What are you giving up for Lent?

Today is a day to reflect upon what we can give to God during this Easter season. We make sacrifices during Lent as a symbol of Christ's suffering, yet nothing we sacrifice can really measure up to what He has done for us. As you are deciding what to give up for Lent this season, take time to remember what Christ did for you. Fix your thoughts upon Him! 

Easter is about the greatest gift that was ever offered to us...the Grace of God...Grace that caused Him to send his only Son to die in a horrific way so that we could have Salvation. He didn't want to see us perish, so He sacrificed His Son. Imagine...someone points a gun at your children and says "pick one". 

If you do not truly understand Salvation let me take a moment to explain it to you...the only thing Salvation requires of you is a belief in Jesus Christ as the one and only true Son of God. All you need, to get to heaven, is Jesus Christ, Son of God.

"For God so love the world, that He gave His ONLY begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life!" John 3:16

IF you believe in Jesus Christ as the true Son of God you WILL have everlasting life. It is that easy because of the gift that God gave us by sending His son to die. His Grace covers all our sin. We don't have to work for it, none of us deserves it, but He is offering it anyway. Open your heart and accept it!

As you are reflecting on what to give up for Lent, remember what Christ gave up for us. His suffering, His sacrifice, to make your life easier. What can you sacrifice for Him?

"Own" your sin

The girls and I have been talking more and more about "owning" our own actions. The other day, as I was trying to settle an argument between three of them, I began to realize that they spend a lot of time blaming each other for what they have done. 

"If she hadn't..." or "...but mommy she did it first!" After so much time listening to them placing the blame elsewhere I sat them down and told them to forget about what their sister did, be honest with themselves, and see if there is any possible way they could have done something different. I said "Imagine that Jesus is sitting right there next to you (cause he is), and tell me...were your actions such, that they would be pleasing to Him?" 

We spend so much time in our lives placing blame on others for our actions, but the Bible doesn't give us any room to place blame, in fact it is quite the opposite. This is clearly illustrated in the story of the first sin in Genesis 3. Serpent engages Eve in a conversation, "Hey pretty lady...come on over here and eat this apple..No, no you won't die like God says you will...He just doesn't want your eyes to be opened so you will know what he knows." 

Be assured...Eve was clearly aware of what God said about the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden, and yet, not only did she engage in conversation with temptation, but she gave in to it. She also turned around and tempted Adam, who was also clearly aware of what he was doing.

In vs. 13 Eve blames the serpent for her sin, but as you can see in vs 16 God gives Eve her own punishment. 

Genesis 3:16
To the woman He said: 
“I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; 
In pain you shall bring forth children; 
Your desire shall be for your husband, 
And he shall rule over you.” 

Adam also gets his own punishment:

Genesis 3:17 
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: 
“ Cursed is the ground for your sake; 
In toil you shall eat of it 
All the days of your life.

Each party was separately punished for their involvement in this sin. Each party had their own guilt. Our salvation does not depend on other people, it depends on our relationship with Jesus Christ and each person must repent of their own sin, therefore, we must conclude, that there is nobody else to blame but ourselves when we do sin. The devil made me do it is not a good enough excuse as we can see from Eve's story.

We cannot control what other people do, we can only control what we do.

Romans 3:23 tells us that 
"all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God". God doesn't expect us to be perfect, he knows that we are going to stumble and fall, however, he does expect us to get back up, repent, accept our forgiveness and keep moving forward to strive for that perfection. 

About Faith

God is faithful even when we are faithless. 

2 Timothy 2:13 (New King James Version)
13 If we are faithless, 
He remains faithful; 
He cannot deny Himself.

There are many instances of this in the Bible. One particular instance that comes to mind is in Genesis 18:10-15 when Sarah overheard that she was to have a child in her old age, she was 89 to be exact, and she laughed at God. Not only did she laugh, but when God confronted her about it, she denied it. Through all this God was faithful and gave Abraham and Sarah a son. This story not only illustrates God's faithfulness, as we all know that Sarah was given a son despite her unbelief, but also the importance of God's timing. The baby came on God's time table.

