OUR LORD WHO HOLDS OUR HANDS

There are few things as tender as the sight of fathers holding the hands of their little children walking down the street.

The little ones are guided through traffic and pathway hazards by someone who can see the terrain from a higher vantage point than they can and someone who has navigated the paths many times before.

Isaiah 41 verse 13 reveals our Father in heaven as one who holds our hands when we are in need. It says this:

For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Sometimes we find ourselves in desperate circumstances and Mark 5 verse 41 graphically illustrates such a time saying this:

Taking the child by the hand, He *said to her, “Talitha kum!” (which translated means, “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”).

Here, the predicament being faced was death and our Lord took the young girl by the hand and raised her from the dead.

Another desperate situation that needed the hand of God is recorded in Mathew 14 verse 28 - 31 when Peter was attempting to walk on water and began to sink and cried out to be saved. The passage goes like this;

“Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.”

 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”

Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?”

Peter, in a time of fear, is grasped by the hand of God and lifted out of the water.

The astonishing effects of being held by the hand by our Lord are conferred to those who believe in Him so that they too can reach their hands out to other people and grab them by the hand to help them.

An example of this is reported in the book of Acts  chapter 3 where Peter was entering the temple area and came across a lame beggar who asked for some money. The text reads this way;

Then Peter said, “Silver or gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk.” 

Taking him by the right hand, he helped him up, and instantly the man’s feet and ankles became strong. He jumped to his feet and began to walk. 

Then he went with them into the temple courts, walking and jumping, and praising God.

Here, Peter, who had himself been grabbed by the hand of Jesus to save him from his predicament in the water, was now able to take someone else's hand  and lift them up.

This is the expectation of those who serve in the kingdom of God. We, having been lifted by our God, lift others up by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Praise His holy name.

Amen.

Reference Resource: bible.knowing-jesus.com

OUR LORD WHO IS GRACIOUS TO US

Psalm 145 verse 8 clearly speaks of the gracious nature of God that is alongside His merciful nature. The verse goes like this;

The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

Graciousness is an allowance or provision of margins by which a new or struggling believer can operate within and still find favour with God.

Joel 2 verse 13 also links graciousness with mercy and frames graciousness as the allowance of some latitude that we, as children of God, have within which we can grow in Him confident in His steadfast love for us.

And rend your hearts and not your garments.” Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster.

The apostle Paul, in Romans 5 verses 20-21 writes of the direct relation between sin and grace whereby as sin increases, grace also increases because grace takes over  the  jurisdiction in believer's lives that sin once controlled under the rules of death.  Grace then gains controlling interest in the lives of the redeemed who can then be lead to eternal life via righteousness.  The passage says it this way:

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

The prophet Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 30 verse 18, that the Lord waits to be gracious to us which He is able to do when He extends His mercy to we who wait for Him. The passage says it this way;

Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.

How awesome is our God who gives abundant  grace to us.

Bless His holy name.

Amen.

OUR LORD SUPPLIES ALL OUR NEEDS

The apostle Paul in Philippians 4 verse 18 - 19, writes that the people  of the church at Philippi were sending him the things that he needed and that he was well supplied. He mentioned that the effort that was expended to provide for Him was pleasing to God.  The passage says it this way:

But I have received everything in full and have an abundance; I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well-pleasing to God. 

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. 

The passage ends with the confident assertion that his ( Paul's ) God would supply all their needs according to His ( Jesus' ) riches in glory. 

The implication is that undertaking to supply the servants of the Lord with what they need as they do the work of the kingdom of God positions us to be recipients of God's riches in glory.

This provisioning of the Lord's servants gives us the  opportunity to be participants in the work of the kingdom and to share in the harvest.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD PROVIDES US WITH KNOWLEDGE

1 Corinthians 13 verse 13 says; 

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

As we grow towards love, which is the greatest of virtues as defined by the apostle Paul, we who are believers in Jesus Christ go through a progression of attainments listed in 2 Peter 1 verse 5 - 7.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

Starting out, once we believe through faith, we move to the pursuit of goodness where we start exercising our desire to separate ourselves from the things of the flesh we used to do. 

Clearing away the clutter of worldly desires, then creates a hunger for knowledge of things of the God and of the Spirit.  All knowledge is under the purview of God and those who seek Him fervently will have godly knowledge revealed to them. 

Once we receive knowledge, we gain self-control as knowledge provides us with the correct understanding of ourselves, the realm of the spirit, the nature of our adversary and the authority and power of our God. As well, we are given knowledge of the mysteries hidden away for us by our Lord to give us advantage in navigating the things of this world when we require them.

With self-control, we can then move into perseverance; then godliness; then mutual affection;  then to love.

Because so much of our growth in the spirit is hinged on this continuum, the apostle Paul urges us to make every effort to reach the milestones on the path and the third milestone of gaining knowledge is an eye-opening station of revelation and greater understanding provided for by our Lord.

