EXTRA resources

Faith, true faith is based on trust and belief, we must trust what we hear from God to be true, and we must also believe what God tells is real.  Here the writer of the book of Hebrews gives us a Biblical definition of Faith, it is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.  Now since we have not seen God, but we believe His word as being true, we have faith.  And as well, we live with a blessed Hope in what we have been told by God through His word is absolutely true.  We cannot see it, but we believe it, Jesus made a very profound statement in John 20:29 "Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  Faith is what gives us hope in the things we believe, Jesus Saves!

Whatever we call this moment in time, Palm Sunday, Jesus' Triumphal Entry, the truth of the matter is God had a bigger plan in mind that day than did anyone present know, this was the Messiah's final march to victory.  The crowd saw a Warrior King, God saw the perfect sacrifice, the cheering people saw a human king, God saw a Savior, the crowd was looking for war, but God was bringing peace.  The King was coming, but for a completely different purpose, He came to save all people from their sin and the wrath of God to come, many missed Him then, and many still miss Him and miss understand Him to this very day.  Christ Jesus is the Savior of the world through His sacrificial death on a brutal Roman cross, He is still here to save and fill your heart with peace, Jesus Saves! 

"Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”  Isaiah was speaking to the people of Israel living in the dark shadow of a nation ready to take them into exile, they were living in deep darkness.  But there would come a day in the future when that darkness would be lifted by a Savior, the promised Messiah, the Lord Christ Jesus.  The people of Israel, even after they returned from exile, both the Northern kingdom and the southern kingdom never lived on its own, they never had a human king again after the exile.  There was coming a day when they would have a king come to them, the light of the world would step into their world, and the light would shine upon them.  Darkness may last for night, but Joy and light will come in the morning, Jesus Saves!

Many are the afflictions of the righteous.  We might also say that many are the troubles of the Child of God.  Nowhere in the word of God does it say that when we come into a relationship with the Lord all our troubles, problems and afflictions will just disappear, it actually says just the opposite, we will have tribulations.  But, the Lord does say He will be with us always, He will never leave us nor forsake us, He will walk through this world side by side with each of His children.  As we read through the Bible, we see many people, people who walked with God, yet got into problems, some of them are quite serious... And God delivered them from those problems, because He is a gracious and merciful God full of love.  No matter what you are going through today, God is there, call out to Him, lean on Him, and know that He is there for you, Jesus Saves!  

Evangelism, telling people about Jesus, giving them the Good News of God's salvation.  We are all called, commissioned to go and make disciples of all nations, not that we have to go to a foreign nation to tell, but that we are to tell those people within our sphere of influence.  The apostle Paul here in his letter to the church at Corinth explains well the process, we can plant, we can water, but neither of them makes us anything, for it is God alone who brings the growth.  We must know and understand that we do not have the ability to save anyone, not even ourselves, only God saves people, only God.  Sometimes the most simple conversations can be enough for God to draw a person to Himself, we need only speak, Jesus Saves! 

Do you go to the Lord in prayer with confidence, knowing God will hear your prayer and He will answer your prayer?  We can be sure the Lord hears our petitions when our will is aligned with His will.  It is God's desire that we have the ability to come to Him with our requests for help, for provision, and for growth, but also that our desires are within God take on life, your life.  God has set parameters as to how we, as Children of God are to live in relationship with Him, this is where our will must be aligned with His will.  When we are living and walking within the will of God, it is then that we can go to Him with great confidence that He will hear our prayers.  Dream Big, Pray Bigger and stay within the will of God, Jesus Saves! 

God in His infinite mercy put a plan together, a propitiation or substitutionary atonement through the blood of His son to forgive you of your sins.  Why would God do this?  Because of His never ending love for mankind, to show His righteousness, God in His Divine forbearance, meaning He refrained from forcing you and I to pay for our sin debt, He therefore passed over our former sins, forgiven forever.  As Paul stated just prior to this statement, All have fallen short of the glory of God, all have sinned, we all need forgiveness, and God provided that forgiveness through the sacrificial death of Jesus.  And to receive all that God has done, all anyone need do is believe through faith, nothing more is required, there is nothing you can do to earn God's forgiveness, only believe, Jesus Saves!

