Luke 24:46-47 - "...and said to them, 'Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead, (47) and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.'"
He has risen. He has risen indeed.
That's the song.
Everything that Jesus said SHOULD happen HAS happened.
It continues to go forth.
The Church is the song of Christ.
From Acts chapter two until this present moment, believers are being added.
Living stones into the foundation of the spiritual Church.
The Body of Christ.
More hands. More feet. More eyes. More mouths.
We function in and under His authority as those with a sort of "power of attorney" to use the name of Jesus Christ.
He sits physically at the right hand of God.
The Church functions as His Body here on earth.
He is coming back to gather us.
This is His promise. Our blessed hope.
Someday. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow. But someday.
Are you looking upward?
Are you prepared if it is today?
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Begin
Luke 24:38-39 - "And he said to them, 'Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.'"
Why are you troubled? (Got troubles?)
Why do you doubt? (Got doubt?)
Why do you_________ (fill in the blank)
Do you think you cannot "grasp" Jesus?
Is He ethereal? A mist? A ghost?
Where do you think Jesus is?
Up in the sky? Floating in space? Not real? Dead?
People cannot get past their trouble and difficulties because they cannot properly identify with Jesus.
Many want to believe but they have lots of baggage to shed in the way of improper theology, doctrine, preaching, and negative religious experiences.
Jesus makes it simple. He is not complicated, nor are the facts and truth about Him.
Jesus' advice is to simply reach out and lay hold of Him.
Since He is physically seated at the right hand of God, then we must learn to do this in spirit and soul (mind).
Calling out to Him is sufficient.
Do so and you will be be blessed. Even with the smallest faith you can muster, simply call out to Him and ask Him to become a part of your life.
We must all begin somewhere.
Remember yesterday's message? Blessed are those who believe without seeing.
So, what's your need today? Physical sickness? Finances? Relationships? Addiction?
How about fear? It's number one in my experiences with people. Fear. It will cause other illnesses. It will bring about premature death. It will eat your lunch.
Fear kills faith and you must reverse that priority. You are polarized. Your spiritual "poles" are reversed.
Jesus can do that and much more for you today.
ww.reallifect.com
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Why are you troubled? (Got troubles?)
Why do you doubt? (Got doubt?)
Why do you_________ (fill in the blank)
Do you think you cannot "grasp" Jesus?
Is He ethereal? A mist? A ghost?
Where do you think Jesus is?
Up in the sky? Floating in space? Not real? Dead?
People cannot get past their trouble and difficulties because they cannot properly identify with Jesus.
Many want to believe but they have lots of baggage to shed in the way of improper theology, doctrine, preaching, and negative religious experiences.
Jesus makes it simple. He is not complicated, nor are the facts and truth about Him.
Jesus' advice is to simply reach out and lay hold of Him.
Since He is physically seated at the right hand of God, then we must learn to do this in spirit and soul (mind).
Calling out to Him is sufficient.
Do so and you will be be blessed. Even with the smallest faith you can muster, simply call out to Him and ask Him to become a part of your life.
We must all begin somewhere.
Remember yesterday's message? Blessed are those who believe without seeing.
So, what's your need today? Physical sickness? Finances? Relationships? Addiction?
How about fear? It's number one in my experiences with people. Fear. It will cause other illnesses. It will bring about premature death. It will eat your lunch.
Fear kills faith and you must reverse that priority. You are polarized. Your spiritual "poles" are reversed.
Jesus can do that and much more for you today.
ww.reallifect.com
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Monday, April 9, 2012
Believing
Shortly after the Resurrection of Jesus He appeared to His shocked disciples. Everyone was there but Thomas.
Thomas had made statements pertaining to not believing that Jesus was alive, and had actually said that he would not believe unless he was able to put his fingers into the nail and spear marks.
Jesus has a way of making a persons desires come true.
When Jesus appeared to them for a second time Thomas was there.
Once he saw Jesus in His risen state, complete with the scars of the crucifixion he proclaimed Jesus as his God.
This did not come without some chastisement from Jesus.
John 20:29 - "Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Ouch.
Poor Thomas. He has carried the tag "Doubting Thomas" ever since.
How about you?
Why do you believe?
Did you demand a sign of some sort before you threw in with Jesus?
Did you have to "see" something first? Did Jesus need to perform a parlor trick for you?
Does He really need to do that?
Do you want Him to make you well first? Fill your bank account? Restore your marriage? Find you a job?
Blessed are those who believe without seeing.
