Hallelujah, You are Worthy to be Praised!

For a perfect way to remember and exalt the Lord for His blessings this past year and for what He will do in the coming year, click here.

Turn it up...You might even find yourself raising your hands...He is so worthy of our praise!

Seattle

My twin sister's oldest daughter and her husband are visiting from Southern California.  Yesterday my daughter and her husband took them to Seattle on the ferry.  My husband tagged along.  I needed to stay at home and finish a photo project.  The pictures are his.  He's a pretty good photographer, wouldn't you say?!

I heard Daniel had a taste of his first french fry in Seattle.  Check it out by clicking here.  (Yay, Annie is blogging again!)

Come for a visit and we'll take you too!

To view the entire album, click here.

Be sure to click on slideshow and then F11 for the best viewing experience.

Life...

John has a lot to say about life.  He used the word over 40 times in his gospel alone.  In 1 John 5:11–12 he wrote, “...God has given us eternal life, and the life is in His Son.  He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life."

John 1:3,4 tells us, "All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being.  In Him was life, and the life was the light of men."

Jesus said John 14:6 - "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me."

Here are a couple of truths that can be drawn out of these verses.  First, life existed before matter.  (Evolutionists try to convince us of the opposite, that matter came before life...)  Jesus is the life and in Him was life.  Jesus is the Creator.  He is the Creator of matter.  He instilled life into matter.  Life existed before matter.  This supports Jesus claim to be God, the second person in the eternal Godhead, because only God could exist before matter existed.

Physical life is only possible because of Jesus.  Spiritual life is only possible with Jesus.  If you have Jesus, you have life, eternal life, you know the one and only true God.  If you reject Jesus, you reject eternal life.  You don't have eternal life.  You will exist forever, but without knowing the one and only true God.  You will exist in darkness, forever. 

If you say you believe in Him, but try to add anything along with Him, good works or another man-made god, you do not have eternal life.  He who has the Son has life.  The only way to the Father, the only way to gain eternal life, is through Christ, and Christ alone.  He is the light that points man to the one and only true God.  He and He alone must be listened to and obeyed, to gain eternal life.

John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.   Is He tugging at your heartstrings?  To believe in Him, alone?  Don't reject Him.  Don't try to add anything along with Him.  Jesus came so that His sheep might have life and have it abundantly - John 10:10.  To have life abundantly is to have life far beyond what is necessary.  To all who believe in Him, they have the matchless gift of eternal life which exceeds all expectations!

My Precious Little Gifts...

Daisy and Daniel

"...the Word was God." John 1:1

"The Word was God."  These four words at the end of the first verse in the gospel of John are the clearest and most direct declaration of the deity of the Christ to be found anywhere in Scripture.  This is one of the first things that John wanted us to know of the claims Jesus made concerning Himself.  Jesus Christ is God.  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."  As God, Jesus enjoyed full, face to face communion with God the Father from eternity past.

One of the most pointed statements Christ makes is found in John 8:24, "...unless you believe that I am [He], you will die in your sins."  The pronoun "He" does not appear in the Greek text.  When Jesus said that you must believe that "I am", Jesus applied to Himself the name of God that was so sacred that the Jews refused to pronounce it.

Your eternity began the moment you were born.  My friend, the person who rejects that Jesus Christ is God cannot be saved and will spend eternity separated from Him, in eternal punishment.  (Mt. 25:46) 

This is the full, biblical revelation of Christ.

He is...

• the eternal second person of the Trinity
• He entered time and space as God in the flesh, sent by God the Father
  
• He was born of a virgin
• He lived a sinless life
• His death on the cross is the only sufficient sacrifice for the sins of those who believe in Him
• He rose from the dead and ascended to the Father in heaven
  
• He now intercedes for His redeemed people
• He will return again in glory for His redeemed people who will then enjoy full, face to face communion with Him for the rest of eternity.
  

To reject these truths about the Lord Jesus Christ is to be led astray.

John 5:24 - "Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life."

John 12:48 - "He who rejects Me, and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke will judge him on the last day."

My prayer for you this Christmas is that if you haven't already, you will come to know Jesus, who came to earth as God in the flesh just over two thousand years ago, as your Savior and Lord.

Romans 10:9-11 - "That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved; for with the heart man believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, "WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED."

"Come, and you will see."

What are some of the most notable or memorable words anyone has ever spoken to you?  They are probably words that changed the course of your life.  Words such as, "Will you marry me?"  "It's cancer."  "We're pregnant!"  "I'm sorry but he didn't make it."

Andrew and John were with John the Baptist when he cried out, "Behold, the Lamb of God."  They immediately followed Jesus.  We are told that Jesus turned and saw them following and asked them what they were seeking.  Andrew and John responded with the question, "Where are You staying?"  Jesus then replied with, "Come, and you will see."  I don't think the Lord was simply inviting them to discover where He was staying.  He was inviting them to come and gain from Him.  Just what was it that they would gain?  Insight into the very mind of God! 

This invitation changed the course of these two men's lives.  We are not given the record of what they discussed that evening but no doubt the Lord opened their minds to the things concerning Himself in the Scriptures.

In a previous post I told you John 17 was one of my favorite chapters in the Bible.  Here we find the Lord talking to His Father just prior to going to the cross.  I love John 17:3 - "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."  Eternal life is not simply endless existence.  Everyone will exist somewhere, forever.  The question is, in what condition or in what relationship will they spend eternity?  In what condition is your life at right now?  What is your relationship to God?  Your eternity began the moment you were born.  In what condition or in what relationship will you spend eternity? 

John said the purpose of his writing was so that the reader might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior, the Son of God; and that believing the reader might have life in His name.  (John 20:31)  John is talking about eternal life, not physical life, though Jesus is the Creator of that too.  The insight we gain from what John learned by being with Jesus for three years is that eternal life is knowing a Person.  It is gained by what you believe about that Person.  I'm inviting you to spend some time with me in the book of John.  Here we find God, the one, the only true God.  Here we find Jesus Christ, the Savior whom the only true God sent, whose birth we celebrate at this time of year.  Here we find real, wonderful, amazing, abundant, thirst-quenching, soul-satisfying, eternal life which begins right here, on this earth!

Living Nativity Video

Scott Turner from the Kitsap Sun took video and wrote up a short article on our Living Nativity.  To view the video and read the article click here.