yeshuaholdsme

[yeshuaholdsme]

The point of the Gospel

While I was preparing for our Spiritual Self-Defense class, Rick Warren tweeted this timely reminder: “If you spend more time defending the truth than actually sharing it, you will have missed the point of the Gospel.”

What is the point of the Gospel? Isn’t it simply that mankind is lost without God, and that only a relationship with Jesus can bring true life? If that’s the point, we can never argue someone into this divine relationship.

Here are some other thoughts I’m trying to keep in mind for this exciting class:

Jesus never shouted down those who disagreed with Him. Isaiah’s prophesy about Jesus said, “He will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets.” And that’s exactly how Jesus conducted Himself.

Jesus said, “God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.” Jesus didn’t come to win an argument, but to win lost people to a relationship with His Father.

There are very few exclamation points in Christ’s dialogue in the Gospels, but there are a lot of question marks. He was interested in engaging people in conversation.

G. K. Chesterton said, “The principle objection to a quarrel is that it interrupts an argument.” We need to discuss, not argue.

I’m really looking forward to leading this class, but I’m also excited about what I’m learning in the process.

[yeshuaholdsme]

You Are Special!

You Are Special …in all the world there is nobody like you. Since the beginning of time, there has never been another person like you. Nobody has your smile. Nobody has your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your hair, your hands, your feet, your voice. You are special! No one sees things just as you do. In all of time there has been no one who laughs like you, no one cries like you. And what…

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[yeshuaholdsme]

Having Jesus in the boat with you doesn’t mean the storm won’t rock you; it simply means the storm will not sink you.

- My Pastor

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“Always respond to every impulse to pray. The impulse to pray may come when you are reading or when you are battling with a text. I would make an absolute law of this always obey such an impulse.”

—

Martyn Lloyd-Jones

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“You can’t fight a spiritual war with carnal weapons.”

— (via wonderfulgrace)

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If you are not as close to God as you used to be, who moved?

[yeshuaholdsme]

Good Friday

This is where it was heading.

Remember all of the wonderful stuff at Christmas? Angels, shepherds, wisemen, a newborn king?

This is where it was going the whole time. Good Friday.

All that “God with us” stuff? It sounded so sentimental, so warm and fuzzy back then.

This is what it really means.

God with us, when we can’t see a way out.

God with us, when we did it to ourselves.

God with us, at our worst.

God with us.

God with us, carrying our load.

God with us, though we don’t deserve it.

God with us, doing what we could never do on our own.

In everything, especially the worst things, we are never alone. God will never abandon us.

Even if we can’t feel it in the moment. Even when it hurts too much to feel much of anything. Even when we’re angry with God. Even when we doubt God.

That changes nothing.

God loves us too much to abandon us.

There’s this idea that too many of us have, that Faith means nothing ever goes wrong. That if you believe hard enough. That if you’re good enough. That if you’re holy enough, nothing bad will happen to you.

I don’t know where that idea comes from. It certainly wasn’t Good Friday.

Because today, we see the perfect person. Sinless. Someone who raises the dead, heals the sick. Fully God and fully man. Someone who is literally as good as it gets, as holy as it gets.

Murdered. In the public spectacle of a government-sponsored torture killing.

And here’s the thing – being fully God and being aware that all of that was going to happen. Being fully human and being terrified by all of the suffering that would entail.

He went through with it anyway.

This is why I say, this is how I know that God loves us too much to abandon us.

One more thing.

All of this is personal. He did this just for me. He did this just for you.

If everyone else was sinless. If you or I were the only person who ever needed saving in all of history.

Good Friday would still have happened.

Because God loves you too much to abandon you.

Today’s Readings

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[yeshuaholdsme]

We may not understand what God is doing but keep in mind, that God is a faithful Father and he will not leave you alone in your situation. The circumstances may show you otherwise, but remember we walk by faith and not by sight. Our Savior has never failed and he never will. Keep trusting in his promises ✨🙏

“Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.”

‭‭Philippians‬ ‭4:6-7‬ ‭NLT‬‬

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“You never heard a saint on his knees yet tell the Lord that he had a good nature, that he did not need renewing. Saints, as they grow in divine grace, are made to feel more and more acutely the evil of their old nature. You will find that those who are most like Christ have the deepest knowledge of their own depravity and are humblest while they confess their sinfulness.”

— Charles Spurgeon

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“My sin in the past: forgiven. My current struggles: covered. My future failures: paid in full all by the marvelous, infinite, matchless grace found in the atoning work of the cross of Jesus Christ.”

— Matt Chandler

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“If you listen, you will hear Him. In our question, He’s the answer. Just like my daddy, he always taught me. I remember that day when He called my name, nothing was the same. Because the voice and everything was changed. I saw myself in a different way. Listen to the texture and the tone. Listen for the kindness, for the hope. It’s the sound that leads you home. He is holy. It’s so holy.”

— Voice of God, Dante Bowe

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“‘God. Loves. Me’ It still humbles me. That realization that the force which made leaves, and fleas, and stars, and rivers, and you, loves me. I can do anything, and do it well. Any good thing, I can do it, because God loves me.”

— Maya Angelou

[yeshuaholdsme]

[yeshuaholdsme]

Allow God to change your life.

Allow God to take what’s broken and turn into something beautiful for yourself and others you will meet.

Your life is not just about you. Your sufferings and crosses are not just about you. Your future is not just about you. There are people out there waiting to hear your story. There are people out there hurting, in need of your smile. There are people who are not born yet, who will hear about you and be impacted by your life. We are created for love and to be part of that immense family of God’s children.

Ask God to make your life an instrument of redemption - of His redemption.

Always believe in His love.

Remember that your part of an eternal love story; a story of grace, forgiveness, new beginnings, of glory, of life, of peace and joy. May you be used by God to accomplish great things beyond your imagination. May you be used by God to accomplish something that will bear fruit beyond your own earthly life span. May you be a blessing to many in need of the light of Jesus - help Him save and change the world!

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Why are you distant, beloved? The veil is torn.

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Jesus: You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Me: But he--

Me: But she--

Me: But they--

Me: But what if--

Jesus: Did I stutter?