All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. John 1:3 Nothing makes sense when Jesus is not part of the equation because through Him everything was made. With Him we have life and joy, without Him there will always be something missing. You can make a million dollars, have…
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Remove falsehood and lies far from me; Give me neither poverty nor riches — feed me with the food allotted to me; Lest I be full and deny You, and say, ‘Who is the Lord?’ or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God. Proverbs 30:8-9 This is a great…
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Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, “Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is desert. So he arose and went… Acts 8:26-27a So much of what God has for us is missed because too many times we question God’s calling instead…
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…the Lord is at hand. Philippians 4:5(b) Do you know that the Lord is available to you at this very moment? There’s no need to talk to a recording or wait on hold before before getting connected to Him. The Lord is instantly available for counsel, comfort, or whatever your need may be. Even though…
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I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called. Ephesians 4:1 It is really easy to fake this walk that is worthy of the calling of God. When Paul says “beseech,” he is urging his readers to walk worthy. But he isn’t telling them…
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“These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:11 You don’t ever go into an apple orchard and hear a bunch of grunting trees trying to make apples. The apples come from within when the tree in healthy and nourished. In the same…
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As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. Psalm 103:12 Have you ever noticed there is a North Pole and a South Pole but no East or West Poles? You can keep going west forever and never reach a point where you’re going east and vice versa.…
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Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, “Who are these arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?” And I said to him, “Sir, you know.” So he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white in…
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Jonathan Edwards, the great early American preacher, had a marvelous way with words. He wrote thousands of pages reflecting on the Scriptures with some amazing insight. One day he was musing about how to live the Christian life and wrote, “Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.”
In other words, Edwards was committed to living each and every day as if it were his last. If we’re to do that, it means two things. First, it means we take risks for the sake of our ultimate mission of making Jesus famous. Second, it means we live every day how we’d want to be remembered if it were our last.
I think most Christians would probably agree with Edwards’ sentiments of living every day as if it were their last. But the problem is that we often lose focus in light of the everyday. As believers, we need to take risks and live for the Lord. When we make that our lifelong goal and focus, we’ll end our lives knowing we made a real and lasting impact on the world for Christ. There’s nothing else that really matters.
Pastor William Del Casale
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20
In verse 18 of 2 Corinthians, Paul indicates that he has been given a ministry of reconciliation, and now in the capacity of that ministry, he is serving as an ambassador of Christ. An ambassador is a diplomatic official of the highest rank, sent by one sovereign or state to another as its resident representative. Paul used the picture of an ambassador to illustrate the magnitude of the responsibility entrusted to him, but this responsibility did not stop with Paul. This calling and responsibility has been passed throughout history to succeeding generations of Christians down to us in the present day.
We who were once dead in our sins, living in disobedience, and deserving recipients of God’s wrath (Ephesians 2:1-3) are now the vessels through which God pleads with the world. We are to persuade the world of the finished redemptive work of Christ as the only means of deliverance from every person’s impending judgment. We are acting on the authority of heaven, proclaiming the gospel in a land of which we are no longer citizens. We who were lost and not worthy of the kingdom of God are now qualified to act as diplomatic officials of heaven because of the blood of Christ. Praise God for His grace and mercy towards each of us!
Jeff Mericle
