Faith is Found In Christ Blog

Ephesians 5:22-33, Revelation 1:15

The “safest face” for the repentant sinner to stand in front of, will be that of his/her loving savior-husband-redeemer . What a glorious day it will be to hear the voice of Jesus Christ, who’s voice is “like the roar of many waters” (Revelation 1:15) say to us “well done” (Matthew 25:21). To look upon the one who’s face radiates the glory of God from the throne of God (Hebrews 1:3). Christ will extend his glorious nail pierced hand to the vilest of sinners, who He has personally known, loved and prayed for. 

The safest face for the redeemed sinner to see, will be that of the glorious face of Christ , in whose presence there will be no shame; for all of the shame that we brought upon God and therefore ourselves, has been washed clean at the cross of Jesus.

He makes us ready to see Him, by giving us his own righteousness.

Thank God for Jesus Christ our savior

Revelation 20:11-15

The “safest space” for the self-righteous unrepentant sinner will be the lake of fire.

For it is there, that they will be furthest away from the one they hate the most: God.

In the lake of fire, the sinner will no longer “be forced” to hear about the glories of Christ.

They will no longer be “agitated” by the word of His Gospel that redeems the most vile of sinners by his precious blood.

The air will no longer be filled with speech of those who cherish, love and follow Christ; and who desire for Jesus to be exalted above all things.

There, in the darkness, and in the smell of burning flesh, they will sit, forever in their pride.

They will sit in the lake of fire forever, with the knowledge that they “won” and that they will be “safe” from the knowledge of God which has been and will be exponentially revealed more and more in the glorious face of Christ.

What a sick and foolish endeavor.

It is only a miracle that anyone turns from sin and loves Christ.

May His Justice and Grace be praised and glorified forever, for He is just so worthy.

May God empower us and fill us with His Spirit to speak to our families, friends and loved ones about the love and glory that is in Christ, for He is Just so worthy. 

Ephesians 1:1-14, Romans 1:16-17, Revelation 13:8, 1 Corinthians 1:22-25, 2 Corinthians 4:1-6.

God’s joy within himself is the location and origin for the plan of salvation. Salvation belongs to God alone. The reason why the Gospel is “the power of salvation” (Romans 1;16-17), is because it upholds and exalts the glory and righteousness of God, which is the aim of all of God’s decision, including your salvation. Therefore, what the Psalmist  writes in Psalm 2:4 is spot on, “He who sits in heaven laughs; the Lord holds them in derision”.

Woke mob canceling people in public on twitter? HA!!!! God says in comical gut busting laughter, “5 Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, 6 “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.”

There are two kinds of people in this world: 1) God’s enemies who appose Him and His sovereign right to be the center of their worship and joy in their lives , and 2) those who love, adore and submit to the glorious authority of Christ, the only Righteous King.There is no gray area for God here, for the glory of His name is the deciding factor, not man’s sinful and fickle heart toward Him.God is the one who creates both of these categories of people. Some are hardened and some are saved. 

God remains Holy, highly exalted, free, overwhelmingly loving and absolutely sovereign over all things. May His name be praised throughout heavens eternal days.The plan of salvation is foolishness to man, because man does not love God, but God is for God. 

These two apposing desires are not equal.  The danger of the pride of man is take God’s love of his own glory lightly. God will consume those who are apposed to his unrelenting pursuit of His own glory. The deceptive pride of the flesh, the lure of the world and the deception of the devil  blind minds of unbelievers, “to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” – 2 Corinthians 4:1-6.

So, we adore the plan of salvation, we cling to the cross as the supreme wisdom which forms our lives, for it is the revealed wisdom of God. We love and adore Jesus in this world which is saturated with insane hatred toward God. We love our enemies, love and pray for our neighbors, we disciple our children for the sake of His name among the nations, we reject consumerism and siloed Church, we love and serve others in His blood-bought body with the same heart that Christ serves us form the cross, we  care for the poor and weak in the church and in the world, all for the sake of the one who is coming soon, Christ Jesus our Lord.

