THE LORD IS MIGHTY IN POWER

Praise the Lord Jesus who is mighty to save.

All His ways are ways of righteousness and all His paths are peace.

How blessed are we to have God who upholds righteousness and is mighty to do so lest we be under the perpetual foot of  the powers of darkness.

Our God is perfect and altogether beyond reproach who made a public spectacle of the powers and authorities of darkness.

In doing this, the Lord also made a way for us so that we who were lost in the domain of darkness could be redeemed into God's awesome kingdom of light.

Amen.  

O LORD, OUR STRENGTH AND OUR REDEEMER

The heavens declare the glory of God;

And the firmament shows His handiwork.

Day unto day utters speech,

And night unto night reveals knowledge.

There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out through all the earth,

And their words to the end of the world.

In them He has set a tabernacle for the sun,

Which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,

And rejoices like a strong man to run its race.

Its rising is from one end of heaven,

And its circuit to the other end;

And there is nothing hidden from its heat.

CALL UPON THE NAME OF THE LORD.

Call upon the name of Lord and He will save you.

You may believe that you are unsalvageable. Your belief is wrong. The Lord Jesus is the infinite eternal God who paid the full price for the salvation of your soul and your particular condition is included in the purchase price.

A very high price was paid by God to ransom the people who are His so that if they believe in Him, they are redeemed from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of light.

How does one call upon the name of the Lord?  

The first thing to know is that the bible says that God is very near to us. You don't have to travel on a pilgrimage to call upon Him. 

Wherever you are, you can find a quiet moment and say out  loud, "Jesus, I am lost. I am trapped.  I heard that you suffered and died for me and that you paid a high price for me. I  call upon you because I believe  that it is true.  I ask you Jesus to forgive me and cleanse me from my sins so that I can leave darkness and move into your light."

It is that simple and it is your first step towards a life of peace and righteousness.

OUR LORD OUR SANCTIFIER

The Lord is our purifier. He is a refiner's fire. He  purges us like gold and silver.

Place yourself under His santifying authority so that He can sterilize your vessel and make you into a usable utensil in His kingdom.

Amen.

OUR GOD YOU REIGN FOREVER

You  are our God. You are our righteous King.

     You are the wisdom before time began.

You made a way where there was no other way.

    You are the wisdom before time began.

You will return in great  glory and power.

    You are the wisdom before time began  

You are the great Judge who'll judge all the earth

    You are the  wisdom before time began.

You reign forever and Your name is ever great. 

    You are the wisdom before time began.

              (Some lyrics by Theophilus) 

OUR GOD WHO PROVIDES

The Lord our God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He owns everything that is.  He has no shortage of materials or provisions that He can dispense to those who love Him and are called according to His purposes.

He is judicious in His allocations by giving more to those who are faithful in managing  what He has given them.

He lavishes His bounty on those who trust Him and cast their cares upon Him.

Bless the Lord who blesses us so richly.

OUR GOD OUR HEALER

In the passage of our lives, we human beings run into circumstances where they contract illnesses both physical, and mental. As well, we sometimes run into physical and mental injuries because of  trauma that we encounter.  

In many cases, especially in modern times,  human specialists can intervene and repair the effects of these various illnesses and injuries. A doctor could mend your broken leg or a psychiatrist could prescribe drugs  to alleviate mental anguish.

In many more case, people find that they cannot afford medical intervention or that their problems exceed the capabilities of the medical practitioners around them.  

It at these points that desperation can lead some to call out for metaphysical intervention. Some may seek the assistance of tribal medicine men or witch doctors.  Other will see spiritual practitioners of traditions like Reiki or New Age practices.

It is however, the Christian culture of calling on the creator of the universe to heal our infirmities that raises a profoundly stirring question. Could asking the creator of the universe and the creator of our bodies and minds be inclined to assist with the repair of us when we need help?

Christian history is replete with examples of otherwise hopeless cases being redeemed by  miraculous intervention.  In the bible, the gospels record  a man born blind suddenly sees and a woman with a terrible back injury is suddenly able to stand up straight and walk normally after being stooped over for 18 years.

In fact the whole bible lists a large number of cases where people called uppong GOd to heal them of ailments and these ailments would be remediated immediately. In rarer events, people who had been described as dead were revived from death and returned to life.

