Tag: Death

Posted in Easter, GOD CARES, Humility, JESUS, Safe with Jesus, Uplifting Christ

THE BIG SACRIFICE

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

(John 3:16, NLT)

In order to draw man to Himself, God gave Jesus Christ. He was the Big Sacrifice to redeem us and to set us apart.

Jesus did not look at His status but gave up all. With such humility, God elevated Him to the Highest place of Authority.

You should think about things in the same way that Christ Jesus thought: Christ had the same nature as God. He was completely equal with God.
But he did not try to keep hold of that. Instead, he chose to leave heaven.
He took for himself the nature of a slave. He became like a human.
And when he lived as a man, he made himself even less important.
He obeyed God completely, so that he died. He even died on a cross!
Because of that, God then raised Jesus Christ to the most important place.
God gave him the name that is greater than every other name. As a result, when people hear Jesus’ name, they must worship him. Everyone will have to go down on their knees in front of him.
That includes everything that is in heaven,
everything on the earth and everything under the earth. Everyone will have to agree that Jesus Christ is Lord. When they say that aloud, they will show that God the Father is very great

(Philippians 2:5-11, EASY)
photo credit: http://www.wibeoy.com

Jesus knew the Cost yet He was determined to Carry the Cross so that you and I can sing Amazing Grace. He looked into the future with Love and Joy as he took one step ahead of the other into His death. He saw You and I spending eternity with Him. He loved us enough to go through the humiliation, pain, rejection, etc.

Today, we talk about Jesus being the big sacrifice but let me ask you, what sacrifice have you made for this Jesus? How are you living your life?

As we run, we must always look towards Jesus. He is the one who trusted God completely. Our faith starts with him, and he will help us to trust God all the way to the end. Jesus accepted punishment on the cross. He chose to receive much pain. He did not think about being ashamed to die like that. He knew that God had prepared something very good for him that would make him happy. Now he has sat down at the right side of God to rule with him in heaven.

(Hebrews 12: 2, EASY)

Your Sacrifice is your symbol of Humility and God will exalt you for whatever you (have) give(n) up for Him.

My Christian friends, God has been very kind to us. Because of that, I really want you to serve God with your whole life. Offer your bodies to him like a sacrifice that continues to live. Serve him with everything that you have and that will please him. That is the true way to worship God

(Romans 12:1, EASY)
Posted in Easter, JESUS, Safe with Jesus, Uplifting Christ

The Story of the Crucified King: The Silent Moment

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

In a season like this, permit me to share a beautiful story about a King who forsook all He had to be a servant in order to win the World for His Papa.  

This King was born in a manger to a beautiful young virgin and a young carpenter. For reasons unknown and still remains a mystery, He lived for 30 years before starting His assignment in this different world. In His Glory, He was served but in the human form, He came to serve.  

Within three years of His Ministry, the world saw unprecedented miracles, signs, and wonders. He spoke with authority and challenged the status quo. And soon, His fame spread throughout the region, so much so that everywhere He went crowd would follow Him.  

During these years, those who believed in Him and the works He did became His friends and desired that He lived forever. After all, who doesn’t want to have bread multiplied and coin being pulled out of a fish mouth? His disciples wanted him to stay for longer because the Miracle Worker was their master and like any servant, they probably would boast about their Master when He was away. There was one disciple who got the opportunity to walk on water. Amazingly and also funny, this person didn’t want His master to leave. They left all they had to follow Him.  

However, these good works also attracted many enemies. There were those who desired every moment that He would just disappear. They tried to arrest him a couple of times and daily sought to trick Him to commit a crime. All these efforts prove futile. He was way smarter than them. If He were in our world today, His IQ couldn’t be measured or tested because He is the idea/knowledge/wisdom behind the invention of IQ test(er).  

One day, He was finally arrested. One of His own betrayed Him. Sad. His enemies thought it was time to end this nuisance in order to return to normalcy. Whereas His enemies jubilated and planned ways to get rid of Him, His friends wept bitterly especially those who left everything to follow Him. They were caught in a dilemma: What would be their future? How would life be once their enemies have their way? How would society accept them back? Etc 

As these two sides think of the way forward, the King knew that He was born to die. He didn’t see death as an end. Instead, He saw it as a moment of transition. He had told them that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it abides alone. In effect, although He was mocked, beaten, spat upon, slapped, knocked, etc. He said nothing and did nothing. He could have resisted and conquered because before these guys were born, He Was. And one servant in His Glory could have destroyed these vulnerable sheep.  