He is Just so worthy!!! (edited) 

2 Corinthians 2:15, 2 Corinthians 12:10, Luke 9:23

It is no wonder The book of Romans (the greatest theological treatise of the entire NT, from the “foremost of sinners” 1 Timothy 1:15-17) comes after 1st and 2nd Corinthians in Paul’s succession of Letters. If you trace Paul’s development as a Christian, up to 2 Corinthians (the year before he writes Romans), you can see Paul’s suffering as the very means by which God prepares Paul to write the greatest theological document on The Gospel known to mankind. Specifically, Paul’s suffering in the Macedonian Churches prepared Paul to not only preach the Gospel to the Corinthians, but illustrate to the Corinthians, that God brings all of humanity to nothing in and through the wisdom of the Cross of Christ. The cross lays all of humanity bare in front of God and puts all human wisdom to shame.

This was absolutely necessary for the Corinthians situation. What had infiltrated their ranks was the poisons predator of demonic self-reliance, the desire for the commendations of man, and the works of the law as a means to salvation. Man-centeredness and the praise of man is a lethal injection into the arm of the church. God must put this false and satanic “gospel” to death.

God in His grace did this by sending Paul to the Corinthians. It is in Paul’s suffering and sacrificial service to Christ that the wisdom of God is shown to be in the bloody cross of Christ and not the praise of men. 

 God can smell the beauty and satisfaction of Christ coming off of Paul’s life as he suffers for the sake of God’s Son Jesus Christ. “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life.” – (2 Corinthians 2:15)

Paul didn’t know that he would be rejected by the Corinthians, but God did. God cared enough about the Corinthians, to send Paul to them, so that the false teaching that had infiltrated them could be vanquished, and the real Jesus (the only Jesus) could coming bleeding through Paul’s life to them. It is Paul’s cruciform life, which flowed from His crucified Lord, that God uses to eradicate the festering sore of man-centeredness that had infected The Corinthians.The heart to write the book of Romans, was shaped by the Holy Spirit in Paul through a tremendous amount of suffering and turmoil, culminating in the conflict at Corinth. Paul could not see this through all of His suffering, He had to become grace dependent and Christ-content: Christ had to smother Paul’s screaming, tantrum throwing flesh to death, so that Jesus might get all the glory He deserved and Paul might be prepared not just to write the book of Romans, but prepared to stand in front of Christ The Lord.

To become Christ-Content is the aim of all Christians everywhere , not just Paul, and this is for the sake of Christ, AND therefore for our joy. By the Spirit, our joy becomes Christ looking as worthy as the Father sees Him to be; and He is worthy, He is just so worthy .

“For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10)

Paul had to do what no one does naturally: He had to disown himself, take up His cross and follow Jesus in repentance, trust and faith….daily (Luke 9:23).

So, maybe, just maybe (preaching to myself mainly), in your waiting, suffering and tantrum throwing, maybe God is doing something for the sake of Christ and therefore,for your joy in Him.

“Oh for the grace to trust Him more” 

John 3:16, Romans 3:12, 2 Corinthians 5:19-21, Ephesians 2:7, Ephesians 2:1-10, Proverbs 8, Ephesians 3:20-21

Every year my family and I get together on my birthday at a local pub. Every year we shut the pub down. Every year, we get into a discussion about Jesus somehow, and I love it, because I care about my family’s souls, and so does God.

A couple of years ago, during my birthday pub celebration, one of my siblings made the comment, “there is no scientific evidence or scientific proof that God exists”.

I am not the quickest thinker, and I did not address this comment as I should have.

If I would have stopped and actually thought about the comment instead of allowing my emotions to take over, I would have responded  much more accurately than I did.