If the God of the Universe has proclaimed his willingness to heal people, would this not be an irrefutable proof of His authorship of the universe and of human life and is in fact deeply involved in the affairs of men?

The healing of  humans is a calling card of the Most High God. If you seek His promises pertaining to healing and press Him for intervention, you will be astounded by the immediacy and  efficacy of God's response.

THE EVERLASTING GOD

Our universe is not permanent. It has been known for some time that the universe had a definite beginning. This understanding is not even the result of a deep scientific pursuit but rather can be deduced by considering that if, while travelling along a trail, you find a heap of ashes with heat still emanating from the mound, it is reasonable to deduce that a source of that heat, likely a fire, was recently burning at that spot.  Likewise, our universe is still emitting heat which indicates that the original emergence of the  universe  is not infinitely distant in history but rather a definite point within the measurable past.      

To rationally conceptualize the requirements of the existence of the temporal universe in which we live,  we must erect two distinct frameworks. One scaffold  is the temporal one we recognize as our universe and another, is an eternal superstructure that must permanently endure from which the temporal one springs.

In the understanding of the naturalists or atheists, there is no eternal superstructure. To them, the basis for the existence of our universe is an infinite regression ( and progression ) of temporal evolutions that end up, by happenstance, expressing the current iteration in which we currently reside.

Of course, any sophomore who has done mental experiments related to infinite regressions knows that such a postulation yields the impossibility of actually arriving at our particular version of the universal flowering.

This untidy fact is cautiously ignored by most current non-theistic thinkers and have no real basis for commenting on the characteristics  and condition of the universe that truly should not exist when logically constructed on their world view. At some point, however far back one would care to suppose, an infinite and conscious being must exist in order for a universe like ours to exist especially when it is smudged (however so slightly) with living and conscious beings.   

Christianity, when examined at its foundational tenets, easily asserts the infinite and conscious being at the center of its  world view as God. Christianity closes a peculiar loop in the metaphysical  explanation for existence by firstly (and correctly) identifying that an eternal conscious being must exists in order for our universe to exist. Secondly, Christianity elevates the self-aware nature of human beings as being superlatively significant. Thirdly, Christianity declares that  the self-aware properties of human beings are the direct result of being deliberately designed in the image and likeness of the creator of the cosmos. Axiomatically,  this means that humans are made not only to look like God but also made to operate like God.

Using this as an initiating circumstance, one can understand why human beings are alive, why they are conscious and more tellingly, why they are able to study the universe and its accoutrements and understand its construction and functions.  An atheistic worldview would have an extremely hard time explaining how a natural evolution of a species would result in a form of consciousness that can turn around and successfully study and understand the universal backdrop from which it emerged.

It is here where the Christian can layout a comprehensible rationale for the nature of mankind and then go on to explain our current status and the remedy offered by God for our plight which is plainly a fallen one.

An atheist cannot explain existence in general and certainly cannot explain consciousness and curiosity in particular without resorting to feeble trains of  sequential mindless events whose contingencies beggar credulity. 

A Christian rests in the knowledge that an elemental buttress of reality is baked into the fabric of the faith from the dawn of human civilization.  Irrefutably,  Christian canon has presented God with all the attributes that are a required for our existence while modern scientific endeavors have been stubbornly unyielding to the naturalist's dream of discovering the universe's fonz et origo apart from the Christian expression of God.

Further, Christianity presents Christ, a being of staggering qualities, as the exact representation of God the creator and goes onto explain that the apparent enmity between God and man can only be remedied by His suffering , death and resurrection.

For a world view to accurately posit the requirements of our universe, it should be allotted more credibility than a world view that is still claiming to be searching for the "scientific" explanation for the creation of the universe and of the living and conscious beings within it. 

Christianity is indeed credible and implores those who do not know, to accept by faith that Christ is the only salvation offered by God. 

Salvation from what?  Well, salvation from the realm of darkness into which we were born.  We easily recognize the darkness of our world when confronted by the brutish darkness of our distant and recent history and more directly, when we examine our own natures and find that we readily conform to the corrupting influences we are surrounded with. 

Christianity is, in effect, a rescue mission for the humans who are repelled by the workings and demands of the realm of darkness and are searching for a redemption into the  realm of righteousness.

