parapet walk at Festung Hohensalzburg by Florian Fuchs
Good morning, friends,
Last night was not a good night of sleep for me. I spent much of the night wandering in and out of different prayer requests and listening to Music Through the Night. I am beginning to love having the music and Mike Kellogg’s voice. A song that resonated with me through the night was..
I am reveling to two separate stories about Jesus that have captured my attention. I love when, as I study, the Lord gives me a nugget that requires me to search and study. So I present the verses to you:
18 For Christ [the Messiah Himself] died for sins once [f]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.
I am amazed at the lies we believe about sin. We forgot that the blood of Christ was needed once. We push ourselves away from the blood because we have guilt, remorse over our sins. We believe that God couldn’t forgive this or other such lies. Peter plainly says,
Christ, Messiah, Righteous, Just, Innocent died ONCE for all. Why? Why did He do it? To bring us to God!
When the suffering in our lives brings us to a point of huddling in a corner, blaming God for the circumstances, asking the why question with no answer, we forgot that, “When we are at the end of our rope, God’s office is right there.” Tillian Tchividjian I love that! Not only that but “God’s ability to clean things up is infinitely greater than our ability to mess things up.”Tullian Tchividjian
We are alive in the Spirit. Alive!
This next verse just shouted to me..19 In which He went and preached to the spirits in prison,
This 199 foot cross stands on the hill at Central Assembly of God overlooking the cities of Bossier City and Shreveport. by Dustin Johnston
At first I thought, there is no mention of Jesus going into the prisons. I pondered this and pondered this until I found the following verses.
Isaiah 42: 7 To open the eyes of the blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, and those who sit in darkness from the prison.
Isaiah 49: 9 Saying to those who are bound, Come forth, and to those who are in [spiritual] darkness, Show yourselves [come into the light of the Sun of righteousness]. They shall feed in all the ways [in which they go], and their pastures shall be [not in deserts, but] on all the bare [grass-covered] hills.
Isaiah 61: The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed and qualified me to preach the Gospel of good tidings to the meek, the poor, and afflicted; He has sent me to bind up and heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the [physical and spiritual] captives and the opening of the prison and of the eyes to those who are bound,
Oh friends, Peter meant Jesus freed us. He came to reach down and bring forth those in spiritual darkness. God the Father qualified His beautiful Son to preach the soul-saving Gospel of good tidings. He reaches forth and heals, binds up our broken hearts. He proclaims freedom! Freedom for the captives! He opens our eyes to show us our bondage.
We have a gift that is so precious in Jesus that when we truly accept His freedom we can’t help but share that with others. Allow His healing in your life to then pour out to others. This fountain is a good picture in my mind of how His love should cascade originally from Him, pour into us and the overflow pours to those around us.
Buckingham Fountain in Chicago by Adrian104
The last verse in this set from 1 Peter 3 ends with Noah’s family being saved through water, but that is for another day.
God bless you today. Smile at the cashier who helps you. Wave to the little children in their carts being pushed around at the grocery store. Pray for the elderly gentleman whom you pass today whose gait has been humbled with age and experience. Allow His living water to overflow to be a blessing for life.
Pray on. Pray on.
Related articles
- Salt & Light (fallanddie.com)
- The Living Church is the Body of Christ (lionessblog.com)
- He Understands (livinginhisgrace.wordpress.com)
- Interviewing Tullian Tchividjian (challies.com)
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