Our Good Deeds Will Shine Forever

“”For the time has come for the wedding feast of the Lamb, and his bride has prepared herself. She has been given the finest of pure white linen to wear.” For the fine linen represents the good deeds of God’s holy people.” Rev. 19:7-8 (NLT) After Jesus returns we, the bride of Christ, will “wear” all the good deeds we have done in our life. This means that every good deed we do has eternal value, they are not forgotten. These deeds will shine on us for eternity! This may sound a little strange to our ears but consider how much God values the good things you do. He wants people to help and build up one another even more than we think. It is so important to Him that He will beautify us with our good deeds and display them to all creation and we will be full of inexpressible Continue Reading →

Believing I Am Loved By God

Jason Hanson’s dad was out of the home when Jason was two years old. Eventually Jason started using drugs, got kicked out of his house, almost committed suicide twice, experienced his sister’s suicide, started selling drugs, committed two assaults and eventually ended up in prison and accepted Jesus. But he couldn’t live a Christian life and ended up in prison three more times. Each time he got out he was a lost soul looking for life but he kept relapsing. Eventually he ran into James, a Christian man who poured his life into Jason. This transformed his life. James let Jason know that he cared about his heart, he showed him how to live a godly life, and he persevered with Jason for over eight years. In short, he re-fathered him. Incredibly, Jason eventually became a very effective youth pastor! It would not have happened without James’ fatherly love and Continue Reading →

Sitting On Jesus’ Throne – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

“The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne” Rev. 3:21 (ESV). If we will persevere and be faithful to the end then we will actually have the privilege on sitting with Jesus on His throne. This means that we will reign with Jesus! This is an important biblical theme and John just promised it in Rev. 2:26-28 and we see it fulfilled in Rev. 22:5. Jesus reigns with love, power, wisdom and humility and we will do likewise. Maybe Jesus will give us a city to preside over or maybe He will invite us to create new cities using our own creativity. Maybe we will design new types of buildings or create new inventions to bless God’s people. Whatever we do as leaders we will do with Jesus. We will Continue Reading →

I Am A Child Of God

God actually adopts us into His family as His child when we believe in Christ (Rom. 8:15)! It seems too good to be true but it is. This is our new core identity and we need to remind ourselves of this daily. When we remember who we are we will find strength to become more like Christ. When people adopt a child they often go to great expense and effort. God did the same thing for us: the Son came to earth as a human and endured opposition and execution just so that God could adopt us as His child. And once He adopted us we became one of His heirs (Rom. 8:16). In fact, Scripture says that Jesus is our brother (Mt. 12:49-50 (Mk. 3:34-35); Heb. 2:11, 17) and just as He receives an inheritance from the Father so too we are fellow heirs with Christ (Rom. 8:17). But Continue Reading →

Looking Forward To The Tree Of Life – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

“To the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God.” Rev. 2:7b (ESV). Surely the Christian life is one of conquest: in Christ we conquer the destructive enemies of our life and help others to do the same. Sometimes conquest is hard but he makes us “more than conquerors” (Rom. 8:37) and if we persevere God will reward us with the great privilege of feasting from the tree God created to give true life. In Genesis 3:24 God put an angel at the Garden of Eden to guard against people eating from the tree of life. But in the next age God provides the tree of life again so that we can have the amazing life He originally intended for us. This is the certain hope that we set our hearts on. God Will Reward The Pure – Continue Reading →