  

THE LORD OUR GOD IS LOVE

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.

 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

 Love never fails. 

THE LORD OUR GOD IS MIGHTY

The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. His eternal existence complimented by all knowledge, all wisdom, all light, all love and all power. 

Any of these attributes located in any other place or being is originally issued from the abundance of God.

However mighty any such other being may seem, they are but a slight vapor in the face of the Almighty God.

The Lord God supersedes any being's ability to comprehend or even imagine His power and might. 

The mighty God, as powerful as He is, is also humble. His attribute of humility and lowlyness is an astounding thing to ponder because it places humbleness as an expressed attribute of God. The vice of pride, which we can all be guilty of, is therefore completely out of place when keeping in view that the originator of the universe is Himself down-to-earth.

Humbly seek the Lord for He is lowly at heart and is approachable by those who are humble inspite of His incomprehensible power and might. In your heart, fear Him because He is a consuming fire and His reach and power are absolute.

Amen.

THE LORD OUR GOD IS GRACIOUS

We are but dust. We are but a vapour. What are we that God should be mindful of us?

Truly we are insignificant but the God of heaven in whose image we are made has valued us and has valued us so highly that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Our infinite value is conferred on us by our eternal Father who demonstrated how much He values us by suffering so terrifying a death on our behalf.

There is no greater love than this. 

Thanks you Jesus for your gift of salvation.

 Amen. 

THE LORD OUR GOD IS EXALTED

The Lord Jesus ascended into heaven and was enthroned on the highest throne and was given the highest authority over heaven and earth.

From this seat of authority at the right hand of God the Father, the Lord Jesus rules and reigns in His Kingdom in Majesty and Glory.

His kingdom is an eternal kingdom of righteousness. A major aim of  His kingdom is to bring about salvation for men by translating them out of the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of  our Dear Lord Jesus Christ.

As people are moved out of darkness and into the kingdom of light, the Lord our God is glorified. 

To be part of the glorification of the Lord our God, obey the Word of God as He leads  His people in paths that spread the good news of the salvation of the Christ who died for us.

Praise Him every day.  Amen.

 

MERCY AND GRACE

Our lives are vulnerable to stumbling and falling. We who are righteous can get tripped up and fall. 

Remember, the Lord is merciful and gracious. When we stumble, we should not run away from the throne of grace but rather present ourselves before God with an earnest request for mercy and the administration of grace through the sprinkling of blood that Jesus shed for us.

The Lord will make provision  for those who are His. Amen.

THE LORD IS MIGHTY

The Lord is mighty and the Lord is good.

His mercy endures forever.

Daily give Him the honor and praise and obedience  that He deserves from us for that is our reasonable service to Him who died for us.   Amen.

  

 THE STEADFAST LOVE OF THE LORD NEVER CEASES

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, great is Thy faithfulness.

Amen.

THANKSGIVING FOR  THE WEEK GONE BY

The Lord provides for His people. He guides them in the path He set for them from before the beginning of the world.

His mercy is abundant towards those who are humble before Him because God  cannot despise a contrite heart.

Give thanks to Him for the life He has granted us and the faith that  He has provided for us to believe in Him for it is through this seed of faith that we can be saved.

THE EXELLENCIES AND PERFECTION  OF CHRIST - 3

A perfect, infinite, eternal, sinless, righteous person suffered the death of the worst possible mortal sinner. 

What could the result of such an imbalanced  transaction be?

Jesus was the best possible man. His life was flawless by the measure of the strictest of law systems. He served the poor selflessly. He spent His days going about His  Father's business. He healed the sick of all manner of diseases and injuries. He brought truth to the ears of men; the very words of life. He even raised people from the dead.

At his trials in the Roman courts, no crime could be found to have been committed by Him. Though accusers came forward, they contradicted themselves and the Roman judge could find not fault in Him by the standard of the laws on earth.

Nevertheless, for political expediency on both the Roman side and the Israel side, Jesus was condemned to be executed by crucifixion.

The death He suffered was the punishment usually meted out to the worst possible criminals. These were the men who had led people astray with  frauds that destroyed their lives and who had maimed others  and who had even murdered the innocent. They were the ones  who merited the penalty of crucifixion.

