John 11:43-44 " And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. 44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.
Jesus had raised Lazarus from the grave. We should love the story because it shows the power of the Savior. We can know that if He can raise the dead to life, we can trust Him to help us make our house payment or whatever struggles our life may hold. We need to remember that today. Since Jesus has power over death, is there anything in your life that He can’t handle?
Jesus came to give us life! Jesus told Lazarus to take off His grave clothes, to quit “living” like he was dead. Shouldn’t we do the same thing? Have you received Christ as your Savior? Is your name recorded in Heaven as a child of God? Have the angels sung “Glory” over your salvation? Have you personally, without reservation, believed that Jesus died for your sins, and that the only way you will enter Heaven is through the grace of His shed blood on the cross?
Well, TAKE OFF YOUR GRAVE CLOTHES! Quit “living” among the dead. Look alive! Jesus saved you by grace, through faith, not unto death, but unto life! Shouldn’t that make a noticeable difference in your life today? SO LIVE! Don’t let this world steal your joy. Don’t let Satan rob you of your peace. Stop worrying over tomorrow. Take off your grave clothes and LIVE!
Tuesday, March 29, 2016
Monday, March 28, 2016
He Rose For A Reason
Acts: 8:35 "Then Phillip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus";
During the 40 days following his resurrection, Jesus met with his disciples on numerous occasions. During these gatherings Jesus instructed them to preach the gospel message to a dying world. It is with this single message, that we can reach out and save a dying world. He rose with all power that we might carry out His mission.
During the 40 days following his resurrection, Jesus met with his disciples on numerous occasions. During these gatherings Jesus instructed them to preach the gospel message to a dying world. It is with this single message, that we can reach out and save a dying world. He rose with all power that we might carry out His mission.
In Jesus is the fullness of life, he is the abundance of life God promised, and this the early saints understood. Even though they were smaller in number, they were big in faith, love, and they understood where their strength and power came from. They did more with less, while we are doing less with more. They didn't have the mega buildings but their church was built on the foundation of the gospel. They didn't have T.V., radio or the social networks, but they shared the truth of God's word everywhere they went. No matter what challenges, trial, and/or tribulation came their way, they never lost focus as to what their mission was, nor did they sway from their message. They continued to reach out to a lost world. They didn't change the message to get the people, the people changed to get the message, they trusted God's word to do just what he said it would do.
When sin crept in, they reached out with the gospel, when envy raised its ugly head they reached out, preaching Christ and him crucified. When trouble tried to enter the body of believers thru murmuring, they never lost sight of their mission; even when faced with death (like Stephen) they reached out with the love of Jesus, and prayed that the charge be not held against their enemies. They realized their strength was in doing God's will, they were lead by Gods spirit, and trusted in Gods word, and reached out with Jesus the Christ God's gift to a dying world.
Friday, March 25, 2016
The Night He Died
John 19:30 " When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said "It is Finished: and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost".
Jesus died to save lost man. We were ungodly, and powerless and yet Christ died for us. We were without strength, weak, worthless, useless, helpless, destitute, powerless. We were spiritually unable to help ourselves and Christ died for us. We were ungodly, not like God, enemies to God, rebellious to God, profane having a different lifestyle than God, and yet Christ died for us. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for an imperfect people. Because of our sin, He died.
Here we have Jesus on the cross, it was a cross that He bore, and He willingly went forth. Pilate delivered Him, the soldiers led Him, but Jesus bore the cross and went forth. He was not a victim, He was a victor, for He was bearing the cross to save man. He was crucified between two sinners, two unjust thieves. He was surrounded by a world of unjust men, yet we live because He died. He said it is finished, all that is needed for man to be reconciled back to God had now been completed. He had given sight to blind eyes, so man could see the love of God. He had cured the lunatic, that we might let this mind be in us that is in Christ Jesus. He put hearing in deaf ears that we could hear what thus said the Lord. He put speaking in dumb lips, that we could proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. He put standing in lame legs that we might stand in God's truth and walk in His righteousness, and he raised the dead that we might have a new life in Christ. Hanging from the cross, He said it is finished.
Jesus died that all might have a right to the tree of life, but we must believe and receive His death as our own that we might be raise up as a new creature in Christ. Let us walk in this new life that a lost world will come to know what we already know; He died.
