Phillippians 2:5-11
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature of God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
It doesn't matter how many followers you have.
Hitler had millions. Jesus had 12.
Challenge: Choose a friend who takes their faith seriously. Every day and random times, text each other and tell them to drop everything and pray. You can do it once a day or ten times, it doens't matter. And the instant you see the text, drop everything and pray. Not only do you find yourself praying more, you give up time and things for God. Besides, when you have to remind someone else it keeps your mind on God throughout the day!
I want to pray and ask God why he allows poverty and starvation when He could do so much to fix it. But I'm afraid He might ask me the same question.
How do you think Jesus feels when you believe you're worthless?
God always uses 1 of 3 answers:
1. Yes
2. Not yet
3. I have something better in mind
How The Apostles Died/ The Death of Jesus
1 Matthew
-Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia , Killed by a sword wound.
2 Mark
-Died in Alexandria , Egypt , after being dragged by Horses through the streets until he was dead.
3Luke
-Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous Preaching to the lost.
4 John
-Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge Basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution In Rome . However, he was miraculously delivered from death.
John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison Island of Patmos .
He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos . The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey . He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.
5 Peter
-He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross.
According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die In the same way that Jesus Christ had died.
6 James
-The leader of the church in Jerusalem , was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club.
* This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.
7 James the Great
-Son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem . The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer walked beside James to the place of execution. Overcome by conviction, he declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.
8 Bartholomew
-Also known as Nathaniel was a missionary to Asia . He witnessed for our
Lord in present day Turkey . Bartholomew was martyred for his preachin in Armenia where he was flayed to death by a whip.
9 Andrew
-Was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras , Greece . After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: 'I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.' He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.
10 Thomas
-Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the Sub-continent.
11 Jude
-Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.
12 Matthias
-The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.
13 Paul
-Was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire . These letters, which taught many of the foundational Doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.
Perhaps this is a reminder to us that our sufferings here are indeed minor compared to the intense persecution and cold cruelty faced by the apostles and disciples during their times for the sake of the Faith. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew
Faith is not believing that God can,
It is knowing that God WILL!”
THE (SCIENTIFIC) DEATH OF JESUS
At the age of 33, Jesus was condemned to death . At the time
Crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst
criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike other criminals condemned to death by Crucifixion, Jesus was to be nailed to the
Cross by his hands and feet.
Each nail was 6 to 8 inches long. The nails were driven into his wrist, not into his palms as is com- monly portrayed.
There's a tendon in the wrist that extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew that when the nails were being hammered into the wrist that tendon would tear and
break, forcing Jesus to use his back muscles to support himself so that he could breath.
Both of his feet were nailed together, thus he was forced to
support himself on the single nail that impaled his feet to thecross. Jesus could not support himself with his legs because of the pain so he was forced to alternate between arching his back then using his legs just to continue to breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the suffering, the courage.
Jesus endured this reality for over 3 hours. Yes, over 3 hours!
Can you imagine this kind of suffering? A few minutes before he died, Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water from his wounds. From common images we see wounds to his hands and feet and even the spear wound to his sidebut do we realize his wounds were actually made in his body.
A hammer driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped
and an even larger nail hammered through the arches, then a
Roman guard piercing his side with a spear. But before the nails and the spear, Jesus was whipped and beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the flesh from his body. The beating so horrific that his face was torn and his beard ripped from his face. The crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men would not havesurvived this torture. He had no more blood to bleed out, only water poured fr om his wounds. The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters
(just less than a gallon) of blood. Jesus poured all 3.5 liters of his blood; he had three nails hammered into his members; a crown of thorns on his head and, beyond that, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into his
chest.
All these without mentioning the humiliation he suffered after carrying his own
cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight, only for its higher part, where his hands were nailed). Jesus had to endure this experience, to open the
Gates of Heaven, So that you can have free access to God. So that your sins
could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception!
Don't ignore this situation.
JESUS CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!
