A story is told of a fire in Scotland that destroyed the farm. In the aftermath of the fire, a farmer went into the barn to assess and make sense of what had happened. In the process, a farmer kicked one of the dead chickens and under the chicken wings were six live chickens the mother died protecting.

Another story is told of the forest fire that had been brought under control, and the group of firefighters were working back through the devastation making sure all the hot spots had been extinguished. As they marched across the blackened landscape between the wisps of smoke still rising from the smouldering remains, a large lump on the trail caught a firefighter’s eye.

As he got closer, he noticed it was the charred remains of a large bird, that had burned nearly halfway through. Since birds can so easily fly away from the approaching flames, the firefighter wondered what must have been wrong with this bird so that it could not escape. Had it been sick or injured?

Arriving at the carcass, he decided to kick it off the trail with his boot. As soon as he did, however, he was startled half to death by a flurry of activity around his feet. Four little birds flailed in the dust and ash then scurried away down the hillside.

The bulk of the mother’s body had covered them from the searing flames. Though the heat was enough to consume her, it allowed her babies to find safety underneath. In the face of the rising flames, she had stayed with her young. Her dead carcass and her fleeing chicks told the story well enough–she gave the ultimate sacrifice to save her young.

The lesson here is not all chicks can run to their mothers in times of danger. Some panic or try to find a way to save themselves and they get devoured. Worse still the mother hen cannot run around gathering them individually. They have to come to her. Most of the chicks that survive the attacks from cats and foxes stay close to their mother and all they have to do is run under their mother’s wings and they are covered.

The hen in the story was the only chance those chicks had for safety; she, being willing to spare her own life, had gathered them up under her wings to herself. At the point of terrible pain and death, when she might still have saved herself, she chose to stay through the ordeal. It is been noted that the “mother hen instinct” is a feeling that someone has, that they must “take care of somebody.” Anybody. A mother hen demonstrates behavioural habits that are different from a normal hen. Her priority shifts from her personal survival to protecting and ensuring the survival of her young. She puts her heart and soul into her chicks, educating them and protecting them from all predators. The Bible tells us:

At that very hour, some Pharisees came up and said to Him, “Leave and go away from here, because Herod Antipas wants to kill You.” And He said to them, “Go and tell that fox that sly, cowardly man, ‘Listen carefully: I cast out demons and perform healings today and tomorrow, and on the third day I reach My goal.’ Nevertheless, I must travel on today and tomorrow and the day after that—for it cannot be that a prophet would die outside of Jerusalem. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those messengers who are sent to her by God! How often I have wanted to gather your children together around Me, just as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were not willing! Listen carefully: your house is left to you desolate abandoned by God and destitute of His protection; and I say to you, you will not see Me until the time comes when you say, ‘Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord (Luke 13:31-35 AMP).

The greater story that is illustrated is the true story of our Creator Who made a way to save His wandering children. The Lord stretched out His arms on the cross and took the pain so that we didn’t have to. He stood between death and us and fought for us sinners like a hen protects her chicks. In other words, in a dangerous situation, when a fox is on the loose and the chicks are vulnerable, the mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings and fends off the fox as best as she can. Jesus gave His life to protect those whom the fox would destroy. We now live in the shadow of His wings and under His wings we find refuge (Psalm 91:1-4).

The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk in the Spirit. Christ lives again in His redeemed followers the life He lived in Judaea; for righteousness can never be divorced from its source, which is Jesus Christ Himself. The ethics of Jesus cannot be obeyed or even understood until the life of God has come to the heart of a man in the miracle of the new birth. Our Creator has made a way to save His wandering children.

Let us not forget that there were once two brothers. They lived in a society that had not had time to develop the many social evils we know today. Yet one killed the other because sin was there. If two brothers in the morning of the world could not get on together, how can we hope that the gentle teachings of Jesus can ever bring brotherhood to a race filled with complex iniquities, where men inherit hate and where the souls of all are lacerated by jealousy, murder, envy, egotism, greed and lust?