Bless the name of the Lord.

Amen.

Reference Resource:  dailyverses.net

OUR LORD WHO CLEANSES US

The Lord, in Ezekiel 36 verse 25 - 27 says;

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

The Lord undertakes to cleanse us from impurities and complete the work of sanctification He began in us.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

REFERENCE RESOURCE: thelife.com

OUR LORD WHO IS STEADFAST

As we approach the end of the year, let us think gratefully upon the steadfastness of our Lord who stands by us undettered by our fecklessness. 

He graciously remains unwavering in restoring our souls and teaching us the ways of His kingdom.

The book of Lamentations 3 verse 22 - 23 gives these comforting words;

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Psalm 117 verse 1 - 2 also says this;

Praise the Lord, all nations! Extol him, all peoples! For great is his steadfast love toward us, and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever. Praise the Lord!

The constancy of our God gives us a foundation of confidence in the One  who will never leave us nor forsake us because His love for us is enduring.

Psalm 86 verse 15 underlines the steadfastness of God by adding that He is slow to respond to our vexatious ways which allows us room to reflect on and correct our attitudes and behaviours when we pass judgement on ourselves.

But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.

Let us follow our Lord's example and reciprocate His steadfastness towards us by exercising our own steadfastness in the pursuit of Him and the service of His kingdom.

As Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians  15 verse 58:

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

Bless the Lord who never wavers from the work He began in us which He is faithful to complete in the end.

Amen.

Reference resource: biblical.com, openbible.info

OUR LORD WHO LIVES

The psalmist in Psalm 18 verse 46 says;

The LORD lives, and blessed be my rock; And exalted be the God of my salvation,

The declaration that our Lord lives affirms that He is the source of life and all life gains cogency by being entwined with His life.

In John 10 verse 17 - 18, our Lord Jesus  says this:

“For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. 

“No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Our Lord's life is the hallmark of His power where He could lay down His life in sacrifice for our sins and then could take it up again so that He could declare in Revelation 1 verse 18;

 I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Jesus is Alive! His life is the life that made us alive when we were born again in Him.

This life is that which is mentioned in the universally known verse of John 3 - 16;

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Bless and praise His name.

Amen.

Reference resource: openbible.info

OUR LORD WHO BLESSES US

From the very start, our Lord blessed us to thrive on this earth with His approval.

Genesis 1 verse 27 - 28 put it this way;

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. 

God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 

In blessing us, God confered on us His favor and approval to carry out our purpose and mission to be stewards over the earth. 

The book of Numbers 6 verse 24 - 26 expands on what blessing covers.

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

Here, blessing comes with the Lord's protection, the Lord's favor, the lord's grace, the Lord's  attention and the Lord's peace.

These are gifts from God that we enjoy when we are following our Lord closely and pursuing the fulfillment of His will.

Ephesians 1 verse 3 expands  the scope to which we are blessed by our Lord where the blessing not only encompasses our earthly experience but extends to the substance of our spiritual lives which we experience in the heaveny realm. The passage goes like this.

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

The Lord blesses us far beyond what we can imagine or comprehend.

Let us always bless His holy name.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO CARES FOR US

In 1 Peter 5 verse 7,  God's care for us is affirmed as we humble ourselves and give our lives into His mighty hand. The passage reads this way;

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

Here, we are exhorted to wholeheartedly cast our fears and insecurities upon our Lord because we can be confident that He deeply cares for us. 

In our human experience, we encounter situations where even those who love us and  care for us with the best intentions, fall short because of limitations and insensitivities but the Lord's care for us is underwritten by strength and understanding.

In Mathew 10 verse 29 - 31, Jesus, using comparative analogies, illustrates the degree to which our Father in heaven is attentive to us and thus to the degree we should reciprocate by trusting in Him. Jesus said;

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.

If our Father tracks the life of every sparrow, does He not track the things we have need of all the more? If the number of hairs on our heads are traced by God, would not all the other details of our lives concern Him as well?

Bless our Lord and God who cares for us. 

Amen.

Reference resource:   Openbible.info

OUR LORD THE GIFT TO MANKIND

In a corner of an animal enclosure in a  corner of a village in a corner of a province in a corner of the Roman empire was born a child. A child on whom all the hope of all mankind past and future rested.

This child, Jesus,  was the one of whom the prophets foretold. The prophet Isaiah, writing about seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus, said this in chapter 9 verse 6:

For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

As a counter to all the grief and agony and injustice and iniquity and oppression that the human race had invited on ourselves as part of our deal with darkness,  the child who was given, was the Wonderful Counselor,  Mighty God, Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.

He was the one who would be revealed as perfect and faultless  Lord who could pay for the sins of the world by the sacrifice of His life.

