Just Jesus

"For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: That Christ Jesus 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" 1 Corinthians 15:3-4

Today I went to an outreach, as you know the gospel was shared, there were different preachers, so of course it was preached in different ways but it was all the same message, Jesus died and rose again so you can have life through Him. One of the preachers shared his testimony and said that when he was first presented with the gospel, he preached Jesus and nothing else, no church, no religion, just Jesus (after all, that's all we need right?). It made me remember that my friend, who led me to Christ, did the same thing. He shared nothing but Jesus, so much so that I didn’t know what church he attended or even what his “religion” was; I just knew that I wanted what he had… I was challenged because at work lately I’ve been talking a lot about my church doing this… my friends going around the world to help people with aids… but am I preaching Jesus? What He’s done for them is all they really need to know… am I preaching the Gospel of Christ? Or am I preaching just another religion?

Which one are you preaching?

Me, Myself, and I

Then He said to them all, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Luke 9:23 NKJV

We naturally and subconsciously put our selves before others. In today's society the world tries to tell us that the way to achieve happiness is through boosting self esteem, personal affirmations, and focusing on self. But that is an empty philosophy that only leads to momentary happiness. As Christians we are encouraged to put others before ourselves and to not focus on earthly things, but to be focused on what we can do to further the kingdom of Jesus Christ. These are the requirements of discipleship: that we die to our selves, take up our crosses, and follow Him. The taking up of the cross involves the total submission of your will to God. Through this only will you experience true joy in your Christian walk. Remember, joy is all about priority - Jesus, Others, and then Yourself.

Knowledge & Love

“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, ‘son your sins are forgiven’” Mark 2:5

There comes a point in our Christian walk where we get so caught up in the knowledge of Christ that we forget about his love. As if dieing on the cross 2000 years ago was not enough, he comes to us daily and shows us mercy and love. The amazing thing about his unconditional love is that he wants to have an intimate relationship with us. At times we can become “paralyzed” by our personal struggles. The wonderful thing about our loving God is that, just like he touched the man in this verse, he wants to touch each one of our individual hearts daily and say, “my child, I have always loved you, and your sins are forgiven.” It is vital that we never forget the importance of his love, because without that, there would be no salvation. No matter how much knowledge we gain in Christ, it all comes down to his love.

Focus

“I will set nothing wicked before my eyes; I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know wickedness.” Psalm 101:3-4

It has been said that your god is whomever or whatever you designate as your master passion in life. As such, the ancients worshipped gods that represented their worldly desires, such as Baal (knowledge and philosophy), Venus (lust and bodily pleasure), and Mammon (money and the pursuit of wealth). God’s people, however, are called to focus their attention on the Lord, for He alone can give you the desires of your heart (Ps. 37:4). David had witnessed the downfall of those who center their attention on wicked things enough times to know that wickedness leads to destruction. Therefore, he made a conscious decision to refuse to focus his attention on wicked things. His declaration is made with utmost certainty and meaning of heart, saying, “…I will not know wickedness.” Each of us has to make this declaration in our own hearts if we ever want to be used by God, and we must purge our lives of the wicked things which compete for our attention. Have you made this decision in your life? Have you made Him your master passion? Paul writes this exhortation to Christians, saying, “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Col. 3:1-2).

Cakes and Battles

I find that we often go through many different trials as we venture on our life’s journey of walking with God. Most of the time, the reaction that I see many of us have as we go through these trials, is that we tend to look at the trial itself instead of looking at what God wants to show us in and through the outcome. Let’s take baking a cake for example: When we look at the individual ingredients--flour, eggs, salt, etc.--we would not want to consume each one of those ingredients individually. As a matter of fact, the thought of it is rather appalling. We need to look at our trials as a whole and ask, “What is God trying to show me?” instead of “Why is God doing this to me?” When baking a cake, we look at the final outcome--a nice, big, moist, delicious cake--not the individual portions.Also, when the time comes to cook the cake, we cannot become impatient and pull it out of the oven too soon, or else it will be ruined. Just as gold and silver go through the flame to be purified, we need to also go through the heat of trials to be purified in the name if the Lord! Our ending outcome will turn out to be a greater blessing than anything we can imagine! If we try to run away before completing the will of God, then we will ruin whatever plans he had for us, or we will end up making things a lot worse for OURSELVES. Just look at Jonah! He went through a LOT of chaos before turning back to God. Most importantly, we need to ALWAYS remember what the word of God says: “And we know that all things work together for GOOD to those WHO LOVE GOD..” ~ Romans 8:28

How will YOUR cake turn out?