According to the Bible, the human race is morally fallen, spiritually alienated from God, lost and under the severe sentence of divine judgment. In sharp contrast to this, the Church is a body of regenerated persons who have withdrawn from the world in spirit and heart and have thrown in their lot with Christ to own Him as Savior and to follow Him as Lord.

The hope of the human race is that Christ shall come again to earth. I am reminded of this quote from CS Lewis:

When the Author of Life walks on the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then? When you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else … something that never entered your head to conceive—comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left. For this time, it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing; it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last forever. We must take it or leave it.

God’s covenant love to His people is: ‘I love you so much, I will never let the devil have you. I won’t let him take over your life, even when you fail me. It is impossible to stray too far from God’s love. There is no place in heaven or earth where you can escape it.’

Corrie ten Boom is well known for offering forgiveness to the guards who held her captive during the Nazi regime. She touched millions of lives through books and speaking tours before dying on her ninety-first birthday. She often recalled her sister Betsie’s hope-filled words: “There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.” Do you think Satan wants to keep driving you into the loving arms of Christ to find mercy, love, and grace? No–The only sin he can tempt you with now is to attempt to turn you away from God’s incredible love. That’s where a hard heart comes from–not falling back, but from continually rejecting God’s love.

Even so, Lord, come quickly.

 

There is no specific instruction to celebrate or observe Easter in the New Testament. Easter is not about “Easter eggs” or wearing pastels. All these are pagan practices.

To a Christian, Christ is risen and alive ‘every day’, and his life should be enjoyed and celebrated as such. Christians also have a Passover meal regularly, for the Lord’s Supper is a Passover Meal, commemorating the liberation of Christ.

In fact the feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the First Fruits foreshadow the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:20 tells us, “But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

He also speaks of keeping the feast and getting rid of the yeast or leaven because Christ our Passover lamb has been sacrificed (1 Corinthians 5:7).

What is more Jesus died at 3:00 P.M, “Now it was about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour” (Luke 23:44). This was the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slaughtered (see Exodus 12:18-20).

This is confirmed in the gospel of Luke “Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be slain” (see Luke 22:7-20).

Jesus said that He did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it. So you cannot understand the New Testament without the Old.

That is why so many of the words in Exodus are used again in the New Testament-words such as law, covenant, blood, lamb, Passover, Exodus, leaven.These words are used in the New Testament but derive their meaning from the book of Exodus (see Exodus 12:1-11; 12:43-47).

Another example is six months before Jesus died on the cross He was 4,000 feet high on top of Mount Hermon in the north of Israel, talking with Moses and Elijah. Luke’s Gospel tells us that they talked about His exodus from this world, which was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem (see Luke 9:28-31).

John the Baptist who was the forerunner sent to prepare the way before Christ intoduced Him with the words: “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”  (John 1:29).Thus he proclaimed Jesus as the appointed Savior whose sacrificial death and shed blood would accomplish all that had been foreshadowed by the Passover lamb.

Therefore, Christ is our Passover Lamb the one who has been sacrificed for us so that the angel of death would pass over those who trust in Him.

He rose from the dead on the third day and His resurrection liberates us from death, just as the Hebrews were liberated from slavery on the third day after the Passover. So we celebrate resurrection Sunday because:

The Tomb is Empty

The Gospels talk of Jesus being in the tomb three days and three nights, but traditional Friday-to-Sunday interpretations leave us with one day and two nights! Some Bible scholars believe that Jesus died on the Wednesday afternoon. For instance, prominent Bible teacher David Pawson explains:

We have assumed that Friday was the day he died, because the text tells us he died on the day before the Sabbath. But in the year in question, it was not the Saturday Sabbath. John’s Gospel tells us that the Sabbath was a special High Sabbath (see John 19:31-36).

The Passover began with a Sabbath and, in the year AD 29, which was almost certainly the year Jesus died, the first day of the Passover was a Thursday, with the Wednesday being the eve of the Passover.

This fits all the evidence better than all the other theories. So if he died at 3 o’clock on the Wednesday and he rose between 6 p.m. and midnight on the Saturday, every bit of the Gospel evidence fits.

The 12 Apostles and the Resurrection

When Jesus Christ chose the twelve apostles, their role was to confirm by their words and their lives the reality of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

After the arrest, trial, and death of Jesus Christ, these men initially fled in fear. They were devastated by His death because death seems so cruel and final.

