50 Reasons Jesus died for me and you

Christ Suffered and Died…

To Absorb the Wrath of God

To Please His Heavenly Father

To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

To Achieve His Own Resurrection From the Dead

To Show the Wealth of God’s Love and Grace for Sinners

To Show His Own Love for Us

To Cancel the Legal Demands of the Law Against Us

To Become a Ransom for Many

For the Forgiveness of Our Sins

To Provide the Basis for Our Justification

To Complete the Obedience That Becomes Our Righteousness

To Take Away Our Condemnation

To Abolish Circumcision and All Rituals as the Basis of Salvation

To Bring Us to Faith and Keep Us Faithful

To Make Us Holy, Blameless and Perfect

To Give Us a Clear Conscience

To Obtain for Us All Things That Are Good for Us

To Heal Us from Moral and Physical Sickness

To Give Eternal Life to All Who Believe on Him

To Deliver Us From the Present Evil Age

To Reconcile Us to God

To Bring Us to God

So That We Might Belong to Him

To Give Us Confident Access to the Holiest Place

To Become for Us the Place Where We Meet God

To Bring the Old Testament Priesthood to an End

To Become a Sympathetic and Helpful Priest

To Free Us From the Futility of Our Ancestry

To Free Us From the Slavery of Sin

That We Might Die to Sin and Live to Righteousness

So That We Would Die to the Law and Bear Fruit for God

To Enable Us to Live for Christ and Not Ourselves

To Make His Cross the Ground of All Our Boasting

To Enable Us to Live by Faith in Him

To Give Marriage Its Deepest Meaning

To Create a People Passionate for Good Works

To Call Us to Follow His Example of Lowliness

To Create a Band of Crucified Followers

To Free Us from Bondage to the Fear of Death

So That We Would Be With Him Immediately After Death

To Secure Our Resurrection From the Dead

To Disarm the Rulers and Authorities

To Unleash the Power of God in the Gospel

To Destroy the Hostility Between Races

To Ransom People From Every Tribe and Language

To Gather All His Sheep From Around the World

To Rescue Us From Final Judgment

To Gain His Joy and Ours

So That He Would Be Crowned With Glory and Honor

To Show That the Worst Evil Is Meant by God for Good

Taken from: 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper                                                              Written By Kachi         

Contentment

Contentment means, being happy or satisfied either with yourself, your position, family,.....etc. As christians can we honestly say we are satisfied with what we have, what we've been given by God? Often times we find ourselves saying "if only I had that car, if only I had his job, if only i had a son/daughter,if only this, if only that,......" Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying we shouldn't aspire for greater heights/achievements but we should aspire with joy and happiness within us to share/show Gods goodness and not with anger or frustration.
In the creation story (Genesis 1) after every creation God made, it says "God made them all and He was pleased with them." Learn from this that however you are, tall, short, fat or slim, God made you and He's pleased with you!
Also we can look at Christ's contentment with His father's will for Him. Christ knew the task ahead of Him, He knew what He was going to face to save us all, yet He did it! How many of us christians today can face the challenge of knowing great pain is coming our way and courageously say, "Father, let thy will be done"?
Unhealthy 
comparisons/competitions are bad for your soul, be satisfied with who you are and what you've achieved by Gods grace trusting that Gods plans for you are plans to prosper you, of good and not of evil.
Know your God, if you do you'll know what He's capable of, you'll be satisfied with who you are knowing that God has a plan for you. How? You may ask, know the Word of God, study it day and night for the Word of God is God Himself.
Dis contentment leaves you with self-centredness, over-ambitiousness, greed, jealousy, etc.

Here are some bible passages to study for more insight/knowledge on contentment:
Jeremiah 29 vs 11.
Joshua 1 vs 5
Isaiah 26 vs 12
Psalm 139 vs 14.
You could also share with us any bible passage that could help with this topic, thanks.

Written by:
Linda.

Courage in the face of Challenges

Sometimes we have so much confidence in our abilities and what we can achieve. We forget that what we are and all that we could ever be is by God's grace.

We face different challenges in our jobs,business, family,marriage and family. How do we confront these challenges we face?

Do we first of all google the problem? Lol or try to figure it out on our own?

Do we run and hide because we feel the challenge is too much for us to handle?

The Bible says in 1 Samuel 17:11. " When Saul and his men heard this, they were terrified."...the israelites were terrified of Goliath. They were overcome by fear of his size and strength. They had seen him kill people with little effort so they had every right to be afraid but that was because they were focused on their strength,their wisdom,their capabilities.

David as small as he was with no military experience whatsoever did not think of himself when he offered to kill Goliath. 