This Gift, who was our Lord Jesus, was given for the redemption of mankind and a chance for us to be extricated from darkness and brought into His marvelous light.

Praise and honour the great saviour of the world.

Amen.

OUR LORD:  EMMANUEL - GOD WITH US.

In the very beginning, God was with us. In the cool of the day, the Lord would visit Adam in the garden of Eden and they would walk together communing over the events of the day. 

When Adam and Eve subscribed to the kingdom of darkness,  they were no longer able to commune with God as they did before because of the rift that had formed between mankind and our creator.

The Lord God, in his mercy, set a plan in motion to redeem man from his rebellion so that people could voluntarily chose to live in harmony with God rather than be in a state of rebellion against Him.

For the plan to work, our Lord first had to be born as a man to qualify as the one who could redeem us to God  and it is at His birth as a human child that the angels revealed  that He would be named Emmanuel which mean God with us. The passage in Mathew 1 verse 18 - 25 goes like this;

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: when His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. 

And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”  

Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:  “Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which translated means, “God with us.”

The plan of God's redemption of mankind culminated in Jesus our Lord dying on a cross  to pay for our sins and redeem us from the kingdom of darkness.

In doing so, the Lord made a way for us to return to right standing with God through faith in Him.

Our  relationship with God could then be restored and we could again walk with Him as Adam did.

Once again, God would be with us.

Blessed be the name of Jesus our Lord.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO MAKES ALL THINGS NEW

In the book of Revelation chapter 21 verse 1 - 7, the Apostle John describes a scene in the spirit where a massive renovation is being concluded and all things are made new. It goes like this;

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.”

And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. 

The Lord Jesus  is described as sitting  on a throne and He declares that He is making all things new. This includes a new heaven and a new earth.

All the old things have passed away and all things are made new.

The Lord is described as having accomplished His ascent to the throne and being revealed as the Alpha and the Omega and He is described as refreshing His people from the spring of the water of life without cost.

A wonderful pre-iteration of that scene appears in  Isaiah 43 verse 18  - 20. The passage goes like this;

Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.

Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.

The prophet, looking far ahead, sees into the throne room at the end of the future Messianic dispensation and sees the event that the Apostle John saw where all things were passed away and all things were made new. And those who were thirsty, the Lord gave water to drink.

Blessed is He who is mighty and perfect. 

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO GIVES GOOD GIFTS

Our God knows us so well. He knows how to give good gifts as a good father would.

The Lord Jesus, in Mathew 7 verse  9 - 11 said;

“Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!

Here, Jesus makes a metaphorical comparison between our earthly fathers and our Father in heaven. Even though earthly fathers are limited and sinful, they still know how to give good gifts to their children. 

Jesus then says, if limited sinful beings can find it in themselves to give good gift to their children, how much better will the gifts given by the Holy  Father be.

Bless our Father in heaven who gives good gifts including the wonderful gift of His Son Jesus who died on a cross to  redeem us.

Amen.

OUR LORD DOES ALL THINGS WELL

LORD GOD ALMIGHTY

BLESSED BE YOUR NAME

GREAT KING OF ISRAEL

BLESSED BY YOUR NAME ( X 2 ) ( X 3)

FOR YOU DO ALL THINGS WELL

YOU DO ALL THINGS WELL

YOU SHINE BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN

BRIGHTER THAN THE SUN ( X 2 )

OUR LORD IS THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE

For those of us who are desperately looking for how to reach God, Jesus unequivocally declared Himself as the only one who is able to provide what it takes to do so. John 14 verse 5 - 6, says it like this;

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 

In John 10 verse 7 - 10, this maxim is expounded upon in this way;

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture. 

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.

Jesus starts this passage with the phrase "Very truly" which is an assertion of the veracity and dependability of the claim to follow.  This is the truth of Jesus.

Jesus then describes himself as a gate which is a way or an access point. Jesus is the gate which is the way to what we are searching for. This is the way of Jesus.

Jesus also contrasts Himself to a thief who comes to steal, kill and destroy whereas He came to give abundant life.  This is the life of Jesus.

Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by Him.

Bless the Lord our God by whom we can reach the Father.

Amen.

OUR LORD FASHIONS US INTO HIS IMAGE

In the beginning, God made the heavens and the earth and filled them with good things and the final task He completed was to make human beings in His own likeness and image.  Genesis 1 verse 27 records it this way;

So God created mankind in his own image in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

This astonishing passage reveals that we humans were designed to look like God and to operate like God. We were imbued with the characteristics that make God who He is.

As the story of the human race progressed, we discover that human beings chose a path of independence from God and as a result, our species suffered a catastrophic falling away that caused our race and indeed the whole earth to suffer a trainwreck of eternal proportions. 

We humans, having been designed to be like God and able to function as His representives, rebelled against God and chose instead to represent ourselves and our own interests. All our pathways, as a race, through the fallen creation,  show marked evidence of our own fallen nature.

