Tag: Resurrection

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Are You A Witness Or A Spectator?

In court, witnesses are more than just spectators. They are active participants who help determine the outcome of a case. The same is true of the Christian’s witness of Christ. We are to be active participants in a matter of absolute importance— sharing the truth of Christ life, death, and resurrection.

John the Baptist was the ultimate witness of Jesus. He shared all he could about Jesus, the light of the world. John’s disciples recorded the events, testifying of his experiences with Jesus: “We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth”.

Today, all Christians have been summoned before the courtroom of this world not to be mere spectators but active witnesses. We must tell the world the truth about Jesus’s life, death and resurrection. Like John the Baptist, the voice crying in the desert, our voices should be heard in our workplace, neighbourhood, church, and among our family and friends. We must be active witnesses, telling all about the reality of Christ who lives in our lives.

[John] came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. (John 1:7).

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank you for giving me the boldness to be an active witness for you. Father, I thank you and glorify you for all the testimonies and experiences you have guided me through, so I can share everywhere I go. Lord, please don’t let the devil silence my witness about you in Christ’s name, Amen.

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When Faith Falters? ?

Two sisters who have seen Jesus heal on many occasions, sent for Him when their brother became sick. They believed Jesus could heal him. Their faith was strong. But Jesus delayed His arrival and the brother died. The sisters were grief-stricken and disappointed. 

Four days later Jesus arrived and asked them to take Him to where the brother was buried and to have the stone rolled away from the tomb, they objected. “Lord, he will stink by now!” However, they followed His command, and the stone was rolled away, and Jesus called, “Lazarus, come forth!” And he did! 

Mary and Martha had faith that Jesus could heal Lazarus. But as time passed, Jesus did not show up as they expected, and he died. Their faith was crushed. Jesus wanted to show them Himself in a new way. Not only as they had known Him, as Healer, but now, also as The Resurrection and the Life! 

When things look dead around us, and even within us, choosing to turn to Jesus, the Resurrection, and the Life, will breathe fresh hope and life into our spirit. His Spirit brings life to the places that are dusty, cold, smelly, and hopeless. 

Today in these upside-down dead days, let’s allow Jesus to bring that fresh hope to our souls. He wants to reveal Himself in ways we have not yet experienced. He wants to empower our words and actions with life as we engage with those around us. There is more of Jesus’ resurrection power to experience both today and for eternity. Be expectant of Jesus’ power in your life! 

“Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; the one who believes in Me will live, even if he dies…” John 11:25 

Let’s Pray Yahweh, I need You. My faith does falter in these days of confusion. Father, please lift my expectation and may I see and experience You in new and fresh ways today. God, I love You, and I lift my eyes above all the dead negative things that are going on around me and look to You, the Resurrection and The Life for new life. Please help me to live in expectation of your miracle-working power always. I pray this in Christ’s name, Amen
…

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Don’t Let Go Of Hope

Ray of Hope

A week ago today, satan thought he had won. Christ was in the grave, the disciple’s were hiding, and many followers of Christ had quit. It’s the same today, during our trials and hopeless situations he wants us to give up and quit so he can have the victory in our lives. But, just like Christ we can overcome him through the almighty power of God!  

Today, remember we still have resurrection miracle working power, which always confuses the enemy. Christ’s power today is the same yesterday, today and forever. No matter what weapon the enemy may throw at you, it cannot penetrate the blood defence that Christ has put around you! Guard your hope, your joy and your victory in Christ, because they are God-given blessings that He wants you to enjoy each day. Hallelujah! 

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10, ESV) 

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank You for hope, resurrection power and the blood defence of Calvary. Father, please do not allow the enemy to overcome me. Help me to guard my joy, my hope and my victories in Christ, which are gifts from You, in Christ’s Name! Amen.  

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He Is Risen The Day After

On the Monday, the day after Christ rose from the grave, “Jesus is Risen” were the words on everyone’s lips. For many, that was a reason to celebrate, not only on that day but every day! Because He is risen, we can rise up too in every area of life. We can have victory over sin and death, and embrace eternal and abundant life! 

