Jesus Saves, Not The Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of GOD.

1 Corinthians 1:23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness.

It is the power of GOD that saves us at the cross on which His only begotten Son Jesus Christ was crucified. It is not the cross itself which saves, nor does the cross symbol. It is The Lamb of God which takes away the sins of the world, GOD's perfect sacrifice; not the means by which The Lamb is slain. But the reason Jesus needed to die?

Hebrews 10:4 For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

Romans 5:12 Just as sin entered the world through one man, and death resulted from sin, therefore everyone dies, because everyone has sinned.

Romans 5:8 But God demonstrates his love for us by the fact that the Messiah died for us while we were still sinners.

The power of the cross is GOD's power of salvation through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. It is This Name Which Is Above All Names that brings a person to salvation.

Acts 4:12 Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

John 3:36 The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who rejects the Son will not see life, but God's wrath remains on him.

Romans 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon The Name of The Lord shall be saved.

JESUS. His Name alone means "he shall save his people". He is the ultimate Savior, the Supreme Commander, the Almighty God come to save His own people. First He came to the people He chose as His own, then to the ones who chose Him as their own. Now GOD is calling you to salvation.

What will you say? What will you do? Where do you think you can go to hide from GOD when you reject His plan of salvation through His Son?

Love Abounds

1 Thessalonians 3:12, 13

"And The LORD make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you:

To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before GOD, even our Father, at the coming of our LORD JESUS CHRIST with all His saints."

Whereas The LORD Jesus Christ lives in us, He also grows in us. His Love increases in us and abounds, overflows, out of us when we love each other as He loves us. It is an undying love, an ever-bearing branch, if you will, that produces righteous fruit in our lives.

The end result of this kind of love is holy hearts, which makes us presentable to GOD on Christ's behalf. Jesus makes us holy via The Holy Spirit of GOD. Salvation grafts us into The Branch, but The Spirit in us causes fruit to grow off of us. If we let Him.

What are the fruits of righteousness? Godly living, which begins with a godly heart, a heart that is the home of Jesus. Many are familiar with the painting of Christ Jesus knocking at the door of someone's home. That door is the door to the heart. The knob is on our side. When we turn the knob and open the door, we are allowing Christ to enter our hearts.

We become His home, His tabernacle, His temple. 1 Peter 2:5 "You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to GOD by Jesus Christ." We are Christ's spiritual houses, and, as such, need to live holy lives. For where GOD is is holy ground. GOD and sin cannot inhabit the same territory at the same time.

So what are these 'spiritual sacrifices' that we are required to offer up to GOD? Titus 2:11-14 "For the grace of GOD that brings salvation has appeared to all men, Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of The Great GOD and our Savior Jesus Christ; Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Romans 12:1, 2 "I beseech (beg, plead) you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of GOD, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto GOD, which is your reasonable (logical) service. And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of GOD."

Spiritual sacrifices do not require any more blood to be shed. Jesus already did that. We need to bring our bodies under submission; this requires determination and perseverance on our part. We can resolve to be whatever we want to be, but without Jesus in the equation, that resolve will not be able to be sustained, nor will it prosper. We need to remember that when we say "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me", it is only THROUGH Christ, not without Christ, that getting things done is possible.

Here's to growing, and growing up, in Jesus. 

F.R.O.G.

Remember this? F.R.O.G.
Fully
Rely
On
God

Starting now. For everything. God is my Provider. His Name is Jehovah-Jireh. God is my Healer. His Name is Jehovah-Ramah. God is my Righteousness. His Name is Jehovah-Tsidkenu. God is my Sanctifier. Jehovah-M'gaddisheem. God s my Glory. Jehovah-Kabodhi.

It is God who makes us holy via The Holy Spirit in a process known as sanctification. Jehovah-M'gaddisheem, The Lord my Sanctifier. "It is because of God that you are in union with the Messiah Jesus, who for us has become wisdom from God, as well as our righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30 (ISV Bible)

Who shall I be afraid of? Why should I complain? No one and no reason. I have God as my God through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ The Messiah. I live in Jesus and He lives in me. There is none that I fear, none that I should be discouraged of. Life is hard. But it's harder without a relationship not just with Christ, but in Christ Jesus.

God does not meet me halfway, but all the way: He gave His Son to the whole world as a sin offering, that sin and its consequences would be for ever overcome/conquered by His death and resurrection. The consequences, the wages, of sin is death. Jesus conquered death.

And God requires us to meet Him all the way. God calls. Jesus saves. The Holy Spirit sanctifies. We are called to salvation. We answer that call when we repent of our sins and ask Jesus into our hearts. God forgives us and replaces our sinful heart with a new heart, a new desire to love Him and make Him happy. But how do we do that? How do we make God happy?

We ask The Holy Spirit of God to make us holy, because we have learned that without holiness no one may see God. "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God." Matthew 5:8 (KJV Bible) "Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me." Psalm 51:10 (KJV Bible)

No one else can save us. No one else can make us holy. We need God.  We need Jesus. We need The Holy Spirit. We need to be forgiven, saved and purified. And we need it now.

