RESURRECTION POWER -EASTER VERSES THAT CELEBRATE JESUS

Martina McBride had a big hit years ago called "INDEPENDENCE DAY" and the kicker line was "Let Freedom Ring". Nothing says that better than Galatians 5:1 where the LORD says "It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery".

All of this Freedom and Independence and standing firm etc. are only possible because of one thing - The Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the abode of the physically dead. He was NOT spiritually dead. He is God. The Resurrection, on the Third Day from His willing death on the Cross to remove the sting of death from us, is what makes it possible for us to live with Hope and Joy on this side of Eternity.

Easter Sunday, or Resurrection Sunday, is more significant than even Christmas because this is the one which immediately affects our own personal destination. Easter Sunday is celebrated almost the same in homes across the Western World, with minor cultural food or music differences. However the message remains the same - Jesus is alive, just as He said He will be!! There is never any doubt. God speaks, we listen.

As we have been doing over this past days, we present the Word of God in pure straight form, without comment, to show how the Bible not only speaks for itself but predicts with precision...even thousands of years in advance. With that in mind, here are some verses for us to be grateful, at this time when Jesus guaranteed our waking up into Heaven when we pass from this world to the next! Thank You, Lord, for Your blessings on me!

VERSES ON THE RESURRECTION - "EASTER IN THE BIBLE"

OLD TESTAMENT:

JOB 19
“As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last, He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, yet from my flesh, I shall see God (verses 25-26).

ISAIAH 26
Your dead will live; their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, for your dew is as the dew of the dawn, and the earth will give birth to the departed spirits (verse 18).

DANIEL 12
Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt. (verse 2)

NEW TESTAMENT: 

LUKE 24
On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. In their fright, the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here; he has risen! (verses 1-5)

JOHN 20
So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”  Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” (verses 25-26)

ACTS 1
To these He also presented Himself alive after His suffering, by many convincing proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God (verse 3).

ACTS 4
And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.  And with great power, the apostles were giving testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and abundant grace was upon them all. For there was not a needy person among them, for all who were owners of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of the sales (verses 32-34).

1 CORINTHIANS 15
After that, He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom remain until now, but some have fallen asleep; then He appeared to James, then to all the apostles (verses 6-7).

There are many other verses, to which we should devote ourselves in Bible study, but suffice it to know that Jesus was not just seen by His disciples and the women who followed and ministered to His food and clothing needs, but 500 people in Jerusalem saw His physical body. Later, on Scripture tells us that even some of the Pharisees believed in Him. These were the same men who voted to executed Him!

The Apostle Paul, the great persecutor, and hater of the early Christian church had the most dramatic conversion to Christ. It is because of this stunning event in early church history when he was called Saul of Tarsus, that we have half of the entire New Testament.

The Resurrection changes EVERYTHING. Because Christ rose from the grave, and the Angel blew the stone away, then sat on it, as if to say "get a load of this", we are all set to be at the great "getting up morning in the sky". Glory to His Name! However, this can only happen if we are born-again and converted from the spirit of death and destruction to the instant we are suddenly indwelled by the Holy Spirit of God - the very same Spirit Who raised Jesus from the dead. It was for THIS Freedom, Jesus Christ set us free. Amen.
ROMANS 10:
if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth, he confesses, resulting in salvation (verses 9-10).

THE LORD'S PRAYER- THE MODEL EXPLAINED: PART 2

Hallowed by Thy Name

We know all of the great attributes of God – He is all powerful, knows all, owns all and sees all.  2 Chronicles 16:9 tells us that “the Eyes of the Lord roam across the WHOLE earth in search of those whose hearts are loyal to Him”. There is absolutely no doubting that fact.

But the first attribute of God is His Holiness. He abhors sin. He despises it and even turned His back on His own Son – the Lord Jesus – Who had to cry out from the Cross “my God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” (Psalm 22:1 and Matthew 27:46).

How do we know this? Well, the greatest Old Testament prophet, who wrote about those times as well as the End Times, was pulled up into Heaven before the Lord Himself in Isaiah Chapter 6. The first thing anyone who has had an encounter with Holy God does is this: fall down at His feet in total surrender and humility. Isaiah did it. John did it.

The next thing that happens to a man, who, in the rare occasion, is recorded to be in the fearsome Presence of Holy God is – the self-realization of one’s worthlessness to be in such a lofty place. Isaiahfalls down (Chapter 6) and knew immediately he was a sinner….that he was notworthy of being there….that he was a man of unclean lips, even as a man of Godand a prophet. We can relate to that today.  We, every one of us, use language which our forefathers – regardless of background – would never use and would even consider untoward.

The Lord took care of Isaiah’s problem with swearing and probably even blaspheming when He sent one of His emissaries to take a burning coal off the altar to cleans the prophet’s inclination towards such speech. God sends the Holy Spirit to convict you and I immediately after we say something we swore we would not say 500 times before. 

The third and important thing to note is the Worship in Heaven underscores what the ministering special angels – God’s Own Special Ops– think of the Almighty. They sign back and forth “Holy Holy Holy ….”. This is reinforced in Revelation 4 and click here to read the entire amazing chapter!

What is the connection to the practical matter of us praying to Abba Father, Who is in Heaven? The Knowledge of the Holy – the Holy One of Israel, should act as a check in our spirit as to how we approach the Lord.  Just as we do not take the Lord’s Table or communion in an unworthy manner, meaning with active sin in our lives, we need to be instinctively circumspect in our prayer, following the example of the Messiah Who gave us this prayer. In light of this, let us pray into it:

Heavenly Father, we do not deserve to even be in the same zip code as You. But You in Your love and mercy adopted us, who believe in Jesus as Lord, as Your Children. Lord we are people of unclean lips, and too many times unclean hearts and minds. Purify us, oh God, remove our sin as far as the east is from the west. Wash us with hyssop that we may be clean. Cleanse us that we may be as white as snow. May these spiritual broken bones be healed or done away with that we may stand pure and holy before You, because You are Holy. You are worthy. You are mighty. Forgive  us as we approach in true repentance and surrender all at the Foot of the Cross right now, in Jesus’ Name amen.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE HOLY BY AW TOZER FOR FREE!...DOWNLOAD AS A PDF TO TABLET ETC....

