JESUS SERIES!

BEAUTIFUL SAVIOUR

            Ever heard of Jesus Christ and wondered exactly who He is? Do you see him as a religious leader or an individual with good teachings? Is he a confabulation or a myth? Or do you even think he never existed?

            Let me show you who Jesus Christ is! Jesus Christ is God come in the flesh. Yes I know that you have heard people call him the son of God; Jesus is indeed the son of God. Yet, have you ever wondered how he became the son of God? You see, the son-ship of Jesus has a reference to time, as Hebrews 5:5 explains. It was in the time realm that Jesus became the son of God. We know that for man to be delivered from the fallen nature God had to experience man’s experience and man had to enter into God’s nature; this was fulfilled in Christ.

God had promised in Isaiah 7 verse 14 that He was going to come into the midst of man as a man. Now this is where things get exciting! God actually did come! Not as an angel and not in a camouflaged form. God actually did come as a man. Question is how did he come? Again the most informative book – the Bible shows us: (John 1:1 and 14; 2nd Timothy 3:16; John 3:13). Understand therefore that the person born of Mary was not just the son of God, rather it was the Jehovah El-shaddai – The Lord God Almighty – that was born in the flesh; the passage in Timothy makes this clearer! The person that was crucified on the cross, who we believe and proclaim and who is our love, is God Himself. So while Jesus was man in time, He was God in eternity.

So my dear, don’t be foolish anymore and see Jesus Christ as just the second person of the trinity; for you remember what He says: ‘I and the Father are one’, and again, ‘He that has seen me has seen the Father’ and again ‘I am in the Father and the Father is in me’. 

This is who Jesus is! Our God in time, through the ages and into the realm eternal!!! 

Glory!!!

#10 COOL Things About Christianity

One day, in Texas, I went out on evangelism with a girl. That was the first time I met her and that was my first campus/street evangelism (with a group) in Texas. For the sake of anonymity, I’ll call her Eva. While Eva and I went out preaching the gospel of Christ, we met a girl who said she was raised Catholic, but since she’s now grown, she was considering what religion to get plugged into. Eva and I (me – mostly quiet, being my first day) shared what we believed about God to her, and all was good until Eva ended with, “And you know, the cool thing about Christianity is that once you accept Christ, you can stop trusting God and you’ll still go to heaven.” I was dazed – too dazed to speak. Thinking back now, I wish the ground had opened up and swallowed the concrete chair I was sitting on [with me on it]. One thing I definitely knew was that Eva didn’t mean any harm. She just understood/interpreted the doctrine of eternal security wrongly. You can’t stop trusting God and call yourself a believer. How can you NOT believe and then say you’re a believer? Of what are you a believer in then, I ask? Anyway, I’m not here to criticize a dear sister in Christ. However, recently, as I thought about that event, I realized that there are actually really really cool things about Christianity. And so I’ve put together this really short list of some cool things about Christianity. You sure can add more J

#1	Jesus started and completed the work of salvation for us even before we knew we needed salvation – Romans 5:6-8; John 19:30
#2	When God looks down on the earth, He doesn’t see us with all our mistakes and errors and stuff, He sees Jesus’ righteousness and that satisfies Him – Romans 5:1; 2nd Corinthians 5: 21
#3	We have eternal security. No power of hell and no scheme of man can ever pluck us from His hand – John 10:28-29; Ephesians 1:13-14
#4	We don’t need to pray for blessings. We’re blessed already – Ephesians 1:3; 2nd Peter 1:3
#5	We are assured of the Father’s unconditional love. Nothing can ever separate us from His love – Romans 8:38-39
#6	We have all that Christ has. We’re joint heirs with Him – Romans 8:16-17; 2nd Peter 1:4
#7	We have so much authority, in fact Christ’s authority; that whatever we say is done – not just here on earth, but also in heaven – Matthew 28:18; Luke 10:19; Mark 11:23; Matthew 18:18-19
#8	We’re seated in Christ in heavenly places far above principalities, and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named. In the words of Kenneth E. Hagin, we’re looking down on the devil. Cooool!!! – Ephesians 1:21, Ephesians 2:6
#9	For those of you who like me fantasizes being a queen or king, not a thing to worry about; we already are royalty AND we’re going to be adorned with beautiful heavenly crowns when we get there. And, shh, I heard there’ll be stars on them. I’m excited already J – Revelation 1:6; 1st Corinthians 9:24-25; 1st Thessalonians 2:19; 2nd Timothy 4:8; 1st Peter 5:4; Revelation 2:10; James 1:12
#10	Christ is our life. It’s not ours anymore. And as He is, so are we in this world. Even more, when we see Him, we shall be like Him – Colossians 3:3-4; 1st John 4:17; 1st John 3:2

#11 (added by Jane Paulsen from comments below): We are confident in the fact that when we talk to God, He actually hears us. He isn’t dead. He is Life Himself

 

Hey! Let’s Have a Chat About that Place. Yeah, the One We Hate to Talk About…

Okay, I’d really like to beat about the bush – ’would really really like to. But I won’t. I can’t, even if I tried. So in the spirit of going straight to the point, let’s talk about “hell”.

Yeah, I know you don’t want to hear about it. I mean, who wants to talk about such a horrible place, right? But think about it for a second, wouldn’t you like to know a lil somethin’ somethin’ about a place that you’ve heard being talked about since you were little as the most dreadful place that exists in the universe, especially as it is said that some humans will end up there? I don’t know about you; your curious-i-o-meter may be on zero, mine is way high up there, and if you will just twitch yours a little bit, I’d like you to join me on this.

