Month: May 2022

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 20

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.                      Philippians 3:10-11

The resurrection raises us to live this life.  But there is no resurrection without a termination.  Paul writes, “that I may know Him…”  There are people who have been raised to life, but they don’t live there.  Paul writes about knowing the power of the resurrection empowers us to live up to the life God has promised and provided for us. The power and the promise of the resurrection to live the resurrected life, Jesus provided us, belongs to those who believe in the resurrection of the resurrected One.  The only thing that keeps us from living in the power of the resurrected life is continuing to believe in the perspective of the un-resurrected life.  Without dying to the old there is no resurrected living in the new.  The power of the resurrection isn’t something that just happened but it’s something that is happening in the lives of those who believe.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 18

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.                      Philippians 3:10-11

The resurrection power is found in the resurrected Person.  If we want to know the power of the resurrection, we must know the Person who was resurrected.  We know about the resurrection, the apostles spoke about it, wrote about it, and live about it because they knew the One who showed us about it.  The resurrection power is found in the resurrected Person, Jesus.  And this resurrection power isn’t just something to believe happened, but it’s something that happens in the ones who believe.  It’s real and God can resurrect any part, problem, and piece of the lives of anyone who believes in Jesus because they’ve met Jesus and know Jesus personally. 

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 18

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.                      Philippians 3:10-11

To be a resurrection there must be a termination.  What’s living doesn’t need resurrecting.  To know and live the life God has for us we can’t be afraid to die to what Satan’s given us.  But death involves suffering.  We weren’t created to die but sin brought the wages of death, and we suffer in dying, not just physically but mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  Giving up what we know to have what God knows involves suffering (dying) for what’s good and right and true.  Our flesh (skin) lives in fear and keeps us in fear to old thoughts, things, and worthless treasures.  Our spirit wasn’t created to live in fear or death but by faith in the voice of our Creator.  Let your spirit live!  Don’t be afraid of dying if you’re into living.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 17

that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.                      Philippians 3:10-11

To be a resurrection there must be a death.  It’s big and we will remember it.  Death is that way.  But this experience involves a choice and a craving to know life.  To know the life of Jesus we must follow the life of Jesus to a cross and an empty grave.  No excuses and no exceptions.  Death can’t hold back the one who wants to know life.  And Jesus holds the keys of life for anyone who wants to know Him.  We can’t know His life if we want to know this life.  His life is one that is resurrected and to know the power of the resurrection we must know the death to sin, self, sickness, and Satan believing that God in His great love will resurrect us to life.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 16

For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.                  Philippians 3:8-11

For there to be a resurrection there must be a death.  We cannot know the power of the resurrection without knowing the experience of death to sin.  And so, we can’t be afraid of death or dying to sin, the flesh, and what’s temporary if we want to have His forgiveness, freedom, and forever.  We can’t hold on to this life and have hold of His life.  For there to be a resurrection, there must be a death.  Don’t be afraid of dying, be afraid of not living.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 15

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, ⁵ who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time            1 Peter 1:3-5

The resurrection power to live is protected by the power of the resurrection.  This life is guarded/shielded by the One who resurrected it through faith.  The power of the resurrection now rules in and over the resurrected through faith.  When we believe what He did and can believe in what He will do.  That power has been loosed in our lives and into this life.  That’s why we must not only believe in Jesus, but we must believe Jesus.  The resurrection power that acted isn’t done acting.  This is just the start.  More is in the waiting for us to access it by faith.  Don’t treat the beginning as the end, God’s not done showing us all He has for us.

The Kitchen Table Devotional

“The Resurrection”

Day 14

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴ to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you 1 Peter 1:3-4

You must be raised from the dead to reach into heaven.  The riches of heaven belong to those resurrected to life by the power of God.  Dead people can’t reach out of the grave and spiritually dead people can’t reach out of the grave of sin.  Dead people are bound by their tomb of troubles.  Live people can live and move and have their being (Acts 17:28) or live, love, and laugh with Jesus.  The life of God belongs to those who have been resurrected to life by Jesus and have received the breath of the Holy Spirit.  Religion raises no one from the dead but a relationship with God does with all His riches.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 13

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,                      1 Peter 1:3

Because He lives, we can and will live too.   We have this constant hope of living because it happened that He lives.  We can live with hope and in hope in everything and in every day.  The presence and power of God is never out of the picture.  When Jesus stepped out of the grave, hope came with Him.  Where there is hope there will be the help of heaven.  This hope isn’t a flimsy wish, it’s the pure confidence of God’s word living inside of us.  His word is His living breath living in us.  And His hope lives in our heads, not just in our hearts.  Because He lives, we think life, not death, every day and in everything.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 12

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,                      1 Peter 1:3

Because Jesus rose from the dead, we too can rise from any kind of death that plagues our lives.  We will rise from this literal death.  His resurrection and love give us that hope.  But because He lives, death is defeated and we have this living hope that no kind of death can keep us in its grip.  Life came into that tomb and then life came out of that tomb.  Life comes in and then life comes out.  That’s what begins in our hearts and then comes out of our bodies.  We have this living hope because His living love has come into our lives and lives in us today.  Don’t be afraid to live the life that’s in your heart.

The Kitchen Table Devotions

“The Resurrection”

Day 11

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,                      1 Peter 1:3

The resurrection released the power of heaven here.  When Jesus came out of that tomb, all the promises and power of heaven came with Him.  His resurrection gives us a living hope, not a lay-a-way hope for some other time on some other day.  What was once embodied in the one body of Jesus Christ, is now available for anybody who believes in Jesus Christ.  The power to live again is now living in those who believe.