“Who is Worthy?

There is no one who is worthy of the grace and mercy that God gave us through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ. As people, no one is better than the other. True Christian humility avoids self-exaltation. The word says those who are greatest among you should take the lowest rank. Luke 22:26 ” Don’t be like them. The most important one of you should be like the least important, and your leader should be like a servant.” Verse 27 says that He (Jesus) had been with you as a servant. Jesus, though He was God, gave up His privileges and took the humble position of a slave, He lowered Himself to human status and died on a criminal’s cross.

Philippians 2:5-8 “And think the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ was truly God. But He did not try to remain equal with God. Instead He gave up everything and became a slave, when He became like one of us. Christ was humble. He obeyed God and even died on a cross.” Paul reminds the Romans that God is the One who places Spiritual gifts within the body of Christ. Every member is given a special function. We all belong to each other. Romans 12:5 “That’s how it is with us. There are many of us, but we each are a part of the body of Christ, as well as part of one another. “So rather than thinking more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, we should love each other and strive to live in harmony with each other. Ephesians 4:2-3 says: “Always be humble and gentle. Patiently put up with each other and love each other. Try your best to let God’s Spirit keep your hearts united. Do this by living at peace” More often than not people compare themselves to others, are critical of others. Even though Christ was tempted just as we are, He chose the path of humility, love and sacrifice, even to the end crying out to the Father to forgive them, for they did not know what they were doing; thinking to the last breath about each one of us. Thank You, Father God for allowing us another chance to live eternally even though we did not deserve it at all. You are truly the greatest Father of all.

If some of you reading this have never asked Jesus to be Lord and Savior of your life, now is a perfect time. “Jesus who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21

Jesus died for your sins , rose again so that we all have a chance for salvation! Ask Him today to forgive you of all sin, to come be Lord of your life, and to fill you with His Holy Spirit. The Spirit leads and guides us through the Bible and directs our steps, also gives you the power to obey what God directs you to do.

Ask Him to come be your Lord today and your life will never be the same. Our salvation is the greatest Father’s Day gift to God and to us.

“I look to the hills! Where will I find help? It will come from the Lord, Who created heaven and earth. The Lord is your protector, and He won’t go to sleep or let you stumble.” Psalms 121:1-3

There was a time in my life when the abuser that we thought was our provider, someone who would protect us all, went ballistic due to drugs and alcohol, he destroyed the “home’ that we lived in, even tore the toilet out of the floor and smashed it. It was an empty shell. I was in great despair, I climbed up on the stone foundation and looked to the Lord, this scripture came to mind immediately. My God is so faithful! He gave me a vision of a new house sitting on that foundation. I had no means to do this, no man had the means to help me. But my God showed me that it would be so. I believed Him.

A few years later, there was a new house sitting on that junk filled, broken foundation. It was miraculous!

I never forgot the reality of the promise God’s word showed me that day, I will forever be thankful for His word to me.

Mac Laren Commentary from Bible Hub described this in three steps: Look to the Hills:

1. The look of longing, a resolution born from intense longing. Directing his eyes further than his eyes can see to the loftiness that natural sense, may not behold. The ability to divert one’s attention from things that were to things that seemed far off, but yet to come.

2.The reality of human weakness. The higher our expectation, the more painful the realization that we are not able to reach this on our own.

3. Our assurance of Faith. There will be no receipt of divine help, unless there is a sense of need for divine help.

Like Asa of Judah in Chronicles. He was engaged in a battle against a great multitude of enemy. He said,”We have no strength against this multitude, yet we put our eyes to Thee!” There before them were 100,000,000 soldiers Ethiopian army, and 300 chariots (2 Chronicles 14). After Asa called upon the Lord, they defeated this army miraculously.

Glory be to God!

Call on His name today! If you have never asked Jesus to be Lord of your life, now is the time. Just say Jesus, forgive me of all my sin! I believe that you died for me and then rose again so that I might have eternal life with You one day! Fill me today, with your power, by your Holy Spirit, who will direct my life, direct your truth through your word, and make my life new in You , In Jesus” precious name!

Amen!

” Don’t fall in love with money. Be satisfied with what you have. The Lord has promised that He will not leave us or desert us. This should make you feel like saying, “The Lord helps me! Why should I be afraid of what people can do to me?” Hebrews 13:5-6

And religion does make your life rich, by making you content with what you have. We didn’t bring anything into this world, and we won’t take anything with us when we leave.” 1 Timothy 6:6

“I pray that God will take care of all your needs with wonderful blessings that come from Christ Jesus! May God our Father be praised forever and ever. Amen. Philippians 4:19-20

We need to watch and pray, that we do not fall into temptation of idolizing material things more than Spiritual things. As the scripture says we came into this world with nothing and we will not be carrying anything out of this world. People get so stressed out about material things, yet we should have a loose grip on things that pass through our hands, we are but sojourners here. When we have given our lives to Christ, our lives are no longer our own. The most important thing we are blessed to do, is to tell others about Jesus, share our own testimonies, and teach others about a better way that God sent His own Son to live among us and teach us, through His living word!