Verse 39: David strapped Saul's sword over the armor and tried to walk, but he couldn't, because he wasn't used to wearing them. “I can't fight with all this,” he said to Saul. “I'm not used to it.” So he took it all off. 

In essence David could not even function with military armor and he felt he did not need it. It was too heavy he could not walk. Talk about adding burden to his efforts. Imagine if David had dragged himself with all that armor to fight. He might probably have stumbled on the fighting ground. Lol. God was his armor.

Even as he had gotten the courage to fight Saul asked him"

. “How could you fight him? You're just a boy, and he has been a soldier all his life!”

Saul saw just a little boy but David saw His Almighty Father.

He was thinking of how powerful God is and how God had been there for him. 

Verse 37: The LORD has saved me from lions and bears; he will save me from this Philistine.” “All right,” Saul answered. “Go, and the LORD be with you.”

In our walk with God everyday we have testimonies of what God has done and still does yet when a bigger challenge confronts us. We forget His faithfulness. That's us looking at ourselves,our capabilities and wisdom instead of keeping our eyes on God and His might

Goliath tried to scare David, He said "Verse 44 “Come on,” he challenged David, “and I will give your body to the birds and animals to eat.”

What does sickness,debt,lack,marriage problems and other personal challenges tell us?

Sickness says I'll deal with you and make you so sick u can't pray

Debt says you can't have anything until you settle me

Marriage problems say you will never know true Joy

Thats all the voice of Goliath

Let us find courage to fight and overcome our challenges like David who said “You are coming against me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the Israelite armies, which you have defied. 46 This very day the LORD will put you in my power; I will defeat you and cut off your head. And I will give the bodies of the Philistine soldiers to the birds and animals to eat. Then the whole world will know that Israel has a God, 

Let us all boast in the Lord and the power of His might and give the devil no grounds.

Written by Kachi

Why Does God Put Up With Us?

You surely don't think much of God's wonderful goodness or of his patience and willingness to put up with you. Don't you know that the reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him? (Romans 2:4 CEVDCUS06)

Why does God put up with my attitude,my disdain,my unrighteousness,my sinful ways and my disregard of Him?

The Bible says: You surely don't think much of God's wonderful goodness or of his patience and willingness to put up with you. Don't you know that the reason God is good to you is because he wants you to turn to him? (Romans 2:4 CEVDCUS06)

This verse tells us the reason why God is good to us. God wants to lead us to repentance. He sent the best that heaven has to offer: His only son Jesus yet we still do not surrender our lives to this wonderful God?

What more do we want from God?He has redeemed our soul from destruction,He has given us a chance at eternal life and He did this through His only son. He answers our prayers,blesses our families, protects us,provides for us,cries with us when we are down,strengthens us when we are weak,loves us despite our unrighteousness,fights our battles for us and even when we die, He gives us eternal rest right beside Him . So what more do we want?

We never consider or stop to think about how wonderful and good our God is to us. We should because i don't know any King or President or any great personality that can put up with all the stuff we dish at our God and still see it fit to show us love. We as humans are so shocked and furious at how a man can murder another human being. We even wish more than death upon these horrible people yet we are not even the creator of the person that was murdered Or even the murderer. So how do you think our Creator would feel.? Yet He is willing to be good to even a man who has killed so many people of God as in the case of Paul.
His goodness led Paul to repentance. How many of us would even allow Paul into our country talk more of our city or house. 

We need to think more about Gods goodness. No parent can be as good,as forgiving and as willing to be there for you as much as our God and our parents love us a whole lot. We need to ask ourselves why God puts up with me? Why is He patient with me? Why does He forgive me when i ask for forgiveness? Why does he answer my prayers? Why does He fight my battles even when i am ashamed to stand for Him? Why does He love me? Why does want me in Heaven beside Him? Why does He refuse to give up on me? 

You know like every exam, God can afford to let the devil test you and wait for you to pass the test and then give you your heavenly trophy but the kind of God we serve will walk with you through every test in your life if you let Him. He will pick you up when you have fallen, strengthen you when you are weak , fight your battles for you, wipe your tears and still give you something to smile about.

So lets grab Gods hands with our whole being; hands,legs,teeth,hair (that is if your hair is long enough) and all and let Him lead us to repentance as we rest in His Love.

I Love you Lord!

Written by Kachi

Do We Obey God or Man?

