Joy to the World, The Lord Is Come

Jesus came to a world of darkness. It had been four hundred years since the last prophet Malachi. That world was similar to ours. He came to bring the light of the gospel of the good news of redemption… he came to set the prisoner free and to open the eyes of those born spiritually blind. He came not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved.

There are great Christmas hymns of the faith that we learned when we were children. In times past, we were taught Christmas carols in our schools and churches. However, today in the United States, we no longer sing Christmas carols in school since it’s not considered “politically correct.”

The song “Oh Holy Night” was inspired by a choir director in France to dedicate the new organ in his sanctuary….

…O Night Devine, When Christ was born!

Surely He taught us to love one another.
In His name all oppression shall cease.
Sweet hymns of Joy in grateful chorus raise we…
Christ is the Lord,
Let all forever praise thee..
Noel, Noel…. O Night Devine.!

At the birth of Jesus, the world had long been in error pining, ‘til he appeared and the soul felt his worth.

He came not because we were worthy of salvation, not because we were deserving, but because of his grace and mercy. He came not because we deserved love, but because of His divine love wherewith he loved us.

We’re living in a world of darkness. Jesus Christ is the light that God sent to illuminate the darkness. According to Matthew 4:16, The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

We’re all sinners in need of forgiveness… we could not approach a holy God until he reached down, and bent down and bowed down to our level.

Chains shall he break for the slave is our brother… According to 2 Timothy 2:26, the devil takes men captive at his will. There is no freedom without choice. We were born in trespasses and sins. We had no choice but to sin because our nature was to miss the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

John Sullivan Dwight wrote the English version of Oh Holy Night. He wrote that Jesus Christ came to erase the stain of original sin against Almighty God. Therefore bow your heads before your Redeemer. Jesus the Christ the son of the living God has broken every bond to reconcile God’s people that we who were dead in trespasses and sin through his sacrifice on our behalf may be made the righteousness of God in him.

Another beloved Christmas hymn is Silent Night. This song originated in a German town on the banks of the Rhine river by priests who took up the challenge to write a song that didn’t need accompaniment since their church organ had broken. Today, this song is one of our most cherished and popular Christmas carols:
Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright,
Round yon virgin, mother and child, Holy infant so tender and mild,
Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.

Jesus Christ came with the dawn of redeeming grace… For although we were deserving of death, He who was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf…. he bore the penalty of our sin. For in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for the ungodly. His birth was the dawn of redeeming grace.

He came to a world dead in trespasses and sin… a world deserving of death and condemnation. However, though we were unworthy, he made us worthy and now by his grace, his mercy has made us his own.

Because Jesus Christ was born as the Redeemer, we can have joy. This is the theme of the carol Joy to the World:
Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let heaven and nature sing…
The glories of his righteousness and wonders of His love.
He rules the world with truth and grace
And makes the the nations prove,
The glory of His righteousness and wonder of His love.

The birth of Christ confirmed the angels proclamation to certain shepherds on a Judean hillside: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.”

Even though the enemy’s ploys to enslave men has not changed, Jesus Christ was born to set the prisoners free.

The essay, “One Solitary Life” from a sermon attributed to James Allen Francis says, “He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant. He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was 30. Then, for three years, he was an itinerant preacher.He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a home. He didn’t go to college. He never lived in a big city. He never traveled 200 miles from the place where he was born. He did none of the things that usually accompany greatness. He had no credentials but himself.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race. I am well within the mark when I say that all the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned–put together–have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that one, solitary life.*

Jesus Christ is the central theme of the history of mankind. He came to bring the light of the gospel of peace to a world of darkness. The Christmas message is that we are reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. The greatest Christmas present is the presence of God in Christ in us the hope of glory. Rejoice! Rejoice, Christ the Savior is born…

… that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Fear Not

David Hess has been called as minister to the Middle East to proclaim the truth of the gospel… the good news of Jesus Christ. He was led to present a 2020 vision to believers at his local church a few weeks ago.

Proverbs says that where there is no vision the people perish. Many churches around the world had no vision for 2020 and they were caught totally unaware when the worldwide pandemic laid bare those who were unprepared. There is much confusion in the world today. However, God has given his church an opportunity to either listen to the bad news according to the prince of the power of the air or to listen to His Word which liveth and abideth forever.