I remember over 26 years ago needing Him desperately. I also needed a bunch of stuff done in the way of miracles.
However, I simply believed in Him without strings and without a demonstration.
All the miracles I needed took place the moment I believed first.
Jesus had me from the git go, and I have never left Him or doubted Him.
He is the real deal. He doesn't have to prove a solitary thing to me.
So, if you have a bunch of "ifs" attached to your contingency to believe in Him, it may very well be the reason you have remained disappointed.
How about just believing.
Paul said in Romans 10, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
The only "if" is whether you will or not.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Thomas had made statements pertaining to not believing that Jesus was alive, and had actually said that he would not believe unless he was able to put his fingers into the nail and spear marks.
Jesus has a way of making a persons desires come true.
When Jesus appeared to them for a second time Thomas was there.
Once he saw Jesus in His risen state, complete with the scars of the crucifixion he proclaimed Jesus as his God.
This did not come without some chastisement from Jesus.
John 20:29 - "Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Ouch.
Poor Thomas. He has carried the tag "Doubting Thomas" ever since.
How about you?
Why do you believe?
Did you demand a sign of some sort before you threw in with Jesus?
Did you have to "see" something first? Did Jesus need to perform a parlor trick for you?
Does He really need to do that?
Do you want Him to make you well first? Fill your bank account? Restore your marriage? Find you a job?
Blessed are those who believe without seeing.
I remember over 26 years ago needing Him desperately. I also needed a bunch of stuff done in the way of miracles.
However, I simply believed in Him without strings and without a demonstration.
All the miracles I needed took place the moment I believed first.
Jesus had me from the git go, and I have never left Him or doubted Him.
He is the real deal. He doesn't have to prove a solitary thing to me.
So, if you have a bunch of "ifs" attached to your contingency to believe in Him, it may very well be the reason you have remained disappointed.
How about just believing.
Paul said in Romans 10, "If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved."
The only "if" is whether you will or not.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Friday, April 6, 2012
The Cross In The Now
Mark 14:42 - "Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand."
It was actually on a Wednesday.
Even 2,000 years ago it was on a Wednesday.
You can't crunch the numbers to fit the sacrifice on a Friday. Not by any standard, bible or calendar.
However, it's sort of moot anyway.
It's moot because for the believer it is always in the now.
2 Cor. 4:10 - "...always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."
God is not governed by our concept of space and time. Everything for Him is on the eternal continuum.
The Cross of Christ, I believe, is central on that continuum. Pointing to the past, rooted in the present, and looking onward to the future, the Cross is steadfast and manifest as fresh today as that fateful day on Golgotha.
This is why we sing and shout about the present application of the blood of Christ to the heart of mankind.
It still streams in its cleansing power as if pouring from the veins of Jesus anew.
It's supernatural. Thank God for it.
Get in the shower of His purifying blood. Allow it to make you like new. It will forgive. It will heal. It will instill joy and peace.
Step away from it and be subject to the toil and frustration of daily living with all of its punishing aspects.
Wayne Watson sings:
It was the blood of Jesus
The blood of Jesus
That opened heaven's door to let me in
It was the blood of Jesus
The blood of Jesus
That washed away my guilt
That washed away
The guilt of all my sin
It is the Blood of Jesus. It was always the Blood of Jesus. It will always be the Blood of Jesus.
Nothing satisfies God and man more.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
It was actually on a Wednesday.
Even 2,000 years ago it was on a Wednesday.
You can't crunch the numbers to fit the sacrifice on a Friday. Not by any standard, bible or calendar.
However, it's sort of moot anyway.
It's moot because for the believer it is always in the now.
2 Cor. 4:10 - "...always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies."
God is not governed by our concept of space and time. Everything for Him is on the eternal continuum.
The Cross of Christ, I believe, is central on that continuum. Pointing to the past, rooted in the present, and looking onward to the future, the Cross is steadfast and manifest as fresh today as that fateful day on Golgotha.
This is why we sing and shout about the present application of the blood of Christ to the heart of mankind.
It still streams in its cleansing power as if pouring from the veins of Jesus anew.
It's supernatural. Thank God for it.
Get in the shower of His purifying blood. Allow it to make you like new. It will forgive. It will heal. It will instill joy and peace.
Step away from it and be subject to the toil and frustration of daily living with all of its punishing aspects.