 All manner of mayhem, brutality, cruelty, carelessness, war, confusion, purposelessness, corruption, hatred, predation and murder are the fruit of our fallen nature as the laws of sin and death played out in our existence. The human race, refusing to fulfil the function we were made for, ran headlong into severe limitations of survival when trying to fulfill purposes other than those that we were designed for. 

This was our eternal lot and we were all bound to it until the appearing of our Lord Jesus who paid the ransom to re-acquire us from the kingdom of darkness.

Jesus paid by His blood for us and when each of us believed in Him, we became children of God. We all remain in our bodies that are tainted by the corruption of the fall but the Lord, in His wisdom, made provision for us to begin to ascend out of the mire sin and to regain the image of God in ourselves which  our frames were originally designed to carry.

The apostle Paul, in Romans 8 verse 29, writes of the regaining of the image of God this way;

For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

The passage says that we are being conformed to the image of the Jesus, the Son of God and because Jesus is the exact representation of God, being made into the image of Jesus is synonymous with being restored to  the image of God.

Another passage in Colossians 3 verse 9 - 10,  says it more directly;

You have put off the old self [literally “man”] with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator.

The great gift of Jesus is salvation and from that, even though we are fallen, the Lord our God undertakes to reshape us into the image and likeness of God as we were meant to be from the time we were on the drawingboards of creation. 

It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus said in Mathew 11 verse 28 - 30;

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

If we were to function according to design, our burdens would be light.

A Lamborghini Aventador would probably creak and groan if it were used to haul loads of bricks to construction sites through muddy roads  but when set on a racing circuit, its yoke is easy and its burden is light.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

https://knowingscripture.com/articles/the-image-of-god-fallen-and-restored

OUR LORD GAVE UP HIS SPIRIT FOR US

The final act of Jesus on the cross was to give up His spirit. 

John 19 verse 30 described the last moments of Jesus this way;

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

Here, the words 'It is finished!" are spoken before Jesus surrenders His spirit.

In Mathew 27 verse 50,  the events are described this way;

And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. 

It is conceivable that the crying out in a loud voice in John 19 verse 20 and the uttering of "It is finished!" in Mathew 27 verse 50 were the same event. One witness may have heard distinct words while another just heard the sound of a voice crying out.

Mark 15 verse 37 renders an abbreviated version of what happened;

And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed His last.

Mark registers the loud cry and the final breath of Jesus but does not mention the giving up of His spirit.

On the other hand, Luke 23 verse 46 records the final moments of Jesus' life  with the verbalizing of His surrender of His Spirit and then registered Jesus' final breath.

And Jesus, crying out with a loud voice, said, “Father, INTO YOUR HANDS I COMMIT MY SPIRIT.” Having said this, He breathed His last.

These four renditions of the final moments of Jesus' life tell of the story from slightly different perspectives and proximities but what is clear from of them is that at this point, Jesus was completely out of strength and completely out of reserves as His organs began shutting down and the body of the Messiah reached the end.

He had only one strand of life left which was His spirit.

His spirit had tenaciously clung to Jesus as His body and soul endured the brutal treatment under the unrelenting pressure of crucifixion. 

Jesus' Spirit waited for our Lord to relinquish Him and with His last breaths, Jesus released His Spirit to His Father and died.

This solemn event was the culmination of all the decisions and actions Jesus had meticulously undertaken to effectively  sacrifice His own life for us. 

At the end, He gave up His Spirit for us so that we who believed in Him could receive His Spirit as our helper and comforter..

Bless our Lord and Redeemer.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO BINDS OUR WOUNDS

Most people over the course of our lives, incur emotional, mental and physical injuries.

Whereas physical injuries can leave us with physical disabilities and limitations, emotional and mental wounds can afflict us with psychological incapacities and constraints.

The Lord our God demonstrated His power to heal people of their physical ailments in multiple ways. The blind were given their sight and the lame were able to walk. The deaf were able to hear and the mute were able to talk.

These physical interventions were, in and of themselves, great miracles and changed the lives of those who were healed but these signs pointed to the ability of God to heal internal wounds that occur in the emotional structures of our minds.

In Psalm 147 verse 3, the Psalmist attributes to the Lord the capacity to heal emotional damage.

He heals the brokenhearted And binds up their wounds.

This attribution is expounded upon in Isaiah 61 verse 1 - 2 which says;

The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor; he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted; to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

The Lord Jesus quoted this scripture in the synagogue at Nazareth  ( Luke 4 verse 18 ) which describes, among  the primary things He was sent to do,  the task of  binding up the brokenhearted and the comforting of those who mourned which constitute the healing of our  emotional injuries and emotional states. 

The healings bring us to a wholeness and peace that passeth all understanding.

Bless our Lord who restores our souls.

Amen.