They must felt terrible when they saw their Lord, whom they had left everything to follow, being crucified on the cross.

One of the twelve apostles known as Matthew records that immediately after Jesus had died, the tombs were opened and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep in death were raised to life.

And coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, they went into the holy city and appeared to many people (see Matthew 27:52-53). He also gives an account of the guarded tomb and the report by the soldiers that the body was stolen:

When they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers, saying, “Tell them, ‘His disciples came at night and stole Him away while we slept.’ And if this comes to the governor’s ears, we will appease him and make you secure.” So they took the money and did as they were instructed; and this saying is commonly reported among the Jews until this day (Matthew 28:12-15).

The divine side of Christ’s death, however, is also brought out in Mark, for Jesus was sure from the very beginning that he had come to die. He predicted his death, and his resurrection, more than once.

Following the resurrection. He records Jesus’ return to Galilee and his meeting with the 11 disciples and more than 500 at one time (see 1 Corinthians 15:5).

Luke a doctor by profession from Antioch, Syria and the only Gentile writer in the Bible had a keen interest in researching the events surrounding the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He describes that, after Jesus had physically risen from the dead, three women who were friends of the disciples went to the tomb early Sunday morning to anoint His body with spices.

When they arrived at the tomb, they were shocked to find the stone rolled aside and the tomb empty. It was only the linen cloths in which Jesus’ body had been wrapped that lay empty in the tomb. The two angels told them:

Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but is risen! Remember how He spoke to you when He was still in Galilee, saying, ‘The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, and be crucified, and the third day rise again (see Luke 24:1–25).

The Bible tells us that, until then, they still hadn’t understood the Scripture that He must rise again from dead (see Psalm 16:10). “And they remembered His words. Then they returned from the tomb and told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.”

In John’s intimate account, Peter and John decided to go and see for themselves where Jesus was buried. Indeed, they too were also surprised that Jesus was not in the tomb.

As Peter and John returned home, Mary was still standing at the tomb crying, and as she was weeping, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. Suddenly, the angels asked her why she was crying, and she replied that it was because they had taken away her Lord and she didn’t know where they put Him.

She decided to leave but saw someone standing there. Thinking it was the gardener, she asked Him where He had put the body of Jesus. The man then called Mary by her name. At that moment, she realized that she was not talking to the gardener but to her risen Lord.

Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him, “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.”

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that He had spoken these things to her. (John 20:16–18)

That Sunday evening, the disciples were meeting in secrecy behind closed doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus appeared to them.

As He appeared to them, He said, “‘Peace be with you.’ When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord” (John 20:19–20).

Soon after Christ had appeared to His disciples, they told Thomas, who was absent, that the Lord had appeared to them. Thomas refused to believe them, saying he needed to see and touch Christ’s wounds and His side before he could believe such a report (see John 20:25).

He did not want to accept their account on the basis of faith only.

The faith of Thomas, much like the disciples’, was gone so he could not believe by mere faith alone. The time of three special years of personally walking with the Messiah had come to an end. Jesus was dead, so were the dreams that were once filled with hope and purpose.

So unless he could put his hands into Jesus’ side where he had watched the spear being thrust into the breast of his Master, he could not believe. He wanted concrete evidence.

Eight days later, the disciples were again in the same room, and this time Thomas was present. And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!”

Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:26–28).

We tend to think of Jesus doing nothing between his death and resurrection, being just unconscious, inactive in the tomb. But it says only his body was dead. His spirit was very much alive. He went to the world of the dead and started preaching as recorded by Peter in his first letter:

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive by the Spirit, by whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water (1 Peter 3:18-19).

Death Is Not Final

To the Christian, death is not final. A believer simply falls asleep in Jesus and wakes up instantly in the presence of God. But those who die without the Lord Jesus Christ are referred to as “the dead.”

Someday the dead will stand before the Great White Throne of God and be judged according to the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.

They will then be cast into the lake of fire. “This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15).

