If Christ Hasn't Come Back To Life?

If Christ hasn’t come back to life, your faith is nonsense and sin still has you in its power.
-- 1 Corinthians 14:17 (GWT)

He's alive and I'm forgiven. Heaven's gates are open wide!
-- Don Francisco's Song from the Apostle Peter's Perspective

Click here: Don Francisco - He's Alive - YouTube

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Own Interests?

For Christ did not please Himself -- gave no thought to His own interests...
-- Romans 15:3 (AMP)

Deo Volente (whatever God wants/wills),
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Everyone Gets It? Not Everyone Gives It?

When it comes to generoisty, obedience, and sacrificial giving, is it possible that everyone gets it, but not everyone gives it?

You are generous because of your faith. And I am praying that you will really put your generosity to work, for in so doing you will come to an understanding of all the good things we can do for Christ.
-- Philemon 1:6 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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Here & Hereafter

What an amazing "here" and what an awesome "hereafter" is ours in Christ Jesus!

For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.
--Philippians 1:21 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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Intensify My Hunger

Lord, intensify my hunger for You. Amen.
-- Dennis Kinlaw's prayer recorded in his book, The Mind of Christ

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 (NIV)
-- Words of Chrst recorded in His Sermon on the Mount

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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I Fall To My Knees And Pray...

Today, as "I Fall To My Knees And Pray" I invite you to do the same. Seriously, go ahead right where you are, yes, if you're able and you want to, right now, just physically get on your knees.

Take a few moments just to allow your heart, mind, and soul to spiritually breathe.

Now, let's pray together the Apostle Paul's prayer from Ephesians 3:14-19 (NLT). I will pray the prayer for you and you pray it for me. It is really a prayer of blessing:

(14) When I think of the wisdom and scope of God’s plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, (15) the Creator of everything in Heaven and on earth. (16) I pray that from His glorious, unlimited resources He will give you mighty inner strength through His Holy Spirit. (17) And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in Him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God’s marvelous love. (18) And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep His love really is. (19) May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Amen.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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The Overseer of the Overcomers

Years ago, I was given an audio recording of Bishop S.M. Lockridge reciting his original proclamation titled "He's My King! You Can Trust Him!" It is probably the most awesome exaltations of Christ I have ever heard. It was in that exaltation that I first heard the Lord referred to as "The Overseer of the Overcomers!"

A few weeks ago when my mentor, James Spruill, was praying about whether he should lead his medical missions team to Haiti with all of the uncertainties following the island nation's devastating earthquake, the Lord comforted James' heart and confirmed that the trip should indeed happen with the words of Psalm 121:8: The LORD keeps watch over you as you come and go, both now and forever.

James and the medical team made the lives of those they encountered in Haiti delightfully different just by showing up in the hour of Haiti's greatest need. They have now returned safely back to the States. Surely, our our Lord loves proving that We can trust Him, because without a doubt He is "The Overseer of the Overcomers!"

The words of our Lord in John 16:33 are surely sweet to the souls of His saints: I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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Anything, Everything

Christ won't be much of anything to us until He is Everything to us.

That's why The Apostle Paul said, For me to live is Christ...

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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Trusting & Suffering? Both Are Privileges!

For you have been given...
not only the privilege of trusting in Christ...
but also the privilege of suffering for him.
-- Philippians 1:29 (NLT)

IF MY PEOPLE... WILL? I WILL! God's Promise in 2 Chron. 7:14.
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His Arms-Wide-Open, Crying Invitation

From His first cry at His birth in Bethlehem's manger to His final cry at His death on Jerusalem's cross, God's Only Son had His Arms-Wide-Open inviting us to enter a love-relationship with the Trinity that begins on earth and continues for Eternity. Good news, indeed!

And the Good News gets Gooder, in that, His Arms-Wide-Open, Crying Invitation is still being extended to us. Christmastime accents the Christ Child's invitation. Let's respond to His invitation and let's invite others to also come to Bethlehem's Boy, yes Calvary's Lamb, for Heaven's forgiveness at Christmastime and all the time. We can turn His crying into laughing by receving The Gift of His Life with our Arms-Wide-Open and by sharing The Gift of His Life with our Arms-Wide-Open to others.

ALL... JOY TO YOUR WORLD! ALL THE BOYS AND GIRLS NOW! :-)
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The Greatest Gift Exchange of All-Time

2 Corinthians 5:20b-21 from The Living Bible Paraphrase makes clear The Greatest Gift Exchange of All-Time:

...be reconciled to God. For God took the sinless Christ and poured into Him our sins. Then, in exchange, He poured God’s goodness into us!

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15 (NIV)

Thank you Lord, for taking our undeniable guilt and giving us Your indescibable Gift.

ALL... JOY TO YOUR WORLD!
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Are You Possessed? If So, By Whom?

In John 13, though Jesus showed His disciples the full EXTENT of His Love by washing their feet (John 13:1 NLT) and instituting His Supper, one of the original twelve disciples of Christ, (Matthew 10:1-4), yes, the one known as Judas Iscariot, still chose Sin over Him (Jesus) when the Devil ENTICED him to betray the Lord (John 13:2 NLT). As a result, Satan ENTERED the deceived disciple (John 13:27 NLT). Yes, it's sad, but it's true; for thirty pieces of mere silver, Judas Isacriot sold His Dear Savior and forfeited his Holy inheritance.

The Holy inheritance that Jesus would die for shortly after the John 13 event is prayed for by Jesus Himself in the last seven words of His High Priestly prayer to the Father in John 17: ...that I Myself may be in them. It's what He wants and it's what we need -- to be Jesus-possessed, (not Satan-possessed). Yes, indeed, Christ in you (and me), the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27b)

Lord, let us be filled with You, not the Devil. We choose You, as our Savior and Lord, and we claim our inheritance of being filled with Your Holy Presence over mere silver and the dreadful thought of having Satan enter us. Make our lives Your dwelling place, Dearest Lord Jesus. Amen.

ALL JOY!
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The Losers Win? Yes We Do.

In Luke 17:33 (MSG) Jesus said, If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.

Galatians 2:20 (MSG) helps us to know more clearly what it means "to lose our lives": Indeed, I have been crucified with Christ. My ego is no longer central. It is no longer important that I appear righteous before you or have your good opinion, and I am no longer driven to impress God. Christ lives in me. The life you see me living is not "mine," but it is lived by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I am not going to go back on that.

And in Philippians 3:7-11 (NLT) the Apostle Paul applied the lose-your-life words of Jesus to his own life with these words: (7) But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. (8) Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (9) and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; (10) that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (11) if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

So is it correct to say that "The Losers Win" in the Kingdom of God? Yes, in fact losing is a core value of Christlike winners. Think about it. On Crucifixion Friday Jesus looked like the #1 Loser of all losers, but on Resurrection Sunday He proved to be the #1 Winner of all winners! Indeed, Jesus turned His loss on Friday's Cross into our gain outside Sunday's Tomb. Let's exhale. The Losers Win? Yes, We Do!

ALL JOY!
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The Hope

Here's a tremendous thought to ponder...

If we really believe the One who called Himself "the Truth" (in John 14:6) really came to be crucified so He could set us free from sin and give us total victory in this life and beyond, let's consider the awesome power that is ours in these New Testament words penned by the Apostle Paul (who defines "the Hope" as "Christ in you/me...") Here's what he wrote:

Christ in you "the Hope" of glory. Colossians 1:27b (NIV)

ALL JOY!
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