OUR LORD  WHO REVEALS MYSTERIES

The Lord God is mysterious. So expansive and so limitless is He that there is no way to know Him and as such, He will remain mysterious into eternity.

There are some  mysteries about Himself that the Lord does reveal to us through His word. 

The fact that God is a triune being is one such mystery that our Lord makes known to us through the pages of scripture.

Another mystery that God revealed to us is the mystery of the appearing His Son Jesus who was foretold but of whom the prophets of old yearned to get a glimpse of but were not shown.

Paul the Apostle wrote this about the mystery of Jesus in Roman's 16 verse 25 - 27;

Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith  to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen

The mystery had been hidden for long ages but now was revealed even unto the gentiles who were able to gain salvation through faith.

We marvel at how great a salvation was brought to men hidden from all until it was revealed to us.

Bless our Lord and God.

Amen. 

 OUR LORD WHO CALLS US TO REPENTANCE

JOEL 1 VERSE 9 - 20.

The grain offering and the drink offering are cut off from the house of the Lord. The priests mourn, the ministers of the Lord.

The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.

Be ashamed, O tillers of the soil; wail, O vinedressers, for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

The vine dries up; the fig tree languishes. Pomegranate, palm, and apple, all the trees of the field are dried up, and gladness dries up from the children of man.

Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Go in, pass the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God! Because grain offering and drink offering are withheld from the house of your God.

Consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord your God, and cry out to the Lord. Alas for the day! For the day of the Lord is near, and as destruction from the Almighty it comes. Is not the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God?

The seed shrivels under the clods; the storehouses are desolate the granaries are torn down because the grain has dried up. How the beasts groan! The herds of cattle are perplexed because there is no pasture for them; even the flocks of sheep suffer.

To you, O Lord, I call. For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and flame has burned all the trees of the field.

Even the beasts of the field pant for you because the water brooks are dried up, and fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

Let us all repent for our sins and ask the Lord to forgive us. 

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO GIVES US REST

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

In this passage in Mathew 11 verse 29, Jesus tells those who would follow Him to undertake His burden and learn from Him  and by doing so, we would gain rest for our souls.

The preceding passage (verse 28) is an invitation to those who are heavily burdened to approach Jesus who is able to give us rest.

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

This gift of rest is an elusive commodity that is highly sought after by men and by spirits but the Lord Jesus is able to give us rest where our souls are refreshed and renewed and restored.

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

Reference resource: bible.knowing-jesus.com

 OUR LORD SAVES HIS PEOPLE

OH THAT THE SALVATION OF JACOB

WOULD COME OUT OF ZION!

OUT OF ZION! ( X 2)

REJOICE, LET JACOB REJOICE 

LET JACOB BE GLAD 

WHEN GOD SAVES HIS PEOPLE ( X 2 )

WE WILL SING TO HIM

WITH PRAISES AND ADORATION

WHEN GOD SAVES HIS PEOPLE ( X 4 )

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO SEES

The scriptures tell of people who declare that God does not see the things they do.

An example is found in Psalm 94 verse 3 - 7. The passage says this;

How long will the wicked, O LORD, how long will the wicked be jubilant?

They pour out arrogant words; all the evildoers are full of boasting.

They crush your people, O LORD; they oppress your inheritance. They slay the widow and the alien; they murder the fatherless.

They say, "The LORD does not see; the God of Jacob pays no heed."

Here, the wicked carry out their deeds boldly,  believing and declaring that their actions are not seen by the God of Jacob. They contend that God does not pay attention and does not notice what they do.

In response to those who say that God does not know the deeds that are done, a response is offered a few verses down in Psalm 94 verse 8 - 10.

Take heed, you senseless ones among the people; you fools, when will you become wise?

Does he who implanted the ear not hear? Does he who formed the eye not see?

Does he who disciplines nations not punish? Does he who teaches man lack knowledge?

Here,  impeccable logic is used to refute the notion that God does not see, hear, take action or know anything. 

Is it concievable the God who formed the eye with its advanced optics and its transducers is Himself unable to see?

Likewise, would the God who planted the ear with its audiological engineering and  transducers  be Himself unable to hear?

Relating to the responsiveness of God, is not the one who disciplines nations unable to intervene in history to assert corrective action. Would such a God be passive in the face of injustice?

Would the God who formed the mind of man to be teachable with knowledge be Himself unable to know anything?

In fact, it is completely the opposite. God's senses are hyper-senses.

 Not only does God see us, He sees the innermost thoughts, attitudes and motives of our hearts.

Not only only does God hear us, every careless word we utter is heard by Him and from afar off, He hears the repentant cry of those who, out of remorse,  cannot bring themselves to approach the presence of God.

Not only does God respond to our actions, He actively directs our steps and turns all things for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. Those who are not called are still continually draw towards God until the threshold is reached where God will no longer strive with a man. God is active in His pursuit of the redemption of mankind.

