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Daily WisdomAnnagail Lynes (536)    Annagail Lynes   http://www.annagaillynes.net What Is The Power Of The Cross?Posted Sunday, July 27, 2008 (1 year 118 days ago.) Viewed 15 times. The cross in itself is of little value. The cross itself cannot save us. It is what happened on the cross that saves us. Jesus came to Earth as a baby, conceived of both a woman, Mary, and the Holy Spirit. He lived a sinless, blameless life. He fulfilled the law that we could not. God's punishment for sin is death (Romans 6:23). Someone had to die for us to become righteous in God's sight, but it had to be Someone who didn't sin. Therefore Jesus became our Substitute, our living Sacrificial Lamb. Jesus was the only Sacrifice that wouldn't have to be repeated year after year. The officials sentenced Jesus to death because they believed He blasphemed against God. They beat Him with a thick cat-of-nine-tails thirty-nine times until his skin hung on the whip. They spit on Him. They nailed His hands and feet to the cross with big, stake nails similar to the ones that we use to put up a tent, and they dug a crown of thorns into His head. God judged Him for all our sins--past, present and future. He judged Him with all our sicknesses, and all the curses that came from the law. He died, went to Hell, where He took back the keys to Earth from satan who had gained them by deceiving both Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). This allow sin to come into this world (Romans 5:12). On the third day, as a sign that the New Covenant had been made, Jesus rose from the dead (John 21:14). For the first time in history, anyone who accepted Jesus (Romans 10:9-10), could become righteous in the sight of God not by our own works but by the shed blood of Jesus (II Corinthians 5:21). For the first since the fall, humans could go boldly into the throne of grace and find grace and mercy in their time of need (Hebrews 4:16). All through Jesus' shed blood. We cannot earn our salvation. We do not deserve it, but if we accept Christ (Romans 10:9-10), it is ours nevertheless. God wants a relationship with us, but He couldn't have a relationship with us while we were dirty and in our muck. He had to made us righteous in His sight. He had to judge and punish a sinless, blameless Person for our sins, then we could be righteous through the blood of that Person, Jesus. He went through a lot of trouble to have a relationship with mere humans but that shows how much God loves us. What is the power of the Cross, though? When Jesus hung on the Cross, God judged Him for all our sins. When we accept Christ (Romans 10:9-10), God remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 8:12). Jesus wasn't just judged for the sins we committed today and in the past but for our future sins as well. All we have to do is "...confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Romans 10:9-10 NKJV). Once we do that, we are saved, we are now in right-standing with God (II Corinthians 5:21). Now when God sees us, we are not filthy from our past and present. Instead we are covered by the blood of Jesus. He sees Jesus' shed blood that covers us instead of our sins. Now we are righteous in His sight through Christ Jesus (II Corinthians 5:21). How cool is that? We are righteous. What does the Bible say about the righteous? They prosper (Psalms 1:3). Their prayers are answered (James 5:16). They are not moved (Psalms 55:22). We have all the benefits of being righteous through Christ. We don't deserve them. We couldn't earn them. They are ours nevertheless. We have two choices. One, we can act like we are righteous through the shed blood of Jesus as we truly are. Two, we can act as if we are still sinners in our muck and mire. Think about this for a moment. Imagine a woman, a princess, dressed up in torn and dirty clothes, who lived on the street outside the palace. That seems ridiculous, right? It seems absurd for a princess to wear tattered clothes and sleep on the streets, right? Most of us are doing that. We are kings and priests (Revelation 1:6, Revelation 5:10)--children of the Most High God--and yet we are living way below our privileges. God has entitled us to grace through Jesus' death, resurrection and the stripes He took on His back. Through Jesus, and not through our own efforts, we are to have God blessing (Galatians 3:14), healing (Isaiah 53:4-5, I Peter 2:24, Romans 8:11), delivering (Psalms 107:20, Psalms 91: 15) and prospering (III John 2) us. These are a part of our salvation package when we accepted Christ (Romans 10:9-10).. Most of us are sick, broke and in trouble, and we think it is God's Will. We think that God is teaching us something or that God is somehow punishing us. God judged Jesus for all our sins on the cross. He is not holding any of our sins against us. If we have accepted Christ, God sees us in right-standing with Him. We are special to Him. We are His children...and He wants to heal us, prosper us, deliver us and love on us. The power of the cross is that through Jesus, we are going to Heaven when we died. It is that God judged Jesus for all our sins. It is that God has already forgiven us of every sin the day Jesus hung on the cross. It is that Jesus' blood has atoned for every sin we will ever commit or have committed. In addition to that, Jesus paid the price for our health, our prosperity, wealth and our peace (Isaiah 53:5), so that we can have His peace (John 14:27), which in Hebrew is the word Shalom, meaning nothing missing, nothing broken. He paid for us to be whole here on Earth. Most of us don't know that God is our Healer, our Provider, our everything. We should recognize that the gifts and the Giver are not separate. They are the same. We need to focus on Jesus and what He did for us. We must see Him on the cross, taking our migraines or our shingles, our poverty, our problem. When we focus on Jesus, we will receive the full benefits of what happened on the cross. And that pleases God. 