The world is searching for reliable sources of truth… of good news to counteract the bad news of the world. James says, count it all joy when you fall into diverse temptations for the testing of your faith produces patience and endurance which when they have finished make you perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

God will make a way where there is no way. When we cooperate with the revelation of His Holy Spirit. His mercies are new every morning. This year has been a year of purification… of trial by the refining fire of tribulation. In the midst of the trials God will bear his mighty arm when men forsake their own power to rely on the power of the Holy Spirit.

Updraft turbulence is the air pressure gradient that allows an eagle to soar. Despite the wind and turbulence around us, the power of God is the wind beneath our wings. Isaiah 40 concludes….. they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

God presents us with a choice to proceed with either fear or faith. He never honors fear… he always honors faith. The faith is in the Word of God. God is faithful to His word. He is no respecter of persons. He is a respecter of the conditions according to his revealed word.

The command “do not fear” is the most common commandment in scripture. The Lord said to Israel through the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 41:10: “Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.“ 2 Timothy 1:7 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

The church thrives and proliferates in the midst of persecution. What men meant for evil, God meant for good. In the first century the church multiplied when the Christians in Jerusalem were persecuted and scattered to distant lands.

Hebrews chapter 2 says that Jesus Christ himself took part of the same nature as ours…. that we would no longer fear death. So that he through his own death would render powerless the one who had the power of death, that is the devil. God has called a remnant unto him to show the world that His church would thrive in the midst of the turmoil and confusion of this world of darkness. God will use what the devil throws at us in order to show that light triumphs over the darkness.

God shows up and shows off when men to him are loyal. God calls us to bloom where he’s planted us. We’re given the choice to prove whether or not the Bible is the true word of God. In Luke 18, “will the son of Man find faith when he returns?” The question is this: are you driven by faith or fear? There is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear. He who fears is not made perfect in love. We’re called to contend for the faith that was once given to the saints. According to Jude 1:3, …contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered to the saints. Our challenge is to remain in the arena, striving to press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Tribulation separates out the true believers. Those who are afraid will cut and run when the crisis comes. However, when the crisis comes and coiurage Is required, God expects his men to have such faith and confidence in him that they will be the faithful reliable ones.

According to Romans 8:28, all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. What men meant for evil God meant for good. Despite the darkness of this world, the darker the night the brighter the light shines. Therefore, let your light so shine among men, that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven…

… that we may live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Calvary’s Anthem

God has elected us and named us as His called-out ones, His church, the temple, His dwelling place. Collectively the church is the body of Christ and Jesus Christ is the head. We were not called as lone rangers in a wilderness walk. He’s called us as a “band of brothers” choking in in each other’s dust as together we follow in the “dust of the rabbi.”

None of us individually is as effective as all of us pulling together. God orchestrates all things according to the good pleasure of His will. We’re individual voices in God’s choir. As the choir director, He “tunes our hearts to sing thy praise.” We each sing different parts harmoniously fit together to the praise of the glory of His grace. We don’t sing the same part, but our voices blend together harmoniously according to His resonant frequency. God has gifted us each with a unique instrument to raise our voices in an anthem to the praise of the glory of His grace.

In Galatians 5 the liberty that we have in Christ is to serve one another in love… to bear one another’s burdens. Some people think that the blessing is in helping ourselves to God’s blessings. However, God has called us to the body of Christ so that we could bless God by blessing one another in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Mark 2, contains the record of four men who personified Galatians 6:2, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.” These men were blessed to bring their paralyzed friend to Jesus for healing so they went to a house in Capernaum where Jesus was speaking to a crowd in a packed house.

The paralyzed man knew that he needed healing and that Jesus could heal him. He also knew that although he could not approach Jesus’ on his own, he had four faithful friends who were blessed to bring him to Jesus. However, it was so crowded in the room where Jesus was speaking that they couldn’t get in. It would have been easy for them to rationalize, “we’ve run into a closed door. Let’s just go home and we’ll see if we can see Jesus another day.” However, when some doors close, this is a challenge to test our faith, our resolve, and our perseverance.

In all of our lives, when doors close, sometimes God opens a window instead. We can all recall times when things did not work out as we had planned even though we had the best of intentions. Sometimes God wants us to adapt in order to accomplish his will and his purpose for our lives. When God gives us an assignment, it doesn’t matter that the door is blocked. God gives us opportunities to overcome the obstacles and the barricades in the trials of this life. When God gives us a mission, the important thing is to persevere to accomplish His mission and get the job done. It’s not about the method, rather it’s about delivering the Lord’s intended result.

