Christian Meditation is a quiet time for you to re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind with your body. And re-integrate and re-calibrate your mind and body with God‘s presence with you and in you. Remember the quote from the apostle Paul in Acts 17:28 – In him you live and move and have your being.

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The Only One who inhabits eternity

Isaiah 57:15 (ESV)

“For thus says the One who is high and lifted up,

who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy:

‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.’”

Try to imagine eternity! Eternity past. Eternity future. The I AM is the only One who inhabits eternity.

Isaiah 44:6 (NIV)

“This is what the LORD says…I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.”

The first and the last — there is nothing outside of him!

Forever there is no one else but the I AM. He is the source of all existence. The giver of all life. Forever. There is nowhere else for you to go for life. there is nothing apart from him that gives you your existence. Your life. Your ultimate joy. There is nothing outside of him. He is the first and the last.

In John’s revelation when he saw Jesus…

Revelation 1:17-18 (NIV)

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

Jesus is repeating the exact same words about himself that Yahweh says in Isaiah 44:6. He is the one who inhabits eternity. And there is nothing that exists outside of him!

John said when he saw Jesus as he truly is he fell at his feet as though dead. The sight of the one who inhabits eternity was overwhelming to him. But Jesus‘s first words were Do not be afraid.

“Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.”

Tim Keller writes:

“Christianity may be the most body-positive religion in the world…God made matter and physical bodies, and saw that it was all good…In Jesus Christ, God himself took on a human body which he still has…and someday he is going to give us resurrected bodies.”

So when Jesus says he died and is now alive forever and ever and holds the keys of death — he’s talking to you —  he’s talking about your body. He’s talking about more than your body. But not less. Your body matters to God. So much so that Jesus died bodily and rose from the dead bodily so that he could do the same for your body forever. He has already destroyed all the ways that death affects your body even now.

Think of Jesus‘ words as they apply to you in your life right now…

Do not be afraid — do not be anxious — do not be insecure — do not worry — the one who died and rose from the dead has destroyed death for you and is bringing you into the eternal story of his resurrection. He is the Living One — the eternal one. And he holds all the keys. He holds all the keys to everything the real you — including your body — longs for forever. Whatever circumstance that is bringing you anxiety or fear or insecurity or hopelessness —  Jesus holds the keys. Whatever it is that is causing you stress and anxiety — HE IS the one Who inhabits eternity, but he is also the one who is always 100% present with you in the present moment (without being any less present anywhere else because he is infinite). 

The Living One now lives in you by his Holy Spirit. 

Listen to this phrase in…

Ephesians 3:16 (ESV)

that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being.

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Our audio engineer is Diego Huaman.

This podcast is a ministry of The Crossing, a church in Columbia, Missouri, a college town where the flagship campus of the University of Missouri is located.