AgapeFocus APPLYING GOD'S SOLUTIONS TO HUMAN PROBLEMS

Greetings of the season to you all. Lent is the period from Ash Wednesday to Easter (40 week days) when adherents to the Christian faith observe a time of fasting and praying to remember Christ’s  fast in the wilderness. This has been a very old tradition. It is very good. More important however, is the fact that Christ expects more than that from us Christians, if we truly claim to love him. What did Christ do for us? He emptied himself of his glory and came down into this rotten world of ours. He became human, took the position of a servant, went about doing good, lived a sinless live, submitted himself to human insults and indignities, got arrested, tried, tortured, slapped, spat upon, tied to a whipping post and flogged to the point of exhaustion and virtual death, with his innocent blood splashed all over him and all over the ground. His looks became disgusting and his form irreconcilable to his watching mother, Mary and other faithful disciples, who were too stunned to believe what they saw! It was spectacular enough that the CREATOR of the whole world submitted himself to his creatures. Jesus Christ, the WORD of GOD, through whom the world was created, did this for the purpose of rescuing humankind from sin, the greatest calamity that ever plaqued the human race! GOD ALMIGHTY could not be appeased and satisfied by any other means than through the life sacrifice of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. No other blood was clean enough for a ransome!No human effort could match up with the life of Jesus Christ! The Holy Blood shed on the Cross, fully satisfied The Holy Almighty God! The life of Jesus was given as his blood was spilled on that cross in Jerusalem, outside the city walls, on Calvary, at the ‘Place of the Skull’. Jesus was killed like a criminal, on a dirty, old cross, with dirty nails through his hands and feet and a crown of thorns on his head. The film ‘Passion of Christ’, is very good, but I hereby say that it was yet a simpler version of the actual pain and suffering borne by Jesus Christ, over 2000 years ago! As Jesus hung on that dirty cross, in great pain, he had time to listen to the sincere heart-cry of a criminal, crucified beside him.  To the last-minute prayer  and cry of that repentant criminal, Jesus said: ”Today you shall be with me in Paradise”.  To that thief it was a narrow escape to Paradise! To every other person, it may not always be the same story. There is a time to respond to the love of God before it is too late. Jesus said: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). God gave his only begotten Son, when he was born as a human being(a baby boy) on the first Christmas. The giving was actually made complete when Jesus died on the cross! He gave his life by shedding his blood in my place and in your place. He did this even before we knew him. Jesus gave his life when we were so hopeless as a human race. He provided access to God through his atoning eternal sacrifice. Since then till NOW, there is hope for every person(WHOSOEVER). Jesus also said, by way of a simile: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life(John3:14-15). He made reference to the children of Israel in the wilderness during their journey from Egypt to Canaan. The Israelites sinned by complaining against God and Moses. Snakes were sent to bite them to such a quick extent that many died! Being terrified, the Israelites quickly repented and pled for mercy. God then responded by insructing Moses: Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole: and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live (Numbers 21:8). Moses obeyed God and lifted up the brass statue of the snake upon a pole. He then called upon the people to look at the brass serpent. Indeed, as God said, so it was that ALL those who LOOKED at the serpent, lifted upon a pole, survived the poisonous venom of the fiery serpents and LIVED! More than any simile, JESUS CHRIST hung upon the cross for hours outside Jerusalem city wall 2000+ years ago, to pay the price that sin demanded (DEATH). Centuries before then, God spoke through Prophet Isaiah and said: Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else (Isaiah 45:22). Jesus himself has said to you and me to look unto him in order to be saved. Paul said: How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers  miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to his own will?(Hebrews 2:3-4). My friend, are you saved?Please, be saved today. NO REASON FOR ANYONE TO BE LOST AFTER GOD HAS MADE SURE THAT SALVATION IS AVAILABLE  THROUGH JESUS CHRIST! What more can and should we do for Jesus? TELL others what JESUS has done for you. Let the redeemed of the LORD say so. If you are saved, tell your family, friends and acquaintances. FIND them. TELL them. BRING them to JESUS. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. There is grace upon grace. There is all-sufficient grace! Please, take action now! God bless you.