Wayne Watson sings:
It was the blood of Jesus
The blood of Jesus
That opened heaven's door to let me in
It was the blood of Jesus
The blood of Jesus
That washed away my guilt
That washed away
The guilt of all my sin
It is the Blood of Jesus. It was always the Blood of Jesus. It will always be the Blood of Jesus.
Nothing satisfies God and man more.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Thursday, April 5, 2012
It Was No Day Off For Jesus
1 Peter 3:18-20 (AMP) - "(18) For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once for all, the Righteous for the unrighteous (the Just for the unjust, the Innocent for the guilty), that He might bring us to God. In His human body He was put to death, but He was made alive in the spirit, (19) In which He went and preached to the spirits in prison, (20) [The souls of those] who long before in the days of Noah had been disobedient, when God's patience waited during the building of the ark in which a few [people], actually eight in number, were saved through water."
Matt. 12:40 - "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Three full days and three full nights in the heart of the earth.
"He descended into hell." ~The Apostles' Creed~
It's the second day of His three day excursion from the Cross to the Throne.
Think about that today. Jesus just didn't hang out in the tomb until He resurrected.
He was in the bowels of Hell preaching the "bad news" to the denizens of the evil angel prison.
You can rest assured that Satan heard it.
It was no day off for Jesus.
There is no day off today.
He sits at the right hand of the Father and makes intercession for us 24/7.
We are never out of the thoughts of Jesus. His office is never closed. His phone is never busy.
All of this because of the Cross.
All of this for you.
Just for you.
Just for us.
Won't you keep Him in your heart and mind today?
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
Matt. 12:40 - "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of a huge fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."
Three full days and three full nights in the heart of the earth.
"He descended into hell." ~The Apostles' Creed~
It's the second day of His three day excursion from the Cross to the Throne.
Think about that today. Jesus just didn't hang out in the tomb until He resurrected.
He was in the bowels of Hell preaching the "bad news" to the denizens of the evil angel prison.
You can rest assured that Satan heard it.
It was no day off for Jesus.
There is no day off today.
He sits at the right hand of the Father and makes intercession for us 24/7.
We are never out of the thoughts of Jesus. His office is never closed. His phone is never busy.
All of this because of the Cross.
All of this for you.
Just for you.
Just for us.
Won't you keep Him in your heart and mind today?
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
Wednesday, April 4, 2012
I Am
Mark 14:62 - "And Jesus said, 'I am, and you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven.'"
They tortured and crucified Jesus simply for saying who He is.
Not who He was. Not who He will be.
Who He is.
He is the great "I AM".
That statement means He is God.
God said it in Exodus 3:14: "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
I AM is God's name.
Try to explain God. He has many attributes. In His simplest form He just IS.
We get our shorts in a bunch feeling overly compelled to define that.
It's an interesting concept taking in the entire scope of the Cross and Resurrection.
What Jesus has done for us is never in the past as far as God is concerned.
He is not bound by our clocks and calendars.
The Cross is efficacious for the sinner because it is fresh when needed.
Jesus said in John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM."
That's either poorly constructed English grammar, or Jesus was saying something that defies and transcends the King's English.
He was saying, "Before Abraham even existed I AM God in the universe." The term "was" just doesn't fit when "explaining" God.
They didn't know who they were messing with.
Pompous self-gratifying religious stiffnecks.
They couldn't see God standing right in front of them.
No different today.
There are people who cannot see the God of the Universe standing right before them.
For them it's the historical Jesus. The Jesus who "was".
The God of the Universe, the great coming again God, the God we will stand before is...... I AM.
For the believer He is always now. He is always I AM!
Is Jesus your I AM today?
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
They tortured and crucified Jesus simply for saying who He is.
Not who He was. Not who He will be.
Who He is.
He is the great "I AM".
That statement means He is God.
God said it in Exodus 3:14: "And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you."
I AM is God's name.
Try to explain God. He has many attributes. In His simplest form He just IS.
We get our shorts in a bunch feeling overly compelled to define that.
It's an interesting concept taking in the entire scope of the Cross and Resurrection.
What Jesus has done for us is never in the past as far as God is concerned.
He is not bound by our clocks and calendars.
The Cross is efficacious for the sinner because it is fresh when needed.
Jesus said in John 8:58: "Before Abraham was, I AM."
That's either poorly constructed English grammar, or Jesus was saying something that defies and transcends the King's English.
He was saying, "Before Abraham even existed I AM God in the universe." The term "was" just doesn't fit when "explaining" God.
They didn't know who they were messing with.
Pompous self-gratifying religious stiffnecks.
