LIVING GOD FAMILY.WORLD-WIDE

27/09/2018

IS THERE A “COST” TO FOLLOWING JESUS.

The Bible teaches very clearly that we were bought with a great price. We didn’t buy Jesus; He bought us. He paid for me in full and redeemed my life from destruction.
by abrahamloveministry

A well-known preacher made this comment, “If you don’t realize that there is a ‘cost’ to following Jesus, then you have heard American Christianity.”

While some may see his comment as a statement of deep commitment and consecration, I don’t. Sadly, it violates the reality of the truth of the gospel. It places the focus on man’s efforts, not on what Christ has accomplished in His death, burial, and resurrection for mankind.
Let's take a look at what scripture actually has to say on this subject. First off, we see that salvation is a free gift from God, not a reward or sacrifice for good behavior. Faith itself is defined as a rest. Believers in Christ have been freely given everything that pertains to life and godliness. The Bible teaches very clearly that we were bought with a great price. We didn't buy Jesus; He bought us. He paid for me in full and redeemed my life from destruction.
The word “ransom”is also used to describe what the cross accomplished for all of humanity. So what is there that requires me to pay a “cost”? Personally, the sacrifices I have made for the gospel come from a response to the love God has for me, which He poured so richly into my heart when I first believed. The disciplines in my life are a result of His grace working in my heart. His joy is my strength and, as Paul said, even in my weakness, He is strong on my behalf. For me to boast or take credit for all that God has done in my life is pride solidly rooted in self-righteousness. How can I take any credit for what He has freely given me to live for Him?
My faith comes from His Word. He even gave me the same Holy Spirit Jesus had as a gift who raised Him from the dead and enabled Him to obey His Father. How could I possibly think that anything I could do or sacrifice would earn me the right to follow God?
The fruit of the Spirit, which is love, is His expression and the reality of Him in my life. It comes from my confidence in God's character, faithfulness, and goodness toward me. It isn’t some divine bargaining chip I use to prove my worth or value to God.
The work of the cross has made me holy and acceptable to God, it isn't my work, sacrifices or even my suffering, Jesus did it all! He alone is my life and worthy of all praise. As Paul said, there remains nothing more to do, no more sacrifices. Jesus did it all!
Peter rebuked Simon the sorcerer for wanting to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit. Is this any different from telling people that they must pay a price to follow Jesus? What is it one has to pay that Jesus didn’t pay? Jesus told the Pharisees in Matthew 9:13, “But go and learn what this means, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” He tells the Pharisees that He will use mercy to bring sinners to repentance. So it's His mercy that causes people to turn and follow God, not any sacrifice they have made.
So I strongly disagree with the well-known preacher because the reason I follow Christ has nothing at all to do with any sacrifice, suffering or personal discipline I have done to “pay a price.” But it has everything to do with trusting totally and completely in the sacrifice of God's Son, the price Jesus paid, and His free gifts of salvation, righteousness, and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit enables and empowers me through His love, grace, and mercy to want to follow Him and live a life pleasing to the One who has loved me perfectly.
For these reasons, I, like Paul, cannot boast of my own strength or abilities. Rather, I recognize and give all glory and honor to God for the great work He has done in my life. I refuse to boast, take credit or even suggest that my sacrifices, efforts or disciplines have earned me any right at all to follow Jesus. The reason I follow and live for Him is solely and solidly rooted in“ALL” He has done for me! The truth is without all that Jesus has done and freely given to me, I would or could never follow Him. That is why He deserves “ALL” the glory!
Anytime we believe that our sacrifices have earned us any blessings from God, and we exalt our own, we end up cheapening the sacrifice Jesus made. If we truly understand how great and valuable Christ's sacrifice was, we wouldn't dare cheapen it by adding our own.
When I look at the sacrifice Jesus made for me, why would I ever want to devalue or diminish it by comparing it to mine?

21/09/2018

07/09/2018

GRACE EVERY DAY.

Today’s fake news sermon:

“Getting Rid of Your Bad Self” — The crazy-good fun of trying to crucify what Jesus already did.
(I say it a lot, but I’ll say it again: our problem is not doing, our problem is believing. “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” Romans 6:6-7. Jesus crucified your bad self and gave you a new you; do you believe? Life works by believing.)

01/09/2018

YOUR IDENTITY IS PROSPERITY THROUGH OUT THIS NEW MONTH..
HAPPY BLISSFUL NEW MONTH FROM ME AND MY FAMILY.
CONGRATULATIONS CHEERS

25/08/2018

GRACE EVERY DAY.

Some people say there is no difference between grace and mercy.

Suppose you killed a man. You exhausted all means to acquit yourself and you failed. The highest court has pronounce you guilty. You await your ex*****on. The king steps in and he gives you a royal pardon. You are suddenly a free man! Your whole criminal record is wiped away! You are given a 2nd chance! Is that grace?

Nope, its just mercy.

The king then says to the whole nation, he makes you his adopted son and thereafter made you his heir. Allows you to dine and eat with him and gives you everything he owns including making you a co ruler….

