No Second Class Citizens in the Kingdom of God

Have you felt worthless and of no good to God or His Kingdom?

The Bible says, “But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” ( I Peter 2:9-10)

You are chosen, royal, holy and you belong to God.  You were created to be part of His Kingdom and there are NO second class citizens in the Kingdom of God!

God loves you so much that He had His son, Jesus, die on the cross for YOU! He wants YOU to live with him for eternity. (see  John 3:16)   Jesus gave His life for His friends – John 15:3.   Those who place their trust in Jesus Christ are His friends and are first class citizen of the Kingdom of God!

Click this link to see what it means to place your trust in Jesus Christ.  http://www.alliancechristiancenter.org/about-us/resources/die/

 

 

 

Arms Open Wide

Jesus’ arms are open wide for you. He loves you and wants you to be His child.  His open arms are saying, “Desire Me, want Me, crave after Me, desire to touch Me.  You need Me like water.  Hunger after Me.  I will not withhold Myself from you.”

 

We need the Lord. Often we live as though we are self-sufficient.  “Lord, help me to hunger for You.  Drive me to Your Word — to seek Your face.”

 

Are you  constantly aware of God’s presence in your life? He wants you to draw near to Him and He will draw near to you. (James 4:8 and Psalm 73:28)     The awesome Creator of all wants to be near you!   He wants to be your God.

The Corn Maze of Life

Life often resembles a maze of corn.

We see nothing more than row after row of ‘just corn’.

…Corn so high you can’t see over it…Twists and turns in the path that seem to lead us in circles…Dead ends that make us back track to find another route…And the direction we are heading just doesn’t seem to make sense.

But it is times like these that we can trust that our God (Deuteronomy 5:33) has our life in His hands.

 

Life is not always about reaching the end of the maze.

Sometimes it is more about the journey. It is the things the Lord is teaching us along the way. It is the friends and family who walk with us. It is the fact that we are never alone on the journey. (Hebrews 13:5)

 

With a different perspective…a view from above…an eternal perspective if you will…the maze is seen as a beautiful design. Take time to enjoy your journey through life, and seek His eternal perspective. From where He sits it’s a beautiful thing. (Rom 8:28)

Love

John 15:12

We are to love everyone not just those we enjoy being with.  We need to also love the people that are hard for us to love.  We need to love those whom no one else would love.

Word of encouragement given by Christian Donohoe  at ACC  on August 14,2011

The love of men may fail you, but my love is not like that!  It will NEVER fail you.  It is UNENDING, UNFAILING, UNFADING and it can be trusted !

Word of encouragement was given by Janet Ohrn at ACC on August 14, 2011

Our Father’s Love

The following is a Word of Encouragement given by John Woolf on Sunday, July 3rd.

In Luke 15:8-32 we’re told of TWO prodigal (wayward) sons.  And while Jesus’ main focus was the elder, we can draw so much from the younger as well – in fact, most Christians tend to follow his story far more closely as it resonates with their (our) experience.

This younger son told his dad he wished he was dead so he could have his share of the inheritance and go off on his own.  His father did this willingly (although he could have had his son punished severely for this – see Matt. 15:4).  So, this young man goes off and blows it all – big time!  He loses everything and ends up feeding pigs (which is a no-no for good, obedient Hebrew people – Is. 65:1-4; Matt. 7:6).  So, he comes to his senses and decides to try and go home.  He’ll beg for forgiveness and hopefully his father will at least allow him to work on the family farm.  He even works up a whole speech about having sinned in Heaven’s and his Father’s sight and how he’s no longer worthy to be called a son.  Then, he heads off home tail firmly tucked between his legs.

Unbeknownst to him, his dad has been looking for him just waiting for the day his boy might come home.  How do we know – because he sees him coming from a long way off.  If he hadn’t been looking, he wouldn’t have seen him.  And not only does he see him, but he runs to him.  Now, for a man to run, he had to hike up his garments which almost dragged the ground.  This would expose his legs which was great shame for a Hebrew man (and certainly a landowner in good community standing).  But he didn’t care about this open shame (see all of Isaiah 53).  His heart yearned for his son.

Now when he gets to the boy, he immediately scolds him for his insolence…no, wait – he doesn’t, does he?  No, he hugs him and kisses him repeatedly.  You can imagine the tears of joy streaming down the father’s face.  The boy probably thought his dad had mistaken him for someone else.  So, the boy begins his speech but only gets through part of it.  He never even gets to ask to be a hired man.

Now the dad says, “You sure have sinned you little twerp!”  No, wait – he doesn’t, does he?  In fact, his response is quite peculiar.  He doesn’t even acknowledge the boy’s sins. He turns to his “SLAVES” and tells them, “Quickly bring out the BEST robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand (a sign of adoption into the family in that culture) and sandals on his feet…let’s PARTY!!!

You see, the dad had already forgiven the son long before he saw him down that long road.  The boy had access to his father he didn’t even know he had – and son-ship was never an issue.  We lose sight of the fact that when Jesus died on that cross and said “It is finished!”  He left NO PART unfinished.  If you are in Christ, you are already forgiven of your past, present, and future sins.  When we confess our sins to God, we are (as the Greek states) AGREEING with God that we have done wrong.  That’s what it means to confess – to agree with.  We don’t need to continually go and beg God to forgive us for the sins we commit, because He has already forgiven them.  All we need to do when we sin is to agree with God we’ve done wrong and repent, which is just to turn from your sin to God.  To think that the Lord of Sabaoth ‘forgot’ to atone for one or more of your sins when His Son died for them is an insult to Him.  In John 19:30 when Jesus yelled out, “Tetelestai” or “It is finished!” He was using a legal term that was placed at the bottom of a contract to state that a piece of land or an article of some sort was “PAID IN FULL.”  He knew He had done everything necessary to secure our forgiveness, freedom, and that warm welcome back home where a party is just waiting to happen.

So what do we do?  Walk in the cleanness you have as His children!  Don’t go back to the former sinful way of life you had (see Jer. 42:15b-16) – He has done every single thing to make us blameless and holy.  All we have to do is believe Him and live each day as His royal children should live.  He is not only waiting to receive you back from your pig pen, but He is looking for you at all times and is waiting to RUN to you…in love.

Isaiah 43:25 states: I, even I, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will NOT remember your sins.”

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