sure of his coming again.

1 Corinthians 15 -  Let me now remind you, dear brothers and sisters, of the Good News I preached to you before. You welcomed it then, and you still stand firm in it. It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course, you believed something that was never true in the first place. I passed on to you what was most important and what had also been passed on to me. Christ died for our sins, just as the Scriptures said...

Living in Grace
D3LM3