I believe the Bible in and out. I believe the Bible completely – the things I don’t understand and the ones I do. So when the Bible mentions in several passages that there is a dreadful place called hell, I believe there is. Do not let anyone deceive you into telling you that there is no hell. The same God who has called you blessed, holy, righteous, just, and has promised you all the benefits of the earth, the same God has said there is a place of damnation reserved for the devil, his cohorts, and all sinners. Dear friend, if you believe God for His promises, believe Him also for His words about hell. Now, that settled (hoping we’ve all agreed on this one thing), let’s talk about that place. What does the Bible have to say about hell?

Well, for one, it is a place of total separation from God (2^nd Thessalonians 1:9, Isaiah 59:2). This simply means that everything that GOD gives to us freely – light, love, joy, peace, satisfaction, etc. – are all absent in hell. It is a place of total darkness and fear. I cannot imagine living without light or the sun. I cannot imagine life without love. Honestly, I just paused to try and imagine it, and I can’t. I don’t even know how it’d feel like without love, and I don’t want to know; and praise be to God through Christ, I will never know. Amen. But see, hell is that place – a place with no light, no love, and no joy; nothing good. It is a place of torment (Matthew 8:12; Luke 16:23-24; Matthew 13:50). Of course, a place of total darkness, hatred, sorrow, sickness, etc bad, will definitely be a place of torment. Jesus said the worms there do not die – Mark 9:48. It is a place of unquenchable fire (Mark 9:43-48; Revelation 19:20). Someone once told me that “theologians” or “scientists” have said that it is not actually real fire, but it’s gonna be so cold to the extent that it feels like fire. Temi says, “I don’t care what your analyses are. All I know is that it’s a horrible place with “unquenchable fire” and I don’t wanna go there. Full stop!” The Bible also says that it is a place of complete destruction (Acts 3:23; Matthew 10:28; 2^nd Thessalonians 1:9; Matthew 7:13). It is a place of everlasting punishment (Matthew 25:46) where God’s ultimate judgment will be meted out against sinners (John 3:36; Revelation 20:11-15).

Now, that said, I have heard people ask the question, “would a loving God send His creatures to hell?” If you’ve wondered so too, I have an answer for you: YES!!!!!!!!!! A loving, merciful, just, holy, and righteous GOD would permit those who want to go to hell to go to hell.

Why? Well, first of all, He is a holy and righteous Judge – 2^nd Timothy 4:8. If God doesn’t punish iniquity, He ceases to be holy and righteous; and God would never deny Himself – 2^nd Timothy 2:13. Being the holy God that He is, He has perfectly designed things in such a way that when this world is over, we can reign with Christ in a perfect “world” with no sin at all. Hell is the place where iniquity, wickedness, selfishness, and all who carry the sin nature in them are banished to.

GOD is indisputably a loving God. It isn’t His love that sends a person to hell. No, in His love and mercy, He gave His all – Jesus – so that we can escape the sorrow and condemnation of hell – John 3:16; 2 Peter 3:9. He is not delighted in the death of the sinner – Ezekiel 33:11. Still even then, because of love, He will not choose our eternal home for us. He did not create robots. He created man in His image to have dominion and authority. God has given us everything we need; it is left for us to decide what to do with it – Joshua 24:15. And that’s why I said He’ll permit those who want to go to hell to go there. Man has the power to send himself to hell.

Finally, the Bible clearly states that it’s sinners who will go to hell. No believing child of God can go to hell. I mean, you have Christ living on the inside of you; you cannot possibly take Christ with you into hell. Isn’t that good news? Even better news is that salvation is available to everyone. The jailer in Acts 16:30-31 asked Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul replied, “Believe on the LORD Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” In their very same words, I say to you who has not accepted Christ as Lord, “Don’t let it wait any longer; believe on the Lord Jesus, repent of your sins and you shall be saved.” – Luke 13:3; Acts 17:30; Acts 3:19; Revelation 2:5.

To repent means to “turn from” – 2^nd Chronicles 7:14; Joel 2:13; Zechariah 1:3. Now if you say you believe in Jesus, you have to also turn away from your old ways to show that you indeed believe in Jesus. I mean, if your sin, wickedness, selfishness, etc. were what was going to take you to hell, doesn’t it make sense that when you get saved, you have to stop doing those things? Don’t believe those who say that you can be saved and still continue to sin. Paul asked the Romans, “How can you be dead to sin, and still live in it?” Romans 6:1-2. It doesn’t make any sense. I know we have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, and we are holy, blessed, sanctified. I know that’s what the Bible says. That is justification. Justification does not make us righteous, it only pronounces us so. An illustration I like to use is this: My cousin, Seun, is the music director in my church. My pastor named him so. Seun is the music director; there’s no argument about that. That's his position. However, in the actual sense, Seun cannot be considered a music director until he begins to act in the capacity of a music director. To be a music director indeed, he has to do all that is expected of a music director. In the same light, our position is “righteousness”, but until we begin to produce righteous fruits, there is nothing to show that we are righteous. You get that? An apple tree that produces oranges will never be considered an apple tree. Even Jesus Himself said, “By their fruits, ye shall know them.” (Matthew 7:16, 20). Now, don’t get me wrong. You cannot live a holy life by yourself; it is God who does it all in us. However, we must yield ourselves to God (Romans 6:13), so that He can work in and through us for His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). And that also depends on us.

For you who are already in the faith, take seriously the counsel of our dear Apostle Peter – giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, godliness, brotherly kindness, and agape (love). For if you do these things, you will not be barren or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, and you will never fall – 2^nd Peter 1:5-10.

 ⁷He that overcometh shall inherit all things;
and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

⁸But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable,
and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters,
and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth
with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Revelation 21:7-8