Is this not what the Lord Jesus has promised, a glad heart, a heart filled with joy, even when life around us seems to be falling apart?  Salvation does not mean life is perfect, no life is still life, and it can be unpleasant, but we have hope in the Lord, we have assurance in the Lord, and we can indeed rejoice in the fact we are secure in the Lord.  When God has redeemed us and brought us into His family, He has promised that we will never die, we have life eternal, and that He will never abandon us and we can rejoice in the fact that we are His eternally.  Jesus said "I am the Resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me shall never die"  We stand on Holy ground when we stand with Christ Jesus, our future is bright and secure, let your heart be glad in His promises and truth, Jesus Saves! 

Jesus, in speaking to His disciples was preparing them for what was to come in the near future, and something that would be part of the rest of their lives, trouble, tribulation.  They had already experienced some trouble in their lives because of their relationship with this man Jesus of Nazareth, but they believed in Him, they knew Him, and they know who He is.  But the Lord gives them some encouragement, take heart that you may have peace, for with me in your heart, you will have peace beyond all understanding, real peace.  For this world has no power over me, I have overcome this world, although in the next days you might believe otherwise, remember the words I have told you, believe and have faith.  I will defeat death, sin, and the evil one, I will rise above them all in victory, you need only believe, Jesus Saves!

As Jesus spoke these words to His disciples, they must have been surprised, but also confused, as it seemed to make no sense to them.  Life is like that, we deal with bewildering events, shock and despair, unbelievable things happen and yet through it all, Joy comes in the morning.  Jesus told those men this very thing, you will experience grief and sorrow, but in the morning it will all turn to Joy.  As those twelve men and others were overcome with grief, knowing that their Lord and Savior had been killed, crucified, and then laid in a tomb, He was dead, Saturday had to have been the longest day, just a day of deep sadness.  But come Sunday morning, it all changed, that grief did indeed turn into heart filled Joy.  This is what God does for all of His children, His salvation fills our hearts with Joy, with Hope, all because of His great Love.  If today you do not know Jesus, cry out to Him, ask Him to be the Lord of your life, and Joy will fill your heart,  Jesus Saves! 

Think about what this verse is saying to you, its implications are far reaching, there is no greater love than that of Christ Jesus.  Paul wrote of this in Romans 5:7 "For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—", who would you be willing to lay down your life for?  When God sent His son to earth, with a very specific plan, death was at the center of that plan.  Christ came to earth, born as a little baby, sinless, perfect, and yet it was He who would die for the sin debt of the world.  Jesus died for people who had not even been born yet, He died for those who arrested Him, those who beat Him, those who condemned Him to death, and even those who nailed Him to that brutal Roman cross.  God did that, God sent His son to die for you, Jesus Saves!

Our world today is no different than it was in the days that Jesus walked among men on earth, people seek for their own desires, not thinking about what is truly of the greatest importance.  Here Jesus compares physical bread that nourishes the body, sustenance, and Spiritual bread which nourishes the soul for all eternity.  Jesus is the living bread, He is exactly what every person truly longs for, for it is only Him who can satisfy the soul of man.  Jesus states plainly, anyone who eats of His bread, the bread of life will live forever, speaking of eternal life in Christ, as  your human body which has an expiration date will no longer seek or consume physical bread, but your soul will always need the bread of life.  Jesus willingly laid down His life for the world to be saved and have eternal life, Jesus Saves! 

The parable of the tenets is a beautiful representation of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth as it shows exactly what was happening between Him and the religious leaders, ending in the death of the Son of the property owner.  And as Jesus tells this parable, He makes a statement of absolute truth right here, "The Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruit", which is just what happened.  After the Son was struck down and killed, the Apostles were instructed to go out into the world and tell them of the Savior, and spread the good news of the Kingdom of God to every nation on earth.  And ever since, fruit has been produced, until one day the fullness of the Gentiles will come and there will be a Rapture, then the Lord will return to claim what is His, Jesus Saves! 

