From Grace to Gratitude

Have you ever had a word from the Lord? I mean a literal word. As I was reading my Bible and several of my devotion books, the Lord kept showing me this one word. It seemed to keep popping out of the page into my face. That word was “gratitude”. And like most words I had to stop and think about what the word meant. Well, of course I know that it means being grateful or thankful. But I wanted to know more. What was it again; a feeling or expression of being thankful or appreciative. Hmmm, so being grateful …

Grace and the Good Girl

I was raised in a Christian home and became a Christian at the age of 12. I knew I loved Jesus but I did not have a full understanding of salvation. I tried very hard to live like a Christian but failed many times and still do. I tried to “be good” and by some accounts I was considered “a good girl”. I did not consider myself to be good enough so I tried to be perfect! I am not sure how I came to put this upon myself but for some reason I believed that I had to be …

The Sacrificial System

  Hebrews 9: 26-29  “…He has appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many. To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time, apart from sin, for salvation.”   God had created man in His image.  His very presence was shared with His creation as He communed with Adam and Eve in the beautiful Garden of Eden. But when Adam and Eve made the choice to disobey God …

The Resurrected King

The Lamb of God was dead.  He had been sacrificed as prophesied by Old Testament prophets. Everything seemed lost to the followers of Jesus.  The disciples were scattered for fear the Romans would be coming after them.  They were hidden from sight.  The Messiah, the one they had followed and loved for three years was dead. Their understanding of what had just happened was null.  Depression, fear, overwhelming despair, angry at themselves for not standing by Jesus were thoughts and feelings they now experienced.  What would they do now? Where would they go? Would they be executed as Jesus had …

God’s Plan for Redemption

God wrote His story before creation came into being even before He created the heavens and the earth. Because God is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent He sees all, knows all, is everywhere at the same time and so powerful He can speak a word and it will be so. Because of who He is, God had a detailed plan to bring about the redemption of fallen man even before Adam and Eve were created and sinned in the Garden of Eden. It was God who planned to bring salvation through the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son.  He determined the …

Psalms and The Prophets

    Luke 24: 25-27 “Then He said to them, “O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!  Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?”  And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. Throughout the Old Testament and especially from Psalm to Malachi, God gave His people specific words to speak and write in prophecy of the coming Messiah. He would remind them of His covenant promise of salvation to come through the …

His Appointed Time

God’s divine plan had arrived to the appointed time on God’s calendar for the saving of the souls of man.  He had designed a plan before the beginning of the creation of the heavens and the earth to show man what redemption from sin looks like.  He had designed every detail.  From the creation of Adam and Eve, down through history God was showing man what was required to receive forgiveness of sin. The Bible records verse after verse of instructions for worshipping and pleasing God and points directly to the coming of His Messiah Jesus Christ for redemption of …

The Crucifixion

Please read Psalm 22 to see the references to Jesus. Before the beginning of time and the creation of the heavens and the earth, God planned for the sacrifice of His one and only son as the Lamb of God to redeem us from sin. God laid out His plan of salvation in the pages of the Old Testament written down hundreds of years before Jesus was born. There are many scriptures of prophecy concerning Jesus.  Scripture tells us where He would be born, what He would be do, how He would die and so much more.  One of most …

Christmas Prophecies

We don’t know the exact date of Jesus birth, but we do know where and how Jesus was born.  We also know that Jesus’ birth was planned long before the earth was created, when He was still in heaven with the Father.  Prophecies throughout the Old Testament were foretold long before His birth. Here are just a few: His pre-existence and place of His earthly birth:  Micah 5: 2 “But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from …