Jesus said, “What is it that I should do for you?” “Lord, I want to see!”
Lord, I want to see! Do you? Can you see? The work of Jesus allows us to see His work and His salvation. The blind man wanted to see and we should want to see. Physical sight is wonderful because of all of the beauty that is seen in God’s natural world all around us. He created all of it but have you ever wondered what you would see if your spiritual eyes were open as well?
The blind man, Bartimeaus, wanted to see with his eyes but when his physical eyes were healed I believe that his spiritual eyes were opened as well. He could see Who it was that had healed him. He could see that it was the Messiah, Jesus the Son of God! Few people in Jesus’ day could see that He was the Christ, the Messiah that had been foretold many hundreds of years before because they didn’t want to see Him. The priests didn’t want to see another Teacher, although He was that. They didn’t want to hear about a prophet from Nazareth or Galilee. They knew that the Messiah was to be born in Bethlehem but they didn’t know that He had been born there and that He was from the line of David.
Lord, I want to see! They didn’t see their Savior because of their idea of Him. He was supposed to be a conqueror and King. He was and He is but He didn’t come the first time as a King…He came as our Savior to pay the price for our souls to bring us back into a right and consecrated life through the blood of His sacrifice on the cross. He knew that it was about to happen soon because He was on the way to Jerusalem for His last Passover with His disciples before His crucifixion.
Why is it that even today people have their idea of salvation and how to obtain it? They think that somehow they have to help God to fix their life so they can be saved. Your life doesn’t need fixing but your heart needs to be remade into the image of the heart of Jesus. The Holy Spirit will come into your heart and change it so that it will reflect His image and His way of living every day afterward. We can’t do anything that will change us or clean us up enough to be ready to give our life to Jesus. When you feel that you need Him and that you are lost and going to hell without Him, that is when you can see that you are not enough without Jesus in your life.
I pray that many of you who read this will seek Him out as your Savior today because many of us don’t have tomorrow. We are not guaranteed another day of life but eternity is a very long time, make sure of your destination and that it is with the Lord.
Jesus paid our price. He took the sins of the entire world on Himself to bring humanity back into a right relationship with Himself and with God. Your sins and mine are the reason that Jesus went to the cross, as well as the sins of all of the people from ages past until now. Seek Him for your salvation while there is time to do so. We are living in the age of grace between the crucifixion and the time of tribulation which is coming. But we are coming to the end of that period of grace, please make sure of your salvation in Jesus Christ before that time gets here.
Many of us think that we are alone, even when we are in a crowd. Sometimes this feeling gets to be overwhelming and people think of suicide because the loneliness feels like it is crushing them. I’ve felt this way myself although I’ve usually prayed about it and God has given me peace enough to carry on.
Anyway, when you have accepted Jesus as your Savior you are never alone because His Holy Spirit is always there to comfort and guide you through troubled times. He never leaves you once you have truly opened your heart to Him and asked Him to come in and save you from yourself. It is your sins and your own life that is at stake after all. God knew this long before any of us were born. Jesus did all of this because of His love for us.
Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world, whether you have been taught this or not, it is the Truth of Scripture. God’s Word is true in all aspects, I pray that everyone who reads this will seek Him for their salvation. This age that we have lived in for nearly 2000 years is coming to an end. There is nothing which has to happen before Jesus calls His Bride, the church, to come home except the salvation of those who have been called by the Holy Spirit. If you have felt this in your heart, please seek your Savior soon and accept Him as your Savior.
God loves you and He has paid the price for our sins through the sacrifice of His Son, the Lamb of God. Do not refuse this gift of God because it has been given to each of us. The greatest gift ever given to humanity in the Person of Jesus Christ.
Then they were yelling, “Crucify Him!” Less than twelve hours later. How much that crushed our Lord’s heart we cannot know, but I’m sure that it did.
In many ways today’s flag and Jesus have many things in common.
The flag of America has had blood shed for it and on it. In America during the Civil War and during the war of Independence years before. It was carried with our troops on the field of battle overseas in Europe and Asia and across the seas. On Navy ships and troop carriers and subs that old flag has taken its hits from fire and oil and gun shots and at home from crooked politicians and those who hate us because of what it stands for.
Our Savior shed His blood for all of our sins, to make men free from the slavery to sin. Our Savior went through some terrible trials before He was crucified. He was spit on and beaten by His own people and priests. They made a mockery of a trial to show that what they wanted was right and that He was a threat. They accused Him of crimes against the Roman state and cast a dark shadow over His fate. He allowed this to happen because He loved them and had He wanted to He could’ve wiped them out with a word but He didn’t because He came to do His Father’s will and not His own.