As God walked upon His Holy hill, the place where the Temple was built, in His Holy City, He was deeply disturbed by what He saw, what He witnessed.  Jesus was angry to see what had been taking place in His Father's House of Prayer, it had become a "Den of Robbers" a place to make money off the least able to pay.  As Paul wrote in his letter to Timothy, "money is the root of all kinds of evil', money will drive men to do all sorts of unsavory things in life, and God is not interested in people making money off of Him. The Temple, and any real church are for one thing, building a relationship with the Lord, drawing people to God, they are not to be turned into a place of money changing.  When money becomes more important than salvation in Christ, then the church is no longer a church, Jesus Saves!

 This statement from Jesus truly reveals the heart of God for His people.  Think about it, God has been chasing these people for many years, hundreds of years, and yet they chose to go their own way and do as they please, even if it was in opposition to God's will.  From the Exodus, to the entering into the Promised land, to the time of the Judges, the Kings, the Prophets, the Exile, and even after the return to the land, God has been pursuing them, trying to gather them.  And Jesus says this city, God's city, Jerusalem has killed prophets, and you stone those who have been sent from God to help you.  How I, your God, would have gathered you up like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings of protection, but you were unwilling.  The heart of God is real and it is filled with mercy and grace and it overflows with compassion for a world that would just that much like to kill Him.  Where are you with God today?  Are you Hot, are you Cold, or are you LukeWarm in your relationship with Him?  Is He crying out to you as He did for Jerusalem, calling you to come to Him?  Hear the call, answer the call, Jesus Saves! 

It's Palm Sunday, the day Jesus rode triumphantly into the city of Jerusalem, just days before He would be arrested and then taken and crucified.  Matthew shows the reader of this Gospel that this event was foretold by the prophet Zechariah hundreds of years before this day occurred.  It is an interesting event, Jesus of Nazareth rides in on a donkey, arriving in a royal manner, greeted with shouts of Hosanna, meaning save now, by all appearances it is the day everyone believed and realized He is the Messiah.  But as this week unfolds the true hearts of men are revealed as the plans to take Him and crucify Him come to fruition.  The only person who knew how the next days would unravel was Jesus Himself, everyone else was not too sure about it.  But God, God had a plan, a plan to redeem mankind and reconcile them back to Himself, a plan that used the hearts of many to make it happen, Hosanna, Hosanna, Jesus Saves!

As a Christian walking in faith and by faith, you have been set free, free from the bondage of sin and your past ways.  In our past lives we found ourselves to be slaves to the evil one and the sinful ways he encouraged us to live by, but we are no longer bound to that life, Christ set us free through His sacrificial death.  And in embracing our new freedom, let us never indulge in those old sinful ways because we have been granted grace upon grace.  Because of our new freedom in Christ Jesus we should desire to be more like Him in every way, serving each other and loving  each other as we honor the Lord and bring Him glory through the way we live our lives.  Jesus Saves! 

Consider the life of the Apostle Paul, he encountered Christ on the road to Damascus, blinded to help him see, persecuted by the Judaizers during his whole time in ministry, beaten, imprisoned, stoned to death, run out of multiple towns and cities... All because of his faith in Christ.  But throughout all of these hard times he still knew that the Lord was with him and leading him, and strengthening him, he was content in every situation.  Here in his letter to the Philippian church he tells them, and he is writing this letter from a Roman prison, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, as Paul followed Christ and evangelized the world, he was lifted up and held up by the power of Jesus. Paul knew that as long as he was walking in the will of God, God would give him the strength to go on, Jesus Saves!

Even to this very day, there are billions of people who do not know Jesus as Lord and Savior.  Almost two thousand years ago, the Lord said to His disciples that there was a huge harvest out there in the world that is ripe for the harvest, they are ready to hear the Good News.  But, there are too few workers to go out and tell them of the amazing saving grace of Christ Jesus.  As Christians we should be telling people about salvation in Christ, giving them the opportunity to know the Lord and have eternal life as we do.  We should also be praying for more workers who are willing to GO out into the world and TELL people about Jesus, because everybody ought to know who Jesus is, Jesus Saves!

