Homepage Message: April 2009
Remove a person’s hope for tomorrow and you remove their motivation to live, especially any desire to improve one’s life and country. Do you have hope today? Is there hope for America and the world? Hope that there will be peace, hope that countries can get along without a one-world “everything”?
I don’t hold much hope for world peace, stability or peaceful international cooperation. Unless the sin nature of mankind changes or comes under the lordship of Jesus Christ, humanity will go from bad to worse. Jesus says no one is good but God alone. The Psalmist said we have all become corrupt; no one does good not even one. So without the redemption of Jesus Christ we have no hope.
As we focus on Good Friday and Easter this month we see the immovable foundation of our hope for today and tomorrow. Jesus Christ took the full force of his Father’s wrath for your sin and mine.
“Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many people; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.” —Hebrews 9:27-28
The atoning blood of Jesus Christ has no expiration date. It is the most powerful force in the world and is able to completely remove your guilt and forgive every sin, never to be remembered. That is hope and good news.
For his atoning death to be applied to your guilt, Jesus invites you to receive him into your life to become your savior and Lord, to no longer live in sin and ignore God or to be religious. Read the following:
“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him.” —Colossians 2:6
“Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” —John 1:12
It’s all about receiving a person into your life. It’s not about being religious, it’s about a relationship.
Jesus loves you and there is nothing you can do to have him love you more or less. This love was expressed on Calvary as he took the payment for your sin. Will you yield to the Holy Spirit’s leading to confess your sins right now and pray to receive Jesus Christ who has risen from the dead? May you have a powerful Easter holiday and know the power of the resurrection.