Posts Tagged "Jesus"
The Lamb Is Worthy
As an Old Testament believer, if you wanted to be touched by God, you would bring a lamb to the Temple. There, the priests would carefully inspect and scrutinize it for any spot or blemish. It was not the worshiper who was judged. It was the lamb. Herein lays a fabulous truth. You see, I can be guided by the Father tonight; I can be led by the Father tomorrow. I can expect to receive abundant life. I can look forward to His blessing upon me and upon my family. I can trust He will anoint my head with oil, that He will take care of the predators who are coming out to get me, that He will lead me through the valley of darkness.
I can expect a table set before me: I can expect to truly fellowship with God — not because of my spotlessness, but because the Lamb has been inspected and found perfect. Worthy is the Lamb. I can receive blessing tonight not because I’ve come to church, not because I’ve read fifteen chapters in my Bible, not because I didn’t watch television. I enjoy the blessing of God upon my life solely because of the Lamb. “I lay down My life,” Jesus said. He didn’t say, you better lay down your life if you expect to be blessed.
While it is true that He would call us in discipleship to take up our cross daily and follow Him, my entry into the presence of the Father is not based upon who I am, what I do, or what I failed to do. It is based upon who He is, what He did on the Cross, and in the tomb. The Shepherd became a Lamb that we dumb sheep might know the Shepherd. Worthy indeed is the Lamb! He made it all possible!
“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father.“ (John 10:17-18 KJV)
Read MoreAwakened by the Spirit through a Song
A thoughtless young woman in Scotland was one day invited by an acquaintance to accompany her to a Moody and Sankey meeting. She declined to go, but on being further pressed, consented and went. She was not impressed by anything she heard in the course of the meeting. Indeed, she thought there was nothing in it,” and wondered why they should make so much ado about what seemed so common place.
The last hymn, “Yet There Is Room,” was being sung by Mr. Sankey alone. He had reached the last stanza: “Ere night that gate may close, and seal thy doom, Then the last long cry, No room, no room! No room, no room! Oh, woeful cry, No room!”
These last words of Dr. Bonar’s hymn fell upon the ears of the young woman like a sudden thunder clap she left the meeting, but the words went with her. “No room, no room!” still rang in her ears.
Conscience awoke at the sound of this warning bell. Nor could she rest until as she trusts, she found rest in the great Redeemer – Have you?
“Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,” (2 Timothy 1:8-9 KJV)
Read MoreThe Miser Of Marseille
I remember hearing about “The Miser of Marseilles.” Many years ago, he was a figure on the streets of that town. He lived for nothing but money. He gripped, and he grabbed, and he kept. A miser, a money grub, and very wealthy he was known to be. He was the object of derision throughout the whole of Marseilles, and the South of France. When he appeared in the streets, the boys hooted at him. When he was mentioned among his business associates, they jeered at him, the old skinflint, the miserable old wretch, heaping up money, storing it up. Ah, he was contented thus to live, and thus to die; and his body was carried to the grave without a single attendant. There was not a soul in Marseilles but gave a kind of sneer, and a kind of curse, as he passed the body of the miser on the way to the grave.
Ah, yes, but when his will was read, what is this that brings mourning and lamentation to the whole city: It is this: “From my infancy, I noticed that the poor of Marseilles had great difficulty in getting water. I noticed that water, the gift of God, was very dear, and very difficult to obtain in this city, pure and sweet: and I vowed before God that I would live but for one purpose, for one end. I would save money, money, money; and now I give it to the city, on one condition, that an aqueduct be made from yonder lake on the hills to Marseilles.”
As they drink the sweet, luscious, fresh water of that city, I believe the poor say, “Ah, when he lived we misunderstood him, but he did it for us.” The bubbling fountain in Marseilles was the gift of the man who was misunderstood and jeered at.
Do you catch it? Jesus was there on the Cross, and the folks said:
“And they that passed by railed on him, wagging their heads, and saying, Ah, thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, Save thyself, and come down from the cross.” (Mark 15:29-30 KJV)
They all mocked Him, and jeered at Him. Yet, it is from this despised One, this Christ, that the souls, needy and thirsty and despairing, are drinking today the water of life.
Read MoreTremendous Power in United Fellowship
“If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.“ (Matt 18:19 KJV)
Your prayer on earth rings a bell in heaven; rather, it pushes a button that releases power from heaven. Something happens every time you pray-unless a barrier between you and your brother blocks the current. Fellowship is just that important. If the circuit is cut, the circuit of Christ…your brother…you, you had better get to work at once on a repair job.
Prayer is a personal contact. It involves a strange three-cornered personal relationship which is: Jesus is with me if I am with my brother or my sister. When we get together He too is with us in a peculiar sense. Our relationship with Christ cannot be a self-centered, ingrown affair.
How sorely God’s cause needs prevailing, united prayer. How foolish, then, for us to let trifling differences separate us and hinder the flow of the Spirit in our prayers. The “agreement” that defeats the devil is no superficial, casual lip-asking; it is the outgoing of the depths of hearts that know only one desire…”as the hart panteth after the water brooks.” [Study Matt18:18-20; Acts 12:5-17]
Read MoreFacing the Storm, Jesus is Victor!
“And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And he was in the hinder part of the ship, asleep on a pillow: and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.” (Mark 4:37-39 KJV)
In the archives of British admiralty at Whitehall , London , England is the record of one of the finest examples of maritime strategy and courage. The ships of five nations were anchored in a bay in the South Pacific. A fierce storm was gathering off shore. It was reaching hurricane proportions. There was much discussion among the ship captains to the best course of action.
The British captain decided to run not away from the storm, but into it. Everything available was tied down. Out crashed the ship into the boiling seas, pitching, tossing, rolling, and shuddering. She did everything but capsize and go down. The struggle was intense.
A couple of days later, buffeted, battered, but not broken, and without the loss of a single life, she returned to port to find the wreckage of the ships of other nations piled in heaps on the beaches.
The storm of the ages is breaking, but the Lord Jesus Christ, the Master of every storm, the Victor in every circumstance, is still at the helm flying the bloodstained banner of the cross. So, though tribulation billows roll and Antichrist winds blow and all hell rages, there is still but one answer for us. In faith, follow our Captain right on into the storm…Jesus is Victor! His grace is sufficient! He will not fail us!
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