The main importance of Christ’s resurrection is it gives mankind a new beginning, and greater hope for the future. When we embrace the resurrection and receive Christ as Lord and Saviour, believing He died for our sins and was raised from the dead, that’s when life begins! Hallelujah! 

Today, know that God loves you and receives you just the way you are. If you need a new beginning, there’s no better time than right now. Call on Him, receive Him by faith and join with us to celebrate His resurrection! 

“He is not here; he has risen, just as he said.” (Matthew 28:6, NIV) 

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, today I receive the new beginning in my life that Your resurrection brings. Father, thank You for sending Your Son to die on the cruel cross and be raised from the dead, so that I can have abundant life and eternal life. I embrace and accept this new season, in Christ’s Name! Amen.

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Conspiracy Theory or Not?

When the chief priests had met with the elders and devised a plan, they gave the soldiers a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we ere asleep. If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” So the soldiers took the money and did as they were instructed. (Matthew 28:12-15)

I do love a good conspiracy theory. As I’m studying a postgraduate degree in criminal investigation, I’m very keen on having many hypothesis and theories when researching a case that has multiple conclusions, so that each can be eliminated to find the right answer. What about the events of 9/11 or the disappearance of Madeleine McCann? Does the Illuminati actually exist? The whole Flat Earth Theory? The disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370? How about the one where Jesus’ body was stolen from the tomb?

The Bible itself contains the first mention of the Stolen Body myth. After the Resurrection, some of the soldiers who had been guarding the tomb reported to the chief priests what had happened. The chief priests bribed them to say the body had been stolen while they slept.

Hide-and-Seek

Some people today still imagine that the disciples played a game of hide-and-seek with Jesus’ body. But a load of facts make this conspiracy theory impossible to believe. The stone, for example, that sealed the tomb wasn’t the kind of stone you can skip across a pond. According to textual information and the calculations of two Georgia Tech engineering professors, it might have been a five foot high circular stone weighing around two tons. When the tomb was first prepared, a team of labourers likely would have set the stone in place, using a wedge to keep the stone from rolling down a trench that sloped down to the opening of the tomb. When Jesus was buried, the wedge was removed and gravity did the rest, sealing the tomb so it could only be reopened by a gang of noisy, grunting, strong men. That’s why the women, on the way to the tomb on Easter Sunday morning, wondered who could roll the stone away.

Mark 16:1-3 says,” When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome bought spices so that they might go to anoint Jesus’ body. Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they were on their way to the tomb and they asked each other, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance of the tomb?”

As well as this, the chief priests requested a detachment of soldiers from Pilate, the Roman governor, to guard the tomb. The Roman guard unit could have numbered as many as sixteen highly trained soldiers. Those who entertain the Stolen Body myth suppose that a scared little group of disciples confronted a guard of heavily armed, battle-trained soldiers. The disciples either overpowered the soldiers or snuck past them in their sleep to heave a two-ton stone up an incline without waking a single man. Then, so the theory goes, the disciples carted off Jesus’ body, hid it and – over the next several decades – endured torture, ridicule and martyrdom to spread what they knew to be a lie!

This is hilariously ridiculous! I was reading an article this week about the research of a Harvard Law professor called Simon Greenleaf. He lectured for several years on how to break down testimony and to determine if a witness was lying. He said, “It was… impossible that [the disciples] could have persisted in affirming the truths they narrated, had not Jesus actually risen from the dead and had they not known this fact as certainly as they knew any other fact.”

What Does This Means To Me?

As Easter Sunday is tomorrow where we remember Jesus’ resurrection, I find it incredible how one man can be raised from the dead. This cements itself in my mind that Jesus WAS and IS the Son of God, the reason for my existence and the purpose of my life. Like the first Christians who saw that open tomb with their very eyes, I can have complete confidence that my Christian faith is based on the solid, historical fact of the empty tomb and the risen Christ… and that is why I believe in the right answer!

Happy Easter!

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We serve an AWESOME God!

We serve an AWESOME God!

