Death, Guilt, Sin & The Saviour's Grace - A Dose of Encouragement

EASTER is just one of the items on the Church Calendar each year.

Or is it?

When we are young Easter may centre around those chocolate eggs and everything that seems to depict cuddly little yellow chicks.

When we are young Easter may centre around a family roast and little egg hunts.

When we are young Easter may centre around one of those twice a year visits to church.

When we are young and actively involved in church Easter may centre around pictures of an empty cross and tomb.

But what about now that we are older?

Are the chocolate eggs and yellow chicks forgotten?

Do we still get together as a family for that big meal?

Do we still go to church on Easter Sunday?

To some of those the answer may well be - YES?

but

Do we still focus our thoughts on the cross & the tomb?

Most of us will not have been able to grow up without hearing about the cross and the tomb but did we really pay attention to the  WHY?

The first "Why" I want to look at is the DEATH.

We know he died and his body was put into the tomb and then we know that the tomb was found empty but often our thoughts of Easter stop right there at the empty tomb and we forget to go on and see what it means for us.  What it has meant right from that resurrection day until now and will continue to mean for all of us for the rest of our lives and for eternity.

Jesus through His DEATH and RESURRECTION defeated DEATH forevermore.

He defeated DEATH for us the ones who deserved death as the punishment for our sins.

He defeated DEATH so that the fear of it would not have to hover over us and taint our lives.

He defeated DEATH so that the devil would not have that to use to control us.

The second "Why" I want to look at is the GUILT.

We know Christ died because people hated Him and would rather He be killed than someone who had already been found guilty of terrible crimes.  Jesus was the one who took Barabbas' guilt there and then that day as the people watched the truly guilty person walk away.  

Jesus through His death and resurrection also took our GUILT that day and we need to remember this.  We the guilty were replaced by the true innocent one, Jesus was and is the true, perfect sacrifice once and for ever for our sins. 

Jesus stepped into our place for us the GUILTY ones who deserve death as the punishment for our sins.

He wiped away our GUILT so that it would not have power over our minds. 

He took our GUILT on himself so that anguish, worry and stress would not destroy us.

The third "Why" I want to look at is the SIN.

We know Jesus was "without sin" from the following verses  

"For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

2 Corinthians 5:21

"For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

Hebrews 4:15

"So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

Hebrews 9:28

"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:"

1 Peter 2:22 

"And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin."

1 John 3:5

 

 

But 

Do we really believe that we are sinners?

Do we really believe that Jesus died for us?

Do we really believe that Jesus was a willing sacrifice?

Do we really believe that Jesus took on our sin?

 

AND

If we really understand & believe that we are sinners.

If we really understand & believe that Jesus died for us.

If we really understand & believe that Jesus was a willing sacrifice.

If we really understand & believe that Jesus took on our sin.

THEN    

We can trust that Jesus did this all to bring us into God's family.

We can trust that Jesus is the only Saviour of the world.

THEN    

We can trust that the Saviour's grace to us is real.

So what is the grace of God?

people often say it is "undeserved favour" from God

but I would like to add a quote from John Piper here 

“Well, it appears that the word grace in Paul’s use not only refers to God’s character trait or disposition or inclination to treat people better than we deserve, but the word grace also refers to the action or the power or the influence or the force of this disposition, which produces real, practical outcomes in people’s lives, like being sufficient for good deeds or enduring the thorn in the flesh or working harder than everybody else, which Paul says about his own apostolic work.”

which directs us to the fact that the Grace of God is an active effect on our lives to change us.

NOW    

We can understand the reason for cross, the punishment, and the Grace.

 

Remember the Death

Remember the Guilt

Remember the Sin

Then 

Remember the 

What a wonderful time is the celebration of Easter regardless of who we are, where we are, who we can see and what we can do.

To dwell in the knowledge that Jesus was the sacrifice for us and had the power to overcome death so that we do not have to carry the sin and guilt but instead we have experienced our Saviour’s Grace when we trusted in Him.

How to Keep & Share A Thankful Heart - A Dose of Encouragement

Who or what are you thankful for & happy about today?

So many times we are drawn to think on the more unpleasant things in life which lead to unhappiness and they can keep us from being thankful for anything when we are in that frame of mind.  


What can we do to keep the right frame of mind and not get into that attitude that can get worse and worse as we dwell on the hurts and unpleasantness caused by others?

We can remember that we are blessed.

There is a little song that we used to sing years ago in church and maybe we should revive it to remind us that we are blessed.

I am blessed, I am blessed,

Every day I walk with Jesus I am blessed.

When I wake up in the morning,

When I lay my head to rest,

I am blessed, I am blessed.

If we are God's child, saved by the grace of Jesus and living by the power of the Holy Spirit then we are blessed more than be could be in any other way.

Being Blessed is not having all the money you want, having great possessions or having a great life which never sees sadness.

Being Blessed is described in Numbers 6 v 24-26 which I learnt as a song in the Presbyterian Church I grew up in as we sang it each time a baby was christened.

We are blessed as Christians because we know:

We are kept in the hand of God 

We are favoured by God 

We are in the Grace of God

We know we have the peace of God

So every day we know we are blessed and we should remember to thank God for His blessings to us.

As we thank God repeatedly we will build up a thankful heart.

As we become more thankful we will also love God more.

As we love God more we will build up a loving heart.

As we love God more we will also become more loving towards others.

As we love others more we will build up a more caring and giving heart.

I'm sure we know people who are very generous and do think often of helping and giving to others but we as Christians have the greatest thing to offer others and that is the Love of God, through the Gospel.

We can't go around saying - Oh I'm better at showing God's Love to others by giving to people rather than telling them about God's Love.