I would have responded like this:

Even if there were no scientific evidence for the existence of God, that doesn’t show that God doesn’t exist. It would just mean that there would be no way to prove that He exists scientifically. I do believe there is scientific evidence that proves that God exists, but the statement, “There is no scientific evidence that such a being called God exists”, is fallacious and here is why. It is fallacious, because it assumes, we ought to believe only things we can prove by science.

However, if this is true, it calls into question many things which cannot and need not be scientifically proven, yet are nonetheless rationale for us to believe to be true. let me give a number of examples:

Aesthetic judgments – I ride a ferry to work every morning, and there are some cold and frosty mornings that bring a beautiful dawn full of color and brilliant light. They capture me. I am in awe of them. In response to them, I utter the words, “that is just beautiful”. Or at night, while I am out walking with my children, I look up at the vast, star-filled sky and I am struck by its beauty and I utter the words, “God that is just so glorious and beautiful”. These are not scientific judgements, yet they are perfectly rationale to be said and to be trusted. They cannot be proven by scientific reason because science does not give us beauty and has no medium to define it, even less to quantify it.

Moral values and duties (subjective or objective) – Moral values have to do with what is objectively wrong and right or good and bad, Moral duties have to do with what we ought or ought not to do. Whether you believe morality to be subjective or objective, neither of these can be derived from science. Science gives us what “is”, but it does and indeed cannot give us what we “ought” to believe or what we “ought” to think or what we “ought” to do. There is not an “ought” dimension in science and definitely not a moral one (if you would like to see how lacking biology is in establishing a moral landscape for humanity, then read Sam Harris’s “The Moral Landscape“, and then, read the reviews of the book by his own colleagues). One cannot derive an “ought” from an “is”.

***********Warning************

I am going to give some examples of how fallacious this idea is, however, I want to warn you that some of these examples will be rather grotesque, please do not let young children read or hear these. I am using these examples to push the statement that, “science can explain morality” to its natural and logical end.

Science can tell us the decibel level of the screams of young African children as they were torn away from their mothers at the slave auction block during the horrific trans-atlantic slave trade.

As young black boys and girls were torn from their mother’s hands (and father’s hands), the volume of their screams could be measured scientifically by a decibel meter (if they had had them back then), but science can cannot tell us whether or not something morally wrong had taken place at the slave auction block.

Medical science can tell us the amount of damage that is done to the young wombs of young 4-8 year old girls who are kidnapped and forced into the sex trade around the world.

As grown men pay small amounts of money and lead up to a small room where a small child is waiting to be abused by them, science can tell us how these small children’s wombs are crushed and destroyed. However, it cannot tell us whether or not something moral has happened (by the way, this is happening while you are reading this, here is how you can stop it (worldvision.org).

Science can tell us the respiratory capacity of slave men and women who ran for their lives, as they were chased by southern slave owners by using a peak flow meter.

As first generation slaves tried to escape the brutality and humiliation of southern slave owners, they would run for their lives, attempting to escape. Science can tell us, their lung capacity, but it cannot tell us whether or not something morally reprehensible took place.

Science can tell us, the weight and mass of the bodies stacked on top of each other in the Treblinka concentration camps in WWII, as millions of Jewish men, women and small children gasped for air and clawed at each other trying to get to a small window at the top of the gas chamber, as they were suffocated to death.

After all of them had died, their bodies would be piled up in a mountain-like heap of flesh and bone, pointing up toward a small window. Young mothers holding their children and fathers holding their wives and mothers, stacked on top of each other.

Physics could give us the mass of the bodies in their mountain like shape, but science cannot tell us if something morally wrong has taken place in these gas chambers.

Science can tell us the heat temperature that Jeffery Dahmer cooked his victims before he ate them, and the temperature at which he would refrigerate them with a thermometer, but it cannot tell us whether or not Jeffery Dahmer is morally culpable for his actions.

Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation that had over 4,500 nuns and was active in 133 countries in 2012. The congregation manages homes for people who are dying of HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis.