The greatest possible imbalance was staged when Jesus, the perfect Son of God, was executed as though He were an evil murderer.

After His death on the cross came the judgment in the courts of the spirit realm.  The accusers assembled to find fault with the one who died in order to justify His execution and His descent into hell.

In the same way Jesus could not be convicted of a crime by the Roman court, Jesus was found faultless in the spiritual court. No accusation could stand against Him by the world of spirits who have access to more knowledge than the knowledge of men. No secret fault could be found  in Him and His perfection in His obedience to God the Father was his vindication and His victory.  He routed the accusing powers and authorities, disarming them and making them a public spectacle. 

Jesus  came humbly to the earth as a person completely undistinguishable from other men. He was born in the small irrelevant village of Bethlehem. His birth place was a stable where animals are kept at night.  He lived a life of lowly service even to the last day of His life on earth.

This humble man then emerged into His  full majestic glory. His absolute authority in heaven and earth was firmly and permanently established.

In a thundering demonstration of power, the King Jesus descended into the hellish headquarters of the powers of darkness a strode into the chambers where men's souls were imprisoned.

He proclaimed the good news to the captives in hell and rose up with those who believed in Him from the abode of the dead and raised them from the grave as the first fruits of His own resurrection.

This very Jesus was seen by many witnesses after His resurrection around Jerusalem and after forty days of meeting people and teaching them many things, He visibly ascended into heaven where He was gloriously coroneted  as the supreme monarch of heaven and earth. He was seated at the right hand of God the Father which is the highest administrative authority in all creation.

He has the power to save men from their appointments with death and destruction. Men know that their own reckless and sinful lives speak condemnation against them.  Their hearts warn them that there will be a recompense for their deeds. 

What they don't have is the knowledge that the great King shed His blood to ransom them from the partnership with darkness that they forged with their rebellious lives. His blood speaks the same words He spoke on the cross as He died, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do".

His blood speaks forgiveness and pardon for sin and as the great Lord, Jesus confers this forgiveness and pardon to any who would believe in Him and those who believe that Jesus has the authority to forgive sins.

Any person has the privilege to receive God's forgiveness and pardon. Any person who hears the good news of what Jesus has done for us  by His death and sincerely trusts in it will be given the right to become a child of God.

If you have even a modicum of belief in your heart that this Jesus described here did indeed die to pay for your sins, then do not resist the opportunity to reach out to the Lord Jesus  and ask Him for His forgiveness and His pardon. 

You will be changed into a child of God and translated from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of light which is the Kingdom of our God.

THE EXELLENCIES AND PERFECTION  OF CHRIST - 2

The person Jesus Christ is the exact representation of God the Father who is the creator of the universe.  In fact, Jesus is the eternal Son of God by whom and through whom and for whom the entire universe was created.

Abraham, the great patriarch of Israel, had been chosen to launch the nation that would course through history to prepare a context and backdrop against which this man's life would play out before men to demonstrate the nature of the God at whose command all things that are sprang into being.

In this dusty land adjacent to the Mediterranean sea, a peculiar man suddenly emerged. A man who was diametrically opposite from all men in all of History through all time. This man had no house, no property except the clothes He wore as he walked to and fro across the ancient homeland of the descendants of Abraham announcing the good news of the Kingdom of God.

He spoke of the words of the prophets which foretold His arrival as the savior of all of Abraham's descendants and indeed the saviour of all mankind. At his word, astonishing miracles of healing and wonders were performed before the poor and rich alike in the society that sought for signs.

Humble and approachable, He interacted easily with people from all strata of the society He served. Wherever He went, he mixed scintillating proofs of his mastery over nature and over demonic powers  with social exchanges with friends, strangers, religious leaders and His group of hand-picked  followers. 

He both astonished people and endeared Himself  to them as He regaled them with home-grown parables about farmers and soldiers and wheat and sparrows and wine and bread and seeds and water and friendship and loyalty and service and duty and love. He seemed to have come from another universe with the power to command storms to cease and desist but at the same time, he spoke with such familiarity with everyday life, he seemed to be the next door neighbor. 

Jesus was a startling anomaly among men but how much of an anomaly would remain veiled until the last days of His life. 