Jesus died to save lost man. We were ungodly, and powerless and yet Christ died for us. We were without strength, weak, worthless, useless, helpless, destitute, powerless. We were spiritually unable to help ourselves and Christ died for us. We were ungodly, not like God, enemies to God, rebellious to God, profane having a different lifestyle than God, and yet Christ died for us. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for an imperfect people. Because of our sin, He died.
Here we have Jesus on the cross, it was a cross that He bore, and He willingly went forth. Pilate delivered Him, the soldiers led Him, but Jesus bore the cross and went forth. He was not a victim, He was a victor, for He was bearing the cross to save man. He was crucified between two sinners, two unjust thieves. He was surrounded by a world of unjust men, yet we live because He died. He said it is finished, all that is needed for man to be reconciled back to God had now been completed. He had given sight to blind eyes, so man could see the love of God. He had cured the lunatic, that we might let this mind be in us that is in Christ Jesus. He put hearing in deaf ears that we could hear what thus said the Lord. He put speaking in dumb lips, that we could proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. He put standing in lame legs that we might stand in God's truth and walk in His righteousness, and he raised the dead that we might have a new life in Christ. Hanging from the cross, He said it is finished.
Jesus died that all might have a right to the tree of life, but we must believe and receive His death as our own that we might be raise up as a new creature in Christ. Let us walk in this new life that a lost world will come to know what we already know; He died.
Thursday, March 24, 2016
The Living Savior
Matthew 28:6 "He Is not here: For he is risen, as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay".
Go and tell is the command to every man and woman who has discovered the power of Christ. It is through the sharing of this good new that we have the power to change the world. We must tell people that the resurrection brings regeneration into the lives of those who are spiritually dead, through the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing about a new birth, changing one from the inside out. This is the basis for the Church's witness to the world. Every believer can share this certainty with all confidence. Of course, a great controversy has always surrounded the resurrection. The Jewish priest paid the guards to deny what happened that day, and there are still millions of people who deny the resurrection, in word and in deed. Sometime we don't live like he rose with all power. Our lives sometimes hide the fact that He got up. We at times live life like we don't trust that he overcame the world and all it's temptations, and thus harms our witness to the world. A witness is one who tells what he or she knows as a certainty. You can only witness that which you seen or experienced.
The resurrection is the basis for hope in the Christian faith. The women who came to the tomb expected to find death. Instead, they met an angel who told them that Jesus had risen. Belief that Jesus rose is the key to the completion of his promise that we will rise also.
Go and tell is the command to every man and woman who has discovered the power of Christ. It is through the sharing of this good new that we have the power to change the world. We must tell people that the resurrection brings regeneration into the lives of those who are spiritually dead, through the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing about a new birth, changing one from the inside out. This is the basis for the Church's witness to the world. Every believer can share this certainty with all confidence. Of course, a great controversy has always surrounded the resurrection. The Jewish priest paid the guards to deny what happened that day, and there are still millions of people who deny the resurrection, in word and in deed. Sometime we don't live like he rose with all power. Our lives sometimes hide the fact that He got up. We at times live life like we don't trust that he overcame the world and all it's temptations, and thus harms our witness to the world. A witness is one who tells what he or she knows as a certainty. You can only witness that which you seen or experienced.
Countless people who have been touched and changed by meeting the living Jesus provide undeniable evidence of the resurrection. The way they live their life is their witness that he rose ,and rose with all power. The first disciples were commanded to be witness, and each of us whose lives have been changed by the resurrection must invite those who need Him to know Him. The Resurrection's reality gives hope to a needy world and gives all who truly believes the power to change the world. He Got Up!
Wednesday, March 23, 2016
Wake Up
Matthew 26:40 " And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and said unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
We have been called to go out into a dying world and proclaim the good news of salvation. In fact Jesus instructed us to"To go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." It is by the truth of our testimony, and our witness of God's revelation to mankind, that a dying world will know there is a Savior, who is Jesus the Christ, but we've got to wake up.
Jesus came back to find them sleep.Will He find you sleep when He returns, or will He find you watching and praying. There is a dying world counting on us to share with them that which God so gracefully shared with us. Let us wake up and do our part that none be lost. Let us tell all that we see that Jesus Christ is the way..
We have been called to go out into a dying world and proclaim the good news of salvation. In fact Jesus instructed us to"To go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature." It is by the truth of our testimony, and our witness of God's revelation to mankind, that a dying world will know there is a Savior, who is Jesus the Christ, but we've got to wake up.