It also runs soup kitchens, dispensaries, mobile clinics, children’s and family counseling programs as well as orphanages and schools.

Members of the charity take vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, and also profess a fourth vow – to give “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor” (This is the same women that famed physics professor Lawrence M. Krauss called “horrible and despicable” in a debate with apologist William Lane Craig). 

It was Lawrence’s materialistic worldview, that lead him to call Mother Teresa “horrible and despicable” (which are moral judgements, not scientific ones). 

However, science cannot give Dr. Krauss any objective or subjective reasons to make these moral claims against her.

Science, also cannot tell us whether or not Mother Teresa has done something morally praise worthy or morally reprehensible.

Science can tell us, the decomposition rate of the bodies found in the killing fields of Cambodia, at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.

Science gave us a detailed “analysis of 20,000 mass grave sites of the Khmer Rouge by the DC-Cam Mapping Program” done by Yale University. Their analysis, “indicates at least 1,386,734 victims of execution”.

Science can give us a whole host of information from the Cambodian killing fields, but it cannot tell us whether or not the Khmer Rouge did anything morally reprehensible.

Science can tell us the velocity of the bodies of the four young black girls who were blown apart due the bomb placed at the 16th street Church in Alabama.

Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Robert Edwin Chambliss, Bobby Cherry and (allegedly )Herman Frank Cash were the perpetrators of this horrendous crime. 

Science can give us insight into the force of the blast which blew them apart, forever taking them from their parents, but it cannot tell us whether or not these men were morally culpable for this stomach-turning and heart-wrenching crime.

If morality is a subjective creation of mankind, then what Richard Dawkins has written below in his book, “River out of Eden: A Darwinian View of Life“, is correct.

He writes in His book,

“In a universe of electrons and selfish genes, blind physical forces and genetic replication, some people are going to get hurt, other people are going to get lucky, and you won’t find any rhyme or reason in it, nor any justice. The universe that we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but pitiless indifference.”

I guess science isn’t the place to look for morality after all.

Hell  is the fitting place for mankind.

For, it is in mankind we find a depth of evil and capability to do evil things, and a capability to love evil, which is incomprehensible.

The cross of Christ tells us how evil and sick we all really are and how Holy, Righteous and loving God is.

Christ suffers in the place of sin-loving racists, sin-craving murderous human beings like you and me. All the sinful examples that I gave you, are long term residents in our hearts, for that is where evil comes from: the heart of mankind.

It is dangerous and damning hubris to think otherwise.

If we are looking to compare ourselves with the examples above, in order to justify ourselves, this is the root of the problem and proof that we do not love or care about God. 

For it is not OUR standard of righteous that needs to be upheld, rather it is God’s standard of righteousness that needs to be redeemed and upheld.

We are much worse off than we think in front of God, and science is woefully insufficient to do anything about this inescapable fact.

This is the world that God sent His Son to save. 

“For God so loved the world…” (John 3:16).

From the examples above, it is clear that God did not love the world because it was lovable, rather in spite of its lovability and in-spite of the evil and sin that it loves.

There was noting lovely about the world for God to love, but He loved it in the deepest way possible, He gave himself for a world which in no way deserved anything other than eternal Judgement. 

This is called mercy and grace.

We all have “have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” (Romans 3:12)

It should be clear to us that the issue is not a scientific one.

The problem with mankind (from God’s perspective, which is the only one that matters), is its devaluing of its Creator and its naturally-sinful desire to be autonomous from God.

This desire to be autonomous from God, is rooted in the desire to become God. This is the root of all mankind’s problems.

Mankind was made to worship, love and enjoy Yahweh, for who He is and how glorious He is. The very desire to love God and want to please Him has been lost due to our sin in Adam.

The only way for Mankind to be reconciled to God, is for God’s righteousness to be exalted, His glory to be upheld, His law to be fulfilled and mankind’s atrocious sins to be judged and forgiven.