Some say that when Christians die, they sleep in the grave until Jesus returns and raised the dead. However, Paul said, “To live is Christ and to die is gain (Philippians 1:21).  To sleep in the grave would not be gain!

Paul knew that physical death would allow him to “depart and be with Christ,” which, he said, is very much better (Philippians 1:23).

We will be fully conscious one minute after we have died. We will know who we are, we will have our memory. It is only our body that dies, not our spirit. Death separates body and spirit. Later, spirit and body will be reunited in the resurrection.

When Paul talks about putting off our earthly tent, he says to be “absent from the body” is “to be at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:1-9).

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, he refers to those who have died in Christ as having “fallen asleep in Jesus” because this is what death is to the believer- falling asleep and waking up in the presence of our Lord.

Because Jesus is the Resurrection and the Life, the Christian will not see death. This truth caused Jesus to proclaim,

I am Myself the Resurrection and the Life. Whoever believes in (adheres to, trusts in, and relies on) Me, although he may die, yet he shall live; And whoever continues to live and believes in (has faith in, cleaves to, and relies on) Me shall never actually die at all (John 11:25-26).

Death is conquered! The Tomb is Empty! Jesus becomes the Giver of Life (John 20:21-23). This is the Good News that Paul preaches to us. “It is this Good News that saves you if you continue to believe the message I told you—unless, of course you believed something that was never true in the first place” (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-2).

Jesus Christ is the divine, eternal Son of God, who became a member of the human race by virgin birth. He led a sinless life, died on the cross as a propitiatory sacrifice for the sins of humanity, was buried and rose again in bodily form from the grave on the third day.

He ascended into heaven, whence He will return to earth in person; to judge the living and the dead. Everyone who repents of sin and trusts in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ receives forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life.

 

During this weekend, Christians around the world will be celebrating the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. For the Jews, they will be celebrating Passover, which commemorates Israel’s escape from Egypt when the blood of a lamb was painted on their door frames and saved their firstborn sons from death.

The most striking fact about the Israelites’ crossing of the Red Sea is that it happened on the third day after the Passover lamb was killed.

This event foreshadowed Jesus’ work on the cross. As the spotless Lamb of God, His blood would be spilled in order to save us from the penalty of death brought by sin. At His last supper, Luke records that Jesus revealed Himself as the fulfillment of that event.

Jesus died at 3.00 p.m., the very time when thousands of Passover lambs were being slaughtered. So Christ is called ‘our Passover lamb’, the one who has been sacrificed for us so that the angel of death would pass over those who trust in Him.

He rose from the dead on the third day and his resurrection liberates us from death, just as the Hebrews were liberated from slavery on the third day after the Passover. And you probably know that the Feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits dramatically and poignantly foreshadow the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

The good news of Christianity is that God loves us and did not leave us in the mess that we make of our own lives. He came to earth, in the person of His Son Jesus to die instead of us (2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 3:13). This is what theologians call the self-substitution of God.

The Lord Chancellor, Lord Mackay of Clasern wrote:

The central theme of our faith is the sacrifice of himself by our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of our sins…The deeper our appreciation of our need the greater will be our love for the Lord Jesus and, therefore, the more fervent our desire to serve Him.

In the words of the Apostle Peter, “He personally bore our sins in His own body on the tree (as on an altar and offered Himself on it), that we might die (cease to exist) to sin and live to righteousness. By His wounds you have been healed (1 Peter 2:24 AMP).

What is Self-Substitution?

In his book, Miracle on the River Kwai Ernest Gordon tells the true story of a group of POWs working on the Burma Railway during World War II. At the end of each day, the tools were collected from the work party. On one occasion a Japanese guard shouted that a shovel was missing and demanded to know which man had taken it.

He began to rant and rave, working himself up into a paranoid fury and ordered whoever was guilty to step forward. No one moved. “All die! All die! He shrieked, cocking and aiming his rifle at the prisoners. At that moment one man stepped forward and the guard clubbed him to death with his rifle while he stood silently to attention. When they returned to the camp, the tools were counted again and no shovel was missing. That one man had gone forward as a substitute to save others.