He died for you! It Is easy to pass jokes or foolish photos by e-mail, but when it comes to God, sometimes you feel ashamed to forward to others because you are worried of what they may think about you. God has plans for you, show all your friends what he experienced to save you.
Go all out in your faith. Because you know what? We're not going to be here long! Scripture says that our lives are like the mist rising in the morning for a timespan to God. And if we only have 'one morning', don't we want to do as much as possible in that time??
I realized something today. All of this time, whenever I'm strong in my faith, I have thought "Oh yeah! Whatever God wants me to do, I can do it. He loves me, and I can back it up. He will trust me." But when I'm low, I think "Are you kidding? God can't trust me right now. I'm not strong enough-I'm worthless to His cause right now.
And I've always heard and said that God loves you, He will never desert you, He sees things in you that you don't see. I even thought I believed it-most times I did, when I was strong. But when it came down to it, I didn't feel good enough at times. Its not that I didn't trust God, I didn't trust my self.
But here's the thing: It doesn't matter. No matter what you're situation is, if you want to be God's servant and praise Him and do something for Him, it can happen. No matter what. God doesn't need to rely on you. He can handle it himself. But He needs someone to do it through, and in the mean time bond with.
**Please God, whenever we feel low or too small, or even doubt that you're speaking to us, watch over us. Help us through it, and help us to learn and grow from it. You alone are perfect, and we will mess up. But you look over those mistakes, so why not us?
Pray to God every chance you get, and try to grow as strong as possible. Because I've decided I don't want to sit around and wait for someone else to do what God planned for ME to do. What about you?
In the video below -Live Like That, Sidewalk Prophets- there are a few people talking in the beginning. Just wait for the music to start, LOVE it!
Remember to be thankful. Everything is a blessing, designed exactly for us. The only problem is that sometimes that blessing is hidden inside a challenge. The best part? Jesus has already come through it. Thank you for being big enough to look past the present, and strong enough to break down any obstacle.
I will not get distracted. I will not forget. I will follow. I will trust. I will believe.
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My English teacher gave us an assignment: Write an essay using historical or personal evidence explaining this quote: “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Edmund Burke. I used the story of Jesus.
Paying the Price
History says he was beaten until his face was unrecognizable. He was tortured to where organs were exposed because of the thorns on the whip prying his flesh away from his body. Jesus Christ, the Son of God himself, died on the cross because one man gave up. Edmund Burke has said that “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” Since holy and perfect Jesus was murdered because a man stayed silent, one horrifying truth stands: If someone does not take a stand, everyone falls.
After being arrested, Jesus was brought to a man named Pilate. The priests and teachers were scared of his power as Jesus had been performing miracles and preaching. Charged for claiming to be Christ, the people wanted Jesus crucified because their leaders had warned them of his power. But when Pilate questioned Jesus, he found only innocence. The people were planning on releasing one prisoner; Jesus or Barabbas, a murderer. Confident in Jesus, Pilate tried to explain to the people three times that he was of no harm. Stubborn, the people’s minds were not changed, so Pilate gave in. Jesus was abandoned.
Mankind’s greatest evil was the day we crucified our lifeline without resistance. In spite of the fact that Jesus came here to take care of us and lead us, some people would not trust him. Instead they allowed the heinous crimes committed against him. Misguided and evil people did exist, but only on their own would harm truly have come. It came when some watched the corrupt action without putting a stop to it. Pilate not only knew that Jesus had no reason to die, but that he was the only one who could stop it. As a result, evil almost had its greatest triumph because a good man chose to do nothing.
Yet since Jesus ended up saving us with his death, present day people do not learn from Pilate’s mistake. Will it take a fall with no return before we plant our feet? There are not enough people fighting the prominent evil in our world. We have to realize that we are the change. We are the stand. We are the hope. The difference in the world is made from regular people doing the right thing. By one person taking a stand, they can hold up thousands.
Because one man, Pilate, stayed silent Jesus Christ was tortured and murdered. Speaking out would have saved Jesus, but no one took a stand. We have to learn quickly, because as Jesus said of evil, “For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”