The four men knew they needed to get creative in order to bring their paralyzed friend to the Lord. Military Generals often say to their troops, “don’t come to me with your problems and complaints. Instead come with four solutions to your problem.” In the military, an important part of each mission is that there is “no man left behind.” Men don’t risk their lives for the glory of their country, instead they gladly give their lives for their brothers-in-arms. The military term, “I’ve got your six,” means that I have my brother’s back and he has mine.

In this life, misery is inevitable. However, joy is a choice. The paralyzed man’s friends risked being scorned and ridiculed. They didn’t worry about shame and humiliation. They had one objective… to present their friend to Jesus so that he could be healed. Their creative solution was to take the tiles from the roof and lower their friend right in front of Jesus.

Jesus didn’t see their humility and shame. He looked down and saw the paralyzed man. He didn’t say, “son, you’re healed.” Instead he said, “your sins are forgiven.” Jesus didn’t go to the symptoms. He went right to the root of the problem. The paralyzed man’s problem was not that he couldn’t walk…. his problem was that he was a sinner in need of forgiveness. Then Jesus said, “pick up your bed and walk.” Jesus has authority over sin and the consequences of sin. The crowd and the Pharisees marveled that Jesus claimed power over sin. They thought only God could forgive sin. They didn’t believe what Jesus had said, “I always do my Father’s will.” The power of Jesus Christ was the super-natural spiritual power of God according to his Father’s revelation of His will.

Jesus knew what was in the heart of man. He understood the sin nature that all men had inherited from Adam. Jesus met the paralyzed man’s greatest need… his need to be forgiven of his sins.

Hebrews 10:25 says to stimulate one another to love and good deeds. Therefore forsake not the assembly of yourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching. Our calling is to minister one to another and intercede in prayer according to the power of the Holy Spirit.

An excerpt from the prayer entitled “Calvary’s Anthem,” from the Puritan Prayer Book The Valley of Vision says,
“Heavenly Father, Thou hast led me singing to the cross where I fling down all my burdens and see them vanish,
where my mountains of guilt are leveled to a plain, where my sins disappear,
though they are the greatest that exist, and more in number than the grains of fine sand;
Thou hast given me a hillside spring that washes clear and white, and I go as a sinner to its waters, bathing without hindrance in its crystal streams….
The blood of the Lamb is like a great river of infinite grace with never any diminishing of its fullness as the thirsty ones without number drink of it…
In the midst of a world of pain it is a subject to praise in every place,
a song on earth, an anthem in heaven,
its love and virtue knowing no end.
I have a longing for the world above where multitudes sing the great song…
…May I always know that a clean heart full of goodness is more beautiful than the lily, that only a clean heart can sing by night and by and by day,
that such a heart is mine when I shall abide at Calvary…

That at Calvary we may die to self in order to live to Him… that we may know him and the power of his Resurrection being conformed to the power of his death on our behalf… where we continue to sing Calvary’s anthem of his cleansing wholeness…

… That we may ever live to sing the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Rise Up Oh Men of God

The church in America has been marginalized by the “politically correct” popular culture. However, according to Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high. It’s important that we put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand in the evil day and having done all, to stand.

A popular hymn of the faith says, “Rise up O men of God, the church for you doth wait. As brothers of the Son of Man, rise up O men of God.”

William Merrill who wrote this song was inspired to call Christian men to rise up as followers of their commander in chief, Jesus Christ. There have always been organizations and fellowships of Christian women. However, Merrill understood that in order for the Church to influence society, Men of God would need to rise up.

This was Jesus’ encouragement to Peter, James, and John in the Garden of Gethsemane. Awake you who are asleep. The day is at hand. Walk in the light while it is day. Now is the acceptable day of the Lord.

The zealous Jews of Jesus’ day wanted to make Jesus their earthly King. He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” They asked him, “What’s your plan?” Jesus pointed to a despised tax gatherer and a group of lowly fishermen. He said, “Those guys over there, they’re the plan.” God has called the weak and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and to bring to naught the things that are. For the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. And the weak things of God are greater than the power of men.

To rise up O men of God is to increase fervor, intensity, and commitment. It means to step out of your own comfort zone and step into the comfort of the Holy Spirit. It means to step away from my own power and into the spiritual power of God.