So, you see that America’s flag has a lot in common with our Savior. They have both been beaten, torn, ripped apart and yet they both were victorious in the different ordeals that they went through. Our flag has been worn down during the wars that she has fought in through the years and the country that she stands for isn’t the same as it was once before. But there is still pride in our country and in that flag that stands for freedom that has suffered so for it.
Jesus and our flag have been through a lot but He came out of the grave triumphant and whole to stand at the Father’s side and to intercede for us when we don’t do the things that we should. Our flag still stands for freedom and human rights although they are being worn away little by little today. Those of us who remember history, our actual history, look at that flag with pride. So, yes I am proud to be an American and I am proud to say that I am a Christian too. Will life ever return to normal here one day? I don’t know, but I will never give up my freedom willingly and I will not renounce my faith in Jesus Christ.
Scientists say that the universe seems to be winding down. Winding down to what exactly? Well, the answer to that would require you to have faith in the One Who made all of it. The Bible is full of prophecies and the only ones that haven’t come to pass yet are the ones in the book of Revelation. Truly, there is nothing standing in the way of His return except He may be waiting for one more soul to decide to follow Him. That’s about all that could keep Him from calling His Bride, the church, home.
Time is winding down to the “end of the age”, the church age, and that is where we are right now. How much more time do we have? I haven’t a clue. It could be a day or a week or six months or three years, only God knows the exact day and hour. We should be doing the work that Jesus gave us to do until that day comes. Keep looking for Him, studying His Word and be in prayer for those who haven’t made the decision to follow Him yet because it could be someone you know that is the last person that God is waiting on.
The parable of the ten virgins tells us what we need to do and that is be prepared for His return at the time of His return. You can’t get ready when the trumpet sounds, you have be ready when it sounds. Because once the call goes out for those who have passed on before us to rise and then those of us who are alive will meet them and the Lord in the air, there will be no getting ready. It will happen “in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye” and then we will be gone.
At that time…the world will change so drastically from that day on until the Earth will not seem to be the same place at all. From that point things will get progressively worse for those who are left. God has not forgotten you and you can still give your life and heart to Him but it will be much more difficult. People will turn in their own family to the authorities when Christian beliefs are outlawed. Many other things will happen during those seven years after the taking away of the church and all of them are outlined in the book of Revelation.
I pray that anyone who has not made their decision to follow Jesus and have Him come into their heart and change them will do so…soon. We are not guaranteed tomorrow so make sure of your salvation while you can.
We are called to be a people who can show the love of Jesus to everyone. That was and still is the command for the church that Jesus began in Jerusalem with His disciples. If we aren’t doing this then we have failed our Lord and Savior as a church and as His Bride. I pray that everyone who claims to belong to Jesus will take this to heart and repent of not being His church and get back to their first love, Jesus Christ!
These three are in one of the most beautiful chapters in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 13. Many people call it the love chapter and it is used almost exclusively at weddings and sometimes at funerals for the hope that it gives to those who have lost someone dear to them. Paul writes at the end of this chapter that “the greatest of these is love”. Why?
Because it was love that brought Jesus to Earth to be the perfect Lamb of God for our sins. It was love that compelled Him to minister to all of the people who were not allowed in the Temple because of who they were or what sort of occupation they had. He taught them, fed them, healed them, and set them free through belief in Him and in His message. It was love that caused Him to sweat drops of blood in the garden that night before His crucifixion because the flesh of His humanity was not ready for the punishment that was coming.
Many people think that since Jesus was the Son of God, He didn’t feel pain or fear or helplessness but He did. All of those and more were part of His humanity that He was born into. The pain of a skinned knee as a child and the pain from the Roman soldiers scourging were both equally real. The pain from the soldiers whipping Him was far more excruciating because of their ferocity and hatred for the Jewish people that He represented to them. Then, after the scourging, He had to endure the humiliation of carrying His cross to the hill where He would be crucified on it. Jesus, the Son of God, endured this because of His love for you and for me and for every person of the human race past, present at His time on Earth and for all of the future generations to come after which includes us.
The greatest of the three is the true Love of God. Because if it hadn’t been, Jesus would not have been sent to redeem us and He wouldn’t have gone through all of the things which He allowed to happen and be done to Him if it had not been for the vast love of God poured out on humanity through the blood of Jesus. We are still loved and God still calls many to repentance with the offer of salvation. Some hear His call and listen but choose not to respond to it because of ignorance and pride. Some hear it and do respond but they don’t last because of family or the enticements of the world. Some do embrace the promise and the call and take it in completely and these are the ones that Jesus came to save and welcome into His home one day.
I pray if you don’t know your Savior yet, seek Him out. He came to pay the way for you and if you have ever felt even a little bit of God’s call in your heart, please make the decision to accept it and seek to follow Him today. It doesn’t cost you anything but the eternal reward will be more than you or I can imagine.
The Living Message of Christ 