Now that’s grace!

You are saved by His grace through faith.

You are not saved by His mercy.

That’s the difference between grace and mercy.

It took the blood of bulls and goats to give you mercy.

It took Jesus to give you grace.

God did not have pity on you. He loved you. That’s a huge difference! S. Yap

Glory To Jesus.

10/08/2018

10/08/2018

GRACE EVERY DAY.

REPENTANCE ISN'T A WORK.

Repentance isn’t a work, if it was than salvation would be something that was earned and not a gift.

The fruit of repentance is love, which means knowing and experiencing God’s love for you. Believing that God loves you is what repentance is all about.

In Jesus' day, most people believed God was angry with them and that to get His approval they had to “live right” which for the Jews meant keeping the “law.”

Today, many believers still hold to this view. They base God’s love for them on their performance. Their confidence in God comes from trusting in their “works.” This creates a yo-yo effect in their emotions. If they do right, they are happy because they think God is pleased with them and if they mess up. they feel depressed because they think God is angry or disappointed with them. So, their emotional stability is based solely on what they do or don’t do. The roller coaster effect this has on their emotional well being ends up being stressful.

God never intended for us to base our peace with Him on how we live or perform. He desires our peace to be based solely on His character and what His Son accomplished at the cross for us. The truth is that you could never live in a way that would assure your heart enough to experience peace with God. That type of peace is only possible when we place our complete trust in what Jesus did for us on the cross.

“Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” Romans 5:1

Glory To Jesus.

10/08/2018

GRACE EVERY DAY.
(Very Important )

5 SIGNS OF NOSE-PUNCHING PREACHERS.

nose-punch_medA recent article in Charisma News warns about the dangers of ear-tickling preachers and their deceptive message.
An ear-tickler is someone who tells you what Abba Father want you hear and that's what you need to hear. In contrast, a nose-puncher is one who tells you what he wants you to hear, and typically does so with all the fervor of an Old Testament judge or prophet.

A nose-puncher might appear respectable and religious, but he is nothing more than a bully with a Bible. He prefers doctrine to people, puts ministry before family, and he justifies his abuse of others by telling himself he is doing the Lord’s work.

Jesus encountered many religious nose-punchers; men who sought to throw the book at him and those who followed him. Ironically, these men claimed to know God but by their actions they denied him. Jesus rebuked the nose-punchers for being loveless sons of the devil, and they responded by putting him on the cross.

The apostle Paul also had his share of run-ins with nose-punchers. They hounded him from town to town preaching works and opposing his message of love and grace. On several occasions the nose-punchers beat Paul and plotted to kill him.

The nose-punchers are still with us today. Can you recognize them? Here are five signs of nose-punching preachers.

1. Nose-punching preachers emphasize self-denial and going without. “If you are not in the habit of denying your appetites and desires, you are not a real Christian,” says the nose-puncher. “The more you deny your needs and wants, the holier you’ll be.”

What’s wrong with this message? Nothing – if you want to be a Buddhist.

The modern message of self-denial is nothing more than the ancient practice of asceticism dressed up in religious jargon. Abstaining from food, Facebook, or fun won’t make you righteous and holy (Col. 2:21-23). But it might make you religious. It might make you like the fasting Pharisees who trusted in their own self-righteousness.

The die-to-self message simply means, “Trust Jesus, and not yourself.” It means walk by the Spirit rather than the flesh. It means live each day out of the glorious relationship you have with the Lord.

In the hands of a nose-puncher, “die to self” is reduced to little more than a quit-having-fun lecture wrapped in threats and warnings. But in the hands of a gospel preacher, “die to self” is a thrilling invitation to the adventure of the life that is ours in Christ.

2. Nose-punching preachers are hard on sin. Throughout the scriptures you will find serious men throwing stones of condemnation at sinners. Nothing’s changed.

If warnings and threats about sin stopped people from sinning, there would be no more sin.

Jesus reveals there is only one thing that can empower you to sin no more, and that is radical grace. I’m talking about the kind of grace that defends the sinner from her accusers and turns a thief into a giver, a hater into a lover, and the chief of sinners into the apostle of grace. Rules don’t change people and abuse definitely doesn’t change people; grace changes people.

firehose

The nose-punchers would have you turn from sin and turn again until you’re a dizzy sinner. But the good news that Jesus revealed and Paul preached reveals a God infinitely more appealing than sin. A nose-puncher will use threats to compel you to turn, and you might, for a little while, but a gospel preacher reveals the goodness of God that leads you to genuine and lasting repentance (Rom. 2:4).

3. Nose-punching preachers are no friends of sinners. It is one thing to have a reputation for integrity and purity but if our message leaves our neighbors untouched by the love of God, what good are we? If Jesus strode the streets of Jerusalem avoiding sin and sinners, where would any of us be?

Nose-punchers would have you withdraw from the world in a misguided desire for holiness. But Jesus prayed that we might be sanctified in it (John 17:15-19). The nose-punchers will teach you to hate the world, but Jesus said, “For God so loved the world that he gave…” (John 3:16).