Influencers 4M (Four Men Groups) is a movement of men who want to spend time in the Word of God and in the presence of their Lord Jesus Christ. The concept of 4M is taken from Jesus’ example. Jesus rarely spoke to large crowds. He spent his time with twelve apostles and an inner circle of three other men: Peter, James, and John. 4M groups start with the questions, who are your twelve, and who are your three? Beginning with four men dedicated to walk with their Lord Jesus Christ, Christianity has changed the world.

The biblical instruction for the rise and expansion of the Christian church is in 2 Timothy 2:2, “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” Growth is an exponential equation to the power of three. There are four generations in this one short verse. This logarithmic function means that four men replicating for four generations of growth raised to the power of three yields 716 “faithful men.” One more generation results in 2172 faithful men.

Bonhoeffer said when Jesus bids a man come, he bids him “come and die.” In order to live for Him we must die to self. What’s the cost of following Him? Philippians 1:21 says, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.”

Every earthly relationship will end in pain. Life on this earth is but for a moment, a vapor in the context of eternity. It is appointed for all men once to die and then comes the judgement. Therefore, live not for this fleeting moment in time but with our eternal destiny in mind.

A soldier in training has no time for civilian matters. Soldiers must concentrate on their training because in the heat of battle, their lives will depend on performing as they have been trained. They must give heart and soul and mind and strength to focus on their training drills. Then after the battle has been won, when the grateful civilians honor them for their bravery in the heat of battle, the soldier will say, “I’m no hero. I just did what I was trained to do.”

The world insists that we perform with all of our heart according to that which our worldly authorities require. It’s not about the cost, rather it’s about our value and our contribution to the success of our worldly enterprises.

The greatest disappointment in this life is not failure to climb the ladder of success, but that after a lifetime of work we realize that our ladder was leaning against the wrong wall.

Therefore rise up O men of God, have done with lesser things.
Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of Kings.

Rise up oh men of God. His kingdom tarries long.
Bring in the day of brotherhood and end the night of wrong.
Once the last person is won for God’s kingdom, the judgement of God will be manifest after Christ’s return for His church. Jesus said, Now is the time to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Now is the time of brotherhood with those who are born again of God’s spirit.

God is no respecter of persons. He is, however a respecter of His word. When we make God’s word our word, then we will do according to His will. The doing of the Word is to accept the promises of God. We accept God’s promises by obedience… by being doers of the Word and not hearers only.

The church of God thrives in persecution. For tribulation worketh patience and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.

Rise up oh men of God. The church for you doth wait.
Her strength unequal to her task, Rise up and make her great.
The church that relies on the power of men is unequal to the task to which we have been called. The power is not in our own power but in the power of the Holy Spirit. As the Apostle Paul came to understand after he had prayed three times for God to remove his thorn in the flesh, Thy strength is made perfect in my weakness, thy grace is sufficient for me.

Bonhoeffer said that in WWII the German church was sleep-walking toward a terrible precipice and they didn’t even recognize it. A crisis is when decisive action is required to avoid a catastrophic failure. The atrocities of Nazi Germany were the result of the church’s acquiescence to Hitler’s mandate that the German church must “go along to get along.”

Men must find their place in God’s economy. God’s economy is to exchange my life in the flesh for the spiritual life in His Son. The world doesn’t need more programs and organizations. The world needs for men to rise up in the power of God. Men who chase after men who chase after Christ. Men who find their identity in Christ.

When you call a man, “Man of God,” most men will look down and look away in shame. They think to themselves, “I’m not worthy.” However when we confess “Jesus is Lord,” it means that I’m no longer Lord of my own life, he is. The phrase “Man of God,” is the “genitive of possession.” It means God’s man. Our identity in Christ is not “who we are,” but “WHOSE we are.” Therefore, Lift high the cross of Christ. Tread where his feet have trod.
As brothers of the Son of Man, Rise up oh men of God….

…that we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael

Thankful

Prayer and praise to our Heavenly Father is the outpouring of a thankful heart. King David himself was a man after God’s own heart.

Psalm 100 says: “MAKE a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.”

Thanksgiving in The United States is a uniquely American holiday. The first thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims… Puritan Christians celebrating in gratitude to God for His divine providence for blessing them with fellowship, peace, and the bounty of an abundant harvest.

George Washington wrote a declaration of Thanksgiving as the first president of the United States. According to Washington’s declaration, “Whereas it is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor—and whereas both Houses of Congress have by their joint Committee requested me “to recommend to the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness.”

