JESUS
IT IS HARVEST TIME IN GOD'S VINYARD:HELP US TO GATHER IN THE HARVEST OF PRECIOUS SOULS ACROSS THE WORLD. PRAY FOR OUR UGANDA CRUSADE SEPT 13-18
Dear Christian Friends:
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! It is with great joy that I share these wonderful truths with you, knowing that within each of us there is a desire to know and love God more deeply.
We have been correctly taught that we must reverence God with holy awe and respect because He is the ‘Judge of the entire world’, as well as our Creator, Saviour, Healer and Life giver!
What many do not understand is that God is LOVE and desires to bless us and also hungers for our love to be expressed to Him. Unlike the Old Testament prophets, Jesus Christ brought us a new understanding of the Almighty. He came to earth to show us what God is like. He wants us to know Him as He did. He taught us to call Him ‘Our Father’.
OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN!
The Jews believed that God was holiness. The Romans believed that God was power. The Greeks believed that God was wisdom. The Pagans believed that God was mystery. Scientists believed that God was energy. God is all of those and He is more. He is LOVE!
The Bible says, “For God so loved that world that He gave His Only begotten Son - to suffer, bleed and die as our substitute – that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (John 3: 16): “For when we were yet without strength (hopeless), in due time Christ died for the ungodly. But God commended His love toward us, in that, while we were yet SINNERS, Christ died for us.” (Rom.5: 6)
God’s Word states, “And this is the record, that God hath given to us ETERNAL LIFE, and this life is in His SON. He that hath the Son hath LIFE and he that hath not the Son hath not life. “(1 John 5: 11-12); “He (Jesus) came unto His own, and His own (Jewish nation) received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” (John 1:11-12)
Ever since the tragic FALL of our first parents, Adam and Eve, man has been in need of a SAVIOUR! Prophet Isaiah put it in perspective: “All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isa.53: 6)
“Surely He hath borne our sicknesses (heb. makob) and carried our pains (heb. nasa): yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we are healed.” (Isa.53: 4, 5)
“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ…For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.” (Rom.5: 9-21)
The Bible says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” (Rom.3:23); “There is none righteous, no not one.” (Rom.3: 10); “The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Rom. 6:23)
BECAUSE HE LIVES WE LIVE ALSO!
“We are…always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the LIFE also of JESUS might be manifest in our body… that the LIFE also of JESUS might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Cor.4: 10-11) The shed blood of Jesus Christ has purged our sins and satisfied the demands of Divine Justice, thereby freeing us from the penalty of our transgressions which was eternal separation from God. Jesus Christ’s sacrificial death for us on the cross has freed us from the ‘curse of the Law’ (Gal.3:13) and made us His children so that we are “heirs of God and joint-heirs with His Son.” (Rom.8: 14-17)
The Bible states: “In Him (Jesus Christ), we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17: 28). And our Lord declared: “Because I live, ye shall live also.” (John 14: 19); “I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abides in Me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15: 5)
BY GRACE, THOUGH FAITH, IN CHRIST!
C. S. Lewis stated: "If one has to choose between reading the new books and reading the old, one must choose the old: not because they are necessarily better, but because they contain precisely those truths of which our own age is neglectful."
One thing all the great PROTESTANT REFORMERS agreed upon was that we cannot save ourselves through good works and that God has no grandchildren! Every one of us has to come to God personally through Jesus Christ and be born again by the Word of God and the Holy Spirit in order to enter into His Kingdom!
To them, the Holy Bible was the rule book for life, faith and morals. There was none other. They trusted in the Blessed Holy Spirit to lead and guide them into all truth and they gladly confessed Jesus Christ as the “Way, Truth and Life” and the ONLY Saviour of the world! They’re slogan was: “By Grace ALONE; Through Faith ALONE; In Christ ALONE!”
In his letter to the Hebrews, St. Paul
“Who being the brightness of His glory, and express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word of His Power, WHEN HE HAD BY HIMSELF PURGED OUR SINS, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on High..” (Heb. 1: 1-3)
THE CHRIST ALONE DOCTRINE!
This Scripture tells us that Jesus Christ didn’t need any human or angelic help to purchase our salvation! He is the author and perfecter of our eternal salvation. When He took our sins upon Himself on Calvary ’s Cross and bore our guilt, shame, fear, sicknesses and pain in His body on the cursed tree He did it all alone! His mother stood by helpless as did some of His followers. Most of them fled in fear!
During those six agonizing hours our Saviour, “endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.’(Heb.12: 2) And He does not need any help to save sinners today! We preach His Gospel according to His Holy Word and lead them to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ saves them! He is the Saviour of Sinful men! He doesn’t need the Virgin Mary, the Angelic host, popes, prelates or Men of the Cloth to save sinners.
HE ALONE IS THE SAVIOUR! We may pray, preach, admonish and labour to bring lost sinners to the cross, but He alone saves them! The Bible states: “Without the shedding of blood there is no remission for sins.” (Lev.17: 11); “It is the blood that makes atonement for the soul.” (Heb.9; 22); “If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sins.” (1 John 1: 7)
It is not Christ and Church that saves! It is not Christ and the Virgin Mary that saves! It is not Christ and the saints that saves! It is not Christ and baptism that saves! It is not Christ and confirmation that saves! It is not Christ and good works that saves! A thousand times NO! It is Christ alone who saves and heals! Praise the Lord forever!
IT CHRIST ALONE WHO SAVES SINNERS!
The Bible says: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1). George Mueller stated: “Faith is the assurance that the thing which God has said in His Word is true, and that God will act according to what He has said in His Word. This assurance, this reliance on God's Word, this confidence is FAITH."
Before being burned on the stake, JAN HUS testified: “What I taught with my lips I now seal with my blood. My Lord Jesus Christ for my sake did wear a crown of thorns. My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with a harder chain than this for my sake, and why then should I be ashamed of this rusty one? I commend into Thine hands, O Lord Jesus Christ, my spirit which Thou hast redeemed.” - Jan Hus
“The Gospel which we have today has come to us at the cost of the blood of Jan Hus, one hundred years ago! I live as though Jesus Christ died yesterday, arose today and is coming back tomorrow” – Martin Luther
“I have one passion: It is Jesus, only Jesus” - Count Zinzendorf
“Give me 100 men who love nothing but God and fear nothing but sin. And I care not a straw whether they be plowmen or clergymen. By these alone I will close the mouth of Hell.” – John Wesley
“Go for the lost and go for the worst.” – General William Booth
“Stoop as low as you lawfully can to pick them up rather than let them become worse while you stand on your dignity.” – Evangeline Booth
“I gave up everything for Christy and what have I found? I have found everything in Christ” – Jan Calvin
“Some men like to live near church bell. Give me a Rescue Mission a yard from Hell.” – C.T. Studd
“Give me souls or take mine.” – George Whitfield
“O’ God, give me Scotland
“If there was more Hell preached from the pulpit there would be less Hell in the pews.” – Winston Churchill