When someone says that they are a Christian…what exactly does that mean? Do they believe in Jesus as the Christ? Is He their Savior or could their knowledge and belief be based on things that they have heard on TV or maybe at church? What about the Trinity? It is never mentioned in the Bible so where did that idea come from?

All of these questions are good questions and they can be answered, up to a point, by reading and studying God’s Word. The first question about being a Christian is actually the toughest because there are many people who claim to be Christians even though they only attend church on special occasions. Granted, being a Christian is not dependent upon church attendance but you should want to have fellowship with fellow believers. Anyone can claim that they are a Christian just by saying so and many do just that. But the reality of it is that a Christian should be changed in their heart not just by knowing about Jesus or that they went down the aisle one Sunday or on a revival night.

Anyone can walk down the aisle and say a few words which can lead others to believe that they are sincere in their belief, but if their life doesn’t change then those were just words and nothing more. Being a Christian and serving the God and Creator of the universe is a change which is complete and whole. Meaning that you won’t go back to the life you had before, you won’t do the things which you were doing prior to becoming a Christian. If you haven’t gone “all in” with Jesus then your claim to Christianity is false.

Our God is awesome and He loves us deeply otherwise He would not have sent Jesus to pay the penalty for our sins.

The Trinity is referenced in the gospels not so much as the “Trinity” but by description. When Jesus was baptized God the Father spoke and said He was His Son in whom He was pleased and the Holy Spirit came down in the form and shape of a dove and rested upon Jesus. In this, you have the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit of the Trinity. God proved that Jesus was and is His Son by the resurrection after His death on the cross which paid our sin debt in full, all that we have to do is believe and repent of our old life and walk with Him from this point on. Amen

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Why the Resurrection of Jesus Matters in the 21st Century

Why the Resurrection of Jesus Matters in the 21st Century

On Easter morning, thousands of people put on their nicest dresses, ties, and hairstyles and went to a Church gathering. Many had big meals with family, and continue to celebrate all day long. As you go to these celebrations and church services, you may be asking, why does Easter really matter? Why does the Church celebrate something that happened 2000 years ago? Does it still matter today, in the 21st century? And if so, what does it have to do with me?

If you are asking these questions, I’m so glad you’re here. Let me tell you, if you believe the message of Easter, which is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your life will be completely altered forever. So with that, let’s look at why Easter is important.

The entire Bible tells one big, continuous story that points to Jesus. In Genesis, we read about God creating everything; the earth, space, oceans, land, plants, and animals, night and day”¦and the peak of His creation, man and woman. God created us in His image, and He created us to live in relationship with Him.

However, we decided to rebel against God. This tore us from being in a perfect relationship with Him and set us up for a life of pain and death.

Despite our rebellion, God had a plan to restore a relationship with us and to make everything right again. In Genesis 3, God promises to one day send Someone to defeat sin and death, and save His people. In Genesis 3:15, God said to the devil, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”

This foreshadowing of Jesus’ coming continues throughout the Old Testament. God makes a promise to a man named Abraham, that He will make a great nation of his family, and one day, this promised savior would come from his family line. This family became the nation of Israel.

The rest of the Old Testament shows how God pursues Israel, despite their constant rebellion against Him. Then, we come to the book of Matthew. A virgin became pregnant and named the baby Jesus. This baby was fully God and fully man. He lived a sinless life and modeled what true life looks like. He spent the majority of his first 30 years of life as a carpenter. He then became a Jewish rabbi and began to disciple 12 apprentices. He spent the next three years of his life preaching, teaching, performing miracles, and healing people.

Jesus’ message was scandalous. The religious leaders and government officials were threatened by Him. They devised a plan to have Him killed. He was stripped, beaten, and then hung on a cross to die. He was put in a tomb, and His followers mourned. Was He not who He said He was? Was He not the One promised in Genesis that would save us?

Three days passed, and all hope seemed lost. A few of the women who followed Jesus went to the tomb where His body lay, but they were shocked to find the stone rolled away, and an empty tomb. Instead, there were two angels there to greet them. The women fell to the floor, terrified and confused.  

Luke 24:5-8 says, “And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, ‘Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was till in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise.’”