If you have never asked Jesus to be Lord of your life, do it right now! Jesus came to live among us because He loves us. He forgives us of all sin, He willingly laid His life down for our redemption, so that each one of us is set free and we all have a chance to rise again with Him just as He did. The grave could not hold Him he rose again for each one of us. We serve a risen, living Savior! Tell Him that you love him, He will forgive you of all sin, and you will forever be His.

Be content-He is all we really need!

“Surrender to God! Resist the devil, and he will run from you.” James 4:7 I have quoted this scripture to myself, maybe thousands (if not more) of times over the years. Many more times than that to people in counseling sessions. The rest of the paragraph beyond says: “Come near to God, He will come near to you. Clean up your lives, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you people who can’t make up your mind.” James 4:8

It has been my experience that when people are having trouble making up their minds, they are usually fighting against the will of God. In their hearts they know, even the more immature of heart, know what they are supposed to do. Their flesh fights against the Spirit, the battle ensues. Even Jesus experienced this very real struggle in Gethsemane. He was so troubled that He sweat blood. Where He agonized before the cross. Matthew 26:41reads: “Watch and pray so that you will not enter into temptation. For the Spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Jesus had been teaching His disciples about the Kingdom of God and all that is yet to come before this hour, yet the weight of this hour before they were to come to get Him, and He would surrender His will to the Father’s will; was the most difficult of all up to this point. He made the ultimate sacrifice for all of us in the world. Though He fully knew what was expected of Him by the Father, still, His flesh was weak. He made Himself a living sacrifice for us.

Romans 12:1-2 reads: “Dear friends, God is good. So I beg you to offer your bodies to Him as a living sacrifice, pure and pleasing. That’s the most sensible way to serve God. Don’t be like the people of this world but let God change the way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to Him.”

God wants you to do His will. He may birth it in your heart at a younger age but you may struggle in the flesh to obey Him. I find that without surrender, as the scripture says, you will not know how to do everything that is good and pleasing to Him.

Surrender to Him, now. He develops your path before you when you are in complete surrender to his will.

If you have never asked Jesus into to your heart, do not waste another minute, do it now! He made the ultimate sacrifice for you. He died for you, took on all your sins, ask Him to forgive you! He took on all your pain, sickness and oppression upon Himself. He rose from death, and lives eternally so that you may have the ability to do the same one day! Ask His Holy Spirit to fill you with power, and to lead and guide you through your life, and by His word.

Surrender to Him today!

“Lift up your heads, O Gates! And be lifted up O ancient doors, that the King of Glory may come in. “Psalms 24:7

We need to daily declare all spiritual obstacles be removed that stand in the way of our wholehearted submission to God’s reign. Jesus is King of Kings. So we need to both Spiritually and in the physical sense welcome His reign. Lift up our heads signifies humility and readiness. When we stand in reverence of God , we allow Him to come into our lives and lead us. (Beth Moore)

A quote from John Piper,” Each time we cry out for God’s presence, we are echoing the call written in the Psalms. We should always be ready to open our hearts.

This past Sunday was Palm Sunday and we are going into the Holy week. Usually, we reflect the triumphant entry into Jerusalem. My attention was drawn to the donkey, who was ready in every way to give a ride to the King of Kings. According to scriptures, he had never been ridden. I used to have 6 horses and a horse or donkey that has never been ridden needs to be broken, a bridle put on after lots of carrots, then slow conditioning to the clothes, or weight of a saddle or a person, it takes time in the natural. But Jesus knew that the donkey was there waiting for Him. Waiting to be the Christ-bearer, the vessel God used to carry Jesus into Jerusalem. Waiting to fulfill the prophecy in Zechariah 9:9. Only the Holy Spirit, going before Jesus and His disciples could make this donkey ready for the King. It was all the will of God. Zechariah had prophesied 500 years earlier that a King would ride into Jerusalem on a donkey-“Be full of joy, O people of Zion! Call out in a loud voice, O people of Jerusalem! See, your King is coming to you. He is fair and good and has the power to save. He is not proud and sits on the son of a female donkey.” He needed the donkey to represent peace, service and humility. The donkey submitted to be led, no resistance. Just simple obedience! The donkey was willing to obey, this was supernatural for one who has never been ridden. The donkey carried Christ, as our mission is to lift up Jesus. Willing, obedience opens many doors. We need to be ready, like the donkey- to carry Jesus to the world, and to check ourselves that we remain obedient, with wholehearted submission to His will, keeping our hearts guarded and open for the King of Glory to come in.

Jesus Christ chose to submit to the Father’s will for humanity. He willingly laid His life down, died on the cross, then rose again in 3 days and He is a living, risen, savior, Christ our King!!!

Ask Him into your heart today, He took all your shame, pain, sickness and bondage upon Himself, so that you may be free and have eternal life just as He lives today. We celebrate His resurrection this Sunday but ask Him into your heart, ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and lead and guide you through His Holy Word, he will direct your path today, and every day for the rest of eternity!

Lift up your heads, and let the King of Glory come in!