In the same way, Jesus came as our substitute. He endured crucifixion for us. Cicero described crucifixion as ‘the most cruel and hideous of tortures’. Jesus was stripped and tied to a whipping post. He was flogged with four of five thongs of leather interwoven with sharp jagged bone and lead.

Eusebuis, the third century church historian, described Roman flogging in these terms: the sufferer’s veins were laid bare, and…..the very muscles, sinews and bowels of the victim were open to exposure’.

He was then taken to the Praetorium where a crown of thorns was thrust onto His head. He was mocked by a battalion of 600 men and hit about the face and head. Jesus was well aware of the shame and public humiliation that He would experience on the cross.

In fact, one of the primary objectives of crucifixion was to shame the person. As the person hung on the cross, spectators walked by, made derogatory remarks, and sometimes even did obscene things which I will not describe.

In a prophetic vision, Isaiah glimpsed the suffering of Jesus seven centuries before they actually took place:

I gave My back to the smiters and My cheeks to those who plucked off the hair; I hid not My face from shame and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).

He was then forced to carry a heavy cross on His bleeding shoulders until he collapsed, and Simon of Cyrene was press-ganged into carrying it for Him.

When they reached the site of the crucifixion, He was again stripped naked. He was laid on the cross, and six-inch nails were driven into His forearms, just above the wrist. His knees were twisted sideways so that the ankles could be nailed between the tibia and the Achilles’ tendon. He was lifted up on the cross which was then dropped into a socket in the ground.

There He was left to hang in intense heat and unbearable thirst, exposed to the ridicule of the crowd. He hang there in unthinkable pain for six hours while His life slowly drained away. When His disciples saw Him die, they learned to despair of themselves and of everything on which they had previously based their hope.

The Deepest Wound

Now we come to the deepest wound of all-rejection. Jesus endured a double rejection: first by men and then by God Himself. Isaiah clearly portrayed the rejection of Jesus by His fellow countrymen:

He was despised and rejected and forsaken by men, a Man of sorrows and pains, and acquainted with grief and sickness; and like One from Whom men hide their faces He was despised, and we did not appreciate His worth or have any esteem for Him ( Isaiah 53:3).

The worst part of His suffering was not the physical trauma or torture and crucifixion or even the emotional pain of being rejected by the world and deserted by His friends, but the spiritual agony of being cut off from His Father for us-as He carried our sins.

He should have been able to live several hours longer on the cross, but He died of a broken heart. John records how one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’ side with a spear, bringing a sudden gush of blood and water. Incidentally, this extraordinary symptom indicates a raptured pericardium, a ‘broken heart’. What broke His heart? The ultimate rejection.

Now from the sixth hour (midday) there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour (three o’clock in the afternoon). And about the ninth hour (three o’clock) Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?—that is, My God, My God, why have You abandoned Me (leaving Me helpless, forsaking and failing Me in My need)? And some of the bystanders, when they heard it, said, This Man is calling for Elijah! And one of them immediately ran and took a sponge, soaked it with vinegar (a sour wine), and put it on a reed (staff), and was about to give it to Him to drink. But the others said, Wait! Let us see whether Elijah will come to save Him from death. And Jesus cried again with a loud voice and gave up His spirit (Matthew 27:45-51 AMP).

This passage gives such a clear picture of the humanity of Jesus as He suffered intense pain and agony. Just think of that awful darkness. Think of the loneliness, the sense of being absolutely abandoned, first by man, then by God. You and I may have experienced some measure of rejection, but never has it been in that measure.

For the first time in the history of the universe, the Son of God prayed but the Father did not answer Him. God averted His eyes from His Son. God stopped His ears at His cry. Why? Because at that time, Jesus was identified with our sin.

The attitude of God the Father toward Jesus had to be the attitude of God’s holiness toward our sin–the refusal of fellowship, a complete and absolute rejection. Jesus did not endure that for His own sake, but instead to make His soul a sin offering for us. And then, look at the consequence, which was so dramatic and so immediate:

And at once the curtain of the sanctuary of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks were split (Matthew 27:51).

What does that mean? Simply that the barrier between God and man had been removed. The way was opened for man to come to God without shame, guilt or fear. When Jesus bore our sins and suffered our rejection, He opened the way for our acceptance so that we might gain status as God’s sons and daughters.