Not only does God know our actions, he knows every hair on our heads and know the thoughts formed in our minds before we speak them.

The Lord our God sees us, hears us, responds to us and knows us.

Let us draw near to Him for the scriptures tell us He will reciprocate and  draw near to us.

Amen.

OUR LORD GIVES WISDOM TO THOSE WHO ASK

The Lord our God promises in James 1 verse 5 - 6 that he will give wisdom to anyone who asks and the wisdom is given freely without reproach. The passage says it like this;

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 

There is an imperative attached to the wisdom that is given and that is to  believe.  If, for example,  the wisdom given is an instruction to take a certain step, the recipient of the wisdom must believe and follow the directive because doubting causes the recipient to be blown about and tossed by the wind and the result is that the person's life continues as if no wisdom had been issued.

Where does this wisdom come from? The Apostle Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2 verse 7 ( amplified version ) , say this;

but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom once hidden [from man, but now revealed to us by God, that wisdom] which God predestined before the ages to our glory [to lift us into the glory of His presence]. 

This passage speaks of wisdom as a mystery that  was hidden and kept out of view until God revealed it to us. This wisdom is hidden away for us until the time that we ask for it and our God presents us with the wisdom that He has stored away for us such that when we are able to intercept it, we gain an advantage in our lives because it is designed to elevated us.

We should thus be adamant in the prayer of seeking out the wisdom of God because it is given without reproach and it is designed for our elevation in the spirit.

Bless the beloved Lord Jesus.

Amen.

Preference Resouce: Aptl. Arome Osayi

OUR LORD'S VOICE BREAKS THE CEDARS 

Psalm 29 verse 3 - 9 describes the voice of the Lord with stunning imagery the evokes a sense of great and awesome power. The passage reads like this.

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders,  the Lord thunders over the mighty waters.

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. 

The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon leap like a calf, Sirion like a young wild ox.

The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning.

The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. 

The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”

 The Lord sits enthroned over the flood;  the Lord is enthroned as King forever.

The start of this passage likens the voice of the Lord to the sound of thundering mighty waters. His voice would sound like gigantic ocean breakers rolling up to land and crashing against the shore. This would be powerful and majestic as the psalmist declares.

The passage also graphically illustrates what effect God's voice has by using visceral natural phenomena that we sometimes experience in the world to describe God's voice.

The voice of the Lord is described to break the  cedars which are huge trees. These trees, large as they are, break to pieces under the power of God's voice. Trees in the scriptures are often symbolic of administrative  organizations (for example, the kingdom of God is likened to a mustard tree). The ability of the voice of God to break cedars tells of the power of God's voice to shatter kingdoms and other structures of administration.

The passage continues on to describe God's voice as striking like flashes of lightening. Lightening strikes are among the most fearsome phenomena experienced by humans. The core of a lightening bolt can exceed 50,000 degrees farenheight which is 5 times hotter than the sun's surface. Here, God's voice is likened to an extremely swift and exceedingly dangerous occurrence that speaks of the refinement and judgement that the voice of God brings.

The voice of the Lord also shakes the desert with  earthquakes. The amount of energy that earthquakes contain is unimaginable. To consider a voice that can trigger geologic shifting that cause earthquakes is sobering. This shaking of the earth's surface also represents the power of God's voice to shake kingdoms either to re-awaken them or bring them to ruin.

The last phenomenon mentioned in the passage is the voice of God that twists the oaks and strips the forests bare of foliage. This describes a atmospheric occurrence of a tornado that violently rips through a forest and twists the sturdy trees and tears off all the leaves. The imagery of a violent twister slashing through a forested area describes the culling and pruning  that the voice of God can do in the hearts of men to remove the  dross of impurity and uproot the unfruitful works of men.

The voice of the Lord will break the cedars.

The administrative structures of men will be broken down in pieces from their lofty places

Amen.

OUR LORD WAS A POLITICAL REFUGEE

Continuing from yesterday's discussion, the three men from the east, having given their gifts of gold, frankinscence and myrrh, returned to their home country  by another route so as not to let King Herod know the whereabouts of the child Jesus.

They knew that if Herod learned where Jesus was,  he would have sought to destroy Him as a potential rival to the throne of Israel.

Despite the evasive measures of the three wise men, Herod went on a warpath to find the child to kill Him and so an angel came to Joseph in a dream to warn him to take his family to Egypt to escape the hand of Herod. The passage in Mathew 2 verse 13 - 16 reads this way;

When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi.

Jesus, having been smuggled to earth under cover of a Roman administrative census that mandated the movement of the people of Israel around their country to get registered, it now became necessary to flee to Egypt to escape the murderous rage of King Herod.

In the care of His family in Egypt, Jesus was safe for two years and when reports came that Herod had died, His father Joseph was visited by an angel  in a dream and told that He could return his family to Israel. 