In our text Jesus asked His inner circle to watch and pray while He went to the Father in prayer. He is asking us, those who profess to be His, to watch and pray while He is away with the Father, preparing a place for us.We are to watch over and pray for the lost souls He came to save. Let us not be found a sleep when He returns. Let us wake up to the needs of this dying world. Wake up to the truth of God's word. Wake up to the fact that it is not about us, or where we worship, the denomination to which we belong, the pastor or bishop we sit up under or even if we are saved or not. We need to wake up to the fact that it is about Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and the need for a lost world to hear this good news.
Jesus came back to find them sleep.Will He find you sleep when He returns, or will He find you watching and praying. There is a dying world counting on us to share with them that which God so gracefully shared with us. Let us wake up and do our part that none be lost. Let us tell all that we see that Jesus Christ is the way..
Monday, March 21, 2016
Look What Jesus Did
Luke 23:33 "And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right and the other on the left"
Calvary, the most sacred place in the world. It is where the Son of God died that men might live. Where the innocent blood of Jesus was shed that all might be cleansed. The place where all the sin of the world was laid on the one who knew no sin. Calvary, a place where man can come with their troubles, and find peace which passeth all understanding. Where you can receive life, joy, and assurance because Jesus paid it all.
Calvary, the most sacred place in the world. It is where the Son of God died that men might live. Where the innocent blood of Jesus was shed that all might be cleansed. The place where all the sin of the world was laid on the one who knew no sin. Calvary, a place where man can come with their troubles, and find peace which passeth all understanding. Where you can receive life, joy, and assurance because Jesus paid it all.
Calvary shows us the love and compassion of Jesus to all mankind as we hear the words "Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do". Forgive those who crucified Him.Those who mocked, tempted, and were indifferent to Him.Forgive those who deny me in word and deed and those who rejected Him, he prayed for their salvation. Calvary the perfect picture of salvation,by grace and grace alone,as the thief had nothing to offer Christ, yet by repenting and trusting, we hear the promise to all who come "Today shalt thou be with me in Paradise."At Calvary we hear the words "It is Finished" salvation now in reach to all people. Salvation is complete, nothing to be added, we just need to accept the gift.
Jesus paid it all at Calvary, and all to Him we owe, sin has left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow, on a hill called Calvary
Wednesday, March 16, 2016
Can't Keep A Good Man Down
Matthew 28:6 "He Is not here:For he is risen, as he said.Come, see the place where the Lord lay".
The resurrection is the basis for hope in the Christian faith. The women who came to the tomb expected to find death.Instead, they met an angel who told them that Jesus had risen. Belief that Jesus rose is the key to the completion of his promise that we will rise also. Believers can also experience Ressurection power in their lives. The first witnesses were commanded to go and tell the disciples then later tell the world. Go and tell remains the command for believers today who have discovered the wonder of the risen Christ in their lives.
Go and tell is the command given to every man and woman who has discovered the power of Christ. It is through the sharing of this good new that we have the power to change the world. We must tell people that the resurrection brings regeneration into the lives of those who are spiritually dead, by the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing about a new birth, changing one from the inside out. This is the basis for the Church's witness to the world. Every believer can share this certainty with confidence.
Of course, a great controversy has always surrounded the resurrection. The Jewish priest paid the guards to deny what happened that day, and there are still millions of people who deny the resurrection, in word and in deed. Sometime we don't live like he rose with all power, we don't trust that he overcame the world and all it's temptations, and this harms our witness to the world. A witness is one who tells what he or she knows as a certainty. You can only witness that which you have seen or experienced. Countless people who have been touched and changed by meeting the living Jesus provide undeniable evidience of the resurrection.The way they live their life is their witness that he rose, and rose with all power.The reality of the Resurrection gives hope to a needy world and gives all who truly believes the power to change the world.
The resurrection is the basis for hope in the Christian faith. The women who came to the tomb expected to find death.Instead, they met an angel who told them that Jesus had risen. Belief that Jesus rose is the key to the completion of his promise that we will rise also. Believers can also experience Ressurection power in their lives. The first witnesses were commanded to go and tell the disciples then later tell the world. Go and tell remains the command for believers today who have discovered the wonder of the risen Christ in their lives.
