Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. – Romans 5:18
If all we look at is the original sin, life looks so hopeless, doesn’t it? But as we see what Christ did on Calvary, we see that there is hope for renewal and real change in behavior and lifestyle – for everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! I like the sound of HOPE, don’t you?
This portion of Scripture celebrates freedom for every Christian. There is finally good news that we can have eternal life because of what Christ endured to pay the price for our sins – past, present, and future.
If we put blinders on and see just the one original sin, we’re likely to lack vision regarding our own life. Salvation does not guarantee that we will never sin, and the truth is, that ol’ devil will mess with a Christian more than a non-Christian! When we do get tangled up in the weeds, we do have hope for better days ahead.
Sin is only fun for a season, and be sure it will find you out one way or the other. When it does, turn back to God, seek His forgiveness and the forgiveness of those you wronged here if possible. Move out of the ruins and walk in God’s beautiful light. Nobody knows your heart better than He does. He can and will help you get your act together again.
It’s almost May and the April showers are nearly a thing of the past. As the May flowers start growing around you, don’t you want your life to be heading in the right direction? Discover a new life that will not only make you happier, but be pleasing to God as well. That’s what matters – pleasing our Heavenly Father. Let Him pick you up, dust you off, and set you on His straight path.
Just as everyone dies because we all belong to Adam, everyone who belongs to Christ will be given new life. – 1 Corinthians 15:22
New life. That sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Why live under the death curse, among the weeds and the waste, when with Christ, you can have a new life? He loves you so much and wants to give you His peace, joy, love, hope and eternal life. Walk out of the ruins and into His loving arms. He will make you a beautiful flower! 🙂
“Behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to each person according to what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” – Revelation 22:12-13
Maybe it’s just me, but winter seems to linger and last forever! My friend Kelly is a gardener. She has had her seed packets since February and posted one cold winter day that she is going to have to wait two more months to plant her seeds. It’s excruciating, this time between winter and spring. Here in Kansas, even when spring is officially here, we still have rain and chilly temperatures. We don’t trust anything we plant to be protected before May. Winter is the longest season – and we have no choice but to be patient and wait for warmer weather. But the watchword is… ANTICIPATION! We prepare, then we wait!
Sometimes I’m tempted to feel the same way about the second coming of Christ. I want the Lord to hurry up – but He reminds me that not everyone is ready for His return. It makes me feel selfish, to be honest, but once that feeling passes, I realize that it’s just a reminder that I need to get to work! The Gospel is something to be shared, not hoarded. Our Lord wants everyone to be ready to make Heaven their eternal home!
Remember the Great Commission?
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28:18-20
I like the last part of this portion of Scripture: I am with you always, to the very end o the age. Do we know when that will be? Nope. Nobody knows except God Himself. Even Jesus won’t be privy to that information until it is time! So, while we’re waiting for the end of the age, we need to be busy in whatever way we can, sharing and caring for the lost souls around us.
Revelation says that Jesus is coming quickly. I’m sure you think as I do… “You call this QUICKLY” – ??? We’re not questioning God – we really aren’t. We’re just saying that the time between Christ’s resurrection and His second coming to earth has been a very long winter… but we wait with anticipation, knowing that one day the proverbial spring will arrive and we will be enjoying the most beautiful garden we’ve ever seen. The best news of all is that, we’ll never have to endure another winter again! 🙂
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. – 2 Timothy 2:15
I’m not one to voice righteous indignation very often. I do my best to be a peace-loving, joyful child of God. But sometimes I think silence is not golden, but plain yellow with cowardice. I must speak to something that has bothered me for some months now. This is a taping of The View from last February:
I’m livid. Absolutely livid. I know the Vice President does not read my humble little blog (yeah, right) – but I want him to know that there are MILLIONS of Christian folk in America and probably around the world praying for him. Believers support fellow believers and lift them up in prayer, Joy! Let’s call it a PERK! It’s actually proved to be a great blessing in my life.
It’s often through the Words of Scripture that God speaks to His children (yes, Joy – God SPEAKS to us and we’re perfectly sane, thank you very much). I pray that one day Joy, like the Apostle Paul, will see the light! Literally. Paul, I’m sure you recall, experienced a very, shall we say – dramatic conversion that left him blinded by the light (Acts 9:1-31). You’ll also recall that he killed Christians before his conversion. What a conversion that was, eh? If God was to convert Joy, can you imagine how great that would be for Christianity? She could do so much good in this world with God on her side. Now she’s just making money. Will she take it with her to eternity? Um… I don’t think so.
So, Christians, it’s not a far stretch to conclude that if we do not carve out the time to read the Bible, we will not hear from our Father. If He’s not speaking to us, how will we hear? The answer is… we won’t. Of course, prayer is the other way the Lord speaks to our hearts, but the combination of Scripture reading and prayer is the winning way to know exactly what God wants you to know.
It’s a faith thing, Joy… I really pray that one day you’ll “get” it. It’s very sad that you get paid well to make a mockery of my faith. If you don’t understand it, the least you can do is RESPECT it and stop putting it down. Mental illness is a serious accusation – not to be mocked and certainly not to be used in the same sentence with Christianity. Stop it! Shame on ABC for letting this continue! I refuse to watch that network – I’m done with them until they pull “The View”.
So let’s spring into God’s Word, the Holy Bible. We rely on our Heavenly Father to direct our paths, and there are so many verses to help us!
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. – Proverbs 3:5-6
Our own understanding of things is often more of a misunderstanding. If we will trust God, lean on Him and submit to Him, then He will make a way for us to walk that is straight and He will keep us in His peace and protection. God can be trusted and His promises never fail. He will never let you down. If you want to reap a bounty of beauty – this is where to begin! Our Lord wants us to be discerning and wise in everything. He wants us to search His Word for ourselves and discover truths, then apply them to our life.