The society He was serving began to resist His presence as the words He spoke challenged the status quo.  Plots were hatched to arrest Him and kill Him so as to preserve the delicate balance that the leaders of the day had established under the rule of the Romans.

Knowing of these plots, Jesus began to prepare Himself for the event of His capture and when He had completed His final lessons to His disciples, He deliberately placed Himself within reach of the authorities so that they could arrest Him.  

Here is where the anomalous nature of Jesus  starts its exponential divergence from the rest of mankind. 

Consider his  capacities: He could command natural forces to do what He willed. He could walk on water and presumably on anything else.  He could make people fall to the ground under the force of His personality. He stated that all authority in heaven and earth had been  given to Him which means He had the power to command powerful angelic forces to intervene on His behalf. He had the power to extricate Himself from any fate decide on by men.

It was with these God powers that He went into the custody of the Roman authorities. The Roman empire was a regime that maintained its power with a harsh brutality and it was within this inhuman system that Jesus was detained. He was alone as all His friends abandoned Him to his fate. Such was the reputation of the Roman empire that even the most steadfast man would scramble to get away from its soldiers. Jesus however, identified Himself to the soldiers and surrendered with no resistance while even the strongest men buckled in fear as the theory of a Roman arrest became a stark reality at 3:00 AM.

The brutality began immediately with a guard striking Him in the face. As he awaited the various mock trials He was subjected to, the soldiers pulled out His beard, mocked Him, spat on Him and hit Him repeatedly on the head with sticks.  

The book of Psalms looks forward into time to describe Jesus as having "set His face as flint" while He unwaveringly endured the mistreatment and the knowledge of the  upcoming flogging and crucifixion that would culminate in His death.

After hours of being dragged around from court to court, a political remedy imagined by the Roman Procurator Pontius Pilate was decided on and it was to have Jesus flogged. 

Flogging is a Roman punishment using a bone and metal tipped flagellant to whip the back and legs of a prisoner. This punishment is hard to survive on its own. The blood loss and pain it inflicts on its subject can cause unconsciousness and  heart attacks and other bodily reactions to the extreme trauma.

He must have been trembling in shock as his body tried to generate heat as the core temperature dropped but having endured this trial, Jesus was still unwavering. He remained placid and subjugated completely concealing the primal power He retained at His disposal through all these events. 

After political wrangling between the Romans and the leaders of Jerusalem concluded, Jesus was sentenced to death by crucifixion. He had just endured what is already nearly a death sentence and now, in a fatally weakened  state, was lead out of the city of Jerusalem to be crucified.

The process is easily one of the most brutal things ever done to human beings. With His back raw and bleeding from the flogging, He was laid on a wooden cross.  His arms were stretched out across a transverse plank on either side of Him and His wrists were nailed to the wood with heavy spikes.  His feet were spiked to the support post and then, once secured to the structure, He was lifted up and the cross was dropped into a post hole.

Jesus was now dying. He had been brought to the state of shock already and now was in the horrifically painful position of hanging by His limbs from spikes that were punched through His nerves and cartilage and bone.

Remember, Jesus is the singular anomaly completely different from all humans. He had the power the whole time to stop the process. He had the power to completly bring all of human life to an abrupt halt. He had the power to spirit Himself away and never be seen again. 

He had all power but He did not waver. He obeyed the command of His father right to the point of death and there was nothing in heaven or on earth or under the earth that could make him change from the course that His Father had set for Him.

Jesus was publically exhibiting the absolute perfection of the Almighty God. Being the Son of the Most High God, He is the exact representation of God. The moral perfection of the God the Father is exactly replicated into the Son. The Father could entrust this frightening undertaking to His Son who He knew was so perfect that he would see the command through to the point of enduring a long excruciating death at the hands of the very people He was sent to save. 

The people Jesus spent His life serving and teaching and healing were the same people who were calling for His death and mocking Him.     

It is for these people (including us) that He gave His life for and He would not waver from the task. This is nature of Jesus: Complete and exact fidelity to the Word of God His Father. 

If Jesus had failed to see through His own crucifixion to completion, the effects of this break between the Father and the Son would have been a catastrophe of an immeasurable scope. It is impossible to describe what that would have meant for us, for all existence  and for God Himself and so I will not attempt to do so but the Father, with perfect knowledge, placed the whole undertaking into the hands of the Son and knew He could not fail. 