The nose-punchers would have the world to come to them (to get their noses punched), but Jesus tells us to “Go into all the world – the business world, the arts world, the sports world, the addicts’ world, the dirty, stinkin’ world – and preach the good news to all creation” (Mark 16:15).

4. Nose-punching preachers seek to crucify the flesh by preaching law. “Don’t be like those Old Testament rebels who refused to obey God,” says the nose-puncher. “To please him you need to keep all the commands of his Word.”

Such a message appeals to our religious pride because it is thoroughly carnal. It teaches you to trust in the flesh – your good behavior, commitment and obedience – instead of God’s grace. The legalist says you must work to be saved while the holiness preacher says you must work to be sanctified, but both are eating from the wrong tree.

The nose-puncher will whack you with the standards of God. “Look where you are falling short. Try harder or be damned!” But the gospel preacher says, “Look where Jesus has succeeded. Trust him and live!”

The nose-puncher would have you die daily, as though that were possible, but the gospel preacher says, “You have died already and once was enough!” Look to the cross, where your old self died, and reckon yourself dead to sin. “I have been crucified with Christ,” said the apostle. “And I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal 2:20).

5. Nose-punching preachers use the Bible as a stick. Their sermons are packed with scriptures but are devoid of Truth. Like the Pharisees of old, they diligently study the scriptures yet refuse to come to Christ for life (John 5:39-40). Or worse, they take a little of his grace and mix it with their own efforts, ruining the whole thing and becoming lukewarm in the process.

In the hands of a graceless preacher, the Bible is utterly lethal for buried within lies the law which ministers death (2 Cor 3:7). For thousands of years, nose-punchers have been using the law-bits of the Bible to control and manipulate others. Jesus called them abusers and killers (Matt. 23:34) and Paul called them dogs (Php 3:2). We would do well to heed their warnings and be wary of such men.

GLORY TO JESUS.

05/08/2018

GRACE TODAY.

Religion says, "you need more of Jesus." God says, "you have all of Jesus that you’ll ever need."

09/07/2018

YOUR WORDS CARRY POWER!

Ecclesiastes 8:4 KJV
Where the word of a king is, there is power: and who may say unto him, What doest thou?

In Bible times, a king’s word carried tremendous power. What he decreed would come to pass. It would be done. For example, if he said, “Raise the taxes,” the taxes would be raised.

Do you know that we are kings? The Bible tells us that Jesus has washed us from our sins with His blood and made us kings. (Revelation 1:5–6) And as kings in Christ, our words carry power too.

When we place our hands on a sick person and say, “Be healed,” the person is healed. When we lay hands on our children and say, “Be blessed,” our children are blessed. There is power in our words because they are the words of kings!

When I was a young Christian in my teens, I wanted to practice what I had learnt about the power of my words. There was this particular plant near my home and whenever I passed by it, I would say to it, “Be cursed in Jesus’ name!”

Many days passed. And I will never forget the day when I noticed that the leaves of the plant had turned brown! You may want to try this at home with your potted plants, but bless them instead!

Since our words carry power, can you imagine the harm we do when we say to our loved ones things like, “You are always so careless”, “You are good for nothing” or “You are so stupid”? We are cursing them!

The devil is happy when you use the power of your words against yourself and your loved ones. He wants to see you defeated. So instead of saying, “I am always short of money,” say, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1) Instead of saying, “I am so useless. I can’t do anything,” start saying, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:13)

Beloved, remember that as a king, what you say will come to pass because where the word of a king is, there is power. So learn to say what God says about you in His Word and see His promises come to pass in your life!
Amen.

03/07/2018

GRACE TODAY.

WHAT IS DIFFERENT ABOUT THE OLD COVENANT AND THE NEW COVENANT?

The old covenant was about you loving God with all your heart soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:25-28).

The new covenant is all about God loving you with all His heart, soul, mind, and strength and you loving your neighbor in the exact way God loves you.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another”
(John 13:34).

“I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me” (John 17:23).

The old covenant was all about you trying to love God, whereas the new covenant is all about God loving you. “We love God because He loved us first”
(1 John 4:19).

GLORY TO JESUS.

25/06/2018

GRACE TODAY

THIS IS THE GOD'S WILL?

Jesus made it very easy for us to know and understand what the will of God is.

“Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does” (John 5:19).

If Jesus didn’t do something, it was because He NEVER saw His Father do it. If your view of God is inconsistent with who Jesus is and how He lived, then you have a wrong view of God. This is why Jesus said, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (John 14:9). Jesus treated people: sinners, prostitutes, enemies, thieves, and others the way He saw His Father treat them, and God tells us He has never changed.

O just and righteous Father, although the world has not known You and has failed to recognize You and has never acknowledged You, I have known You [continually]; and these men understand and know that You have sent Me. I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them (John 17:25-26, Amplified Bible).

Next time someone tries to tell you that God did “so and so,” or “this and that,” ask yourself if Jesus did the same? Jesus came to show us what God is like and by His own admission, He fully revealed God’s character and who He is.

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).