If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. – James 1:5
Ask God – that means we PRAY to God. But see, it’s not a one-way conversation. HE GIVES GENEROUSLY to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you! Now, that’s not to say that God is a bubblegum machine. We don’t insert a quarter and get a gumball. Sometimes the gumball is not the color we may have wanted. Sometimes it’s not the flavor we hoped for. Sometimes it feels as though the gumball got stuck in the machine somewhere – but when God doesn’t answer a prayer just the way we think He should, it doesn’t mean that His ways are not the best ways. It means that I need to trust that His way is better than my way. Is it easy? No. Is it imperative that I learn to do that? Yes. He knows which gumball I need and when I need it.
So, you see, the insane thing to do is talk to God and not stop talking long enough to let Him speak in return! Who asks a question and just keeps talking, not waiting for the answer? In faith, we receive answers from God’s precious Holy Spirit. Faith… it’s better felt than telt.
We ask for wisdom, then trust that God hears our prayer and is working on our behalf the second we get finished praying! Actually – He already knows what we need help with, and I think He starts the work before we even ask for help, but He still wants us to ask. No parent wants their child to just assume things will be done for them. They want to be asked and kept in the loop. We are God’s children and it’s the same concept. He wants to be kept in the loop.
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. – John 10:27
We need The Bible – not just to keep on the coffee table gathering dust. Open it every day and see what God has to say through it, to your heart. 🙂
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32
It’s a calling from our LORD… be light, salt, kind, loving, forgiving and tenderhearted. Nobody wants to be tenderhearted because that means you are also vulnerable. It hurts to make yourself vulnerable because to open yourself up to others has no guarantee of success associated with it. God never said that being obedient to Him would result in automatic joy or happiness. Does that mean it’s not worth doing? No. Does it mean that we won’t need to walk away from the ones who hurt and disappoint us sometimes? No. Is it a sin to walk away? No. It’s probably a sin to give up and not try again. The sin is to quit trying.
We have to rely on God to help us forgive – and forgive as quickly as possible. Forget? Well… not really. It’s like you sort of tuck it in the back of your mind. You don’t want to dwell on it, but you don’t want to forget completely so you aren’t that stupid again. I don’t need to keep hitting my head against the same post over and over. That’s just an insane thing to do! The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting a different result. I refuse to do anything remotely insane ever again.
Does that mean I don’t forgive past wrongs? No. I need for others to forgive me – and frankly, I need God to forgive me – so I will absolutely forgive others when I feel I’ve been wronged. This ol’ world needs more kindness and less anger-driven violence, to be sure. If you allow hurt feelings to fester and get infected, it affects all aspects of your life.
How can we shine for God and serve Him if there’s a cloud of hurt hanging over our heads? We just have to ask God to help us through those hurtful times and be what He wants us to be! I want to be light, salt, kind, loving, and yes… even tenderhearted. It doesn’t mean we are door mats. It doesn’t mean we are stupid enough to walk back and take more. We’re not.
We can conquer the hurt we encounter in this life with help from God. We can conquer the hate we encounter in this life with help from God!
Are you ready to spring into action – and throw kindness into this wicked world like it’s confetti??? Instead of deciding to merely DEAL with the hurt in our lives, let’s trust God to help us HEAL from church hurt and other disappointments along life’s way so we can effectively SHINEfor Him! When we live in the complete freedom that Christ bought for us, it makes Him smile and it makes us whole! 🙂
He held my sins in His hands as the nails were pierced through… wow! So many thoughts come to mind, but it humbles me to think that Christ suffered such pain and disgrace for me. I need a Savior – I’m the first to admit it. To say thank You just seems insufficient and unimpressive. I understand now that the Lord doesn’t want fancy words. He wants my life to reflect my relationship with Him. Actions really do speak louder than words.
What does the resurrection of Jesus Christ mean to you? When God raised Christ from the dead (yes, He was dead – not stunned), He paid our sin debt! There is no greater love than that! This means that through Christ, we are able to claim complete VICTORY! God doesn’t do anything halfway. The price is paid, and all we have to do is claim the victory. Accept the sacrifice He made at Calvary and live like the blessed child of God you are.
We are blessed and even though temptations and yes, sin sometimes gets in the way – we know that Christ will help us get total victory over all of it. He didn’t save me just to leave me standing in a cold, dark place. He saved me to guide and direct me closer to Him. We will mess up sometimes – whoppers of messes sometimes! But we know whatever comes along, the sacrifice that Christ made for us is greater than our sins.
Should we linger on the sins we’ve committed? No. Satan would like nothing better. Lingering on the sins is polarizing! Ask God to forgive your sins – and keep moving, leaning on Him to help you out of sin and closer to Him. Trust that God forgives you and move on. There’s not a thing you can do about yesterday. Just make tomorrow better with God’s help.
Jesus Christ is ALIVE – ready to help us live in total VICTORY!!! Will you seek Him? There’s not a sin He can’t forgive. There’s not a temptation He can’t overcome. Plea the blood of Christ over it, know it’s covered, go on to the next thing. Praise God for the victory through the resurrection of Christ! Hallelujah!
Not that I want to mention April Fool’s Day and Easter in the same sentence… but someone challenged Lucinda to write a poem about it. And, well… she nailed it! Take a look at this:
Isn’t that great? There’s no FOOLIN’ about it! Happy Easter, everyone! 🙂
Our Lord wants us to be discerning and wise in everything. He wants us to search His Word for ourselves and discover truths, then apply them to our life.
HEART HUNGER 