This man Jesus  stands far above us all. In the high galaxy of stars, His is the brightest, the purest, the most beautiful.

He is Lord and God. He is King and Master.  He is the Supreme King of Zion. He is the mighty and Majestic Lord of hosts.

By the death He willing subjected Himself to,  He earned the right to save men and to rescue them from their fate of destruction.

His demand of those of us who sense our desperate need to be saved by Him is that we simply believe in Him and believe that He died for us and that His majestic act of dying for our sins has given Him the power to redeem us.

Do this:  Act on the gift of faith that He has given you. The seed of faith in your heart to believe in Him is a gift given freely to you. Accept the gift and believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved.

THE EXELLENCIES AND PERFECTION  OF CHRIST

There is a continuum against which we can measure the willingness of a person to commit sins or violate their principles.

At one end of the spectrum is the occasion where a  person, out of sheer pleasure of doing what is wrong, does evil things and does so frequently.  An example of such a case is where a sociopathic killer, for no reason other than his own amusement, tortures and kills other human beings.  Such people do exist but mercifully, not is large numbers. 

Not far up the scale on our scale would be those who pillage and plunder the live of other people to enrich themselves. They are willing to gain material benefits at the expense of other people's lives and livelihoods. There are a considerable number of  people who would be willing to to operate at this level.

Further up the spectrum are those who do heinous things but less out of pleasure and more out of perceived necessity. An example of such a scenario would be one where a person commits vicious crimes such as armed robbery to gain the means of paying off a gambling debt. Further up the scale in the representing a lessor crime would be those who steal food because they are starving. These are the types of scenarios that are seen to be inner city crime and crimes that propagate in areas that are held in poverty.

As we move further up the scale, we run into people who commit small infractions to achieve minor gain. Those who are filling out an insurance claim and overstate the damage to gain some advantage are this category.  A fairly large number of people fit into this group who commit small crimes of opportunity that indirectly inflict mild injuries on others. In this large category are found the people who would do no crimes unless an opportunity availed itself and then only if the risk of suffering a consequence were small.

Further up are the people who would not commit a crime even if they were hungry and needed food.  These people are morally stable people in that they would not be compelled by their own impulses or by their own needs to commit crimes of any kind.

Moving along, we run into a rarer type of person. These are people who would not commit a crime even if they had an opportunity to become extremely rich by the commission of the crime. Close to this set are people who would not commit a crime even if there was no clear victim of the crime but the crime were committed, would gain the person a significant benefit. An example of such a scenario would be the case were  the person found an ancient gold coin in an ancient cave. Such a person would not claim the coin as their own but rather, would submit the ancient relic to antiquities officials for study and exhibition. The risk of consequence for claiming such an artifact for ones self is low but the guiding principles of the person causes them to surrender their find for the benefit of all other people. 

Into the very rare people types are those who would not commit a crime even if a gun were held to their head and their life were threated. They would rather die than commit a crime or violate their conscience. Imagine a person who was being blackmailed with the threat of death if they did not give the secret code to the bank vaults they were responsible for.

 A person below on the spectrum would reason that their lives were more valuable than the jewelry belonging  to privileged people in the vaults and would divulge the code however, the people in this category would see their duty to safeguard the vault as their sacred duty and would rather die that forfeit the role they are entrusted with.

Now we are into the category of people to which almost no human beings belong to. This group contains those people who would refuse to reveal the secret code to a bank vault to safeguard the jewels of the privileged owners even though the owners of those precious jewels has vociferously fought to get him fired and have his life ruined because they thought he was an inferior person. If we were to run into a trustee who was willing to uphold his sacred honor to protect the baubles of the very same people who are trying to destroy him, we would be in very rare company. 

Now  to the end of the scale to  which only one person has ever attained on this earth.  

A person, absolutely innocent of all wrong doing, willingly gave himself over to Roman authorities who sought to arrest Him. He surrendered himself fully understanding that he would be brutally tortured and killed in a slow agonizing horror. He was punched, spat on and flogged. He was then subjected to execution by crucifixion where His hand and feet were was nailed with spiked to an upright post. While there, He was naked and exposed to the elements for hours.  His vital functions started failing as he hung by the nails that pinned his hands and his feet to the wooden planks.