All of this has been accomplished in the historical life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

In the coming of Christ, His life, death and resurrection we find the entire reason why the world exists.

Paul writes in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, “God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

The point of the coming of Christ was to reconcile this sinful world world back to God.

God does this by sending His Son the cross to die in the place of sinner, in order that through His death and resurrection, sin might be done away with.

“Reconciliation assumes a broken relationship. Something has happened that has caused two parties to become estranged.

God is estranged from us and we are estranged from Him.

What is between us and God is or depravity and His Holy righteous wrath at our sinful treason.

Our natural state as human beings, both the acts of sin and the desire to sin (one comes out of the other) is to love what God hates, and is to hate God.

Therefore, you cannot please God, you cannot want God or move toward God in your natural state.

You must be redeemed from how you naturally are.

You must die and be born again

God, in His infinite mercy, has laid all our God-devaluing, God-hating sin upon Christ.

In Christ, our sins have been judged, and therefore, they are forgiven and forgotten by God.

Thank you, God, for all your mercy and grace to us in Christ. God’s grace to us in Christ is a gloriously surprising symphony to the glory of God forever and ever, and ever!

The aim of the cross of Christ is the glory of God, and rest assured, God will have His glory.

The reason for the person, work and resurrection of Christ is, “ so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).

Christ upholds the glory and righteousness of God while dying in the place of God’s sinful enemies, and His sinful enemy was you and I.

The reason why God’s grace is so strong and able to save us, is because Christ’s life death and resurrection is God’s grace to us.

Science is a wonderful study of the world that God created.

It helps us understand the world through the reason and rationale, that we have been graciously endowed with from our heavenly father.

Reason (which is immaterial), was given to us in order that we might seek and understand and ultimately admire the God who created all things, and to know Christ the aim of all things.

For He Himself is the wisdom of God which has been built into the very fabric of the world and the universe (proverbs 8).

We ought to seek Christ while we can, for He is not someone we ought to take lightly.

Ephesians 3:20-21

“Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”

Prayer: Jesus Christ we love you so very much. We are grateful to know you and to be a part of your righteous life. Righteous loving father, thank you for giving us sin-filled people your most treasured Son. We repent from our autonomy from you and we submit to your absolute authority, purposes, love and eternal kingship. Grant us grace, second by second to love you as we ought to, as you so richly deserve.

Matthew 11:6, Romans 1:18-32, Romans 5:5, Romans 3:19

The world is a raging vomit of self-righteousness and offense, which God himself came to save, by sending His own Son, to carry all of our raging self-righteousness and God-devaluing offenses, to the cross on our behalf. – Matthew 11:6

11 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in their cities.
2 Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples 3 and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: 5 the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers[a] are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. 6 And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

The world continues to be more and more offended at itself (lol). All you have to do is look at your own heart as you open almost any political news headline or comment on facebook or twitter. We live in a market place of outrage and offense. Yet, the world is offended when God (or His people) are offended at it? The deceptive hypocrisy of the world is deafening. ever increasingly, people feel free to spew their outrage at whatever it feels is morally repugnant, yet when God righteously denounces sin and godlessness, the world is offended at God for doing so?

This is nothing but pride and self-love. I know this is true about me.

What is natural to man, is to be offended at God for being God. Denying God worship, for being all that God is, is man’s deepest problem (Romans 1:18-32). God sees to it that this problem gets exponentially worse, as mankind continues to walk in offense(s) to God almighty.

Mankind’s greatest issue is not the inability to overcome racial, social an economic injustice. Man’s deepest issue is prideful rebellion against God, for which there is but one remedy: The ability to not be offended at God, for being God and worthy of worship. Here is what Jesus Christ, The God man wins for us: The ability to Love God, by removing God’s righteous wrath toward us and becoming the mediator between God and man. God is favorable toward Christ and therefore favorable toward us, for Christ’s sake.