Jesus paid the price for our sin, conquered sin and death, and now reigns victoriously! He promised that He would one day come back to Earth, to ultimately restore all things. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right-hand of the Father, where He will be until He returns to Earth again.

That is what we celebrate on Easter. If you trust in Jesus and follow Him, you will have eternal life in Jesus. He invites you into His Kingdom, and that life starts as soon as you turn to Him. When you enter the Kingdom of God, His Spirit comes inside you and helps you to walk in intimacy with Him, and newness of life. Romans 8:11 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.”

This life that Jesus offers isn’t easy. It’s messy, scandalous, and different than anything the world has to offer. It is the only way to a life that offers true life, satisfaction, and joy.

In John 16:33, Jesus said, “I have said these things to you, that you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

I don’t know what you’re facing today, but Jesus promised we would face tribulation in this world. It could be a lost job, a scary diagnosis, family strife, an unplanned pregnancy, fill-in-the-blank”¦No matter what you’re going through, cling to Jesus as your hope! He has overcome the world and is bigger than anything you can face in this life!

So as your Easter festivities wind down and you go back to your daily life, I challenge you to look to Jesus. If you have not yet turned to Him and begun walking in the life He offers, would you consider it? He is so much better than anything this world can give you. He loves you and is eagerly waiting for you to call out to Him.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” Revelation 3:20

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In Uncertain Times Christ’s Death and Resurrection Offer Comfort and Hope

In Uncertain Times Christ's Death and Resurrection Offer Comfort and Hope

Understanding what the resurrection of Christ means for us as Christians is key to living a vibrant life in this trouble-laden world. Believers are not meant to just get by with living. Jesus says He had come so that we might have life and have it more abundantly. (John 10:10)

The Resurrection Saint may not always be aware of powerful declarations that hold true in his life. Whatever the circumstance, these remain true:

“I am an overcomer.”

An overcomer is someone who prevails over opposition or debility.

An overcomer surmounts.

Christ did not say we would never fail. He did not promise that we would never face hardships. In fact, Scriptures assure us that in this world, we will have tribulation. We are also warned that those who pursue godly lives in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. From Paul’s life we know that there will be weaknesses we will keep struggling with. But Scriptures did say, “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith”¦ because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.”

Jesus allowed himself to taste death for every man’s redemption but he did not stay dead. He resurrected his body as a sign of His sovereignty and superiority over all. This same Jesus is the author of our faith and He is power at work in our lives, bringing us to betterment and maturity day after day. (Philippians 4:13)

“I am becoming new.”

Some oppose the idea of adopting the symbolism of the Easter Egg into the Christian celebration of Resurrection Sunday. However, it is interesting to note that the Easter Egg can be an appropriate symbol for new life. We see a freshly hatched egg and we see hope birthed. We see fresh life coming into this world. We see an egg and we understand that we don’t see a finished product before us, rather, we see all the great prospects of what that life can be.

That is the very description of our new life in Christ. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says that “anyone who is in Christ is a new creation. The old has gone and all things are becoming new.” This is tremendous truth and hope to you, the child of God. You are never stuck. You are never a hopeless cause. Things can always get better and they will. You are Spirit-empowered with great capacities for growth and this power is accessible to you at all times (Acts 1:8). You can’t undo the past but you can live a better life from today.

A song rendered by Sandy Patty, “In Heaven’s Eyes” is a wonderful reflection of how God looks upon us and see who we can be through His eyes of grace. The lyrics of the chorus go like these:

“In heaven’s eyes, there are no losers,

In heaven’s eyes, no hopeless cause.

Only people like you, with feelings like me,

Amazed by the grace we can find,

In Heaven’s Eyes.”

Are you losing hope today? Are you out of wind? Ponder the meaning of all that Christ has accomplished for you that Resurrection Sunday and stay encouraged in this life. Each time the enemy comes to steal your joy and your drive, just look back on the resurrection of Christ and let its significance lift your spirits. Remember your declarations and know that no lies of the enemy can change the fact that these declarations are forever true in Christ.

 

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