The Lord is Risen Indeed! Now What?

Luke gives a great answer. Witness!

Luke 24:44-49

44 Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” 45 Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 46 and said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending the promise of my Father upon you. But stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

First we need to have Jesus "open [our] minds to understand the Scriptures." Which obviously takes Bible reading and prayer. Then we need to proclaim the message Jesus allows us to understand. The central message need to be "repentance and the forgiveness of sins." The Gospel needs to be proclaimed. First to our own hearts and then to the hearts of others.

Rejoice! The Lord is risen indeed! It is truly finished! Proclaim the message that those who repent can have the forgiveness of sins because the sacrifice of the risen Christ!

Fighter Verse Friday: Matthew 5:29-30

Matthew 5:29-30

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell.

Matthew 5:29-30

What causes you to sin? Jesus says to cut it off or tear it out and throw it away! But what really causes you to sin? Is it you eye? Is it your hand? No and no! It is your heart. So cut it out and throw it away. This is better than going to hell. Yes I know you can't. You will die. But that's the weird part you are dead already. So what are we to do? Repent and believe the Gospel! On this Good Friday let's remember that Jesus has made it just for God to make us alive in him. And Sunday's coming!

If you are unaware of what Jesus did start here. Then leave a comment.

Ever Needy Yet Ever Provided For

Inspired by this post. I left the following comment:

I've been meditating on my need in general, the Gospel being my greatest need of all. I am amazed by my own foolishness and rejoice that God has given me his word to increase in wisdom. May I treasure his word, which contains his Gospel, more and more. And less and less may I need the stern rebuke of, "Get behind me, Satan!" to regain the joy of my salvation.

May we never forget our need for Jesus' word, Gospel, most importantly Jesus himself.

FIGHT the good fight!

I have begun working out again recently. I have not seen much results yet. I know I will if I strive for it. This got me meditating on 1 Timothy 6:12. The Christian life is a fight. A fight that will end in joyful rest. And a fight which has a goal that has been accomplished already by Jesus. Yet I fight now to experience more and more of what I will experience when I see Jesus face to face. Do you have a desire to fight? To fight to mortify sin?

If you do not desire to fight against sin or you aren't sure that you will experience joyful rest with Jesus, please click this or comment below.

Lesser Punishment Equals Lesser Love

A while back 2 Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door. During our conversation they tried to tell me that the punishment of hell is not eternal. Sadly I was not able to get this point across to them. If you say that the punishment of hell is less than eternal then you are saying that the love of Jesus displayed on the cross is less than it actually was. The regenerate will spend eternity learning that the love of Christ is greater than even eternity will allow us to understand. And the unregenerate will spend eternity wishing they had believed that Jesus loved them.

Please repent and believe the Gospel! Go here.

"Well, it just didn't work out between us"

This is what I commented on this post: http://pastorpierre.blogspot.com/2010/03/security.html

"Well, it just didn't work out between us"

What kind of comment is this? It is a red flag to the fact that we don't understand what marriage is about. Marriage is about Jesus! Marriage is one of the greatest pictures of the Gospel. I rejoice that Jesus will never say, "Well, it just didn't work out between us."

Thanks for the post.

In Christ,
Matt

What would you comment?