Sexual perversion, hatred, murder, greed, hypocrisy all find their place of origin in the heart of man. They are welcomed, long-term tenants of mankind’s heart. Mankind ought to be offended at mankind. But in our pride, we have the audacity to be offended at God and at others.

Sin and self ought to be the one thing that mankind would be looking to rid ourselves of as quickly as possibly, yet we love sin and we love ourselves insatiably and innately.

Blessed is the who is not offended at Jesus Christ. He carries all of our guilty offenses and our innate offensiveness behind the veil, into the very presence of God with His own blood. “19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into the inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf, having become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”

For those in whom God has poured out His love into their hearts through Christ (Romans 5:5), offense and outrage has been (and ought to be) quelled at the sight of Christ and all His glory and love. “19 Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God (Romans 3:19). Every mouth continues to run, spewing how offended they are, yet every mouth has nothing to say in front of the cross, except “forgive me my God, for I am sinner”.

Lord, Righteous Father, please forgive us of our God-devaluing offenses and forgive us for making much of the offenses of others, while making light of our own. Your cross sure doesn’t make light of them. Please give us of your Spirit, that we might not be offended at you, for you were not offended nor prideful when you stepped down from your rightful place of glory and authority, and humbled yourself, by taking on the form of a foot-washing servant who was put to death, all though you innocent of any offense that was brought against you. Instead, you received all of God’s righteous wrath for our offenses. May we join with you in your lowliness and self-forgetfulness as a response to your absolute cosmic authority, Holiness and righteousness. In you oh, Lord we find the purpose and meaning of our existence and the aim of all of creation. Let us see how little and silly our self-made kingdoms really are, as we look at you the true King of righteousness.

Isaiah 6:1-7, Matthew 10:28, John 12:41, John 1:1-18, Exodus 14:30, Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 1:23, Ephesians 5:22-33, Revelation 1:1-20, Revelation 1:17a, Revelation 19:11-16, Revelation 22:3, Ephesians 5:22-33

The Holiness of God immediately puts everything in its right place, especially man’s insatiable pride. The frightening holiness of God draws its intended effect from us small and weak human beings, just as it did Isaiah in Chapter 6.

Isaiah’s response to being in the presence of God was immediate and frightening awe. As he entered in to the presence of something totally and completely other, the Spirit of God filled Him with fear, awe, conviction and terror.

The Lord must have been both terrifying and glorious at the same time for Isaiah. “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”

Here is why Jesus said in Matthew 10:28, “do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell“.

In Christ, we have encountered the same Holy and Righteous God that Isaiah did. John tells us this in the twelfth chapter of his gospel, He writes, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41).

The one whom Isaiah saw High and lifted up in His temple, who the Seraphim had to cover their face from (Isaiah 6:2), is Christ Jesus.

Jesus speaking in John 12:41, is the same terrifying being who Isaiah saw in the temple, in Isaiah chapter 6. The Lord high and lifted up in Isaiah 6, is Jesus Christ, the incarnate word. The two are one and the same person. Isaiah was speaking about The LORD who is Jesus in John 12:41.

We do well to join with God the father and give His Son the glory He so richly deserves.

We ought not to take Jesus lightly.

Jesus is God and has always been God. Here is why we ought not to take Jesus Christ lightly; and here is why there is so much hope in Him.

He is the mighty one from of old, who saves His People for His own glory, and by His mighty hand (Exodus 14:30). 

He is the one does all things “according to the purpose of His will” (Ephesians 1:5). 

He is the one who “fills all things in all” (Ephesians 1:23). 

We ought not to play around with Jesus.

Jesus is The one whom Isaiah saw, “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”

Christ is the one who sits as judge on the throne of almighty God, and the nations are absolutely nothing to Him.

