JESUS-The Lamb of GOD

Behold, the Lamb of God

John 1:29-34

The very next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and yelled out,

“Here he is, God's Passover Lamb! “

He forgives the sins of the world! This is the man I've been talking about, 'the One who comes after me but is really ahead of me.'

I knew nothing about who he was—only this: that my task has been to get Israel ready to recognize him as the God-Revealer. That is why I came here baptizing with water, giving you a good bath and scrubbing sins from your life so you can get a fresh start with God."

John clinched his witness with this: "I watched the Spirit, like a dove flying down out of the sky, making himself at home in him.

I repeat, I know nothing about him except this: The One who authorized me to baptize with water told me, 'The One on whom you see the Spirit come down and stay, this One will baptize with the Holy Spirit.'

That's exactly what I saw happen, and I'm telling you, there's no question about it: This is the Son of God." MSG

Following Jesus as a Disciple

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me . . . But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. (Luk 9:23 and Gal 6:14)

Following Jesus as a disciple is one way to relate rightly to the Lord in humility and faith. The first aspect of following Jesus involves renouncing the self-life. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself." It is certainly humbling to admit that any life we would develop by our own natural resources is unacceptable to the Lord and must be repudiated. The next aspect of being a disciple is also humbling.

This second issue in discipleship is the cross: "and take up his cross." When Jesus spoke of the cross, He was speaking of the ultimate instrument of execution in His day. Consequently, after renunciation of self, we are to confess death for self. The means of this death is the cross of Christ. Those who want to follow Jesus as disciples are to take the cross of Christ as their own personal cross. In doing so, they are admitting to God that they deserved to die upon that cross. "For the wages of sin is death" (Rom 6:23). Furthermore, they are agreeing with the word of God that Jesus died upon that cross on their behalf. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures . . . who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree" (1Co 15:3 and 1Pe 2:24). This gospel (which brings forgiveness of sins to all who believe) includes the essential truth of the resurrection. "Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (1Co 15:1, 1Co 15:3-4).

Another wondrous benefit of the cross is that we who believe in Jesus also died there with Him. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him" (Rom 6:6). The old self-life that we were developing while "in Adam" (1Co 15:22) was executed on the cross with Christ. Yes, the cross is the way out of this world of dead sinners, and we can rightly boast in that truth. "But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world." Meanwhile, the attitudes and resources of the old man persist in our flesh (our natural humanity). Thus, we are to renounce self and confess death to self day by day: "let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily."

Lord Jesus, I confess Your cross as my cross. I deserved to die there, but You died in my place. I boast in that cross, where I also died with You. Now, through the cross, I have escaped this dead, condemned world. I praise You that these truths both humble my heart and stir my faith!

Never Hesitate to Say Yes to God’s Plan for Your Life

Lesson Three:

“Be it unto me according to Thy Word.” (Luke 1:38)

Os Guinness writes, ” Our passion is to know we are fulfilling the purpose for which we are on earth. All standards of success — wealth, power, knowledge, position, fame — grow tiny and hollow if we do not satisfy this deeper longing.”

Nothing short of God’s will obeyed can both ground and fulfill the truest human desire for significance. And we are never happier than when we are expressing the deepest gifts and callings that are truly us.

Abraham was called by God out of a dead religion practiced by pagans, and became the Father of Faith. He was without children until God spoke a promise. Abraham believed God and became the Father of Nations. He said yes to God.

Moses was a stuttering stammering sheep herding Bedouin in the high deserts of Midian, when a burning bush caught his eye. Approaching the Bush, he heard a voice. That Voice spoke of great and mighty things to come. Moses answered, “Who am I?” The Voice called him out of his own sense of inability and limitations, and ushered him forth into the great drama of human history as one of the greatest and most influential men who has ever lived. He said yes to God.

was the runt of the litter; the eighth born son in a family where seven was enough. Last on the food chain, there was usually nothing left when his turn came along. God spoke a promise to his young heart in the isolated fields of unseen worship. He believed God and rose to become the greatest King Israel has ever known. He said yes to God.

Mary said yes to God and rose from humble surroundings to be the mother of our Lord.

Now it’s your turn. Whatever the situation of your life, or the circumstances in which you presently find yourself — it is never too late to say yes to God’s will for your life. He can still do the impossible with the improbable.

He CAN do what He says He can do. And He WILL do what He says He will do!

NEVER overlook the extraordinary potential of the ordinary! NEVER under-estimate the power of a personal word from God! And, NEVER hesitate to say yes to God’s plan for your life! These are the three great lessons we learn from a peasant girl named Mary.

James Ryle

Luke 1:38

38 Then Mary said, Behold, I am the handmaiden of the Lord; let it be done to me according to what you have said. And the angel left her.

WHO IS JESUS?

What is The Alpha Course?

Alpha is for anyone interested in exploring questions of life and spirituality.

We spend 8 evenings considering some of the big questions in life including:
“What can I really believe?” ”Does prayer work?” “Who is Jesus?” and “Is there a God?”

