Tag: cross

Praying with your spouse - love in action

Love in Action vs. My To Do List

Posted on by Evangeline

 

They say love is a verb and that we should see love in action.

The more I learn of the love of Jesus– specifically, His love for me– its depth, height, width and length astound me. I see more clearly now that His love for me covers everything; it is complete and perfect. There are no holes in His love for me, no void spaces. So if nothing is missing in His love for me, why am I not always confident in the victory His love has already provided?

Love in Action

Jesus’ love is always a love in action. His love is always working to give us victory in our circumstances. Maybe I need to look more at what He’s done instead of what I’ve done or what I need to do (I can sometimes have a l-o-n-g “to do” list to change my circumstances). My to-do list, when it’s not focused on God’s ability and willingness to act, is the  kind of self-help that is not always good. Maybe I need to allow Him to be in control so that I can rest. Everything that Jesus has done is based on His love for me. Every  bit of punishment inflicted on Him before and at the cross was because He did not want me to experience it. He endured every bit of scourging for me. He took every sickness and “condition” onto His body for me so that I wouldn’t have to “live with it” (Isaiah 53:3-5). He satisfied every requirement of the Law so I wouldn’t be required to do so. He left nothing undone and did everything perfectly. What a love!

No matter the circumstances that I find myself enduring, I’m determined to choose to look to Jesus’ love for me– to have confidence in it, to trust it. I’m determined to rest in the knowledge that His love for me has done everything to give me victory in any circumstance. Because of His unmatched, unending, and unfailing love, I win!

How do you remind yourself of His love for YOU?

Women’s Role in the First Easter – Sharing the Message of the Resurrection

Posted on by Evangeline

Happy Resurrection Sunday!

How will you spend this day celebrating the resurrection of Jesus? Jesus is the Son of God, and the Savior who loved EVERYONE in this world so much that He gave His life so that each person who believes in His resurrection can freely enjoy relationship with God, receive His love, and call Him, “Father”.

Resurrection and Life

The first people to be sent to tell the exciting news of Jesus being no longer dead but risen and alive were women! Like women typically do, they rose early, before dawn, to care someone else. This time, it was for the purpose of taking care of the dead body of One they loved– Jesus. They walked from their homes to the tomb where Jesus had been laid so that they could apply spices to His entombed body. Have you ever wondered how they expected to get beyond the soldiers who had been posted there and how they planned to move the stone that sealed the tomb?  I suppose it didn’t matter to them, they just knew what had to be done according to their Jewish custom and they went, prepared to get it done.

Jesus had women involved in His ministry while He was on earth, and now that He was risen, He commissioned them to spread the Word that He was alive. It was to be an important mission of love to share an important message of love. He wanted them to be the heralds to spread the message of a new relationship that was now available to everyone, not just the 12 disciples and followers within the borders of Israel.

Here’s how those first evangelists spent their day:

“The day after the Sabbath day was the first day of the week. At dawn on the first day, Mary Magdalene and another woman named Mary went to look at the tomb.

 At that time there was a strong earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, and rolled the stone away from the entrance. Then he sat on the stone. He was shining as bright as lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The soldiers guarding the tomb shook with fear because of the angel, and they became like dead men.

The angel said to the women, “Don’t be afraid. I know that you are looking for Jesus, who has been crucified. He is not here. He has risen from the dead as he said he would. Come and see the place where his body was.  And go quickly and tell his followers, ‘Jesus has risen from the dead. He is going into Galilee ahead of you, and you will see him there.’” Then the angel said, “Now I have told you.”

The women left the tomb quickly. They were afraid, but they were also very happy. They ran to tell Jesus’ followers what had happened. Suddenly, Jesus met them and said, “Greetings.”The women came up to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid. Go and tell…”  

~Matthew 28:1-10 (NCV) 

Isn’t it just like Jesus to recognize how women are typically more relationship-oriented and therefore would use them to be the first to give the message to others that a new relationship was now available with God? He gave  a word of comfort to them to share so that others would believe in Him through their words. He entrusted women with birthing His church by giving them the message of His resurrection to share. For thousands of years, that message those women shared about Jesus being alive has brought victory to all who believed it.

How will you spend this day celebrating the resurrection of Jesus? Will you share the good news of His resurrection with someone who may not know it?

celebrate resurrection of Jesus

Need New Glasses?

Posted on by Evangeline

Look at life through the lens of what Jesus did for you on the cross

and maintain a hope-filled focus!

 

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Loved by a Cross-Eyed God

Posted on by Evangeline

For the last 6 weeks I’ve been teaching at my church about God’s Favor in our lives. It has been a transformative time as I have learned more about being accepted by God purely by what Jesus did on the cross and not by my efforts/works. Here’s one of the props I’ve used in the class:

I know, it looks ridiculous, but when God gave me the idea, I knew it would be effective in getting this point across…

Did you know that God is “cross-eyed?” He sees the believer only through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.What Jesus did on that cross on our behalf was so important. At the cross is where He established our value to Him. It’s where we find assurance of both His love and His desire to bless us with His unearned favor/grace.

Do you know how God sees YOU? Well, He’s “cross-eyed” all the time so when He looks at you, He ‘s still looking through the lens or filter of the cross.  No matter what you’ve done or are doing at this moment, if you’re a believer in Jesus, God’s viewpoint of  you is always through Jesus’ shed blood and complete work on the cross. That’s why He can love you unconditionally, the same way He loves Jesus (John 17:23), because He sees you clothed in Jesus’ righteousness, fully and eternally cleansed of any sin because of His sacrifice on the cross.

God’s blessing, healing, delivering and prospering believers is all because of Jesus’ perfect obedience/efforts/work at the cross. There’s nothing we can do to earn His love and there’s nothing we can do to lose it. As the old hymn goes, “Jesus paid it all!”

Being loved by a “cross-eyed” God is the best way to be loved! Can you think of any better way to be loved?

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Cover of "Unmerited Favor"
Cover of Unmerited Favor

 

If you’d like to study more about Jesus’ finished work and His favor to us, our resource text for the class has been Unmerited Favor by Joseph Prince. I highly recommend it!