During the civil war, Abraham Lincoln declared Thanksgiving as a national holiday. An excerpt from Lincoln’s Thanksgiving declaration says, “It has seemed to me fit and proper that the (gracious gifts of the Most High God) should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American people. I do, therefore, invite my fellow-citizens of the United States… to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November… as a Day of Thanksgiving and Prayer to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.”

In Luke 17 Jesus illustrated the importance of a thankful heart. This is the record of his healing ten lepers. As Jesus went into Galilee after passing through Samaria, ten lepers called out to Jesus, “Master, have mercy on us.” Jesus said to them, “Go show yourselves to the priest.” As they were walking, they were healed. When they realized that they had been healed, only one of the ten lepers ran back after Jesus to thank him. This man was a Samaritan. Jesus said, “Weren’t’ there ten lepers? Where are the other nine?”

The lesson to the nine lepers is to beware of the sin of ingratitude. The lesson to the one Samaritan is the duty and the beauty of a thankful heart.

In the Jewish tradition, proper Jews would avoid going through Samaria on their way to Galilee. Jesus never followed this tradition. The Jews considered Samaritans as half breeds. They were descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel whose blood line was contaminated by taking wives from heathen nations. Even though proper Jews traveled the long way around, Jesus often went right through Samaria.

Lepers were outcasts in their society. However, in a leper colony, it didn’t matter who your relatives were or your country of origin. Their common bond was their disease which required them to be quarantined and set apart from their communities. They were joined by their common bond of disease and misery. Their hearts were likeminded in their desire to be delivered from their debilitating disease.

Leprosy is a picture of sin. One of the worst aspects of leprosy is that it numbs pain. Sores and gangrene from this disease don’t cry out for attention. Likewise, sin “sears the conscious like a hot iron.” When we are indoctrinated by the world to accept sin, then we’re in the devil’s domain. When we convince our own minds to call good evil and evil good, sin no longer convicts us. God sent his Holy Spirit to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

Salvation’s healing wholeness starts with humility and shame about sin and iniquity. To seek deliverance from disease requires that we first realize that we are sick. Jesus came not to minister to those who thought they were healthy but to those who realized they were in need of healing. David was living comfortably in sin with Bathsheba. David’s confrontation with the Prophet Nathan is an example of his becoming aware of his need for deliverance. Repentance, turning from sin to righteousness, is the first requirement for returning back to the Lord.

The Lepers realized their position as outcasts who were in need of healing and restoration. Jesus healed different people in different ways. Jesus said, “I always do my father’s will.” Jesus did not use a common method to heal the sick. Instead, he listened to the specific instructions of his Father and did exactly as his Father revealed to him according to his Father’s will.

When Jesus cleansed the ten lepers, only one came back to thank him. All ten had been ostracized from their families and communities. Their heart’s desire was to be delivered from this disease to be reconciled back with their families, friends, and circles of fellowship. However, when they were healed, they forgot to be thankful.

Only the one leper, a Samaritan, returned to Jesus, fell on his face, and worshipped his Lord. Jesus had said, “I am the way, the truth, and the light. No man cometh to the father except by me.” The story fo the ten lepers proves Jesus’ parable that said, “Broad is the way that leads to destruction. But narrow is the way and narrow is the gate that leads to eternal life.”

In John 2, Jesus was in Jerusalem for the Passover. However Jesus did not commit himself to anyone, for he knew what was in the fickle heart of man. He knew that man’s fallen nature was to be double minded. The natural man without God’s Holy Spirit is without conviction. James says, “A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” Double minded men blow hot and cold… they are here today and gone tomorrow.

The one leper who thanked Jesus was the one out of ten who came through the narrow gate to follow his Lord. He fell at the feet of Jesus indicating his complete surrender and acknowledgement of his commitment that Jesus is Lord.

Jesus had said to the ten lepers, “Go show yourselves to the priest.” According to Old Testament law, the priest is the one who would certify that a leper had been cleansed and could enter back into society. The Samaritan returned to Jesus, the high priest after the order of Melchizedek. The Old Testament priests offered sacrifices over and over on behalf of the people. However, Jesus Christ our high priest after the order of Melchizedek offered himself as the spotless lamb of God once for all time. For Jesus Christ who was was without sin was made the perfect sacrifice for sin on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in him. Jesus Christ is the true high priest, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Our joy, rejoicing, prayer and praise is to be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For what are we thankful? God has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The greatest blessing is the resurrection… that in him we died and that in him we were raised again from the dead when we were justified at his resurrection.

Therefore, be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations…

… That we may ever live to the praise of the glory of His grace!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael