While the focus was once on Easter Sunday, now it's on the Easter Bunny. But Easter Sunday is much more than a day of colourful plastic eggs and chocolate bunnies; it's in fact a day that left the world forever changed.
It had been 3 days since Jesus had received the death penalty by popular vote. His friends and followers were devastated, as they had come to believe that He was not just an ordinary man, but the Son of God. He had performed miracles, healed every disease, and even brought a man back from the dead.
On that 3rd day - the day we now celebrate as Easter Sunday - His friends went to His grave, but instead of finding His body, they found an open tomb with no body in it. In fact, what they saw was an angel who told them, "Don’t be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here! He has been raised from the dead, just as He said it would happen." (Matthew 28:5, 6).
Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday; now He offers to you the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins. This is the true story of Easter, and this salvation is for you. Here are principles that tell how you can receive the gift of God for your life.
It had been 3 days since Jesus had received the death penalty by popular vote. His friends and followers were devastated, as they had come to believe that He was not just an ordinary man, but the Son of God. He had performed miracles, healed every disease, and even brought a man back from the dead.
On that 3rd day - the day we now celebrate as Easter Sunday - His friends went to His grave, but instead of finding His body, they found an open tomb with no body in it. In fact, what they saw was an angel who told them, "Don’t be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here! He has been raised from the dead, just as He said it would happen." (Matthew 28:5, 6).
Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday; now He offers to you the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins. This is the true story of Easter, and this salvation is for you. Here are principles that tell how you can receive the gift of God for your life.
1. God Loves You!
The Bible says, "God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life"
The problem is that...
2. All of us have done, said or thought things that are wrong. This is called sin, and our sins have separated us from God.
The Bible says, "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." God is perfect and holy, and our sins separate us from God forever. The Bible says "The wages of sin is death."
The good news is that, about 2,000 years ago...
3. God sent His only Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.
Jesus is the Son of God. He lived a sinless life and then died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. "God demonstrates His own love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
Jesus rose from the dead and now He lives in heaven with God His Father. He offers us the gift of eternal life - of living forever with Him in heaven if we accept Him as our Lord and Saviour. Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except by Me."
God reaches out in love to you and wants you to be His child. "As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe on His name." You can choose to ask Jesus Christ to forgive your sins and come in to your life as your Lord and Saviour.
7 comments:
Hi Michelle,
You do not know who I am. I first got to know about your blog during last year when I got to know about your abduction.It was an eye opener for me becos I believe during that time alot of your frens and family was very worried about you. Well I sort of did my part. I also send out an email to let my frens know...not long after that we got to know that you are ok and we were happy for you.
So after sometime I was just curious to know how are things with you and what has been going on in your life since then.
In some way I am happy for you when you are strong enough to overcome certain things but in another I am kind of confuse. You see I am also a Christian and am also attending church very regularly. I am not saying that Christians is like in a world of its own and not that attending church alone is enough.I am not trying to judge becos like what you say is truth who am I to judge. No offense but from your blog I find that you are a very confusing girl. One min you can be so spiritual and another you can be like so "duh".....as in totally the opposite. I just wan to ask you to make up your mind what you wan. Hold on to it. Dont give yourself so many excuses.
I have gone whatever you have gone thru but I just wan to encourage you to be strong if not stronger....Life is always filled with the up and downs..as written in James 1:2-4.. (Cannot remember how it actual goes but is something about perseverance)
Sorry if you find me intruding your privacy but I was just concern about you. Well hope that the next time I read your blog you would already know what you wan in your future and already submit it to God.
Always remember: "God say IT!, You believe IT!, that settle IT!" and also
"Trust-in His timing,
Rely-on His promises,
Wait-for His answers,
Believe-in His miracles,
Rejoice-in His goodness,
Relax-in His presence" James 4:8
Oh how I love the book of James!!! :P
Hi anonymous.Just wanna make a comment on what you had wrote in my jie's blog.Yes,I do agree life full of ups and downs.Someone who blogs about his/her devotion that doesn't show that he/she is a very spiritual person.Maybe the message he/she blogs
can be an encouragement to everyone. I do attend church regularly that doesn't show that I'm super spiritual.We,humans are weak in flesh and we will easily fall into temptations and problems because we were born in a sinful nature and Christ paid the price for us.If you want to see that person grows,pray for her.Not to give comments which offended a person's feeling.I do appreciate your concern for michelle.I as a friend of michelle,I do concern about her.One thing bear in mind is, if we want to see a person's grow,it takes time and sacrifice.Why not we pray for her instead of judging her. =)
As what the bible said,
That's why I take pleasure in my weaknesses,and in the insults,hardships,persecutions,and troubles that suffer for Christ.For I am weak,then I am strong.
-2 Corinthians 12:10-
My old self has been crucified with Christ.It is no longer I who live,but Christ lives in me.So,I live in this earthly body by trusting the Son of God,who loved me and gave himself for me.
-Galatians 2:20-
If you want to see a breakthrough in michelle's life,anonymous,pray for her.
hey anonymous,
i do appreciate ur feedback. its true that my spiritual life of late hasnt been alive as it was before. i'm not really here to defend myself or to justify my wrongdoings. i wanna believe that u r a fellow bro/sis in Christ who's concerned bout me and that u wanna encourage me to put my priorities right. for that, i'm truly thankful and i believe God sent u to gimme a 'wake-up' call... =) but i just wanna clarify that what i wrote on this blog is purely my thoughts and SOME records of whats going on in my life... so if u dunno me personally, it's hard for u to tell who i really am inside and what type of Christian i'm portraying to others, dun u think? =) so if u dunno me personally and u judge me based on what u read on my blog ONLY, i frankly think it's a lil unfair la... =P nevertheless, i appreciate ur feedback... God bless!
wendy, thanks for defending me and praying for me... u r prolly de only friend who prays for me everyday... u r truly a good sis to me and i love u!!! u and lawrence haf been so wonderful to me... and i believe God sent u 2 to encourage me... so thank u!!! u guys r so on fire for God so keep the fire burning and continue to bless others like u haf blessed mine... ;D i believe u 2 will continue to do mighty and great things for Him! thanks again for being my inspiration! *muaks!*
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Well, let me clarify. I do not intend to impress you with my knowledge and I do not intend to glorify my denomination. Let this discussion be done in unity of Spirit and let God be glorified through His own truth. You do not have to agree with me, but if God wants you to learn something and you do not understand, you better pray and ask for revelation. But then again if my words are not going to be beneficial to you, drop it, I gain nothing and I lose nothing.
I don’t have a denomination, I belong to Christ. Don’t you know the denominations are product of disunity and error? One day all denomination will have to go and God’s people will unite and face the Great Tribulation.
Let us first examine what the Lord has said, Jesus said, “
John 12:24-25 (I quote all my scriptures from New King James Version)
24 Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. “
I think the message should be very clear here, verse 25, if you hold on to your old life (Paul used the word “old man, old self”) you will die, you are not redeemed, you do not belong to Christ. Back to verse 24, but if you choose to let your old life die, you will bear much everlasting fruit, but if you don’t, you will have no fruit, and God will cut out the branch that produces no fruit. I think the grain refers to you, all that you have before you are given a new life from Christ. This could be your cleverness, your weakness, your strength, and it could even be your desire to do good by your own and not lead by Spirit.
Again John 3:5-7:
“5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.”
Have you been born again, Nicodemus asked Jesus, “I am old now, how shall I go back to my mother’s womb and be born again?” Clearly, Jesus is not talking about physical dying and reborning again in flesh. According to Him, He is talking about a spiritual rebirth, and apparently that is the key of Christian life, that is the entrance to the Kingdom of God. God has not choosed to correct your flesh, He wants you to know there is nothing worthy in your flesh no matter how good your are in the worldly sense, do you not understand why Paul counted his birth, his ferventness in Judaism (he thought he was serving God), his cleverness, his eloquence as a lost compare to the life God wants to give him through Christ dead and resurrection?
Then let us examine what Paul said about this, this is where I based my statement on,
Romans 6:5
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 7 For he who has died has been freed from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
My friends, this is the message of spiritual rebirth and this is the message of fruitful grain. The only difference is Paul taught this in a more formal way, while Jesus used parables (because His audience at the time was mainly unsaved). I would strongly encourage you to pray to God for revelation, and meditate on what has been written in the whole Romans 6. Allow me to challenge you, have you been united in the likeness of Christ death, have you been in the likeness of His resurrection? If you have not, you better ask God to teach you, and our merciful God will not hold back His Spirit from you if you choose to let your old life go.
In my personal experience, I was still under entangling sins few years after I confessed Christ as my saviour. I love Christ but at the same time I did not allow His Spirit to complete me because of all the good and bad things I still hold on to myself. It wasn’t until long before that I was reveal what has to be done to be “born again”. And Now I am very confident to tell you I can fight sins together with the Spirit of God, I am a true overcomer in Christ. And if God has not have mercy on me, I would have been still on the road heading to hell because I was still a sinner.
So, brothers and sisters, this is a tough message most of you would not hear in the church nowadays. Most of the church today is so busy in increasing the number but not increasing and training disciple of God who truly love God with all they have. Please verify what I have written with whoever you want to, and most importantly, verify it with God. And if you accept my message, I encourage you to pray to God so that you will accept His truth that you had indeed died with Jesus on the cross, so that you may resurrect and live a life that is lead by His Spirit. I pray that all of you will bear the everlasting fruit of Christ and start living the everlasting life even from today.
In Christ’s love,
Kar Ho Lim
P.S. Michelle, I believe this message is especially more for you. I have been concerning about you.
yeah kar ho!I do agree with you!Hi jie!Learning to grow up by now.hehehe!
Well Well Well Michelle
I am happy for you that you have frens that defend you and love you for who you are.
Well wendy I am glad that you are a true fren of michelle/ur jie. And I will be happy too to have a fren like you that defend me....
But let me make myself clear first I was not accusing Michelle anything but I just like to remind her. You see I am just someone who happen to stumble upon her blog and started reading about her life. Imagine, you word yourself as a Christian but you see your action does not portrait that at all. I am not saying that Christian dont drink,party or etc. They do but some of your blog entry is definitely giving ppl especially ppl who have not come to know the Lord a good excuse to bad mouth our Lord. Why give Satan such opportunity & luxury.I trust you know what I mean.
At the end of the day. You can quote as many bible verses as you wan but if it does not reflect in your life then it is as good as throwing it out the windows.
Michelle, what Wendy say about writing all these stuff being an encouragement I totally agree because that was what keep me reading your blog but at the same time she say that is just something you write and does not mean that you being spiritual then I will have to ask then "why the heck write" be true to what you write. If it is not true about how you feel and what you are then I would have to say *please don't write*...don't confuse people especially those who love you.
Do always remeber you have a great bunch of frens...but most of all you have a best fren that will love you no matter what becos He knows you from the inside not from the outside. You can show the world what you are but only He knows who you are.
On last thingy before I go ...Kar Ho...good message ....one that remind us constantly of what Christ has done and what are we to do with ours.
Mr anonymous,
Well, sir. Thanks for your compliment, although that was one of the least thing I hoped for in return. I biggest hope would be to see new life given through Christ, especially to the ones I care.
On your comments about Michelle, she is still learning, but who doesn't? But all glory to God for His mercy and grace, He will be our Teacher and Guide if we would humble and obey.
Alright, not in the mood of preaching. Kinda tired. Be blessed you all.
Kar Ho
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