Some of us may be struggling and praying and waiting for a miracle. We hope God will step up and answer our prayers even though we don't have the faith for it. He will.

In Mark 9 a father comes to Jesus for healing for his child...

17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.” 
19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth. 
21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?” 
And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” 
23 Jesus said to him, “If you can believe,[a] all things are possible to him who believes.” 
24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” 
25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!” 

Jesus saw the man's unbelief. The man admitted it in verse 24 when he says "I believe; help my unbelief"

This same story is told in Matthew 17, in this instance Jesus says in vs. 20
"for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you."

Just a tiny bit of faith and patient waiting go a long way. God will answer your prayers, if you have even the tiniest amount of faith, admit your unbelief, and wait for His timing.

How to we gain faith? 

The rest of this story in Matthew 17:21 tells us this:

21" However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Also the Bible tells us in Romans 10:17 that
"faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Our faith is srengthened by fasting and praying and reading the Word of God. Set aside a daily devotion time with God. Take time to pray. Remember God is faithful even when we aren't. How much more faithful will he be when we are?

Who is Jesus?

Who is Jesus?

The simple answer for this is Jesus is the true Son of God.  

Mark 9:7 (New King James Version)

7 And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!”

Jesus is 100% God and 100% man.  God became flesh so that he could suffer at the hands of men and give His life as a sacrifice for us.  By doing this, he negated for us, the need to make sacrifices to God.  He became our sacrifice, therefore making the need to follow the old law unnecessary. He was every bit as human as we are and He is God.  He loved us so much, he suffered immense pain at the hands of man and ultimately died so that we could be in Heaven with Him!

By His Grace, we are saved.  I want to make this very clear to people.  YOU ARE NOT SAVED BY YOUR WORKS!  Your works bring you no closer to Salvation, if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is the true Son of God.  As Christians we begin to desire to work for Christ.  This is out of our love for Him and a desire to serve Him, not because we want rewards.  We are saved through His Grace only.

Ephesians 2:8-9

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Jesus is the Word made flesh.

John 1:1-4 says:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

Then in vs. 14

 14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only,d who came from the Father, full of grace and truth

Through Jesus we can become Holy, but only through Him.

I Corinthians 1:20

 2 To the church of God in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus and called to be holy, together with all those everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ—their Lord and ours:

Jesus is our righteousness. our holiness, and our redemption.  Without Jesus we can have none of these things. 

 

I Corinthians 1:26-29

26 Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  28 He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are,  29 so that no one may boast before him.  30 It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption. 

How do you recognize those who speak the Truth from the false prophets?  

1 John 4:2-6 (The Message)

 

 2-3Here's how you test for the genuine Spirit of God. Everyone who confesses openly his faith in Jesus Christ—the Son of God, who came as an actual flesh-and-blood person—comes from God and belongs to God. And everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God. This is the spirit of antichrist that you heard was coming. Well, here it is, sooner than we thought!

 4-6My dear children, you come from God and belong to God. You have already won a big victory over those false teachers, for the Spirit in you is far stronger than anything in the world. These people belong to the Christ-denying world. They talk the world's language and the world eats it up. But we come from God and belong to God. Anyone who knows God understands us and listens. The person who has nothing to do with God will, of course, not listen to us. This is another test for telling the Spirit of Truth from the spirit of deception.

The Bible is very clear to us about how to recognize false prophets...if they do not confess openly, their faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, who became an actual flesh- and- blood person, who came from God and belongs to God, this is the spirit of a false prophet.

Jesus IS the Son of God.  He became flesh.  He came from God, He belongs to God.  He saved us from our sins BY HIS DEATH ONLY.  Our works DO NOT get us into Heaven.

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