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Christ: The Ark of Our Salvation

A type is a prophetic word picture under the O.C. (Old Covenant) pointing forward to what will take place under the N.C. (New Covenant) in Christ and His Church. Here we see that the Ark is a picture of Christ as the ‘Ark of our salvation’.

I’m going to pick out certain aspects of this story that will help you and i live out who we are ‘In Christ’.

Noah’s Name: Names in Scripture are descriptive of a persons character or calling. Noah’s  name means ‘REST’, and rest plays an important part in Noah’s life.

When the waters receded off the earth, the ark came to rest on the top of Mt Ararat. (Gen 8;4)

Noah knew when the earth had dried out because he sent out a dove who eventually found a place to rest. (Gen 8:8-12)

Applying these Scriptures to the N.C. we see that Christ is the personification of rest and says to us who are in Christ:

Matt 11:28-30 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (NKJV)

Jesus is inviting us to give all our worries, problems, failures, disappointments, past, present and future to Him and rest in Him. He will then work on our behalf and resolve them ALL for us.

It is our rest in Christ that releases the grace of God in our lives.

Gen 6:8 Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. (NKJV)

Knowing that Noah’s name means rest, we could read the above scripture as, ‘rest found grace’. It is when we are at rest in Christ that the grace of God flows into our lives and provides everything  we need. Hence, if we allow fear, worry, anxiety or fretting to control us, it cuts off the flow of grace and makes it difficult for God to help us.

Heb 4:11 Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest. (KJV)

 

God knows the challenge it is for His people to rest in Christ, and has given us the above scripture to show us how! We have to labour or work to enter rest. This means when we give a problem to Jesus, we have to leave it with Him for Him to work it out in our lives.

Hence, if we take it back off Him and allow worry to control us, we must give it back to Him again and rest in Him. We may have to repeat this procedure 50 times until we can successively leave the problem with Him.

Every time we give our need to Christ and rest in Him, we are developing the muscle of faith. Subsequently our ability to rest becomes easier and we experience a peaceful lifestyle.

Meditation Point: Father, help me to rest in You and release You to work on my behalf.

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‘SET FREE FROM SIN’

When we confess our sin to God, we are forcing Him to forgive and remember something He forgave and forgot 2000 yrs ago.

Heb 8:10,12 This is the New Covenant I will make with my people on that day, says The Lord: I will forgive their wickedness, and I will never again remember their sins. (NLT)

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(Apologies: As you can see from the plus sign above, my last Blog was posted half-finished by mistake. Here is the completed Blog. Thanks.)

Ps 11:3 If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?

Now that we’ve established our identity is in Christ, we can ask the question, ‘why do I need identity?’

The answer is that identity establishes a foundation in our lives. David is stating in the scripture above that when the foundations of a person’s life are destroyed it leaves them with nothing to build on. It’s like a ship without a rudder, it can only drift aimlessly along.

Today there are many people, Christians included who have no foundation in their lives. Let’s look at the results of such behaviour:

Sexual Identity: Many young people today are confused about their sexual identity. They don’t know if they are homosexual, heterosexual or some other kind of sexual. A lot of reasons have been put forth as answers to this question.

I believe the answer is found in the lack of a father figure in their life, or they have a father but he is emotionally distant. It’s the father who gives sexual identity to his children. How does he do this. He spends time with his son in masculine pursuits. He speaks to the male in him to bring out the man in him. He teaches him responsibility and discipline.

With his daughter, he tells her how pretty she is, he gives protection and security to her life. In the way he relates to his wife, he models for his daughter the way a man should treat a woman. When she is old enough he will take her out for a meal in a restaurant. He speaks to the female in her to bring out the woman in her.

When we add the father’s love into this mix, there is now a strong foundation that gives identity to his children so that as they grow, they are able to handle the many changes of life they go through and come out the other side with stability, purpose and established sexuality.

Dysfunctional Behaviour: Many many people today are plagued by depression, worry, rejection and fear. They have such deep holes in their character that the only way to cope with the pain is to mask it with alcohol, drugs, food, pornography and the many other inducements on offer.

Why is this? We have to say, it is a lack of identity in their lives. They have no foundation. They lack direction, purpose and meaning. Again, it’s the lack of a father figure in their life.

The father is the authority figure in a child’s life. The father expresses love, instills discipline and teaches his children responsibility. These are the 3 characteristics that build stability and security into our lives. Without them we are building on a foundation of sand, hence every time we seek to build something, we get so far before it collapses under the pressure.

Christ The Foundation Stone:  As believers we are now ‘in Christ’ the Son, and because we are in the Son, God has made us sons of God too! He has laid the foundation stone of His Son in our lives.

1 Cor 3:11 For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.  (NASU)

1 John 4:17 As He is (Christ), so are we in this world. (KJV)

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God.  (KJV)

God as our Father now sets about building a new identity in our lives. How does He do this? He does it through His word!

Spend time meditating on these promises until they become revelation to you and they will build a new identity in your life:

1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice for our sins. (NIV)

Rom 8:30 Those whom He called, He also justified (made righteous, putting them into right standing with Himself). (AMP)

Rom 5:17  Those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. (NKJV)

Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.  For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJ)

Meditation Point: Father, as I meditate on these Your promises, release the revelation that will show me my identity in Christ. The revelation that will bring security, stability and freedom to my life as a son of God!

 

 

 

 

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Ps 11:3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Now that we’ve established our identity is in Christ, we can ask the question, ‘why do i need identity?’

The answer is that identity establishes a foundation in our lives. David is stating in the scripture above that when the foundations of a thing are destroyed that it leaves a person with nothing to build on. It’s like a ship without a rudder, it can only drift aimlessly along.

Today there are many people, Christians included who have no foundation in there lives. Let’s look at the results of such behaviour:

Sexual Identity: Many young people today are confused about their sexual identity. They don’t know if they are homosexual, hetrosexual or some other kind of sexual. A lot of reasons have been put forth as answers to this question.

I beleive the answer is found in the lack of a father figure in their life, or they have a father but he is emotionally distant. It’s the father who gives sexual identity to his children. How does he do this. He spends time with his son in masculine pursuits. He speaks to the male in him to bring out the man in him. He teaches him responsibility and discipline.

With his daughter, he tells her how pretty she is, he gives protection and security to her life. In the way he relates to his wife, he models for his daughter the way a man should treat a woman. When she is old enough he will take her out for a meal in a restaurant. He speaks to the female in her to bring out the woman in her.

This gives identity to his children so that as they grow up, they are able to handle the many changes of life they go through and come out the other side with stability, purpose and established sexuality.

Dysfunctional Behaviour: Many many people today are plagued by depression, worry and fear. Many have such deep holes in their character that the only way they can cope with the pain is to mask it with alchohol, drugs, pornography and the many other inducements on offer.

Why is this? We have to say, it is a lack of identity in their lives. They have no foundation. They lack direction, purpose and meaning. Again, it’s the lack of a father figure in their life

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