1 Peter 1:3 3 "Praise be to the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead..." HE IS RISEN. CHRIST JESUS IS RISEN INDEED .  Lord God, You loved this world so much, that you gave your one and only Son , that we might be called your children too . Lord, help us to live in the gladness and grace of Easter Sunday, everyday . Let us have hearts of thankfulness for your sacrifice . Let us have eyes that look upon Your grace and rejoice in our salvation . Help us to walk in that mighty grace and tell your good news to the world .  All for your glory do we pray, Lord, Amen. And now.... May the glory and the promise of this joyous time of year bring peace and happiness to you and those you hold most dear. And may Christ, Our Risen Savior, always be there by your side to bless you most abundantly and be your loving guide , in your journey of prosperity, in you...

 

 I DID YOU DID    WE ALL DID. 

"The Lord said to Moses and Aaron in Egypt, 2 “This month is to be for you the first month, the first month of your year. 3 Tell the whole community of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man is to take a lamb for his family, one for each household. 4 If any household is too small for a whole lamb, they must share one with their nearest neighbor"  Please read the complete  Exodus Chapter 12  The Passover or Pascha as it is called in Judaism, dates back thousands of years, but is as true today as it was then. At that time, the blood of the sacrificed lamb was used to identify Jewish households and spare them the agony of death. It is as true today because we who believe in Christ, know that Jesus was the sacrificial lamb to spare us the horrors of a second death, the death of our spirit. This Passover was fulfilled in Christ, whose blood was shed to free humanity from bondage to sin and death. The first Passover held three important lessons for us today: 1...

Matthew 24:21 "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will". Please Read Matthew 24 and 25 - The Olivet discourse. As we trace the 7 days of Easter in the last few days of Jesus's earthly life, we will understand how important these days were in terms of various messages our Lord left for us.  Today, the third day, Jesus decided to share Gods vision for the future of mankind. He did this through what we know as the Olivet discourse. Jesus knew that 3 days later He would be physically dead. He wanted His disciples to look beyond His death, to Gods vision and things to come. He wanted his disciples to have a common vision of where they were heading, as ambassadors and apostles of Christ. The Olivet discourse is just that. Here Jesus talks about and prophesies events and signs which will pave the way to His return. It's very important for Christians to know and understand this so that ...

The Monday after Palm Sunday.  was Jesus in a bad mood? One story in the New Testament sticks out like a sore thumb and that is the Fig Tree episode. It can be found at Matthew 21 verses 18 and 19 18 Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. 19 Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, “May you never bear fruit again!” Immediately the tree withered. Why would Jesus curse that tree? It was in full foliage but with no fruit as it was not the season. So  was it the trees fault that it had no fruit? Why curse it? I think Jesus used it as an example of people who promise a lot but deliver nothing. The non seasonal green foliage of the fig tree held out a promise of fruit but there was none. Complete hypocrisy! This symbolism today extends to all believers, demonstrating that genuine faith is more than just outward religiosity; true, living faith must bear spiritual fruit in a per...

The Donkey and the Horse.  Matthew 21:10 "When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, "Who is this?" Yesterday we talked about how we view Jesus Christ. Today we take that up a notch. For Israelites who thought Jesus was a conqueror of the Romans, it must have been a disappointment to see him enter Jerusalem on a donkey! A king should be riding on a horse. The donkey on the other hand signifies peace. Jesus clearly demonstrated that He came in peace.   Secondly, He came, not to rule over people and nations but to rule their hearts. Simon the zealot exhorted Jesus to pronounce a rebellion, but was gently put down by Jesus. There must have so many who would have been disappointed in Jesus, because He wasn't what they thought He was.  Maybe that is why the crowds turned against Him. Today Jesus is not entering Jerusalem. He is entering our hearts. Our welcome will be pretty much decided by how we view Him.  As a savior, what does H...

Did Israel believe in the Messiah? Of course they did. Just like you and me. Whether they believed Jesua was the Messiah is another story. They had imagined the Messiah as a great military leader who would give them freedom from the oppressive Romans. After all, that's what they thought was promised. And that's what they believed. And that is how they treated Jesus till they realized that such was not the case. Then they turned on Him, crying for His blood.  Like the Israelites of then, each of us have a picture of Jesus in our minds, and treat Him accordingly. some picture a shepherd, some a king, some a preacher. How many of us picture Him as a scape goat ? (A scape goat is a person who bears the blame and/ or punishment for something they have not done). Today the question to myself is: Do I treat Jesus as a scapegoat or as a savior? If we think of him as our scapegoat, we have not truly accepted our fault or sins, which in turn means there is no repentance because we ne...

FUD stands for Fear, uncertainty and doubt. It is a very powerful tool, sometimes used by sales people to conjure a problem and position their product as the solution. All three, are are mainly from a perceived situation or a perceived threat. It's a natural emotion. You can read more about FUDs here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fear,_uncertainty,_and_doubt Fuds are also a powerful tool used by Satan as well, because humans are very  susceptible to fear. These are so much more serious than sales fuds. They can in fact destroy us, if we are not strong.   As Christians , We face FUDs in our daily life, and when we do, we need to run into the word of God (note the word "into" not "to") and find our strength. Paul's second letter to Timothy explains why we need not be susceptible to FUDs. 2 Timothy 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind". The Bible is full of verses that give us to power...

Hate. Has hate overcome us? Do we really love our neighbors as we profess? Have you ever heard the cliché, “no bond is stronger than two people who hate the same person?” It turns out there is actually some truth to that statement. You can actually read more about it here https://www.scienceofpeople.com/hate/ . But today, this is not about hate but why we profess love, but love to hate. As Christians we are commanded to love our neighbor (which includes everyone in this globally connected world) as we love ourselves which essentially means we do not do things to someone , anyone (even on social media) we would not do to ourselves. And yet we do. Do we really know what love is? There are 15 attributes to love. Unless we can't tick all 15 towards everyone (including social media) we cannot claim to be loving. AND IF WE CANT CLAIM THAT, WE DONT LOVE. AND IF WE DONT LOVE, WE HATE. Peter Druker said "if you can't measure it, you can't improve it". As an exercise, let...