To His Glory Music

08/16/2024

06/04/2024

Lord, You have called me to live in grace. But I in my sinful flesh want to live according to the law, because I can control that and because I can make my own law. I am uncomfortable with grace because I cannot understand it, I cannot fathom it. I want to live in a commodity and service economy. I serve You so You provide the commodity of salvation and relationship. This is NOT living “in the grace of Christ.”
Forgive me for this. Help me, by Your Spirit, to live in the grace of Christ today and to love others by the grace of Christ.

06/01/2024

Imagine how different your day will be today if you focus on thankfulness instead of your troubles? To be sure, God cares about your troubles. But this is about your attitude and concern. Imagine it...

05/27/2024

Life on the new earth in the new Jerusalem is the life you have always wanted—without the tears, death, mourning, crying, and pain that make life miserable (Rev. 21:4). This is possible because it is life in “the unfiltered presence of God.” At last, “God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God” (v. 3).
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/26/2024

We do not serve the third or fifth greatest being in the universe. We do not serve one whose supremacy will end when he retires or when a greater being appears on the scene. Thanks to the resurrection, the Lord we serve is supreme over all. In him, all things hold together (Col. 1:17)—your cardiovascular system, the water cycle, the institution of marriage, and everything else we depend on for life. Like the sun at the center of the solar system, the glory of the risen Lord holds together all the aspects of our life, which revolve around it!
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/21/2024

You and I will be raised one day. That is for sure. Whether we are raised to life in God’s presence or raised to face God’s judgment depends on our response to God’s Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, in this life. No wonder we stand fast in the gospel. No wonder we approach the task of proclaiming the gospel with a sense of urgency. People’s eternal destinies are at stake.
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/19/2024

The resurrected Christ is the one who will bring this justice. We long for his judgment because it will bring peace and restore our relationships to what God designed them to be. The peace justice brings is more than the absence of war. “It means complete reconciliation, a state of the fullest flourishing in every dimension—physical, emotional, social, and spiritual—because all relationships are right, perfect, and filled with joy.”
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/17/2024

We can assume that what Jesus taught about the kingdom of God between his resurrection and ascension shows up in the teaching of the apostles in the New Testament. We learn much about the kingdom of God in the New Testament letters. We learn that the kingdom is a matter of “righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 14:17). We also learn that even though the kingdom of God involves suffering (2 Thess. 1:5; Rev. 1:9), it is a matter of power (1 Cor. 4:20), it cannot be shaken (Heb. 12:28), and it is eternal (2 Pet. 1:11; Rev. 11:15).
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/15/2024

This promise is especially significant for two reasons. First, it provides encouragement for carrying out Jesus’s mission. No matter how difficult their task, Jesus’s followers can count on the presence of their crucified and risen Lord. Second, the promise of Jesus’s presence advances a key theme in the developing story of the Bible: the presence of God.
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/15/2024

When we, as Jesus’s followers, go to “make disciples of all nations”—the main command in Jesus’s commission—by leading them to Christ (signified by “baptizing”) and building them up in Christ (signified by “teaching them to observe” what Jesus taught), we do so with the full authority of Christ behind us!
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/13/2024

The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.”
Matthew 28:5-6
Remember that Jesus “has risen, just as he said” when you wonder if he is really with you as he promised (Matt. 28:6). Remember that Jesus “has risen just as he said” when you doubt his promise that God will take care of your needs for food and clothing if you seek first his kingdom (Matt. 6:31–33). Remember that Jesus “has risen, just as he said” when you question the reality of his coming “with power and great glory” (Matt. 24:29–31). Because Jesus rose from death just as he said, we can trust all of his words and his promises.
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/12/2024

“For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.” (Romans 14:9)
Because of Jesus’s resurrection, I can rejoice and have confidence about my future life after I die. I take to heart what the apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:12: “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/11/2024

Whenever I am tempted to wonder if I have given my life to a lost cause, I remember how the resurrection of Jesus Christ put his glory and honor on display. That is why my faith and my hope are in God!
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/11/2024

The need for new birth is so desperate that it can only happen through the work of the Holy Spirit (Ezek. 36:27; John 3:5–8) and through the word of truth—the gospel of Jesus Christ (James 1:18; 1 Pet. 1:18–23). The need for new birth is so desperate that it took the resurrection of Jesus Christ to make it possible.
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/10/2024

Hebrews 13:20 makes it clear that “The God of peace . . . through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep.” Jesus lives, then, to serve as “the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls” (1 Pet. 2:25). Even more, Jesus, the Lamb, will serve as our shepherd in our eternal home (Rev. 7:17). As our shepherd, he will remove sorrow and will lead us to springs of living water.
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/08/2024

If you are a believer in Jesus Christ, be encouraged that Jesus, for whose return you wait, is not coming to pour out wrath upon you. Rather, because he “has already suffered the end-time wrath for his people at the cross,”the risen Christ will return to rescue us from that wrath and to enjoy the Lord’s presence forever (1 Thess. 4:17).
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/07/2024

We are not to live like we used to live, because we are no longer the earthly people we used to be. We are to kill the old ways of life, which spring up like weeds. We can and must do this because we have been raised with Christ—the one who was raised through the power of God from death.
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson

05/06/2024

The fact that the resurrected Christ will one day be fully revealed is our cause for encouragement when we face discouraging, hopeless patches of life. To use a line from Tolkien’s The Return of the King, “everything sad is going to come untrue.” Think about that. Anxiety, depression, fear, persecution, suffering, and decay will all come untrue when Christ returns. The apostle John says as much when he writes: “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2).
From
“Risen” by
Steven D. Mathewson