Hope, Joy and Crown

Hope, Joy and Crown

1 Thessalonians 2:19-20
For what is our hope, our joy, or the crown in which we will glory in the presence of our Lord Jesus when he comes? Is it not you? 20Indeed, you are our glory and joy.

When we selflessly plant ourselves into other people’s lives what is our gain if they can’t reward us and we see no earthly or monetary benefit? What do we hope to see in our children through the years of raising them, nurturing, teaching and mentoring them? It is not for what they can pay us back in material gain that we do it. It is a labor of love and the harvest we long to see, that we continue to pray for, hope for and believe for are lives that are healthy, productive and that produce a legacy. A parent’s greatest reward is to have children that love and respect them, but also that hold to the values of faith that were instilled in them and that they in turn instill those same values in their children. We long to see a perpetual legacy of generations that follow on to know and obey the Lord.
The churches that the apostle Paul established were his children. He taught them, mentored them and raised them up in the faith and knowledge of Christ. It wasn’t a job for him; it was his life, his purpose and his joy. When he stood before the Lord there was no greater testimony to his faithfulness and his greatness as a servant of God than those that he had raised up in Christ. He was able to stand with the Lord and look through the generations at the harvest he had been instrumental in producing in the earth. This stood as Paul’s greatest, hope, joy and crown. This was his greatest reward.
Our greatest reward in heaven won’t be about our businesses, our finances or our status in the community; it will be about what we planted in others. It will be about what we sowed into their lives through our faithful commitment and walk with Christ. We want to see it in our children and our grandchildren. We want to see it in the ones that we helped disciple and bring to Christ. Nothing breaks our heart more than to see what we have treasured and nurtured stolen and destroyed by sin. It is for this reason that our Lord Jesus ever stands as our high priest making intercession on our behalf. He too, longs after us to be His hope, joy and crown.
Let us not grow weary or complacent concerning the awesome responsibility that we have toward those who under our spiritual authority or influence. We must remember that we are the priests of our home and have the responsibility to pray, intercede, teach and persuade our families in the ways of righteousness and salvation. Be faithful to the gift, the calling and instrument that God has created you to be. How we respond and use what He has created us to be and how that translates into the lives of others will be our hope, our joy and crown. Our legacy is our glory and our joy.

Blessings,
#kent

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The Accomplishment of a Finished Work

The Accomplishment of a Finished Work

John 19:30
When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

Often a finished work sets the stage for the accomplishment of what the work was finished for. Jesus was the restoration of right relationship with man to God. What Adam lost in the fall was restored in the cross. That finished work is now becoming the accomplished work of the body of Christ.
When a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth there is a life that has been brought forth from one finished work, the birth of her child. That is the beginning of a life of accomplishment in this new little being that has come forth. What Jesus has finished through His life, ministry and sacrifice upon the cross is now what we are living to accomplish and fulfill. The Lord Jesus set the stage for us to potentially come into and fulfill all that we were conceived and brought forth for. In a newborn child lies all the potential that life can hold. Only as that child grows into maturity and develops to the manifestation of that potential within them can we know who they are and what they will be. The seed and life of Christ is that which has been planted in our lives. The power of that life is not in religion, or works, or trying to keep all of the commandments, it is life joined through faith and in union, fellowship and relationship with the One who has given it to us. Christ in us, lived through us is our potential and accomplishment of His finished work. It is not seen and fulfilled in any one man, but in a many membered man birthed with a destiny and calling of God in their lives. It is a man that is becoming jointed and functioning as one and not many, for the many are the one and the head of that one is Christ. Out of Him each member lives and moves and has its being to the glory of God the Father and the accomplishment of Christ in the earth. That which the head has already finished the body will accomplish through its union with the head. “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ [be] with you. Amen. (Romans 16:20)”
We are God’s creation and creatures of accomplishment to fulfill the purposes and plans of God. What an awesome privilege we have been given and what an awesome responsibility to live into the fullness of that for which we were called. There is an appointed time for this God-man to come to birth. It is a God-man because the Christ is fully manifested in His body and there is the fullness of transition and transformation from the mortal to immortality, from death to the fullness of life. It is a time when indeed we no longer live, but Christ in us to the full accomplishment of His kingdom purpose and the establishment of His kingdom in the earth.
We are often so quick to lose our vision and purpose through the course of daily life and living, but if we lose our vision, we perish. We are here for the purpose of accomplishment and God has given us each a piece and portion of that. We, through the direction and relationship of the Spirit, must realize what and who we are in the light of God’s kingdom purpose. We then must become faithful to live and fulfill that for which we were created for. Remember you are the accomplishment of what Christ died for. May our lives be focused and given to be His fulfillment and accomplish what He has given us to do through faithful obedience to the Spirit of Christ within us.

Blessings,
kent