Tag Archives: salvation

Who Is Jesus

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Who Do You Say Jesus Is?

My faith is the most important aspect of my life. At age twenty-one, I accepted God’s provision for my sin debt and made Jesus Christ the Lord and Savior of my life and soul. From that point on, I have never looked back nor have I ever regretted my decision. Jesus is my Redeemer.

One of my favorite episodes in the Bible is found in Mark 8. Jesus asked His disciples a very important question

“Who do men say that I am?”

The disciples gave various answers, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and some say you are one of the prophets”.

Jesus then asked the most important question, “But who do you say that I am?”

What a great question! What a great way to make it personal. Jesus is not interested in hearing our theology of –anything; He wants to know what you think, what you believe.

Who do you say Jesus is?

That’s a personal question; one that is answered in your heart—in the deepest part of your being. It’s an answer that, no matter what your words say to others, your answer will be known at the end of time (at the end of your time here on earth).

Who do you say Jesus is?

Peter answered the Lord rightly when he said, “Thou art the Christ”. The Bible says He is the Son of God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, The Bright and Morning Star, The Lion of Judah and The Lamb of God; He is the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. He has been given a name above all names, and that all will eventually bow before him. His name is Jesus, the only begotten of the Heavenly Father. He is our Mediator, the Rock of our Salvation, and the propitiation for our sins.

Who do you say Jesus is?

Jesus said of Himself, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Who do you say Jesus is?

Mark 8:34 says that Jesus called His disciples and the people who were with them together, and said,

“Whosoever will come after me, let him take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?”

So, do you have an answer?  Have you ever considered it before?

Who do you say Jesus is?

Who’s In Control Of This Out-of-Control World

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I can hardly force myself to watch the news anymore. Every headline screams of scandalous politics, excessive immorality, abominable acts our government has allowed, and innumerable stories of crimes, murders, and wars.

I’m an optimist by nature, but in the shadow of all this commotion, I tend to get discouraged with the world.

When I get like this, the first thing I do is turn off the TV! (and get a snack, of course)

The second thing I do is go to the Lord.

And the third thing I do is sing Louis Armstrong’s endearing song, “It’s a Wonderful World.”  

For me, this seems to put things back into prospective. 

 

 

 

 

In this world of turmoil and uncertainty, we need to keep our eyes on the One who can contain the whole world in the palm of His hand (Isaiah 40:12).

Like Peter walking on the water with Jesus, we are surrounded by a tumultuous sea. To look around and see how much trouble we could be in, if we were out there by ourselves, would cause us to slip deeper and deeper into the turmoil.

However, if we keep our eyes on God and trust His way, we stay atop of the chaos and look toward the work He has for us.

No matter what happens this side of heaven, God has it all under His control.

 

Isaiah 40_28

 

“Do you not know?

Do you not hear?

Has it not been told you from the beginning?

Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is He who sits above the circle of the earth,

And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

And spreads them like a tent to dwell in;

Who brings princes to nothing,

And makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.

Have you not known?

Have you not heard?

The Lord is the everlasting God,

The Creator of the ends of the earth.

He does not faint or grow weary;

His understanding is unsearchable.

He gives power to the faint,

And to him who has no might He increases strength.”

Isaiah 40:21-23, 28-29

 

Food for Thought

The great prophet Isaiah tells us in these passages that God is everlasting, the Creator of all living things, and that His understanding is too great for us.

Because of His greatness, it’s hard for us to understand why He would pay any attention to us or our problems. But God does. (remember…His understanding is unsearchable for us)

God loved us enough to fix the broken relationship that has been caused by our sin.

In Isaiah’s own words he said of God, “He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength.”

 

 

 

Places to ponder:

 

I WOULD LOVE TO HEAR YOUR THOUGHTS!

 

–How do you find peace when everything around you is in such an uproar?

–Do you have a favorite Bible verse to go to?

–It’s hard to be positive when things are so crazy. Is there someone you can go to and help you talk things out?

–Or do you like to write things down and keep them between you and God?

 

Please share your thoughts in the comment section, I would really love to hear from you. 🙂

Walking On Thin Ice

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“I need a camera,” I informed The Farmer last November.

“I thought you had a good camera on your phone,” he reminded me.

“I do, but it doesn’t zoom far enough. I need a camera that zooms so I don’t have to get out in the cold and take pictures. Remember last year when the cow had her baby in the snow? I couldn’t get close enough to get a really good picture.”

I’m not sure he was truly convinced, but since it was right before Christmas, I had a really good chance of getting one. And I did. Doing the research, I got a great deal during the Black Friday sales (online, by the way).