They couldn't see God standing right in front of them.
No different today.
There are people who cannot see the God of the Universe standing right before them.
For them it's the historical Jesus. The Jesus who "was".
The God of the Universe, the great coming again God, the God we will stand before is...... I AM.
For the believer He is always now. He is always I AM!
Is Jesus your I AM today?
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Embrace The Cross
John 19:17 - "...and he went out, bearing his own cross, to the place called The Place of a Skull, which in Aramaic is called Golgotha."
Jesus started out carrying His own cross.
By the time He got to Calvary someone else was carrying it.
There are many scenarios surrounding the short walk from the Praetorium to the Place of the Skull.
Some say that Calvary, or the Place of the Skull, or Golgotha was the place where Adam was buried.
There is no way that can be proved, although it makes good food for contemplation.
I saw yet another rendition of the Passion story the other day. It was a well acted out scene where Jesus just arrived at the place of crucifixion. Exhausted and beaten bloody raw He was thrown to the ground a few feet away from the Cross.
Most every other crucifixion scene shows Jesus being manhandled onto the Cross.
This version took a very long moment and making it pregnant with anticipation, shows Jesus crawling in the dirt, with every last ounce of strength He could muster, dragging Himself up onto the Cross, rolling over on His back, and stretching Himself out to await the driving of the nails.
It was for me the most stirring visual of the idea of Jesus embracing His Cross I have ever seen.
Whether that's the way it happened exactly or not, it got the truth across.
The truth is that Jesus did indeed embrace His Cross willfully. He gave Himself over for our behalf.
This is why the death of Jesus Christ is a sacrifice and not just a murder, assassination, or execution.
Jesus indeed embraced what had been traditionally observed as being a torture machine, and made it an object of our faith.
Jesus made the Cross something to be revered, admired, and drawn to.
Jesus made the Cross something we are to endure with Him, picking up our own and bearing it daily in following Him.
The Cross of Jesus Christ is central to our faith as believers and followers of Christ.
The Cross of Christ is central to all of biblical history both Old and New Testament.
The Cross of Christ is what God planned from before the foundation of the world itself to be the instrument upon which the very salvation of the human race would be won back from Satan.
Never cheapen the Cross. Never theologize or philosophize it away into pop liberal doctrine.
Never shy away from the Cross, but embrace it as an altar of grace and an an instrument of God's Righteousness.
Nothing of any truth or value works for us if we do not pass by the Cross first.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
Jesus started out carrying His own cross.
By the time He got to Calvary someone else was carrying it.
There are many scenarios surrounding the short walk from the Praetorium to the Place of the Skull.
Some say that Calvary, or the Place of the Skull, or Golgotha was the place where Adam was buried.
There is no way that can be proved, although it makes good food for contemplation.
I saw yet another rendition of the Passion story the other day. It was a well acted out scene where Jesus just arrived at the place of crucifixion. Exhausted and beaten bloody raw He was thrown to the ground a few feet away from the Cross.
Most every other crucifixion scene shows Jesus being manhandled onto the Cross.
This version took a very long moment and making it pregnant with anticipation, shows Jesus crawling in the dirt, with every last ounce of strength He could muster, dragging Himself up onto the Cross, rolling over on His back, and stretching Himself out to await the driving of the nails.
It was for me the most stirring visual of the idea of Jesus embracing His Cross I have ever seen.
Whether that's the way it happened exactly or not, it got the truth across.
The truth is that Jesus did indeed embrace His Cross willfully. He gave Himself over for our behalf.
This is why the death of Jesus Christ is a sacrifice and not just a murder, assassination, or execution.
Jesus indeed embraced what had been traditionally observed as being a torture machine, and made it an object of our faith.
Jesus made the Cross something to be revered, admired, and drawn to.
Jesus made the Cross something we are to endure with Him, picking up our own and bearing it daily in following Him.
The Cross of Jesus Christ is central to our faith as believers and followers of Christ.
The Cross of Christ is central to all of biblical history both Old and New Testament.
The Cross of Christ is what God planned from before the foundation of the world itself to be the instrument upon which the very salvation of the human race would be won back from Satan.
Never cheapen the Cross. Never theologize or philosophize it away into pop liberal doctrine.
Never shy away from the Cross, but embrace it as an altar of grace and an an instrument of God's Righteousness.
Nothing of any truth or value works for us if we do not pass by the Cross first.
Keepin' it Real,
Pastor Kevin <><
www.reallifect.com
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