Jesus took our rejection so that we might experience His acceptance. That is the meaning of the torn curtain. We now have direct access to God. “For it is through Him that we both whether far off or near now have an introduction (access) by one Holy Spirit to the Father so that we are able to approach Him” (Ephesians 2:18 AMP).

Life’s Purpose is Knowing God

For those who are willing to enter into this type of covenant commitment to God, the reward is great. It is beautifully expressed by the words that Jesus addressed to the Father in John 17:3:

And this is eternal life: it means to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and likewise to know Him, Jesus as the Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.

Here, indeed, is the ultimate purpose of all life-to know the one true God. Out of this knowledge, there comes eternal life, divine life, the life of God Himself, shared with the believer.

However, knowledge of this kind is not merely theology or doctrine. It is not knowing about God. It is actually knowing God Himself-knowing Him directly and intimately; knowing Him as a Person. It is a person-to-person relationship. It is a spiritual union.

So many of us come from broken or dysfunctional families, we still carry deep wounds from childhood-wounds that resulted from neglect, rejection, or abuse. These experiences make it difficult for us to see God as a loving, warm and intimate Father, and they can be difficult to overcome.

But God says, My precious one, I love you. I do not reject you. I have always loved you. Jesus was wounded for you and me. Your suffering grieves Him deeply. He does not condemn you, but loves you with a profound and everlasting love than you have ever experienced before.

Dr. Karl Barth was one of the most brilliant and complex intellectuals of the twentieth century.  He wrote volume after massive volume on the meaning of life and faith. During his lecture tour, theologian Karl Barth visited the University of Chicago in 1962.

After his lecture, during the Q & A time, a student asked Barth if he could summarize his whole life’s work in theology in a sentence.  Barth allegedly said:

Yes, I can. In the words of a song I learned at my mother’s knee: ‘Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.

I agree with Karl Barth. Why then do we often act as if we are trying to earn God’s love? Why do humans have such trouble accepting this love?

Power over Death

We have a Savior who has the power over death. He holds the keys of death and hell. When Christ was down here, He gave us a specimen of what He could do. Before His personal resurrection, He raised three people from the dead, Jairus’ daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus of Bethany that we might know that He is the Resurrection and Life.

Whoever believes in Him, although he may die, yet shall he/she live; and whoever continues to live and believes in Him shall never actually die at all (see John 11:25-26). How dark and gloomy this world would be if we had no hope in the resurrection. Paul says:

If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised.  For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either.

And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.

Yes, there is a glorious day before us in the future. Such hope never disappoints or deludes or shames us, for God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us. While we were yet in weakness and powerless to help ourselves, at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly. 

Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly proves and demonstrates His own love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah) died for us (Romans 5:5-8 AMP). Not only does God love the “pure and the holy”, He also loves the ungodly.

We get salvation for the past and peace for the present, but there is glory for the future in store. I cannot convince you enough that God loves you. The truth is, He would not have died for you if He had not loved you.

God sent Jesus to die for the sins of the whole world. If you belong to this world, then you have a part in this love that has been exhibited in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ has provided our salvation through His death on the Cross and resurrection. This cross, with its foolishness (1 Corinthians 1:18) and weakness, its humiliation and shame, is the everlasting sign of the victory that Christ has won by mighty weapons that are spiritual, not carnal (2 Corinthians 10:4).

All we need is to do to respond and accept His undeserved gift of salvation. He said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no-one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Is your heart so hard that you can brace yourself against His love and spurn and despise it? You can do it, but it will be at your own peril.

Wishing You a Happy Resurrection!

I recently had a dream I believe was prophetic. I want to submit it to you all to pray and ask you to seek the Lord about it. I believe there’s hope and redemption in it, but I believe it’s a warning.

There are some things we receive from the Lord that are conditional. We can pray about them, and it makes a difference. I know some things are set in stone, but some things can be altered and changed by human behaviour and prayer. Often, we talk about Hezekiah, who received the prophetic word, “Set your house in order, for you shall die and not live.” He turned his face to the wall and repented, and fifteen years were added to his life (see Isaiah 38:1-6).