When the Messiah came and lived among men on earth, the whole 'Religious process was about to change, there would no longer be a need for a Temple, or Priests, or sacrifices.  Jesus died on the cross to bring an end to animal sacrifices as He was the ultimate sacrifice to atone for all of humanity's sins.  And along with that, as proven by the veil that was torn from top to bottom as the spirit left the body of Jesus on the cross, showing there was no longer a need for that Temple.  You the believer became the Temple of God, the place where the Spirit of God dwells.  As was written in Acts 7:48 "Yet the Most High does not dwell in houses made by hands, as the prophet says"  God is with you always, residing within you, you are never alone... Live like you are filled with the Spirit of God, Jesus Saves!

 Isaiah has spent a great deal of time preaching to the people of Judah, but they refused to listen and judgment fell upon them as the Lord had promised.  But later in the book of the Prophet Isaiah, he brings some very good news, in chapter fifty-three he speaks of the coming Messiah, the promised one, and here in chapter fifty-four the prophet speaks of the Lord's covenant of Peace toward them.  Isaiah speaks of peace and protection from others, God's protection, and the Lord tells His chosen, no weapon fashioned against you shall succeed, it will not work, it will not harm you.  And we have witnessed the protection of Israel by the Lord in the last seventy plus years.  As well, the Lord states you shall refute every tongue, words against you will not stand.  This is the Lord's covenant of Peace, the heritage of the servants of the Lord.  The Lord will vindicate His people, He will protect them, and He will defend them.  The Lord is my safe place, my fortress, my protector, and my salvation, Jesus Saves!

The more the disciples were told not to mention the name of Jesus of Nazareth, the more they prayed and the more bold they became as God filled them with the Holy Spirit.  There is a very basic and simple truth in this statement, Jesus is the only way to salvation, there is no other way, nor is there any other name in which salvation can come.  And as the days grew more dangerous for the Christians in Jerusalem, the power of the church and its Good News they spread grew and became much more effective.  Peter and John were the leaders of this group of Believers called The Way, and they preached and taught that this man, the Messiah, Jesus was the only person through whom they could be saved, and the more they preached it the more people got saved.  Today the truth is still the truth, There is no one else, for there is no other name under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved, Jesus Saves!

The Apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Philippi here tells of the elite Pharisee he was prior to Christ saving him.  He was one of the most brilliant of the Religious leaders, but all the greatness he achieved as a Pharisee, none of it meant a thing in comparison to having Jesus as his Lord and Savior.  And here he makes it clear that he stands firm in the knowledge of Christ, knowing Him intimately and the power of His resurrection.  And that he may share in the sufferings of Christ, and Paul did just that, he suffered greatly for his faith.  But that in the end, in death, to become like Christ Jesus and that he may attain the resurrection from the dead.  Paul knew Christ intimately, Paul suffered greatly for his faith, Paul never gave up but only grew stronger in his faith.  May we all endure until the end knowing Christ, Jesus Saves! 

Two thoughts come to mind when I read this verse, a statement from God.   "Is anything impossible with God" and "Where shall I go from your Spirit", when we stay focused on the Lord, we can know that He is always with us, and that nothing that comes our way will defeat us.  As the Lord led this people group out of Egypt, the Hebrews, they did not know Him, they had lived in slavery for some four hundred years, they only knew the life they had under oppression.  As God led them and taught them they grumbled, they complained, they were fearful because they did not know God nor did they trust God.  Our relationship with the Lord is based on two things that are critical for us to grow in that relationship, Trust and Obedience, without these, the relationship will not grow or thrive as it should.  The Lord says to us today, My presence will go with you, I will be with you always, and I will give rest, rest for your weary soul, Jesus Saves!  

In the Beginning, GOD!  God the intelligent Eternal being who created every-
thing that was ever created.  There was never a Big Bang, no explosion, no mysterious something that was the catalyst that started all life, no, it was God.  God has always existed, He will always exist, it was God in the beginning, and it is God who to this day sustains all life in this world.  The word used here in the Hebrew for God is Elohim, this is a plural word for God, showing us the Holy Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were there together as they created the Heavens and the earth.  There is far too much evidence to prove the existence of God and the fact He created all that was created , science proves this almost daily.  This verse is the beginning of the greatest story ever told, it's God story, it's His story, and if you will read it, it will change your life, Jesus Saves!