(photo credit here)

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER - DAY 4 OF 5 DAYS OF PRAYER

FIVE DAYS OF PRAYER (SUNDAY MAY 3- THURSDAY MAY 7, 2015)
1 Sing for joy in the Lord, O you righteous ones;
Praise is becoming to the upright.
2 Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre;
Sing praises to Him with a harp of ten strings.
3 Sing to Him a new song;
Play skillfully with a shout of joy.
4 For the word of the Lord is upright,
And all His work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice;
The earth is full of the lovingkindness of the Lord.
6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.
7 He gathers the waters of the sea together as a heap;
He lays up the deeps in storehouses.... (Psalm 33:1-7)

Nothing defines the authentic nature of God's people than their unabashed love and worship of Creator God and the Father, Who art in Heaven.  The sheer joy which emanates from a soul set free into liberty, from the bondage of sin and despair, should be enough to light up the dark night of any soul or group of souls. 

In this world, the saints of God have trials, tribulations and trying times which test men's souls, it is imperative that the ones whom Jesus found as captives and blind guides and pulled the scales off that we may see, began to praise Him for that reason alone.  The Lord Jesus said that we should not fear those who will kill, steal and behead like their father the devil, but fear He Who has the ability to cast body and soul into hell. The righteous ones mentioned in the Psalm have been saved from the fires of hell and for that reason alone - we praise Him.

Then we shout, sing, share and saturate everything with pure unimaginable joy at the Jesus the Messiah Who rescued us. Joy is not temporary happiness. Joy is a state of being and as we come into a period where an entire nation is focused on praying together on one day, we do not get bogged down by the burden of evil times, but we rest in the blessed assurance and Shalom that we live 24/7 from just been made right, justified and fully brought into the Kingdom of His Marvelous Light!

This alone should fuel, fire up and inhabit our prayers today, tomorrow and the rest of our lives as verse two says "GIVE THANKS". So as we pray about the deep heavy things on our hearts today and from now on, let them not dampen our shalom and joy in the journey with Jesus. But let us use these truths of His amazing work in our lives to marvel and abide in His all powerful, mighty Work and what Scripture describes as His attributes.

ACTION POINTS TODAY (AND ALWAYS):
- Sing, literally sing to the Lord about His Power and Might.
- Dedicate every fiber of your being and all of your life and mine, to praising Him.
- Be intentional about sharing this Joy with as many as possible as the days are short. Why? Because He is a good good God!
- He is a Just and Righteous God, praise Him for that.
- His Mercies never fail, they are new RIGHT now and if it were not for His Grace and mercy, we would be in eternal punishment and damnation. Thank Him for this truth.
- Because He is Loving, Merciful, Compassionate but the Judge of all, He will hand out justice, but He will not violate His oaths, His Word or His Promises. Therefore claim His promises, read them back to Him from His Word, ask Him to cover and deliver you and in His Truthful Authentic Omnipotent Way, He will stand by His Word and His Promises!
- His Word is written in the Heavens, in our hearts and in 66 books of the Bible. This is all we need in this life because we could never stop mining the depths and wonderful waters of its truths. Stand on His Word, love it and let it be like honey to the taste.
- Oh taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man and woman and child, who trusteth in Him.
Amen.

A WALK THROUGH ROMANS 15 (Verse 3)

BEYOND REPROACH

For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” Romans 15:3 (ESV)


Chris Tomlin has a wonderful worship song called JESUS MESSIAH, which starts off like this:
He became sin

Who knew no sin
That we might become His Righteousness
He humbled himself and carried the cross
Love so amazing, Love so amazing


Jesus Messiah
Name above all names
Blessed Redeemer
Emmanuel
The rescue for sinners
The ransom from Heaven
Jesus Messiah

Lord of all

This song defines perfectly what Romans 15:3 is all about! Here we have the King of Kings, Who created Heavens and all the earth, not just being born as a baby in a cold and stinking animal stall, but One Who lived life as a man with no riches, comfort, palaces or boats. 

He suffered from pompous self-righteous over-educated men who tried to trap Him with what they knew were stupid and evil questions....blasphemous, if you will. Just like those in academia, media and government today who continue to revile, ridicule and insult Him.

This is what the word "REPROACH" means. This describes all I have just mentioned that was done to Christ and more - shame, disgust, disapproval.

Yet, Jesus Christ took all that reproach so we would not have to. Due to our original sin and rebelliousness, we inherited the reproach of Adam. So the Father, Abba, being the loving Daddy that He is, sent the Son to intercept His Coming Judgment and stand between Him and His Wrath against us! Do you realize what an act of Love that is friends?!!

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 8:9 "For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich". This one time act, the greatest act ever done for Mankind since Creation, stands out as the Pinnacle of All History!  This is the one act which determines your eternal destiny.

You can either choose to do like most of the world and refuse to acknowledge Him and His Sacrifice for us, or you can be so grateful, there are not enough tears, surrender moments and the lingering sense of worship or gratitude for Jesus Messiah's rescue of us. Because, my friends, if we choose His forgiveness and accept His Grace,  this will be the only way we can be beyond reproach, on That Day, when an unrighteous world stands condemned before the Judgment Throne! 

Have you accepted the Word of Truth of Romans 15:3 - Salvation? I urge you to. Amen

Tomorrow: Romans 15:4