So they called the two apostles back in and told them they must never, for any reason, teach anything about the name of Jesus. Peter and John answered, “Do you think God wants us to obey you or to obey him? We cannot keep quiet about what we have seen and heard.” The officials could not find any reason to punish Peter and John. So they threatened them and let them go. The man who was healed by this miracle was more than 40 years old, and everyone was praising God for what had happened. (Acts 4:18-22 CEVDCUS06) 

I believe we as christians are constantly faced with this question " To obey man or God?. Sometimes we might be caught in situations that put us right in the questioning hot seat where we are sure of the question and have to make a definite answer just like Peter and John as they stood before the high priests and the teachers of law "So they called them back in and told them that under no condition were they to speak or to teach in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John answered them, “You yourselves judge which is right in God's sight—to obey you or to obey God. (Acts 4:18, 19 GNT)"

In other times the question is more subtle so we never realize that this same question is before us or that the choice we make is a true reflection of where our obedience lies.
In little things such as " asking someone to sign in for you at work when you are nowhere near the office or helping your boss in a lie because you are afraid of being victimized or 
We make these choices but we never want to think deeply about the choice we made because we might then realize that we just obeyed man. Anytime we go against Gods words or His commands in order to please someone we have ultimately made the choice to obey man.

The question i think we should all ask ourselves is why we find it hard to obey God! His commands are more for our own good than they are for Him. Throughout the bible,where have we ever seen God forsake his people even when He commands them to do something that might not have made common sense like asking Moses to take his staff and touch the red sea. Imagine God asking you to take your walking stick and touch the red sea when you can hear your enemies approaching,when you are already sweating and trembling from fear of the unknown. A lot of us would say " touching the stick to the water would not make any common sense and how does touching the stick to the water get these enemies of my back anyhow? Its so ridiculous when we think about it and thats the reason why we find it hard to obey. We seem to think that whatever God tells us has to make sense to us first before we act, we try to get into Gods head to know how He thinks this could work,why He thinks this could work and the success rate is. Basically we want God to break it down for us.

We need to understand and know the awesomeness of the God we serve and we also need to know that the most feared man on earth,the most powerful man on earth and the most intelligent man on earth was created by this same God. God is trustworthy,He created the heavens,the sun,the moon and everything. He is so trustworthy that i have never woken up any morning in all my life and seen the moon instead of the sun or night instead of day or the sun purple instead of yellow. With God there is no error message or failed to complete message or please bear with us we are experiencing technical difficulty.With man there always is!

So ask yourself to obey God or Man!

Written by Kachi

The Power in the Name of Jesus

Peter saw that a crowd had gathered, and he said: Friends, why are you surprised at what has happened? Why are you staring at us? Do you think we have some power of our own? Do you think we were able to make this man walk because we are so religious? (Acts 3:12 CEVDCUS06)

You see this man, and you know him. He put his faith in the name of Jesus and was made strong. Faith in Jesus made this man completely well while everyone was watching. (Acts 3:16 CEVDCUS06)

Here Peter tells us that the man at beautiful gate was not healed because he Peter and John were holy or righteous. He explains that the man was healed because of his faith in Jesus and the power of the name of Jesus.

Going deeper, i understand now that Peter and John were just vessels just like our pastors,priests,you and i. Its the name of Jesus and faith in Jesus that does the work.We should therefore strive to have faith in Jesus, We should never remove our eyes from the cross. We should never forget that the spiritual leaders in our lives are vessels that God uses to carry out His work.

This scripture makes me think of how water is piped into a house and how when we turn on the taps we get water but we have never for one second being under the illusion that the tap is the source of water. We are always convinced of the true source which may be a well,borehole e.t.c. If i may say this, we are all TAPS! and Jesus is the source. He is the vine and we are the branches.

When questioned further by the High Priests and Teachers of the Law. Peter "then you should all know, and all the people of Israel should know, that this man stands here before you completely well through the power of the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth—whom you crucified and whom God raised from death. (Acts 4:10 GNT)"

Written by Kachi

Don't Give Up!

The Lord keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him. You have acted foolishly, and so from now on you will always be at war.” (2 Chronicles 16:9 GNT)

When God gives you a dream, you can be sure you'll run into delays, difficulties, detours and dead ends along the way. They are a natural part of life. But you can be ready for them.

Now if anybody had a right to be discouraged, it was Noah. Do you know how long it took Noah to build the ark? 120 years. Could you go 120 years on a project without one word of encouragement from anybody else in society?

Noah trusted God. And when he heard God's warning about the future, Noah believed him even though there was no sign of a flood. I bet there were many days that Noah didn't feel like going to work, but for 43,800 days, he went to the same place and he worked. He never gave up.

Don't give up on your dream either. Don't give up on the marriage. Don't give up on your health. Don't, don't, don't give up. God is in control. You haven't read the final chapter of your life. God's already written it, but you haven't read it yet.

The Bible says, "God is always on the alert, constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him." God is looking for people that he can bless. I want you to be one of those people.

Don't give up!

Written by Kachi