Happy Sunday!
Romans 3:23 says, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"(KJV).
Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."(KJV).
I heard someone say that a certain person "didn't deserve to die". Although, we may be saddened by the seemingly senseless death of another person, we have to come back to the Word of God as our guide and standard. Based on the Word, we ALL deserve to die for our sins. Without the saving work of Jesus the Christ, we all were doomed to die because of the sin released on mankind by Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:22 says, "For as in Adam ALL die, even so in Christ shall ALL be made alive."(KJV).
That is the Good News! Jesus came to give us a chance to live an abundant life here on earth, and life eternal with Him. But he won't force himself on us. Revelation 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."(KJV). Don't miss this! If you don't want to die and spend eternity in Hell, open the door to Jesus! Let Him in and let Him change your life.
Jesus had a good friend named Lazarus who became ill. You know the story. By the time Jesus got to their home Lazarus had been dead for four days. His sisters told Jesus that things could have been different if he'd only arrived sooner. Jesus told them not to worry, Lazarus would live again. "Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day."(John 11:24, KJV). Then "Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:"(John 11:25, KJV). Jesus went to the tomb and called Lazarus forth! What a testimony! You do realize that this was a huge spectacle! John 12:17 says, "There were many people with Jesus when he raised Lazarus from death and told him to come out of the tomb. Now they were telling others about what Jesus did."(ERV). There was so much publicity about this that John 12:10 says, "leading priests made plans to kill Lazarus too."(ERV).
"Entering into this fullness is not something you figure out or achieve. It’s not a matter of being circumcised or keeping a long list of laws.
No, you’re already in—insiders—not through some secretive initiation rite but rather through what Christ has already gone through for you, destroying the power of sin.
If it’s an initiation ritual you’re after, you’ve already been through it by submitting to baptism. Going under the water was a burial of your old life; coming up out of it was a resurrection, God raising you from the dead as he did Christ.
When you were stuck in your old sin-dead life, you were incapable of responding to God. God brought you alive—right along with Christ!
Think of it! All sins forgiven, the slate wiped clean, that old arrest warrant canceled and nailed to Christ’s cross. He stripped all the spiritual tyrants in the universe of their sham authority at the Cross and marched them naked through the streets."(Colossians 2:11-15, Message).
Love and prayers, Cynthia
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