Saturday, March 12, 2011

Blessed Are The Forgiven (Part 5)

Blessed Are The Forgiven (Part 5)
“So rejoice in the Lord and be glad, all you who obey him! Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!” Psalm 32:11 New Living Translation
I know we sing and rejoice about our season, our harvest, our breakthrough, and our miracle – and those are most certainly causes for rejoicing – but Christian hymns tell of a time when we sang “Oh happy day! When Jesus washed… my sins away!” Satan’s authority and power over people has been forever broken through the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ!
When His disciples began to rejoice about how they were being used by God to cast out devils, Jesus told them, “Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy, and you can walk among snakes and scorpions and crush them. Nothing will injure you. But don’t rejoice because evil spirits obey you; rejoice because your names are registered in heaven” (Luke 10:19-20 NLT, emphasis added). That tells me that our salvation experience is to begin with rejoicing! And we don’t have to praise God by ourselves; according to Luke 15:7, there is joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God!
Our salvation experience starts with rejoicing, and it also culminates with rejoicing! Revelation 19:6-8 (ESV, emphasis added), “Then I heard what seemed to be the voice of a great multitude, like the roar of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, crying out, ‘Hallelujah! For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns. Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready; it was granted her to clothe herself with fine linen, bright and pure’ – for the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.”
So let us rejoice in God’s consistent, unfailing love for us! His love never changes no matter how many times we may fail or fall. He is loyal in His love. “It is because of the Lord's mercy and loving-kindness that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great and abundant is Your stability and faithfulness” (Lamentation 3:22-23 AMP).

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