Thus did Jesus live as a refugee in Egypt for two years while fulfilling the words of the prophet, "Out of Egypt I called my Son".

Bless the Lord our God.

Amen.

OUR LORD RECEIVED THREE GIFTS

Jesus was born in Bethlehem as the scriptures foretold. In the subterfuge of intrigue, Jesus was born exactly where the prophets foretold He would be born, but the time in which He was to arrive was hidden from the powers of darkness for they planned to stop the arrival of the Messiah who was the hope of Israel.

The God of Israel undertook a  massive orchestration of Roman governance over the land of Israel in order to provide the cover under which Mary and Joseph could travel from Nazareth to  Bethlehem and have Jesus born where prophecy plainly  indicated he would be born while precluding any human or spiritual interference with the receiving of Jesus to the earth.

This logistical feat permitted the Messiah to arrive into history as scheduled  and also allowed for a visitation of men from the east who had been waiting for Him from a distance and had seen His star in the heavens.

These men, likely scholars of the work of the ancient prophet Daniel, travelled from afar following the star that heralded His appearing and they finally arrived in Bethlehem to find the young child whom had been foretold in the writings they studied.

Upon encountering Him, they bowed down and worshipped Him and presented Him with three gifts.

As a symbol of His Kingship, they gave Him Gold. To represent His Priesthood, they gave Him Frankinscence.   To represent the sacrifice of His life unto death for us all, they gave Him Myrrh.

This is summarized in Mathew 2 verse 10 - 11:

When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him.

 Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts,  gold and frankincense and myrrh.

Thus the Lord Jesus was honoured  by people from distant lands who had waited for Him and sought Him.  They may not have known but this child they were blessing was not only the hope of Israel but also the hope of the whole world.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO IS WISE

The Lord our God is truly wise. 

Romans 16 verse 25 - 27 says;

Now to him who is able to establish you in accordance with my gospel, the message I proclaim about Jesus Christ, in keeping with the revelation of the mystery hidden for long ages past, but now revealed and made known through the prophetic writings by the command of the eternal God, so that all the Gentiles might come to the obedience that comes from faith —  to the only wise God be glory forever through Jesus Christ! Amen.

The message of the gospel that apostle Paul was proclaiming is the culmination of  long hidden mysteries that had worked quietly through a great span of time carried by the words of the prophets to secure the redemption that was able  to be received by us gentiles  through faith.

This astounding feat of layered planning and the marshalling of nations and peoples over so many years to weave the fabric required to make possible so great a  salvation,  was suddenly  revealed as the completed work of Jesus Christ when He died on a cross, was buried and  rose from the dead. Because of this, any person around the world could turn to the Lord Jesus in faith and be saved.

The deep wisdom of God  to accomplish this became visible after the powers of darkness were humiliated and defeated and the triumph of the Lord Jesus Christ became evident to all creation  when Jesus was resurrected and ascended to a throne of great glory in heaven.

We gentiles gratefully acknowledge the gargantuan effort it took the Lord to provide a way out of the pagan darkness in which we were lost until the coming of the wonderful gospel of Jesus.

Psalm 147 verse 5 rightly says;

Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.

As does Job 12 verse 13:

“With Him are wisdom and might; To Him belong counsel and understanding.

Bless our Lord the only wise God.

Amen.

Reference Resource: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com

Reference Resource : desiringgod.org

OUR LORD THE BLESSED EMMANUEL

O COME, O COME EMMANUEL,

AND RANSOM CAPTIVE ISRAEL 

THAT MOURNS IN LONELY EXILE HERE

UNTIL THE SON OF GOD APPEAR

REJOICE! REJOICE! EMMANUEL

SHALL COME TO THEE O ISRAEL ( x 1 ) ( x 2 )

BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES

IN THE NAME OF THE LORD

HOSANNA! HOSANNA! ( x 2 )

 

OUR LORD THE PERFECTION OF GOD AS MAN

The Lord Jesus was born as a child and grew up in every way that a man would, except that He was absolutely perfect.

Perfection in this sense means that He was completely righteous to the degree that He could not contravene any law in anyway and would have rather died than break even a single law of God.

At the end of His time on earth, Jesus faced that very conundrum where He could either avoid the horror of death on a cross or he could surrender Himself to be put to death so that He would not disobey His Father in heaven.

He, being flawless, set His face to flint and underwent the Roman execution of crucifixion and fulfilled what His father had asked of Him. He Himself had  no fault whatsoever but  suffered the death that a sinful man would have deserved.

In death, Jesus descended into the courts of the spirit where He was to undergo scrutiny so that his enemies could justify His death and admittance to hell. 

Psalm 7 verse 1 - 6 describes the defense Jesus mounted in that court. He spoke of the consequences that were hanging over Him if any fault was found in Him. He also said  that if He had done anything wrong, He would rightly be chased and torn apart and trampled to death by His enemies.

