Is Christ Risen?

We, the Church, are the Body of Christ. We are the physical representation of Jesus in the world today.

As the Body of Jesus, we seem to be much more comfortable in the dark of the tomb, wrapped in our own shroud, meditating on this death of our Lord, with the stone rolled shut across the door.

We ignore that what we are called to do – as the living Body of Jesus – is to go out and proclaim, demonstrate and testify with our lives the awesome miracle that “Jesus is Alive!” and that we are living examples of this fact.

What I long for is the day when we are bold enough to declare, as one people, with one voice, that Jesus is Alive, and that our conduct in the world would bear witness to this fact.

Our inactivity, our apathy, our aversion to serve others and live out the compassion of Jesus, sadly proclaims that Jesus is dead.

It’s when we live for Him, when we continue to love the way He did, when our lives are in sync with His, that we proclaim by our actions that, yes, indeed, Jesus is really alive!

Is Jesus really alive? Has He really come to live in your life? And how would anyone know this to be true if you never actually demonstrated the life and love and ministry of Jesus in your own life?

Do we, as individual followers of Jesus, feel safer within the quiet of the tomb? Or are we willing, even eager, to roll away the stone and begin to live the truth of the power of the Gospel?

If we, the Body of Jesus, do not act as a living Jesus would, within this world, loving those He loved, sharing with those He spent time with, continuing His ministry of transformation, then we do not demonstrate that Jesus is alive, we simply testify that He has died.

What we must do is to wake ourselves from our slumber, shake off the apathy, and begin to proclaim, with our own lives, that Jesus is truly alive.

“I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing.”- John 14:12

“Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”- 1 John 2:6

Is He Risen? Is He Risen Indeed?

People are waiting to see.

 

Respond at: https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2019/04/is-christ-risen/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Best+of+Patheos&utm_content=57

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Finding Deep Joy in a Sad, Shallow World

~ Dr. Larry E. Dixon

Finding Deep Joy in a Sad, Shallow World (A Study of Philippians) Part 2 (Joy and Happiness)

How would you distinguish between JOY and HAPPINESS? For many people, they are the same. But “deep joy,” lasting joy, is more solid, more permanent, than the flitting feeling of giddiness sometimes bestowed by our stingy culture.

True, deep JOY goes beyond circumstances. It is deeper than the vicissitudes of life. [I knew that “vicissitudes” was a word, but I had to look up the spelling]. Vicissitudes are “successive, alternating, orchanging phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs.” JOY transcends the ups and downs of life.

But this kind of profound JOY is not the same as stoicism, a gritting-of-one’s-teeth to resignedly toughen out life. This kind of JOY recognizes life’s tragedies, catastrophes, and collapses, but remains steadfast and permanent and accessible.

Continue at: https://larrydixon.wordpress.com/2019/04/23/finding-deep-joy-in-a-sad-shallow-world-a-study-of-philippians-part-2-joy-and-happiness/

With Enthusiasm

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might,”¹ and “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters.”²

 

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, Henry Van Dyke wisely said, “Use what talents you possess: The woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those that sang best.”

I grew up in Brisbane, Australia, and attended a primary school where there was a motto written over the door of every classroom. The only one I remember is today’s verse taken from the Bible: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might”—that is, whatever you do, do it to the best of your ability and do it with enthusiasm.

That’s one motto I have tried to live by and, with God’s help, plan to continue for the rest of my life.

Everyone has been given at least one gift/talent—most of us several. May we all use them to the best of our ability to serve God and our fellow man and thereby help make our homes and our world a better place in which to live.

God hasn’t called most of us to be experts but he has called all of us to be faithful in putting to good use the gifts he has given to us. So, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it to the best of your ability with enthusiasm.”

Suggested prayer: “Dear God, help me to appreciate the gifts and talents you have given me and to use them to minister to others and therein be a part of what you are doing in the world today. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Ecclesiastes 9:10.
2. Colossians 3:23 (NIV).

Comment: http://www.actsweb.org/daily.php?id=1278

Doing Good – A Good Thing

Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

blog article: https://raymcdonald.wordpress.com/2019/04/09/doing-good-a-good-thing/

Taken Captive by False Teachers

https://churchwatchcentral.com/2019/03/08/taken-captive-by-false-teachers-false-doctrines-10-signs/

According to His/Her Ability

“The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea.”¹

“There is a story of a 33-year-old truck driver by the name of Larry Walters who was sitting in his lawn chair in his backyard one day wishing he could fly. For as long as he could remember he had wanted to fly but he had never had the time, money, or the opportunity to be a pilot. Hang gliding was out because there was no good place for gliding near his home. So he spent a lot of summer afternoons sitting in his backyard in his ordinary old aluminum chair—the kind with the webbing and the rivets, the kind most of us have.

“One day Larry hooked 45 helium-filled surplus weather balloons to his chair, put a CB radio in his lap, tied a paper bag full of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to his leg, and slung a BB-gun over his shoulder to pop the balloons when he wanted to come down. He lifted off in his lawn chair expecting to climb a couple of hundred feet over his neighborhood. Instead he shot up 11,000 feet right through the approach corridor to the Los Angeles International Airport. When asked by the press why he did it, Larry answered: ‘Well, you can’t just sit there.’ When asked if he was scared, he answered, ‘Yes … wonderfully so.'”²

Oops! Surprise! Surprise! Admittedly, Larry had no idea what he was getting himself into. Sure, he would have been wise to get some practical advice from the folk who use weather balloons. Crazy? Yes, but at least he had the courage to give what he wanted to do a try. I’m not suggesting that we do anything crazy, but at least let’s do something worthwhile with our lives.

As I’ve said before, just about every Christian I have ever asked the question, “Do you believe God has a purpose for your life?” answer, “Yes, I do.” But when I ask them what it is, most don’t have the vaguest idea what it might be. In a sense they just sit there and do nothing about it. As the old adage puts it, “Better to have tried and failed than never to have tried at all.”

God’s instruction to each of us is to give/do/work “each according to his/her ability.” In other words, whatever abilities we have we need to put them to the best possible use doing God’s work here on earth. The way we do this is by helping others according to their need—according to our ability to help.

Suggested prayer; “Dear God, please help me to get with your program—what you are doing in the world today—and not sit around waiting for some kind of a ‘special’ call, but by putting to use my God-given abilities in your work for your Kingdom. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully in Jesus’ name, amen.”

1. Acts 11:29 (NIV).
2. Robert Fulghum, Everything I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten (New York: Villard Books, 1988), p. 139

Comment: http://www.actsweb.org/daily.php?id=1235

Christ Our Ransom

A Broadcast with R.C. Sproul

Many believe Jesus’ death was a meaningless act or mere example. From his series The Cross of Christ, R.C. Sproul corrects these views as he considers what Jesus Himself taught about the crucifixion.

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