Permalink Comments (1) What Is Tattooed On Your Mind?Posted Tuesday, July 22, 2008 (1 year 123 days ago.) Viewed 77 times. For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. - Proverbs 23:7a (NKJV). A man walked by a tattoo shop. He spotted the tattoo "Born To Lose" in the window. He wondered who would put that tattoo on their body. He decided to go inside. He asked the owner of the shop, "People buy this tattoo, ‘Born To Lose'?" The owner, an Asian man who spoke broken English replied, "‘Born To Lose.' Yes, many people ask for ‘Born To Lose.'" The man, perplexed, questioned the owner, "Why would people tattoo ‘Born To Lose' on their body?" The owner answered, "Before ‘Born To Lose' tattooed on body, tattooed on mind." What have you tattooed on your mind? Does your tattoo say "Born To Lose"? Does it say "Loser"? Does it say "Failure"? Does it say "Not Good Enough"? "Unloved"? Whatever we have tattooed on our minds is what happens in our lives. We fulfill whatever that tattoo says. Isn't it time to change the tattoo to what God says about you? That you are a king and a priest? That you are loved by God? That you are special? The apple of God's eye? That you are the head and not the tail? Above and not beneath. Remember you will fulfill whatever is tattooed on your mind, so make it a good one. Tattoo what God says about you on your mind. Then what you already are in Christ will manifest in your life.
Permalink Comments (0) The Best ProtectionPosted Sunday, July 20, 2008 (1 year 125 days ago.) Viewed 15 times. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. - Hebrews 11:28 (NIV). I remember hearing about this man who God told to plead the blood of Jesus over the spiritual door posts of his town. When he did, the Tsunami of 2004 bypassed his town. I recalled the story in the Bible of the first Passover. God told the Israelites to kill a lamb and spread the blood of that lamb on their door posts. What happened when they obeyed? Their firstborn children didn't die. The firstborn children of the households who didn't have the blood on their doors died. Now Jesus is our Passover lamb. His blood was shed for us. Instead of pleading the blood of a lamb on our door posts, we can plead the blood of Jesus over our spiritual door posts, our family members, our things. And Jesus' blood will protect whatever we plead it over. I plead it over my doors, my windows, my body, the car...anything I want God to protect. My mom's friend has even pleaded the blood of a guinea pig during a black-out. Plead the blood of Jesus. It is the best protection you will ever have.
Permalink Comments (1) How Do Blessings Come?Posted Saturday, July 19, 2008 (1 year 126 days ago.) Viewed 12 times. For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. - John 1:17 (KJV). Grace. What is the definition of grace? Some call it unmerited favor. Some call it God doing through you what you cannot do through yourself, but the truth is that grace is not an it. Grace is a Person. Grace is Jesus. Jesus is Grace. Jesus died for us. He didn't have to be mocked, beaten, spit upon and nailed to a cross, but He did. He didn't have to take the full punishment of our sins on the cross, but He did. Why? Because He loves us. He took our place because He loves us. He knew that we couldn't do anything right on our own.. That's why His shed blood puts us in right standing with God. Not only does His shed blood make us righteous. It cleanses us, sanctifies us, justifies us, protects us and makes every spiritual and physical blessing ours for the taking. In other religions, it is good works that earn us our blessings. With God, though, our good works, our righteousness, are as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). We cannot earn our blessings through our good works. They are gifts through the shed blood of Jesus. When Jesus cried, "It is finished," He meant everything we would ever need or want had been taken care of at the cross. Everything. Without exception. Even those problems we created by our own doing. Now that's grace.