Bracingly,  this person, all the way to the point where He gave up His spirit and died, had the power to halt all the violence against Him. With a single word, He could have opted out of the unimaginable pain and horror. But the person, Jesus of Nazareth, was of a moral perfection to such a degree that He would not commit a violation of the command that God had given Him. He would not, even for a single moment of reprieve, contravene the word of God His Father. He would rather have undertaken to be tortured and murdered than commit a single small infraction against His God and Father.

The awe-inspiring thing about this sacrifice of His own life is that Jesus did it for the rest of us. He suffered torment and the horror of death on a cross so that the rest of us, who are way down the spectrum, could be saved from damnation that our moral failures incur. He himself had no such damnation accrued to Him because he was perfect. We, however, have earned damnation  from our youth to the present time and in fact would continue earning damnation as long as we had the strength to do so.

We are so morally deficient that we regularly contravene moral imperatives without a second thought. We commit sins of lust, greed, violence, theft, dishonor, deception,  envy and all the varied forms of perversion and evil. This is what we all do and we instinctively know that our conduct is demeaning and objectionable and that is why we often try to do these things in secret or anonymously.  We know we are in a dire state and so we often try to curb our impulses but we find we are powerless to change the pattern of our lives. We end up resigning ourselves to our natures and our fate and either justify our actions or give up looking for an exit strategy.

What we should know is that we do have an exit. 

The singular person of Jesus, the Son of God, exhibited a perfect life on earth and proved for once and for all that He is the perfect and excellent Son of God having lived his entire life at the far end of the spectrum where no other person has ever existed.

His absolutely perfect moral life demonstrated the absolute perfect nature of God and earned Him the right to be Lord and King over all the realms of heaven and earth. 

By His own authority, He provided for us an exit from our sinful lives by conferring salvation to us to save us from our moral deficit.

By believing in the fact that Jesus died for us and that he died to pay our ransom to free us from the kingdom of darkness, we are translated into His kingdom of light where moral perfection is given to us as a gift which gives us the off-ramp from our route to darkness and onto the path of righteousness. 

The Lord and King Jesus gives us his perfect righteousness in place of our fallen unrighteousness and from then on, an adventure into the astonishing life with God begins.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

THE LORD IS RAISING A REMNANT

The Lord has set aside a people who are chosen for His purposes. Many are called but few are chosen.

A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people who should show for the praises of him who has called us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.  

Praise Him whose Kingdom is eternal and of it there will be no end.

Thanks be to the Lord who is our Adonai.  He is our governor, our master and our king,

Amen.

HE IS RISEN

On the cross, forsaken, the Lord gave up His Spirit and He dropped His head forward and He died.

The Lord, who had walked the length and breadth of Israel preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God, healing the sick and freeing people from demons, had been rejected by Israel and condemned to a brutal and horrifying death.

He was alone. The second person of the trinity was isolated.  A trial by powers and principalities was undertaken to test if there was any fault in the Son of Man.

There was not a single flaw that could be found for the Son of Man who encapsulates the absolute perfection of  the Godhead and no accusation could be made against Him. He said to them, "If you have a case against Me, bring it". None was brought.

The Lord Jesus then preached the gospel to the captives in hell and led those who accepted the gift of salvation out of hell and they rose out of their graves and ascended with Him.

On the third day, He rose from the dead. As Isaiah the prophet said, He gave gifts to be distributed among the men who would believe in Him. This distribution of his mantles of gifts was a continuation of the distribution of His clothing at the foot of the cross when the Roman soldiers distributed His garments and drew lots for His mantle.

The Lord had risen indeed. Jesus, dead for three days, rose again from the dead. The grave that held him could not longer bear the death of a righteous man. The power of resurrection raised Jesus from the dead and he walked among His people for forty days. He showed them many things and then, standing on the Mount of Olives, the majestic King of Glory ascended into heaven in the sight of His disciples. 

He was received into the heaven and there He was seated at the right hand of God the Father. He was  made Lord and Christ for his perfect life and absolute obedience to God even unto death on a cross.

As for us, the King of Glory invites us into His kingdom of  righteousness and those who accept the Lordship of the King and Christ are given the gift of salvation and are welcomed into the family of God and are given the right to become sons of God.