Go and tell is the command given to every man and woman who has discovered the power of Christ. It is through the sharing of this good new that we have the power to change the world. We must tell people that the resurrection brings regeneration into the lives of those who are spiritually dead, by the power of the Holy Spirit, bringing about a new birth, changing one from the inside out. This is the basis for the Church's witness to the world. Every believer can share this certainty with confidence.
Of course, a great controversy has always surrounded the resurrection. The Jewish priest paid the guards to deny what happened that day, and there are still millions of people who deny the resurrection, in word and in deed. Sometime we don't live like he rose with all power, we don't trust that he overcame the world and all it's temptations, and this harms our witness to the world. A witness is one who tells what he or she knows as a certainty. You can only witness that which you have seen or experienced. Countless people who have been touched and changed by meeting the living Jesus provide undeniable evidience of the resurrection.The way they live their life is their witness that he rose, and rose with all power.The reality of the Resurrection gives hope to a needy world and gives all who truly believes the power to change the world.
Wednesday, March 9, 2016
Are You Ready?
John 13:37 "Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake."
Here we have Jesus ready to secure eternal righteousness for mankind, preparing to take the final step as the Son of man. Jesus ready to make the final sacrifice for man, ready to pay the supreme price to bring about the greatest event in all history: the salvation of man. Jesus now ready to triumph over satan by breaking Satan's power over death and over the souls of man. He had given them a new commandment, to love one another. He told them where he was going they could not follow, not yet, but Peter said he was ready.
Here we have Jesus ready to secure eternal righteousness for mankind, preparing to take the final step as the Son of man. Jesus ready to make the final sacrifice for man, ready to pay the supreme price to bring about the greatest event in all history: the salvation of man. Jesus now ready to triumph over satan by breaking Satan's power over death and over the souls of man. He had given them a new commandment, to love one another. He told them where he was going they could not follow, not yet, but Peter said he was ready.
Are you ready to follow Jesus? Are you willing to lay down your life for His sake? There is more to following Him than just walking behind Him. To truly follow you must be willing to walk the same way, endure the same things, and suffer the same hardships. Many say they want to follow Christ yet they want to travel on the road of their choosing. But there is only one way to salvation, there is only one road that leads to where Jesus was going, and that road is a narrow road that leads upward. So you will be bumped by the many on the downward road, your feet will be stepped on,your feelings will be hurt, your faith tried,and your commitment challenged. Jesus said if you will follow Him you must deny yourself daily and take up your cross to follow, to lay down your life. Everyday you must place God's will before yours. Everyday you must esteem others , higher than yourself. Everyday you must be willing to lay down your life, lay down your wants, lay down your needs, lay down the lust and desires of your flesh, not have them taken away, but voluntarily give them up, so that others might be saved, while trusting that God will make a way for you.
Peter didn't understand, that he wasn't ready to follow Jesus. The spirit man is willing to do and go where the Lord leads us, but it is the weakness of our flesh and the strength that we sometimes allow it to have over us that causes us to deny Christ. Jesus said "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak". Are you ready to lay down your life for Christ sake.
Friday, March 4, 2016
A Call To The Weary
Matthew 11:28 " Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,and I will give you rest".
Jesus invites the weary to come to Him so they can experience rest for their souls.The key to experiencing this rest is having a right relationship with God, something that can happen only if you have a personal relationship with Jesus.We all have responsibilities that drain us, and difficulties that wear us down.We can let the world drag us down its weary path, or we can join our lives with Jesus, who wants us to know that He's eager to have us in His yoke of care, guiding us,giving us help for our present needs, and assuring us that He has a plan for us that includes rest and peace, with everlasting life.
Jesus invites the weary to come to Him so they can experience rest for their souls.The key to experiencing this rest is having a right relationship with God, something that can happen only if you have a personal relationship with Jesus.We all have responsibilities that drain us, and difficulties that wear us down.We can let the world drag us down its weary path, or we can join our lives with Jesus, who wants us to know that He's eager to have us in His yoke of care, guiding us,giving us help for our present needs, and assuring us that He has a plan for us that includes rest and peace, with everlasting life.
So he tell us to come, leave where you are, the situation you are in and come to him.The promise is when you come to Him with everything he will give you rest. Rest from worry, from need, from doubt, rest from the cares of this world , for he said" seek ye first the kingdome of God", before you seek a job, a husband, a way out , a way in, before you do anything seek Him, come to him and He will give you rest.The invitation has been extended,will you accep it?
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