Permalink Comments (0) Should Believers Gossip?Posted Saturday, July 19, 2008 (1 year 126 days ago.) Viewed 13 times. Is it okay to gossip? My grandmother went to her church's Tuesday morning ladies' Bible study religiously. When my mother asked her what they studied, she gave my mother the low-down on what members of the church divorced, had babies or married. Instead of wanting to study the Word of God, my grandmother wanted to ingest the tasty morsels of gossip. Gossip is popular. Otherwise television programs, such as Entertainment Tonight, The Insider and Access Hollywood wouldn't be needed. Neither would the tabloids and entertainment magazines at the grocery store check-out stands. People just have to know who is seeing whom, who has gone mental, who is cheating on whom and who is having a baby in Hollywood. It is our need to know that spurs the gossip industry. It is that same need that has shattered so many young lives in Hollywood. It is that need that has celebrities being chased by the paparazzi twenty-four/seven. We are all guilty of gossip. Men would like us to think it's a woman thing, but that is not true. Gossip is not discriminatory. It attacks men and women alike. What is gossip? Anything we hear about someone behind their back is gossip. Anything that we wouldn't say to their face is also gossip. Most gossip is done in secret at beauty shops, on golf courses, in the board rooms, in churches and in schools. Anything we have to hide is negative and counter-productive to our health. Why is gossip so tasty? The Bible calls gossip dainty morsels (Proverbs 18:8 NLT). I believe it is because we feel that our own lives are boring. Therefore we want to hear or read about the exciting details of other's lives--dead or alive--to live vicariously through them. The same friends who gossip with us will gossip against us to their other friends. Most gossip is based entirely on rumors and on accounts that are second and third, and maybe even forth-hand. It is difficult to get a straight story after that many hands have been involved. Remember the game "Telephone"? We tell one person in the group something, and they tell the next person and that one tells the next. By the time it reaches the last person, the message has been altered. It is the way with gossip. By the time, it reaches us after going through so many hands, it is revised and void of the original truth. Why do people gossip? They are curious about other people's lives. Instead of focusing on their purpose, they are focused on what others are doing. Their attention is on the wrong thing. They must return it to God and the needs of other people. Ever notice that gossip never focuses on anything good. It always focuses on who did what to whom and who is cheating on whom. Instead of saying, "Isn't it wonderful that Cathy and Tony are having a baby," they say, "Did you see how heavy Cathy is getting? Do you see how much time she spends with Hank? I bet he is the real father and not Tony. Poor, poor Tony!" They have already tried and convicted Cathy and Hank without offering any kind of evidence or finding out Cathy and Hank's sides of the story. Gossip isn't just cruel but deadly. Let's say Tony is the jealous type, and he hears the rumors. He kills both Cathy and Hank without asking for their sides of the story. Then he finds out later while sitting in prison that Cathy and Hank had been planning a surprise party for Hank's wife Stacey. Now not only has Tony ruin his own family but Hank's as well. We may think this is couldn't happen or that it is an extreme case, but gossip and rumors destroy friendships and relationships more times than we know. When we transferred to high school, gossip cost me the friends I had in junior high school. I don't remember the rumor now, but they accused me of something I didn't do. They tried, convicted and banned me from their group no matter how hard I tried to protest. Gossip is like dainty morsels. We all love to hear tidbits about others, but it is not fair to the people being gossiped about or to their spouses, parents, loved ones and children. It is hard to miss the celebrity news, even if you don't watched those entertainment gossip shows, because the professional newcasters now consider people entering rehabilitation centers and mental wards breaking news. How many times are these celebrities entering rehabilitation centers because they can't deal with the constant media attention? The photographers from the news outlets? The paparazzi? The tabloids pasting their pictures on their publications and websites? If we had to live with our every move being watched, we might turn to alcohol and drugs or go mental too. Gossip causes dissension. Any time gossip starts so do arguments. Let's say Steve, Bob's friend, told him that he saw Bob's wife, Sally with another man at a club. Therefore Bob believes his wife Sally is cheating on him. Bob confronts Sally, causing dissension between him and her. It also strains his relationship with Steve because he is the one who told Bob about it. All of us love to hear the latest gossip, but do we ever think about how these rumors affect the people behind those rumors? The next time someone gossips to us, we should imagine that they are speaking about our sisters, mothers, fathers or spouses. Remember that this person they are speaking of is someone's child. What if this person talked about our children that way? What would we do? We have to challenge ourselves to become gossip-free zones. We have to train ourselves not to listen to nonsense about other people. It is none of our business who cheated on whom, who has been seen in a club with someone other than his wife. That is not our concern. How can we be around people who are gossiping at the office? Or among our friends? We have to be vigilant enough to walk away from the conversation. As much as we might want to hear it, we are better off if we walk away. Then we won't be a part of the ruining of the lives of those the rumors are about. Whatever we hear, drops into our heart. Do we really want gossip to be in our heart? Out of the heart flows the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23 KJV), and we will muddy up those rivers if we listen or repeat gossip. Ask God to help you control your gossip problem today. Don't try to stop doing it yourself. Every time you are tempted to gossip, just say, "Lord, I can't stop this, but You can." Before you know it, you won't have a desire to gossip anymore.
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