The Excellency of Christ

  A greater Hope! A living Hope! Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy." The Lord Jesus is true, and He is life.  His patience, tender mercy, and kindness are amazing — never surprising, but truly amazing.  In this text, we are reminded that God has begotten us who have received Jesus as our Lord, to a living hope through his resurrection from the dead.  That is, God has united us with Jesus in His death and in his life ( Romans 6:5 ).  Jesus came down to this earth in the likeness of man and, under the law, he died to the law by offering himself; He was raised from the dead that He may live to God.  This was according to the goodwill ...

I recently wrote about our call to persevere in the faith, and I feel the need to follow that up with another message, as the Lord seems to keep impressing this onto my mind.  This article is long, but I believe it's worth it.  Following Jesus can be difficult at times, and the Bible has a lot to say to keep us moving forward.  I personally have had many seasons where I felt I simply could not go on, but God is always faithful.  Jesus does not forsake his own, and as the scripture says in 2 Corinthians 1:3-7 , we comfort other with the comfort we ourselves have received. Let your waist be girded and your lamps burning; and you yourselves be like men who wait for their master, when he will return from the wedding, that when he comes and knocks they may open to him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, will find watching. Assuredly, I say to you that he will gird himself and have them sit down to eat, and will come and serve them....

Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known. Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops. - Luke 12:1-3 Jesus began this portion of scripture (Luke 11:14 - 12:12) responding to the blasphemous accusation of the Pharisees, who accused him of casting out Demons by the name Belzeebub.  The Lord responded by saying that a Kingdom divided against itself could not stand, and that, If Satan was divided against himself, his Kingdom would not stand.  Jesus truly casted out the demon in power, but this was done by the finger of God, for the Kingdom of God (himself) had come.  He overcame the enemy and divided his spoils, demonstrating the power of God over the evil one. It is a great concern how religious men who are fully convinced of their Knowledge and standin...

Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ - 1 Peter 1:13 The Christian life is not an easy journey, in fact, we are promised that we will encounter many trails and have to endure much suffering on our journey ( Acts 14:22 , 1 Peter 1:6-7 , 2 Corinthians 1:6-7 , Romans 8:17 ).  Grieved by various trials, enduring wave after wave of affliction, and surrounded by many whose hearts have grown cold; we are vulnerable to the tempters voice to give up and go back to the ease of the world, conforming to our former lusts.  However, suffering in the Christian life is to be expected, and is in fact necessary.  It is not merely said that we will endure trials, but that we will be grieved by them.  There are seasons when trials will be heavy upon our shoulders, and you can do nothing but shed tears of sorrow. There are many reasons God may have for our sufferings: figh...

And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of you stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct - 1 Peter 1:17-18 Redemption is not metaphorical, it is real. God offered a supremely infinite and precious payment for sin, which speaks to the vileness of sin, the merit of Jesus Christ, and how serious the call to be holy as I am holy truly is. This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. - 1 John 1:5-6 The fact that Jesus is the only one sufficient to redeem us, God testifies, not only of how perfectly righteous and pure Jesus is but also of how bad our sin actually is; mainly that our sin is evil and we are deserving of his wrath.  God has a ...

"Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ" - Philippians 3:8 This blog will serve as a collection of devotions for encouraging believers around the world to follow Christ Jesus, no matter what the cost.  Having a relationship with Jesus Christ is the most important necessity for any human being on the planet.  All men and women enter this fallen world as sinful individuals, who are spiritually dead and alienated from God (Colossians 1:21).  The Bible makes it clear that there can be no forgiveness of sins, without the shedding of blood (Hebrews 9:22). There is only one way to God and that is through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).  God has declared through his word, that we are forgiven of our sins, and justified before God by faith alone in Jesus Christ alone (John 3:18, Romans 4:4-5, Romans 4:23-25, Galatians 2:16)...