Rejoice !!!

Luke 10:20 says, "Rejoice that your names are written in Heaven!"





If you are a born-again believer, your name is  written in Heaven! Secure in the eternal book of God. Secured by the blood of the Lamb. Our names, personally inscribed by the omnipotent hand of God, is known in the glory of heaven, not because of any merit on our part, or success here on Earth, nor popularity; but because of God’s love and grace. And Heaven rejoices over us.

Why Did Jesus Come

In Luke 4:18-19 reading from the NKJV, it says, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”

And in verse 21 He said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”


Jesus doesn’t just proclaim the message—He brings the deliverance.

Exodus

I was reading in Exodus recently from my morning Spurgeon devotions, and even though I, and I presume everyone else know the story AND I saw the movie... I was struck by the one verse that came in my email... 7:12, “And Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.”

Paul, the WORST of Sinners… What?

1 Timothy 1:16 says, However, for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Is there any misunderstanding as to what this verse says? “For this reason” Paul obtained mercy... Right? I will address “for what reason” in a moment, but for now, the verse is saying that Paul obtained mercy because he was a sinner so that Jesus Christ might show forth His patience AS A PATTERN to those who are “going to” believe on Him for everlasting life. Can anyone understand this verse differently? Absolutely some do because they won’t let go of their religion. But this verse is more complicated because Paul says IN ME FIRST (protos).

Consider Him

Heb. 12:2-3, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Perfector of our faith, Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.

Questions

In Mark 8, we read a very familiar verse that the whole world has heard at one time or another but disregards as “religion” and they, of course, do not want “religion.”

I heard someone speak, a while ago, about “Questions” in the Bible. If you want to stay busy for a while, chase down and study out those questions. So... in Mark 8:36 we read,

The Silence of the Lamb

In Mark 15; Luke 23; and John 18 we read where Jesus is brought before Pilate by the priests and pharisees.

In Matt. 27:12-14 we read,  And while He was being accused by the chief priests and elders, He answered nothing. Then Pilate said to Him, “Do You not hear how many things they testify against You?” But He answered him not one word, so that the governor marveled greatly.

I Am Disappointed

The “church” has failed a great many sincere believers of that Gospel we first heard, by which we are saved. The “church” is not that which saves us. It is faith, and nothing else, in the finished work of Jesus the Christ. As Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 15:1-4, Moreover, brethren, I declare to you THE gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, by which also you are saved... that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.

Do Not Profane God’s Altar

Exodus 20:25-26, “And if you make Me an altar of stone, you shall not build it of hewn stone; for if you use your tool on it, you have profaned it. Nor shall you go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.”

God's altar was to be built of unhewn stones, so that no trace of human skill or labor would be applied to it. Human wisdom wants to arrange the gospel into a system, a religion that is more congenial to the corrupt fallen nature, but instead of “improving” the message, carnal wisdom pollutes it until it becomes “another gospel.”

Self-Denial

When a believer begins to discover something of the awful tyranny of the self-life, or has been endlessly struggling against that tyranny, he becomes intensely concerned about the denial of self with the resultant freedom to rest and grow in Christ. Man has many ways of seeking to escape the thralldom (bondage) of self; God has but one way. First then, some of these man-centered methods.