But Jesus, innocent, claimed exoneration and called on God the Father to rise in rage against His false accusers. The passage says this;

Lord my God, I take refuge in you;  save and deliver me from all who pursue me, or they will tear me apart like a lion and rip me to pieces with no one to rescue me.

Lord my God, if I have done this and there is guilt on my hands—if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe—then let my enemy pursue and overtake me; let him trample my life to the ground and make me sleep in the dust.

Arise, Lord, in your anger; rise up against the rage of my enemies.

In Ezekiel chapter 18, the prophet, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, painstakingly outlined the legal position that Jesus was in at that  court session in the spirit.

The word of the Lord came to me:  “What do you people mean by quoting this proverb about the land of Israel:

“‘The parents eat sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge’?

“As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, you will no longer quote this proverb in Israel.  For everyone belongs to me, the parent as well as the child—both alike belong to me. The one who sins is the one who will die.

In the context of the passage, the question raised was whether a son could be culpable for his father's sins or if a father could be culpable for his son's sins. 

Here, the Lord God declares, "The one who sins is the one who will die" which unequivocally stipulates that if a person did not sin themselves, they will surely live. It is this fundamental law that underwrote Jesus' resurrection from the dead. As Ezekiel 18 verse 9 continues;

He follows my decrees and faithfully keeps my laws. That man is righteous he will surely live, declares the Sovereign Lord.

But if Jesus, the eternal and sinless one suffered and died even though He was innocent, God made it possible for the suffering and death that Jesus endured to be transferred to our account so that we sinners who deserved  death, could have our sins paid for.

Because we believed in Jesus and asked Him, in His mercy, to save us, He undertook to redeem us and ransomed us from the kingdom of darkness and moved us into His kingdom of light.

Bless the Lord who underwent death that we could be made alive in Him.

Amen.

OUR LORD WHO GIVES US LIVING WATER

The Lord Jesus, after a long journey through Samaria, sat by a water well as He waited for His disciples to return from buying food.

A Samaritan woman came by the well to draw water for herself and He asked her for a drink of water. She, knowing the customs of the day, was surprised because Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. 

Because of this, she asked Him how he could expect her to draw water for Him when their cultural identities forbade interaction.

Jesus responded to her by telling her that if she knew who was asking her for a drink, she would have asked Him and He would have given her living water. In John 4 verse 10, Jesus  said to her;

“Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.

Jesus, in this passage, revealed a profound spiritual truth about how the Holy Spirit was going to fill people and that the Spirit of God would be a spring of living water who would well up to eternal life in those who believed in Jesus.

This concept was further clarified by Jesus in John 7 verse 37 - 39 as he taught  around the temple courts in Jerusalem. The passage says this;

 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.”

By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

Here, the Lord Jesus again used the imagery of  living water flowing like a river inside of us when we believed in Him. 

The apostle John, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, resolves for us in this passage, that the living water is, in fact, the Holy Spirit with whom those who believed in Jesus are filled.

Bless the great Lord of Heaven and earth, who gives us living water and whose Spirit then seals  us till the day of redemption.

Amen.

Reference Resource: knowing- jesus.com

OUR LORD WHO IS THE BREAD OF LIFE

While the Lord Jesus was teaching in the Galilee area, a contentious issue came up. 

The  people were trying to find Jesus and Jesus discerned that they were looking for Him because He had miraculously provided food for the crowds. Jesus wanted to disabuse them of the idea that His value to them was that he could provide food for them.

He informed the people that His true value to them was that He was the bread of life and that their responsibility before God was to believe in Him.

He told them that believing in Him was how they could enter into eternal life by partaking in the bread of life which was His body (being broken and sacrificed on a cross to pay for their sins).

The contention arose when Jesus told them that they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood in order to attain  life. This was controversial to his listeners and even to His own disciples who grumbled at Jesus' words and said it was a hard teaching to accept.

Now,  Jesus was using the metaphor of eating to signify believing.  Believing is a form of ingestion into ones heart where to disbelieve is to reject while believing is accept and take into ones heart.

Jesus, who corporealy came down from heaven, was like bread from heaven that can be compared to the manna that God sent down from heaven to keep the children of Israel alive in the wilderness.  

Now, to believe in Jesus who came down from heaven is pictorialized in the eating of the manna and thus the metaphor is extended to include the eating of the flesh of the one who was sent from heaven and drinking His blood.

The following passage out of John chapter 6 verse 30 - 59, touches on these points.

So they asked him (Jesus), “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

 “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. 

All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 

For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

 At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

“Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered.  “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life. 

I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died.  But here is the bread that comes down from heaven,  which anyone may eat and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

 Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. 

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

Thus the Lord taught us how believing in Him makes us alive in Him.

Bless His holy name.

Amen.