(Don't you just love this painting?)

Soon Jesus will be extending His hand to His Bride and the Church will leave, along with The Holy Spirit, who has been preparing the Bride to meet her Bridegroom. This preparing stuff? Being made holy. 

The Holiness Way

     Jesus died to set us free. Why then do we live as if we were still bound up in chains of sin?I speak to you, my brothers and sisters in Christ, who are living under a veil of misconception of The Holy Word of God. See, God is Holy and everything about Him is holy: Himself, His Word (whether spoken or written), His Son, His Holy Spirit. And God tells us many times in His written Word that we are to be holy.

     God created us to be in fellowship with Him, not in fellowship with darkness/evil. God loves us and wants us to love Him in return. He calls us to His side, to be near Him. We must run from that which would keep us from God's presence and embrace the holiness of God. To do that though, to be in God's holy presence, we must be holy. And there is only Way to begin the process of holiness.

     For it is, indeed, a process. It is a transformation from who we were before we met Christ, to a life-changing lifestyle of who we are in Christ. Our hearts get changed when we repent of sin and receive God's forgiveness for same. Our minds get changed one thought at a time as we meditate, think on, consider God's Word when we study His written Word, listen to His spoken Word and spend time in His spiritual presence. (for in this day and age we cannot walk in the flesh with The Christ who walked before us, as the early disciples did).

     Our spirits grow in Christ, in godliness, in becoming more Christ-like; godliness is essential to being in God's eternal holy presence. We are changed from glory to glory, as we advance in our studies of God's Word, and apply it to our hearts and our minds and our lives.
We Must surrender what we desire for what God desires or we will find ourselves giving into what we have been delivered out of. And the chains which once were broken and loosened from our souls will again begin to wrap themselves around us, bringing us down and keeping us down. 

     JESUS DIED FOR YOU. Why are you so unwilling to let go of what He has set you free from, when LIFE WITH JESUS is so much better than life without Jesus?

 "But you, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, unto which you are called, and have professed a good profession before many witnesses." 1 Timothy 6:11, 12

That ROCK is CHRIST

You know what lives under rocks? Slugs, worms, beetles. You know what doesn't live under a rock? Me. I LIVE ON THE ROCK.

Psalm 78:35 And they remembered that GOD was their ROCK, and The High GOD their redeemer.

2 Samuel 22:47 The Lord lives; and blessed be my ROCK; and exalted be The GOD of The Rock of my salvation.

Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my ROCK, and my Fortress, and my Deliverer; my GOD, my Strength, in Whom I will trust; my Buckler, and The Horn of my Salvation, and my High Tower.

1 Samuel 2:2 There is none holy as The Lord: for there is none beside Thee: neither is there any ROCK like our GOD.

Deuteronomy 32:4 He is The ROCK, His work is perfect: for all His ways are judgment: a GOD of Truth and without iniquity, just and right is He.

Psalm 62:2 He only is my ROCK and my Salvation; He is my Defense; I shall not be greatly moved.

Matthew 7:24-25 Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a ROCK: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon A ROCK.

1 Corinthians 10:4 And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual ROCK that followed them: and that ROCK was CHRIST.

Romans 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumblingstone and ROCK of offense: and whosoever believes on Him shall not be ashamed.

Isaiah 28:16 Therefore thus says The Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a Precious Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation: he that believes shall not make haste.

Acts 4:11-12 This is The Stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become The Head of The Corner. Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.

That ROCK is CHRIST. 

The Path of The Just

The path of the just is as the shining Light, that shines more and more until the perfect day. Proverbs 4:18.

The path of the just is walked in faith. Eyes open, heart ready to receive what God has to give. Not blindly following The Word of God, but obediently following, holding onto Love's right hand. Trusting with the heart of a child, going wherever and whenever God leads us.

The path of the just is narrow, the width of two walking together: Jesus and I, or Jesus and you. At first there is only room for one it seems. We see Jesus and our heart leaps within us. Walking or running towards Him, we place our hand in His. Eventually, as we become more like Jesus in every way, we appear to become one figure on this path.

The path of the just is lit by the Light of God's Mercy and Grace through His only begotten Son Jesus Christ. When we allow The Holy Spirit of God to clean us up, Christ's Light shines through us more clearly. As you well know, clean up processes such as this take several days, sometimes months; perhaps, even, years. Only when the process is finished do we reach our 'perfect day'.

More and more the Light of Christ must shine through us. Why? To reach out into the evil world and pull someone to safety is the Christian's job description: Go (ye) forth into all the world and preach the gospel. Mark 16:15. The world is a dark and lonely place. It it not safe here, yet here we are. Someone shone the Light of Christ into our darkness and pulled us into safety: into the salvation that is only found in Jesus Christ.

Do not write this world off just yet. Do not give up. Persevere. Stand fast. Hold. The perfect day is coming and you and I need to be ready to greet it with joy, with dancing, with laughter. Fear not, God tells us, over and over in His Word. He is with us. Knowing God is not just close by, but with us, we have nothing to fear in this world, in this life, on this path.