And I’ve taken some great pics. I can sit in my sitting room and zoom in on the McD’s cup that is sitting on the counter and see the advertisement on the cup.

I’ve also taken some wintery shots off the deck when we had all that freezing snow the last couple of months.
Can you see the cattle?

Unfortunately,  after I got the camera, I  lost my muse for a time, because The Farmer hadn’t been doing much around the farm. Well, he has fed hay, and scraped the feed lot, and fixed waterers, and shoveled snow, and chopped ice on the pond, but  it was too cold for me to get outside, and too far away from the porch for me to take pictures. Until the other day when he went out to spread red clover on the pastures.

We re-seed our red clover in our pastures every couple of years, because it’s the natural way to put nitrate back into the ground (nitrate helps the grasses grow). A good time to spread seed is while the snow is on the ground, and right before spring thaw. Since the weather seemed to be cooperating, you can imagine how excited I was to find out The Farmer was going to go do something I could take pictures of and write about. I was also silently hoping to take a video.

Hurrying to get my coat and boots on, I rushed out the door just in time to take a picture of The Farmer pulling away. “Click” (always take two) “Click.”


Walking along trying to adjust the zoom, I all of sudden found myself lying flat on my back, with a cracked elbow, rattled teeth, and a throbbing backside! The only thing that I was aware of was the fact that I threw my camera as I went down. As I lay there getting my bearings, my rendezvous with The Farmer was forgotten. Completely unnoticed by him, I hobbled into the house to access the damage, and was thankful to realize that nothing was broken. Later, retelling the story to The Farmer, I was amazed to find how much concern he had for my camera. I assured him that I too had come away unscathed.

Later, as I was again walking outside (being more watchful this time), I thought about how quickly my world was “turned up-side down.” How I was going through the motions of my day, thinking, planning, doing, and then in a split-second my feet were gone from out from under me and I was lying helpless on the ground. All my thoughts, plans, and motions had been changed to something completely different with that one small slip on the ice.

Jonathan Edwards (a 18th century preacher during America’s Great Awakening) spoke of this very thing in his well-known sermon “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.” He used Deuteronomy 32:35 as his text, “…their foot shall slide in due time.”

His sermon can be read here >>Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God , or you can listen to a reenacted version >>HERE<<. It’s a long read, but it is so worth the time it takes.

I was reminded of his key statement, “…their foot shall slide in due time.” When I slid on the ice, there was no warning, no flashing lights, no sounding alarms, and no stopping once I began to fall. My feet slipped and gravity took me down.

Edwards compares this with life on this earth and eternity. We all are walking around thinking about our plans and what we’ll be doing tomorrow and the next day, but none of us are promised tomorrow. No one is ever guaranteed more than the second in which we are living in right now.

All of us are one split-second away from eternity. And once that journey begins, all of our thoughts, plans, and motions will cease on this side of eternity. In a lot of cases, it comes without warning; a health issue, an accident, etc., and then we are on the other side of eternity.

Several years ago I made a very conscious decision to place Christ on the throne of my life. In God’s word He told me that I had offended Him; that I was an enemy of His, because I had been born into sin (we all have). And God cannot, and will not, associate with sin.

I read that God desired for me to be adopted into His family for eternity. He said that He had already paid for my sins that I had committed, and the sins that I wasn’t even aware of, because Christ took the punishment on the cross that was meant for me. And although Christ had taken on the sins of the whole world, there was still something I had to do to make this gift of salvation mine. I had to accept it. The work was done, the gift was given, the relationship between a holy God and an unrighteous people had been reconciled, but until I personally accepted His Gift of forgiveness, I could not be reconciled with God. We could never have a relationship unless I acted on His gift. And I did when I was 21 years old.

However, if God would not have sustained me, if He would not have had mercy to keep my feet on solid ground, if I would have slipped into eternity before I had accepted this Gift, my eternity would have been full of darkness, agony, and total separation from God.

Being a Christian is more than a religion to me, it’s the fulfillment of my purpose in life. It’s the reason I was created, and it’s the reason I wanted to share this with you. I’m not being trite when I ask, but have you been reconciled to God? Have you made a choice to follow God’s law and trust in His gift of eternal life made available to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ? I truly hope you have.

When I had questions about eternity, I found my answers in God’s Word. Reading the books of John, Romans, and Psalms answered a lot of my questions. I hope it helps you, too.

“…God commendeth (demonstrates) his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us…being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.”

“For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life…”

“We also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.”

Romans 5:8-11