Yesterday we wrote about how Jesus was brave:
He left the comfort of Heaven and chose to dwell here among us: couches smelling like urine and all.
Jesus chose to leave the beauty of Heaven for the sin in this world.
And He chose this for the sake of our souls.
Jesus was brave.
His life on earth is great proof of that.
Annie writes: "Baby Jesus was brave. But baby Jesus was here on mission to save us from our sin. He's already done that good work. He's already died and resurrected."
Today we are writing about how Jesus IS brave: present tense.
Annie continues: "Jesus is still alive and still working for our good today. He is still the humble King who came to earth, but His mission will be different when He returns. He's going to come back and judge sin once and for all and destroy the enemy who has destroyed this world such a broken and painful place." (emph. mine)
Hold the front door! Did you just write that Jesus is returning? What in the name of Sam Hill?
Yes, Annie did, and I am here to ditto her truth. The Bible says that Jesus is returning. He is returning to earth: this time as victorious King and Judge.
Hebrews 10:25 The Message (MSG)
22-25 So let’s do it—full of belief,
confident that we’re presentable inside and out.
Let’s keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going.
He always keeps his word.
Let’s see how inventive we can be in
encouraging love and helping out,
not avoiding worshiping together as some do
but spurring each other on,
especially as we see the big Day approaching.
(emph. mine)
Revelation 19:11-16 The Message (MSG)
A White Horse and Its Rider
11-16 Then I saw Heaven open wide—
and oh! a white horse and its Rider.
The Rider, named Faithful and True,
judges and makes war in pure righteousness.
His eyes are a blaze of fire, on his head many crowns.
He has a Name inscribed that’s known only to himself.
He is dressed in a robe soaked with blood,
and he is addressed as “Word of God.”
The armies of Heaven,
mounted on white horses and dressed in dazzling white linen,
follow him.
A sharp sword comes out of his mouth so he can subdue the nations,
then rule them with a rod of iron.
He treads the winepress of the raging wrath of God,
the Sovereign-Strong.
On his robe and thigh is written, King of kings, Lord of lords.
(emphs. mine)
This sure takes me back to youth group
I get it, this is confusing and seems dark.
And I confess, I am far from the authority, but what I do understand, in laymen's term: Jesus is coming back. And when He returns it is with intention of defeating this world and all it's sin once and for all. This is going to be the ultimate day of righteousness, because that is how Jesus judges: in pure righteousness.So what does this mean for you and I? The following is a tool I learned back in the days of youth group, it's called the Roman's Walk to Salvation.
ROMANS 3:23 NKJV – FOR ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALL SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD.
ROMANS 3:10 NKJV – AS IT IS WRITTEN: “THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO, NOT ONE;
ROMANS 5:12 NKJV – THEREFORE, JUST AS THROUGH ONE MAN SIN ENTERED THE WORLD, AND DEATH THROUGH SIN, AND THUS DEATH SPREAD TO ALL MEN, BECAUSE ALL SINNED–
ROMANS 6:23 NKJV – FOR THE WAGES OF SIN [IS] DEATH, BUT THE GIFT OF GOD [IS] ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD.
ROMANS 5:8 NKJV – BUT GOD DEMONSTRATES HIS OWN LOVE TOWARD US, IN THAT WHILE WE WERE STILL SINNERS, CHRIST DIED FOR US.
ROMANS 10:9-10 NKJV – THAT IF YOU CONFESS WITH YOUR MOUTH THE LORD JESUS AND BELIEVE IN YOUR HEART THAT GOD HAS RAISED HIM FROM THE DEAD, YOU WILL BE SAVED. FOR WITH THE HEART ONE BELIEVES UNTO RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND WITH THE MOUTH CONFESSION IS MADE UNTO SALVATION
ROMANS 10:13 NKJV – FOR “WHOEVER CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED.”
ROMANS 10:17 NKJV – SO THEN FAITH [COMES] BY HEARING, AND HEARING BY THE WORD OF GOD.
(Check out the detailed website here, at teenmissions.org)
Given the time, I copy and pasted all the same scriptures but through the Message version. It paints a really vivid, colorful, detailed way of understanding the context of what is written. P.S. The Message can be wordy, but I promise it's a good read!
The Message (MSG):
Romans 3:23-24
God Has Set Things Right
21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.
Romans 3:10-20
We’re All in the Same Sinking Boat
9-20 So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no doubt about it:
There’s nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They’ve all taken the wrong turn;
they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one’s living right;
I can’t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don’t know the first thing about living with others.
They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin.
Romans 5:12-14
The Death-Dealing Sin, the Life-Giving Gift
12-14 You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in—first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.
Romans 6:23
22-23 But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master.
Romans 5:8
6-8 Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him.
Romans 10:9-10
4-10 The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it’s not so easy—every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
Romans 10:13
11-13 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!
Romans 10:17
14-17 But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,
A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
telling all the good things of God!
But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.
So this is an opportunity, like an alter call, if you will. We are quickly nearing the end of this 100 Days to Brave devotional. Maybe you followed since day one, day somewhere-in-the-middle, or day 97, which is today. All of your time and interest is appreciated, so appreciated, but it is also for nothing, if you don't know my heart for you and the reason I am doing this devotion; the reason Annie wrote this devotion; the God Who made this devotion what it is: Jesus.
Jesus IS returning. This makes Him brave: that He would return when He already defeated death at the cross and His resurrection. Jesus is brave: to face the evil of this world and the grip of death. Jesus is brave.
If you believe in this Roman's walk to Salvation, a series of Scripture taken from the New Testament book of Romans, it is a detailed explanation of why Jesus came, why we even need Him, and what our need, and His coming, mean for us.
Remember, Revelation (the last book in the Bible- foretelling events still to come) chapter 19 declares that Jesus IS returning! The Heaven's will open and Jesus will appear on a WHITE HORSE! He is returning to earth, destroying evil once and for all, and taking His people back with Him.
I am one of His.
I hope you are.
In a world which says "to each his own", "you be you, boo", and "all roads lead to the same place", it takes bravery to stand out. To make your own choices. To live your own convictions.
Jesus is the best decision of my life.
I accepted Him when I was 17 years old.
I accepted Him when I was 17 years old.
I walked to the alter. I cried lots of tears. I declared a life in need of salvation and dedicated myself to the Savior of my life, Jesus.
Be Brave:
Thank Jesus that He takes a risk on you over and over again.
Thank Him that the grave did not hold Him down and that He is a risen and living King.
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