Sunday Mornings

Romans 6:6-14 ( MSG ) 6-11 Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life— no longer at sin’s every beck and call! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did. 12-14 That means you must not give sin a vote in the way you conduct your lives. Don’t give it the time of day. Don’t even run little errands that are connected with that old way of life. Throw yourselves wholeheartedly and full-time—rememb

I can do everything through him who gives me strength. Phil 4:19 Scriptures describes us as braches on the True Vine which is Christ. The branches are where the fruits are being displayed. Nevertheless we cannot appreciate the fruitful branch without acknowledging the vine which it is attached to. The moment the branch thinks that it is self-sufficient, and wanders off from the vine… in hours and days away, it becomes firewood material. The world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. We are actually going to be at the stage of affairs, but we must constantly remember that there is a power working in us. If that power is absent, we become mere chaff. One scripture that illustrates this is the story of Sampson and the Philistines: Then she called, “Sampson, the philistines are upon you!” he awoke from his sleep and thought, I’ll go out as before and shake myself free,” BUT HE DID NOT KNOW THAT THE LORD HAD LEFT HIM. Judges 16:20 Sampson thought it was business as usua

Ecclesiastes 12:13 ASV - This is the end of the matter; all hath been heard: fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is the whole duty of man. It is only those who love God that will have reference for Him and do what he says John 15:14 ASV -Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I command you. Christ has commanded us to abide in His love and love others around us. But often, we find ourselves violating. Love is not an "all- deliberate" effort but an "all-aided" effort. It is Christ-mediated. You need to have Christ in you for Him to help you abide in His love and to love others. How do we abide in His love?; 1Thessalonians 4:3 ASV - For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye abstain from fornication . Abiding in God's love entails pleasing Him; and pleasing Him entails living a life of purity. How do we love one another? This, sometimes gets so difficult, but when you have Christ as the anchor of your life, the issue is

“…Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld your son, your only son.” Gen 22:12b (NIV) The heart of man is deceitful above all things and beyond cure; who can understand it? This question raised in Jer 17:9 was answered in vs 10, “I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind…” There is always a slim chance of never meaning what we confess (Matt 15:8, Isa 29:13). The heart can be very deceptive. It takes the LORD to deliberately search and examine everything we say and do in order to know for sure if we are what we confess to be (Psa 7:9; 64:6b, I Chro 28:9). Never think that God will not need prove from you that you fear Him. One of the most common way we prove that we are serious with God is when we have come to the point where indeed we have no other gods before Him (Exo 20:3). These gods could come in many forms, especially things that we value and love. For father Abraham, there was a likelihood that Isaac could stand as a god in between Abraham and The Almi