It happened that His enemies had their way and wish granted so they crucified Him. Everything happened just as it had been prophesied. He came to fulfill the scripture. Finally, the moment of transition came but death was afraid to approach him. Before there was pronouncement of death, He was. Therefore in order to make death’s job easier, He Himself yielded His Spirit into the Hands of His Father. Then the moment of Silence began. 

His friends and enemies saw Him being crucified and they thought it was over. The longest day in His friends’ lives was that Saturday. It was the first day they lived without hope of seeing their King again. No bread multiplication. No water into wine. No fishes. No Master. No dead being raised. No Nothing. On the other hand, His enemies thought they had achieved the normalcy they had long waited for. No more crowd gathering. No more hosannas. Nobody would be potent enough to challenge their interpretation of the laws. Etc. It would forever remain the quietest day on earth.  

…to be continued 

Posted in FAITH, HOPE

DEATH IS NOT THE END

Posted on by Uplifting Christ

Jesus defeated death

For me to live is Christ [His life in me], and to die is gain [the gain of the glory of eternity]. Philippians 1:21. If we live, we live for Christ, and should we die, we die for Him. Either ways, we win. I wonder how many of us today are afraid to die. Someone asked me “at gunpoint, if you are asked to deny you Faith and live, what would you do? My answer was what Paul said; if I live, it will be for Christ, and if I die, I will gain even more.

Why should I be afraid of death?

By the way, we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.

Friends, I want to talk to you today about this interesting topic; Death is not the end. When Jesus sent out His disciples in Matthew 10, He told them in verse 8 that “heal the sick, raise the dead”. Why would Jesus tell them to raise the dead when we all know it is appointed for man once to die? Jesus knew death was not the end. Death was not God’s original idea; Romans 5:12, “when Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” Death came as a result of sin. Jesus came to destroy sin. He had no sin in Him so He could defeat death. Consequently, He told His disciples, raise the dead.

In John 11, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was dead, He said to His disciples “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going to wake him up.” Jesus is more powerful than death. Jesus wept at Lazarus funeral not because Lazarus was dead but He wept when He saw death which was an enemy of God tormenting God’s children. Jesus knew there was something those people could do instead of crying. He knew with faith, they could bring the dead back to life. Jesus felt the pains when He saw people having perception that death is the end of man. He wept because of their unbelief. He told Martha in verse 40 that “did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

Death is an enemy of God which comes like a hawk to take God’s children but in the end, it shall be destroyed. 1 Corinthians 15:26 “the last enemy to be destroyed is death”

The good news for us is Death has no power over us because if we live, we live for Christ, and should we die, we die for Him. Either ways, we win. Whether we live or die, we are for Christ. A sinner or an unbeliever is afraid of death because he or she has no hope.

When a person dies, we don’t have to cry. No! We can do something better than crying. Jesus said John 14 “12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” He raised the dead so we can also raise the dead. We have to stand as lights of the world instead of conforming ourselves to the beliefs of the world which are contrary to what the Word of God says.

Although death would come to take as many as it could, we, as believers, must do what Jesus told us to do; heal the sick, raise the dead. The first question a Christian asks a sick folk is; have you gone to see the doctor or GP? Have you taken drugs? If we cannot heal simple malaria, hay fever, headache, etc, how could we raise the dead?

And when we hear about the death of a loved one, the first thing we do is to cry, which is an act of unbelief.

Why do we cry?

We cry because we believe there is no hope for the person again. When you read Luke 8: 49, the Bible says “While Jesus was still speaking, someone came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” he said. “Don’t bother the teacher anymore.”  In verse 50 “Jesus said to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.””. This, I believe, is what we have to do as believers. Don’t cry and later go in to raise the dead.

From today, be encouraged that you have power to raise the dead. Christianity is not only about prosperity as some folks want us to believe. Our Faith comes with POWER to do all things. Prosperity is just a fraction of it. Jesus said if anyone believes in Him, that person will do the works He did, and even do greater than what he did. I ask myself anytime I read this scripture that “What could be greater than raising the dead, walking on water, feeding multitudes with few loaves of bread, turning water to wine, opening the eyes of blind, casting out demons, overcoming temptation…? We can do more with our faith. God used Paul to do extraordinary miracles in Acts 19:11-12 “God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.”

Death is not the end