THE TALISMAN OF VICTORY

THE TALISMAN OF VICTORY
"In all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us."-- Rom_8:37.

CAN ANYTHING separate me from the love of Christ? was the only question that St. Paul felt worth consideration. 
In this paragraph he takes the extreme conditions of being, and carefully investigates them, knowing that they include all between. 
First, he interrogates Existence--"death and life"; next, created Intelligences--"Angels, principalities, and powers"; 
next, the extremes of Time--"things present, things to come"; next, of Space---"height and depth"; 
lastly, the created Universe --"any other creature." Each of these extremes is passed in review. 
He is like a man proving every link of the chain in which he is going to swing out over the abyss. Carefully and fervently he has tested all, and is satisfied that none of them can cut him off from the love of God.

We strangely misjudge and mistrust the Love of God our Father, and think that our distresses and sufferings, our sins and failures, may make Him love us less. 
But in the home, it is not the troop of sturdy children that engross the mother's care so much as the puny feeble life, that lies in the cot, unable to help itself and reciprocate her love. And in the world, death and pain, disease and sorrow, sin and failure, so far from separating us from God's love, bind us closer.
Oh blessed Love! that comes down to us from the heart of Jesus, the essence of the eternal love of God--nothing can ever staunch, exhaust, intercept it. It is not our love to Him, but His to us, and since nothing can separate us from the love of God, He will go on loving us for ever, and pouring into us the entire fullness of His life and glory. 
Whatever our difficulties, whatever our weakness and infirmity, we shall be kept steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord; gaining by our losses, succeeding by our failures, triumphing in our defeats, and ever more than conquerors through Him that loved us.

PRAYER
Yea thro' life, thro' sorrow and thro' sinning He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed: Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning, Christ is the beginning, for the end is Christ.

Scatters yet increases!

Scatters yet increases!

John Francis <disciplejohn@outlook.com>

Back to the Bible daily 30th September

Proverbs 11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty.

Our God has great super natural power that is beyond our understanding, because we know that no one can walk on water yet our Lord did. No one can bring the dead back to life after they have been dead for three days, but our Lord did. In the same way my life can be such that all my personal possessions are lost to me yet I still can increase. How can this be? The answer is in the text that shows us that God is a supernatural power that can both give and take away.

In the past I was put in a situation where all my reserve of savings were used in a purpose I had not expected. I believe there should have been sufficient money there from another source, and there was no satisfactory explanation where that money has gone. I was not concerned because God has already restored a lot of my savings from another unexpected source. My God restores what the locust has taken. away

Prayer: Thank you loving Heavenly Father because all we have comes from you, we are nothing without you. Grant that God the Holy Ghost will constantly provoke us, so we will serve you better. May your will be done your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Put you on the Lord Jesus

“Put you on the Lord Jesus.”
Mat_22:1-14
Mat_22:2-3
It was their sovereign who invited them, and to refuse His invitation was an act of rebellion. 
Their presence was intended to render honour to the marriage of their prince, and their resolution to be absent was a studied insult both to the king and His son. God in infinite condescension has decreed to glorify His Son by bestowing His rich grace upon undeserving man, and when man willfully rejects the favour, he is guilty of insulting the Lord of love. 
Will any of us live and die in this sin?
Mat_22:4
He was very patient, and condescended to reason with His erring subjects, hoping that perhaps their second thoughts might correct their hasty words. He even pleaded with them, though He might have sent forth His armies at once to destroy them. How true a representation is this of the great Father of mercy!
Mat_22:5-6
Only a few were persecutors, the many were despisers only, but they perished in the general doom, for they had despised their prince.
Mat_22:7; Mat_22:10
Those who hear the gospel regularly are often found rejecting it, yet the Lord’s purposes of grace will not fail, Jesus shall see of the travail of his soul, and heaven shall be tenanted by rejoicing millions. Out of the poorest and meanest of mankind sovereign grace will select its favoured ones, and make them partakers of its bounty.

Mat_22:11-12
His conduct was as gross an insult as that of those who refused to come. A dress was provided for each guest, but he would not put it on, he despised the royal livery, and defied the regal law in the palace itself. Thus do those act who unite themselves with the church, and yet are not holy, nor obedient to Jesus. 
They insult the Redeemer to His face and defy Him in His own house. Are any of us guilty of this? Do we profess to be Christians, and go to the communion table, though we do not wear the garments of sanctification! 
If so, let us tremble at the doom which awaits us.

Mat_22:13-14
Even in the visible church all are not the
Lord’s elect. What need of careful self-examination! 
Lord, make us to be truly thine own.

Oh! why do mortals yet despise
This Bridegroom from above?
And for their farms and merchandise
Neglect the feast of love?

Send forth thy messengers, O Lord,
Through all the haunts of sin;
And, hailing sinners by thy word,
Compel them to come in.

For they, who once this supper taste,
Shall thirst for sin no more;
And they, who see The Bridegroom’s face,
Eternally adore.