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IF YOU HAVE NEVER READ THE STORY ABOUT PETER AND CORNELIUS, YOU SHOULD. THIS SHOWS HOW COMMITTED PETER WAS TO JESUS AND HOW JESUS USED HIM. WE ALL NEED TO BE THIS COMMITTED.
The paradise that Jesus spoke of must have been the same place that Jesus called "Abraham's bosom," when He told the story of the rich man and Lazarus. Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth after His death, and John 20:17 shows that it was some time after His resurrection before Jesus ascended back to His Father. Therefore, this paradise was "Abraham's bosom" located in "sheol" in the lower parts of the earth.
The phrase "led captivity captive" from Ephesians 4:8, refers to Jesus liberating the Old Testament saints. When Old Testament saints died, they went to a place in the center of the earth which is called "sheol" in Hebrew. It is the Hebrew word "sheol" that is translated "hell" in Psalm 16:10, which prophesies Jesus saying, "For thou wilt not leave my soul...
Forgiveness of sins is one of the great themes of the Bible. There is so much that scripture says about it that it would take volumes of books to adequately deal with the subject. It will suffice to say that the blood of Jesus is what provided us with forgiveness of sins. That sacrifice was so great that it outweighed all our sins. It covered all the sins of the world-past, present, and future.
Most Christians have the concept that the sins they committed before they professed faith in Christ are forgiven at salvation, but any sins that are committed after that time are not forgiven until they repent and ask for forgiveness. This is not the case.
All our sins: past, present, and future were forgiven through the one offering of Jesus. If God...
DO YOU GET DISCOURAGED ONCE IN A WHILE? WITH THE WORLD THE WAY IT IS, I AM SURE A LOT OF US DO. WHEN WE READ ABOUT SOMEONE IN THE BIBLE GETTING DISCOURAGED, IT LETS US KNOW THAT WE ARE NOT THE ONLY ONES THAT HAS A BAD DAY ONCE IN A WHILE. THE GOOD NEWS IS THAT WE DON'T HAVE TO STAY IN THAT STATE. GOD ALWAYS GIVES US A WAY OUT.
LUKE 7:20-22 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’” At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases,...
WHEN WE FIRST ACCEPTED JESUS AS OUR SAVIOR, IT WAS IMPOSSIBLE FOR US TO KNOW EVERYTHING THAT FOLLOWING HIM WOULD TAKE. NO ONE, HOWEVER, SHOULD BE FEARFUL OF MAKING A TOTAL COMMITMENT BECAUSE OF SOME IMAGINED PROBLEM THAT MAY NEVER COME TO PASS. IF YOU HAVE ACCEPTED HIM, THEN GOD, ALMIGHTY GOD OUR FATHER, HAS DRAWN YOU TO JESUS. IT WASN'T YOUR IDEA BUT GOD'S. THIS SHOULD MAKE YOU FEEL LIKE SHOUTING BECAUSE THIS SHOWS YOU THAT GOD LOVES YOU VERY MUCH. LOOK WHAT JESUS SAYS IN JOHN 6:44 "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day." YOU ARE SECURE IN YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH JESUS AND BECAUSE OF JESUS YOU CAN NOW GO DIRECTLY TO GOD WITH YOUR PRAYERS, PRAISE AND WORSHIP. THIS IS THE FELLOWSHIP HE WANTS WITH YOU.
WITH THE ABOVE IN MIND, THERE SHOULD BE A WILLINGNESS TO FORSAKE EVERYTHING TO FOLLOW JESUS. ONCE WE MAKE THAT DECISION, THEN...
These Jews, who had courted Judas' favor to obtain his cooperation in arresting Jesus, cared nothing for Judas. They had simply used him. The devil's crowd may flatter as long as they can use you, but you can be assured that when there is no longer anything in it for them, they will forsake you just as the chief priests did Judas.
The serpent didn't come to Eve in the garden threatening to bite her if she didn't eat of the forbidden fruit. Instead, he came with deception, presenting himself as being concerned for her welfare. Satan's greatest weapon is deceit.
Just as a football player, a boxer, or military man's success depends partly on how well he knows his opponent(s), so believers must not be ignorant of Satan's devices. Jesus...
WE ALL KNOW HOW MUCH JESUS LOVES US BECAUSE OF WHAT HE DID FOR US, BUT HE DOES LITTLE THINGS FOR US THAT SOMETIMES WE DON'T EVEN KNOW ABOUT. I WAS READING ABOUT JOHN THE BAPTIST AND WHEN HE WAS BEHEADED. IT MUST HAVE BEEN A BAD TIME FOR HIS DISCIPLES AND THE BIBLE SAYS THAT WHEN THEY HEARD ABOUT IT, THEY CAME AND TOOK HIS CORPSE AND PUT IT IN A TOMB. WHEN THEY HAD DONE THIS, THE BIBLE SAYS HIS APOSTLES GATHERED THEMSELVES TOGETHER UNTO JESUS AND TOLD HIM ALL THINGS.
What happened to Barabbas is a picture of what happens when a person is born again. Barabbas was guilty; Jesus was innocent. Yet Jesus suffered the death that Barabbas should have experienced, and Barabbas went free.
Likewise, we were all guilty (Rom. 3:23) and condemned to death (Rom. 6:23), yet Jesus suffered our punishment so that we may go free (2 Cor. 5:21). Just as Barabbas didn't ask for this substitution, so "God commended his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8).
Barabbas was freed, but he had to choose whether or not to accept this new start and remain free, or go back to his old ways and come under the judgment of Rome again. Likewise, we have all been freed through the substitutionary death of Jesus, but we have...
HAVE YOU REALLY THOUGHT ABOUT HOW BLESSED YOU ARE? SOME MIGHT SAY "HOW CAN YOU SAY I AM BLESSED WHEN I LIVE FROM PAYCHECK TO PAYCHECK AND CAN BARELY PAY MY BILLS?" JUST THINK OF THE PEOPLE THAT DON'T HAVE A JOB, OR, AS FAR AS THAT GOES, A HOME, A CAR OR GOOD HEALTH. DO YOU EVER THANK GOD FOR THE THINGS YOU DO HAVE?
This washing of the hands was not only a symbolic custom of the day that showed innocence, but was also a ritual prescribed in the Jewish law (Dt. 21:6-7; Ps. 26:6).
Matthew is the only writer to record Pilate washing his hands of guilt, just as he was the only writer to record Pilate's wife coming to him with the details of the dream she had about Jesus. Secular accounts record her name as Claudia. She is the only one who spoke for, instead of against Jesus' life during the trial.
This dream, no doubt came from God, since Claudia would have had to dreamt it before she knew of Jesus being brought to Pilate. Not only did the Lord bare witness in...