Because of God's love to us we should have a thankful and loving and giving heart which should mean give people out of the abundance of love in our hearts but that should always include the best thing we have and that is telling them about God's Salvation.

Amy Carmichael put it very simply and clearly in this quote below

because 

she knew that we cannot truly love God without giving this gift to others.

 John Wesley entreated us as believers to speak as we truly believe 

because 

he wanted us to act as the bible has also told us.

How to Keep a Thankful Heart?

Recognised how God loves & blesses us each day and remember to thank God each day.

How to Share a Thankful Heart?

React out of the Thankfulness we have which makes us more loving towards others and then we will share the Love of God. 

I Love Butterflies - A Dose of Encouragement

Where do I begin?


I cannot remember when I was not interested in something which had a butterfly on it.

Most people who know me well will be able to tell you that

 I love Butterflies.

I have Butterfly 

     necklaces,    rings,    scarves     &    brooches

 - not sure how many I have but because of these items many people know I love butterflies 


Over the years my family have bought me scarves, vases, bags and necklaces at Christmas time all decorated with butterflies.


Even the Ladies who came to the International Christian Club of Brussels knew I loved them as I was often found with a butterfly brooch pinned to my jacket.
When I was leaving Belgium to return to live in Northern Ireland I was given a lovely white lace Butterfly brooch from one of these ladies as leaving gift.

Isn't it beautiful?

My daughter even had a mug specially printed for me with butterflies on it for my Birthday one year and I featured it in a humorous blog post called 3 More Coffee Mugs

I have bought myself bags with butterfly designs, clothes with butterflies & room decorations with butterflies.

Then there was the time Fred and I spent a lovely afternoon in our home in Belgium taking pictures of the butterflies that were on a bush just outside our lounge window -  I was going to miss the Butterflies

It just makes me smile to see butterflies around the house and in our garden with our Buddleia (butterfly) bush here in Northern Ireland too and we manage to get some nice pictures of the bush in full bloom

 with butterflies around it each summer.

Why do I love Butterflies?

Because they are beautiful, intricately patterned, delicate creatures.

They are also a great reminder of new birth in that they start as caterpillars and turn into beautiful butterflies.

Just like I was once a person marred by my sin and through God's Love and the Grace of Jesus I was able to experience a new birth and share Christ's beauty.

I love to share about the butterfly in Kids Work that I would do to explain to the children that God offers them a new life in Jesus through His blood because of His Love for them.

Children hear that Jesus died on the cross but they need to know that He did this for them individually and that His beauty can become their beauty.  They need to know that he didn't stay dead but rose again and is still alive today so that they can know He talks to God about them and shares in all their feelings.

Children need to feel loved and secure above all else and Jesus wants them to accept His love and assurance that He will never leave them.

But you and I need to know exactly the same thing.

There is something very important that we all need to know.

You and I need to know we are loved and that we are safe and that there is a God planned future for us.

You and I need to experience this new birth and know that we can be beautiful in the eyes of our creator because of His Son.


There is one last Butterfly I would like to share with you today

This Butterfly sits on the Vanity Unit in our ensuite and I see it every day at the start of my day and the end of my day.


I believe in miracles.

Do you?


The Butterfly is an example of a miracle in that it changes from an ugly creature to a beautiful one.

Can you believe in Jesus and experience Him work this miracle in your life too?

Promises - We Can't Always See Them - A Dose of Encouragement

Not very long ago I read of a Canadian school teacher who on his 27th time reading through the Bible decided to take a note of all the promises he found there.  

This took him a year and a half and he came up with a grand total of 

8,810 

PROMISES. 

We are NOT going to look at all those promises!!!!

Although if you are interested in some of them you can have a look at 

Bible Verses for  10 Great Promises of God.

or you can have a look at a reminder of many things God has Promised in Promises

However it got me thinking about this and I wondered how many times have we promised something

• to others
• to ourselves
• to God

You know the things we have said:

Yes, yes, yes I promise!   -  when we are not really interested and just want to get on quickly to something else.

Of course I promise!

I Promise I really do!

I never promised!

Do any of those sound familiar?

Can any of us say we have never broken any of the promises we have made?

We just need to admit that we can't remember all the promises we have made in our lives and we probably don't remember if we made any yesterday.

Perhaps we speak too soon about things, or too quickly, or perhaps we don't take promises too seriously.

Perhaps we want to forget about a promise we made because we don't really want to be held to it.

Surprisingly we can forget that others have promised things too.

So thinking back to that 8,810 promised that were found in the Bible we can be sure that many of those were made by God and we should never forget about God's Promises.  In fact we should take some time to learn more about them.

Sometimes the reason we forget about people or things is because we can't always see them.   This can be the same for promises.

One promise that God made to everyone is easy to remember because God gave us a sign in the bible which is still repeated physically for all the generations since to see.

The Promise of the Rainbow from Genesis chapter 9 v 12 - 17

12 And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 

13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 

14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 

15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 

16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 

17 And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.” 

When we know that God gave us this great reminder of His Promise then we know He intends to keep His promise.

This should encourage us to seek out more of the promises for us in the Bible and get to know more about them.  

Then start remembering that

 

GOD KEEPS HIS PROMISES

even though

we can't always see them 

Every morning as we have breakfast together Fred and I pray to thank God for the previous day and the things we are thankful for from that day.  Then we pray for family, friends and other needs we know about and end by asking for God's care and protection & wisdom.

We can pray this way because

 

we believe God's promises to us

and

because 

God does not forget what He has said!

Because God is not like us who so easily forget.

 We must look at God's Promises in the light of 

WHO GOD IS 

and not who we are.