So, I share this dream in the fear of the Lord. I’ve given it the title “The Rebirth of America Dream.”

I had an intense dream Saturday morning, March 9, 2024, that seemed prophetic. It was about the coming eclipse in April 2024 triggering an awakening that starts in April 2024 and lasts until July 2025—over a year. I was moving fast in time, starting in April 2024 with the eclipse that crossed over Texas. It seemed in this dream that Texas was pulled into this.

At the same time, around April 2024, a metaphorical conception happened. It coincided with this eclipse leading to something serious happening in the nation before the elections in November 2024. This event caused absolute chaos and affected the elections in the U.S. in November 2024.

It seemed like an epic October surprise, and pandemonium ensued. In the dream, I knew that President Joe Biden had fizzled out, and they had tried hard to prop him up. But this event right before the election caused a major division of America right before and during the election time. It intensified the division already in the nation to a very scary and intense level.

Then, the dream shifted. Somehow I was in 1968, and I was given an old newspaper which said, “Assassination of two major leaders in the same year of the Chicago convention.” Robert F. Kennedy—Bobby Kennedy—and Martin Luther King Jr., were both tragically killed in 1968.

What’s also interesting about 1968 is that the Democratic National Convention was in Chicago, and it’s in Chicago in 2024. I knew that was significant. But through all the chaos in the streets, in the economy, and on the news, America had a huge awakening—an awareness of evil and corruption going on in America. And it was like the vast majority of the nation after this said, “We can never let this happen again. We can’t.”

At the end of the dream, it was July 2025. For some reason, July 11 was highlighted to me on the calendar. It seemed like most of the chaos ended in the nation, and things were starting to heal by July 2025. It had all started in April 2024 with the eclipse coinciding with a conception, and there were forty weeks of pregnancy, with birth pangs intensifying before the delivery.

Then, there were complications before and after the birth. Since the conception happens around April, nine months later ,the baby being born in January 2025. What’s interesting is that’s also when the presidential inauguration takes place. But this baby was born, and the thing that happened right before the election was almost like a mother having false contractions. It wasn’t the birthing time, but it was still very intense and real. It was like the baby wanted to come at tht moment, but somehow was delayed.

The birth was in January 2025, and the baby was placed in an incubator for several months after it was born. The baby lived, and it was a beautiful baby. The drwithm ended by me seeing this baby wrapped in an American flag. It was like it was in a maternity ward where babies were lying in little beds with name tags at the top. The name of the baby was America.

I couldn’t help but believe it was the rebirth of America. The dream seems to portray an awakening, starting in April 2024, then a long, painful, and traumatic pregnancy. A traumatic event triggers chaos before the elections, and the chaos lasts for several months. The birth occurs in January 2025, requiring care in the incubator at least until July 2025.

Here’s the part we need to pray about in all of this. I think this is a warning and a call for the intercessors and the people of God to take seriously. Seeing the 1968 Democratic Convention reference and knowing Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy were both killed, I felt that the warning was there. It seems to be an indication of a coming assassination attempt sometime during this 16-month process from April 2024 until July 2025. We don’t want to see that happen to anybody.

I feel that this is important to share and to put before the body of believers to pray into, to see if the Lord can intervene and help us and show us what to pray and how to pray—and to see if some of this can be lessened or prevented. I believe the dream was significant. I think we are entering into a unique time in American history. Starting in April, there is a 16-month process that I believe is integral to the rebirthing of this nation.

Will you help me pray about this? Will you help me pray into this and take it seriously?

In a recent sermon called “When the World is on Fire,” I shared from Micah 7, which offers a lesson for our time. The prophet Micah described the dire spiritual crisis in his day, and we’re in a similar spiritual climate today. Micah gives us the solution in Micah 7:7: “Therefore I will look to the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

In a time of spiritual crisis, we as the people of God have to get our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, get in the secret place, and wait patiently upon Him. God is looking for a people who, when the world is on fire, will turn to the Lord. If we’ll follow this, it doesn’t matter how dark it gets. “For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people; but the Lord will arise over you, and His glory will be seen upon you” (Isaiah 60:2).

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