Praise the Lord who has the power to raise His people from the dead which he demonstrated by His own resurrection and ascension.

LORD, WHO SHALL ABIDE IN THY TABERNACLE?

Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

                                                                       - Psalm 15 verse 1 

The Lord prepares a place for those who are his. In His Father's house are many mansions. 

Who shall sojourn to the tent of the Lord? Who shall the Lord call up to dwell in the holy hill where He Himself dwells?

He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

                                                                                   - Psalm 15 verse 2  - 5 

The Lord seeks those who are mature in their walk with God and the thoughts and intentions in their hearts are pure and who live sacrificially by preferring to place others before themselves.

Such people will be invited  to dwell near the most high God in glory. Praise his holy name.

I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOREVER. 

The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting. In His goodness and mercy, The Lord invites us to partake in the righteousness that He demonstrated at the cross. He set His face as flint and withstood the horror of the cross so that we could have our sins paid for.

By paying our ransom for us,  the Lord Jesus Christ gave us a free gift of salvation that gives us the right to be children of God and inherit eternal life.

We should not discard so great a gift that translates us out of the kingdom of darkness and  into the kingdom of God's dear Son.

Amen.

ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

                                   - Psalm 23 verse 6

The Lord numbers the days of His people.  He orders their steps.

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.

The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge

Amen.

GOODNESS AND MERCY

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the Lord  Forever.

                                                                                    -   Psalm 23   verse 6 

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning. 

The Lord's plans for us are to prosper us and not to harm us, plans to give us hope and a future.

Bless the Lord O my soul.

Amen.

MY CUP RUNNETH OVER

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.      

                                                                                          -  Psalm 23 Verses 4 -5    

The Lord lavishly provides for His people. The Lord loves a cheerful giver and this is because He is a cheerful giver Himself.

Ask and it will be given unto you. Pressed down and shaken together and running over.  He will meet you where you are weak to lift you up. 

If it is mercy you need, it will be given. Remember that God will not overlook or discard a contrite heart. A humble heart He will not despise but He resists the proud.

If it is grace you need, it will be given to you in abundance.  For the Lord leads us in the paths of righteousness for  His name's sake and as he leads you, His grace will abound to you if you need it to grow in the Lord.

If it is acceptance by God that you need, seek Him for if you seek, you will find,  knock and  the door will be opened unto you. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. 

If it is wisdom you need, ask God for it and it will be given to you liberally and without reproach. He will not limit how much wisdom he gives you. If you ask for it, He will provide it as often as you need it. 

The Lord is good.  Seek Him and His Kingdom first and all other things will be added unto you; pressed down, shaken together and running over 

Amen.

Monday, March 29th 2021

THOU ANNOINTEST MY HEAD WITH OIL

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.  

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.                                                                                                                                                  -  Psalm 23 Verses 4 -5    

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. 

He annoints us with oil to strengthen us and to amplify our work and  effort in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. His anointing also strengthens our defences against of the enemy  and heightens our awareness and understanding.

Our God is a gracious King who imbues His people with His power and authority. 

Praise Him always.

 HE MAKES THE WINDS HIS MESSENGERS

A strong wind blows across the continents. 

The Lord sends His angels. His judgement looms and will shake the earth. The usurpers will meet their judge and be no more.

THOU PREPAREST A TABLE BEFORE ME IN THE PRESENCE OF MINE ENEMIES

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

                                                                                        -  Psalm 23 Verses 4 -5  

The Lord our God is powerful. He is the creator of all things. This world and all that is in it are His.

By the Lord's great and final victory at the cross on which He died, He definitively confirmed His perfection and authority to rule and reign over all creation when He rose again on the third day.

Those who believe in Him and trust in Him are under the protection of His mighty authority and in the presence of those who hate them, He provides for them who trust and gives them all they need.

Praise the Lord who sits as ruler over all things.

THY ROD AND THY STAFF THEY COMFORT ME

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

                                                            - Psalm 23 verse 4

The Lord carefully and gently guides those who are His. 

His word is lamp unto  our feet and a light unto our path. 

His strength  and His authority give comfort to those who trust in Him for He never changes.

All the promises of God in Him are yea and in Him amen, unto the Glory of God by us.