Praise And Thanks To God

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

I invite you, on this Lord’s Day Sunday, this first day of a new week, to share in giving God all praise and thanks for Jesus, His only begotten Son whom He gave to this dark, sinful world, that whoever believes in Him, will know abundance of life. Give thanks for the Gift of His Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth.

Sunday, the first day of the week, brings us to remember the life-saving, life-giving hope and assurance we have in resurrection. On the first day of a week, God raised Jesus from the dead and from that time to now, the Good News has continued to reach the ears and hearts of many. He is risen! Jesus is indeed risen and even more stunningly and awesomely wonderful, is the fact that He is risen for you and in you. Never forget! Regardless of your station in life, you live, because Jesus lives. You can hope and help, because Jesus lives. You are able to praise and pray, because Jesus lives. You receive and respond, because Jesus lives.

I invite you in this moment, on this new day, as you read this offering, to personally give our Father in heaven thanks for coming to us Incarnate. Raise unending praise to God for His stupendous, steadfast love that emptied Himself and stooped the lowest, to come in mortal human flesh, fully human, to save a world of sinners. God, in Christ Jesus, came, lived and suffered beyond words can describe. He was crucified, He died and He rose. He did it all, to give you New Life in Him, life in all its fullness.

I can hear many a believer saying, “I know this, I know that Jesus died for me.”  Wonderful! But how does your faith act upon the fact that you know Jesus died for you? I am daily being made aware, and troublingly so, of how many of us, professed believers, are living lives of unbelief and seem totally at ease with our living. Complacency, mediocrity, resignation and luke-warmness, mark our daily living and we are quite satisfied with this kind of living.  It’s the dishonouring kind of living which holds as its standard. “I can only do what I can do.” Have you heard yourself? Are you hearing yourself? Is this, or other such ways of thinking, your philosophy in life? If this is what your life and mine show, then we need to leave everything and run to our heavenly Father for deep pardon. We need to seek forgiveness for denying the grace and power of our Risen Lord.

• Jesus lives, so that you, with your human nature, can die to all of self and be raised to all of Spirit.

• Jesus lives, so that you, now born of the Spirit and washed in the Blood, can receive all of the Spirit and live a fully Spiritual life in Jesus.

• Jesus lives, so that our ways of thinking, speaking and acting are no longer the same, as we are no longer controlled by the carnal self, but by the Divine Spirit.

• Jesus lives, so that our victorious lives of faith can joyfully say, “I can only do what the Holy Spirit can do in me.” Is there anything too hard, or impossible for the Spirit to do?

Believer, whoever you are and wherever you are, offer your life to the Risen Lord in total surrender. Offer yourself, knowing that Jesus lives in you and that the God who gave you life to see this new day, without any kind of input from you whatsoever – mental or physical - will also make of your life, what He wills. Seek forgiveness and offer your life anew, on this new day.

Thank You Father for forgiveness. Thank You for reminding me that I am Spirit-born and no longer ruled by my carnal nature. Thank You for coming in Jesus and giving me new life, abundant life, in mortal clay. Thank You for the Gift of Your Holy Spirit who teaches and leads into all truth. Holy Father, Spirit Divine, show Yourself in me, that I may be pleasing to You, serving You as You desire. Amen!