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.