Rather, the nations ought to be be glad on account of Him. We ought to be very careful and seek Him while we can. This is the one who has claimed us as His own bride (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Here is the one whom John saw, when he was cast to the island of Patmos, shinning bright as the sun in its full strength. It is on His shoulders that He carries our brokenness and God-hating sin. His eyes are full of both unconditional love for sinners like me, who He has redeemed, AND His eyes are like flames of fire as the righteous judge of His church and the world (Revelation 1:1-20). 

Who will be able to withstand the glorious revelation God in Jesus Christ when he lays claim to the earth that is rightfully His? No one.

John’s response when he saw Christ on the island of Patmos was the only response that was appropriate, “When I saw Him, I fell at his feet as though dead” (1:17a). We do well not to take Christ lightly, God the father sure doesn’t, neither does all of heaven.

When Christ comes (revelation 19:11-16) there will be no more silly twitter and facebook feuds, there will be no more cancel culture, no more woke religion, no more perversion and mutilation of our bodies in rebellion against God, no more pride, no more war and greed. There will be nothing but Christ and His glory.

His glorious life will bring healing, “The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” Revelation 22:3.

Even so come Lord Jesus.

May Christ’s Church find their strength in Him in our utter and complete weakness, and may we find rest in His love, grace and faithfulness to His father (who has become our father forever) and to us His blood-bought family.

Surely we have been blessed beyond belief to be a part of Him…Eternally (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Oh, there is just no one like Him, and Oh HE IS JUST SO WORTHY!!! (edited) 

Isaiah 53, Exodus 12, John 19:30, Romans 1:1, Hebrews 1:1-4, 2 Corinthians 5:21

There is no one like Jesus Christ. When I think about the incarnation of the Son of God and the cross that He bore, I am left in in awe and rightly humbled before Him. All my accolades and prideful desires for glory from others, are reduced to nausea in my stomach at the sight of God offering up Jesus on the cross.

We foolishly toy around with sin and silliness here in this world, when it is no game to God. We would do well to look at the cross of Christ every day, in order that we might take sin much more seriously than we do. No one has and no one will ever suffer like our Savior. The Gospel is this: Jesus suffers the wrath of almighty God in proportion to how sinful I am and how Holy God is.

Jesus receives the wrathful brunt of all of God’s Holiness for my depraved sinfulness. What this means is that every single sin that you and I could  and will ever commit in our lifetime, Christ suffered because of it. But he suffers for them, in proportion to how Holy and Righteous God is, not merely how sinful I am. I am redeemed at the cross, but more importantly, God’s glory is redeemed at the cross.

The cross of Christ Jesus is about worship of God

Christianity is not about being good, it is about the glory of God.  Christ redeems the glory of God by fulfilling and upholding God’s law perfectly and with joy while doing it. The joy of the Son of God lay in the cross that he was to bear, and no one, including Satan could keep Him from it. Why?  Because it was and is at the cross that His father’s glory and righteousness was redeemed . This is why God takes so much pleasure in the death of His Son, and so much displeasure in the pride of man. Pride is sin, we are full of it, and God hates sin. How do we know that God hates sin: The grisly murder of His Son.

            If you want to see how much God hates and detest yours and mine sin, just look at Christ as your and my sins are pinned into the cross in His body,  and as he hangs his head in death, with His last breath, Christ my savior, says of me and my many sins, “it is finished” (John 19:30). Such love and mercy, is Christ to us. We will never be able to fathom all the love that is in God, this side of eternity. By Faith, the Holy Spirit applies the death of Jesus to us and the righteous life of Jesus to us, not by our good works, but by His finished and perfect work on the cross, on our behalf. Truly there is no one like Yahweh, our God.

The cross shows us that God is love.

Love finds it origins and beginnings in the triune God: The Father and His love for His Son, The Son and His deep love of the Father, and the Holy Spirit,  the personification of the glorious love that is between the Father and the Son. The Eternal Trinity from eternity past is where love starts and ends. Only now it is different. Now, the Son of God, having become a man in Jesus Christ, brings us into the holy and glorious love that is within the Godhead, by His life, death and powerful resurrection from the dead.  This is the Gospel of God (Romans 1:1)

Jesus is God’s grace to us.

