Romans 5:8. But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Then it was Monday, and who knows what kind of day it will turn out to be, weather wise or personal circumstances wise. But let’s hope that the weather is somewhat like yesterday afternoon, with the bright sunshine just pouring forth, after a touch of rain and some wet snow in the morning. Yes, the sunshine won the weather battle yesterday, in this contrary month of March 2024, where thanks to climate change, you don’t know from one moment to the next whether it’s going to be hot or cold, dry or wet. (smile)
And, as per personal circumstances, regardless of what happens, we’ve all made the pronouncement: ‘This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! (Ps. 118:24) And along with that positive statement, we’ve also declared (yesss!!!): ‘Something good is going to happen to me today. Something good is going to happen through me today!’ Wow! And with Jesus behind the wicket, or behind the baseball mound, guiding our trajectory, NOTHING can cause us to go astray or lose hope and faith in our wonderful Lord and Saviour!
Give Him much sincere praise and thanks my faithful believers, for He certainly deserves it, after all that He’s done on our behalf, especially the ‘sufferation’ of the cross on Good Friday, and the awesome resurrection three days later on Easter Sunday, momentous calendar occasions of our faith that are just two weeks away! And are those two splendiferous occasions, along with Christ’s immaculate conception and virgin birth at Christmas, ever important! That’s for certain sure, for without them we’d have no Christian faith, nothing on which to base all our hopes and dreams of salvation and eternal life. We’d be automatically doomed for hellfire and damnation.
But because of God’s great LOVE for His amazing creation, He sent His only Son, to die on our behalf and thus pay our sin debt in full. What a great LOVE the Father must have had for us, and still has, to give up His One Son, for a bunch of ungrateful sinners. And I just adore this scripture from Bruh Paul to the Roman church, which soundly endorses that amazing LOVE! He writes: ‘But God commendeth (demonstrated) his LOVE toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Rom. 5:8)
Mama oh Mama! What a scripture! It just exposes the big heart of our majestic and sovereign God Jehovah! And that’s not all. Listen to how Bruh Paul further describes the amazing strength of that LOVE in his missive to the Romans. ‘For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nr depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the LOVE of God, which is in Christ Jesus.’ (Rom. 8:38-39)
Now, that certainly deserves another, ‘Mama oh Mama!’ (smile) Yes friends, for Bruh Paul is saying that NOTHING, absolutely NOTHING, can ever separate us from the AWESOME LOVE of our heavenly Father! And if you don’t believe Bruh Paul, then listen to the sacrificial Son, Jesus Christ, as He explains it. ‘For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.’ (John 3:16-17) More amazing scripture proving God’s great LOVE friends!
And later on, Jesus bookended those statements with this one. ‘Greater LOVE hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ (John 15:30) And that’s exactly what He went out and did on Good Friday; lay down His sinless life for us! Yes my brethren, the Lord desired to save His creation from hellfire and damnation, so He gave up His most valuable possession, His Son to do it! But please note there is one very important proviso in the whole thing: To be saved, one needs to believe in the Son! And that’s about the only requirement the Lord set out in His heart-breaking sacrifice for us to be saved: we must believe in His Son!
The gift of salvation itself is totally free; we need to do nothing else but BELIEVE! And Jesus highlights that ever so clearly in the next verse. ‘He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.’ (John 3:18) Oh my people, it could not be any easier or clearer than that! All we need to do is sincerely believe in Jesus, and we’re on easy street – well not quite easy street, because belief brings a lot of testing, but we are indeed heaven bound. However, if we hear about Him and don’t believe, then it’s cleaners for us, eternal separation from God with Satan in the depths of hell.
And that fact is something that Jesus kept repeating at every instance. Listen to a few of them nuh. In talking about His submissiveness to the Father, He says: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation (judgement); but is passed from death into life.’ (John 5:24) Then after saying that He was the bread of life, (John 6:35) Jesus made this other statement re belief. ‘For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me… And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.’ (John 6:38, 40)
And when the Jews murmured about Him claiming to be the bread of life, Jesus told them again, in no uncertain terms. ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.’ (John 6:47) Oh my fellow saints, how many times does Jesus have to stress the overriding need for belief in Him, before we actually do it eh? But it’s all up to individual choice, the free will that the Lord gave each of us. All I can do is try to pound it into our hard hearts and stubborn minds! End of sermon! (smile)
Now let’s go to the Father in prayer, through our Monday Morning Battle Hymn, asking for His divine help to fix our many earthly problems. As one voice: ‘Our Father, who art in heaven, we, Your humble servants, praise Your Holy Name and thank You this Monday morning for life and strong faith in Christ, despite the mass confusion in our world. Heavenly Father, You are the ONLY ONE with the power to solve our many problems. Yes, we have all sinned and seriously disobeyed Your Word, but You are a merciful, forgiving and gracious God, who has faithfully promised to hear and answer our prayers when we humble ourselves, pray, and sincerely seek Your face.
So, we come to You now, with sincere repentance in our hearts, pleading for wise guidance and direction to alleviate our problems. Oh Father, please ease the pain of the many suffering from negative situations, show them Your awesome grace and mercy. And faithfully keep Your promise to prosper us if we turn from our evil ways. Show this evil world that You are indeed Jehovah Rapha; the God who heals! We pray this in the holy and blessed name of Your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ! Amen! And again, we say: Amen!’
And it will stand us in very good stead, if we remember these important words of our prayer: ‘if we turn from our evil ways.’ For then, and only then will divine help be forthcoming! Much LOVE!
…belief is all it takes to get on the road to heaven…
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