Instead of a pat on the back for being “good” from God, those who reject Christ, will be cast from the presence of God and be cast unto to the only place fitting for sinners who have spit in the face of Christ. That place is Hell.

Hell is the only place fitting for sinners like me if not for Christ. The only reason I am a Christian (and hopefully you are too) is because of Jesus Christ.

Hell, only makes sense because God is as glorious as He says He, and because Jesus is as worthy as God the Father says He is. The glory of God is Christ Himself (Hebrews 1:1-4). God gives us His one and only Son to die in our place. Paul tells us why God did this in 2 Corinthians 5:21, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Christ becomes our sin on the cross. Christ on the cross is the mercy seat of God where God graciously meets with us sinners. Christ is the only place where God will meet with sinful mankind. The common denominator for every person’s eternal destination, is Christ.

                    God’s mercy to us is Christ on the cross, our Passover lamb (Exodus 12). For, it is in Christ alone on the cross and in the resurrection, that the father passes over our deep depravity and sin. God DOES NOT pass his wrath over His Son, and therefore He is the means by which God’s wrath is satisfied. All those who put their faith and trust in Christ, and not in themselves, will be spared God’s wrath.  If you are reading this, put your hope and faith in Christ alone, for He is the righteous king of God who is coming soon.

Church, be encouraged Christ is everything to the Father, and you are complete in Him (Colossians 2:10)

If you do not know Christ, I am warning you, to ask God to change your heart and grant you repentance, faith and trust in Jesus Christ. God is Just, and the cross tells us so. God is loving and merciful and the cross of Christ tells us so. (Hebrews 10:31)

Romans 1:1, 1 Thessalonians 2:2, Mark 1:14, Ephesians 1-3

There is so much love and hope in God, it is overwhelming .

The Gospel of God starts and ends with God and the church is the one who benefits from the glory and praise of God in Christ (Ephesians 1-3). The love of God in the trinity comes spilling over into the lives of the church in whom Christ dwells. Christ as the head of the church brings us into the very presence of God as the Spirit is poured out on Him and therefore on us, His body and His bride. The anointing of The Son and the life of the Son is all the church needs to suffer with Christ in the world, to be His hands and feet to the lost and needy and to proclaim with boldness “the Gospel of God” almighty (Romans 1:1, 1 Thessalonians 2:2, Mark 1:14). The more we preach and proclaim the Gospel of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, the more God will work in the effort. We must preach the Gospel of God for it reveals Christ who is the glory of God!

Colossians 2:9-10, John 16:33

When I am looking for an imperfect, can’t get his act together Christian, I don’t need to look any further than the mirror. Jesus does not come along side us like a life coach assisting us to a better version of ourselves, nor does He help us get our “act” together. He gives us His perfect “Act” which is pleasing to the Father. It is His resurrected life in us that changes us to look more like Him, love Him and suffer with Him. Church, do not believe the lies from the Devil about your identity, nor the world’s seduction about pleasure and happiness, because both will lead to eternal death. Rather believe and trust God’s word about His Son Jesus Christ, “For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority.” – Colossians 2:9-10.

The term “you have been filled in him” is a perfect verb, it means point-in-time-action, with ongoing effects. It is also a passive verb, which means the action has/is being done to you, not being done by you. The fullness of God in Christ has happened in you through faith, and is ongoing in you through the Spirit’s administration of the life of Jesus Christ in you. Satan, the world and your flesh have absolutely no chance against the strength of God in Christ which has take up residence in you; He is the “hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27.) It is the fullness of Christ in you that makes you fully righteous like He is, in front of God. 

God is great! Praise His Holy name. Jesus is So worthy! He is just so worthy! You are complete in Him. Heaven is cheering you on as the day is approaching. Do not let your hearts be troubled, Christ has overcome the world! John 16:33