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JESUS ENABLES US TO HAVE MEANING AND PURPOSE IN OUR LIVES!
Updated: Feb 1
By providing positive resources for daily Christian living!
Today’s Message of Encouragement from Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES
(Stories of Real People, Real Events, Real Places)
Dedicated to providing
Spiritual FOOD FOR THOUGHT
To HELP PEOPLE Find HOPE!
(John 10:10-11, 14:1-6; Acts 2:36-42)
JESUS ENABLES US TO HAVE MEANING
AND PURPOSE IN OUR LIVES!
Friend, we are pleased you are taking the time to read our message today and sincerely hope that what we are sharing might strengthen your faith and enable you to see beyond the circumstances of your life to the immense possibilities that can be yours, because of what God has done for you through Jesus of Nazareth.
Every day, the Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES team seeks to demonstrate the wonderful truth, that no matter what troubles we may be experiencing in our lives, you and I might be able to confidently say, “With God by my side, I will get through this.”
Friend, on behalf of the Discovering A BETTER LIFE MINISTRIES team, I invite you to interact with the stories we share about real people with real problems who, (because they are being transformed by God’s love), can see the world in a more positive and Hope-Filled manner. These people I’m talking about, (as they face life’s questions), see with eyes of FAITH, a God who is alive, dynamic, and powerful.
Today, I invite YOU to join us in the quest to discover the Grace, Love, and Power of a God who wants to be YOUR friend and guide for life and eternity.
Friend, I’d like to begin our message today, by posing the following question:
IS JESUS ABLE TO BRING MEANING
AND PURPOSE INTO OUR LIVES?
It may be that YOU have asked this question at some time in YOUR life. If so, I sincerely hope that what YOU read today will bring to YOU a fresh view of Jesus of Nazareth. –
Perhaps, to help us answer the question I have just posed we should ask, what relevance could a man who lived in Nazareth 2,000-years-ago possibly have for the questions we face today?
From historical records, there is no doubt that the life of Jesus was relevant to those people in the first century who came to Him for answers to their urgent questions. However, we in the 21st Century might have some different concerns.
In the 1st Century, when Christianity first appeared on the scene, the old, established religions had been around for centuries and Christianity seemed the least likely religion of all to dominate the scene. But somehow it did! Within a few centuries, the other religions had diminished, or disappeared, as Christianity continued to grow.
Throughout the centuries, Historians have asked many times: “Why did Christianity grow as it did?” – Adolph Harnack, a German Church Historian, who lived in the early part of the 20th Century, said, “The one thing Christianity provided was SALVATION, and HOPE for a better life”
Adolph Harnack's reason for saying this was because the Philosophical schools offered a rational approach to life, while other religions offered protection from perceived gods. In contrast to this, Christianity provided rescue for people who were hurting!
We’re reminded very positively of this by Matthew in his gospel account, in chapter 1:21, where he quotes the following words of the angel to Joseph before Jesus was born.
“You shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”
Friend, History records that wherever Jesus went, He offered Salvation and Hope. – As He travelled through their towns and villages, Jesus met the physically disabled--the lepers, the untouchables, the crippled, the diseased, the deaf, and the blind.
These sadly troubled people were usually misinformed that it was the sins of their parents that had caused their misery. They were living HOPELESS lives and desperately needed someone who could heal them and help them to put their lives back together again.
Interestingly, the Greeks used the same word for “SAVE” and “HEAL.” This word meant “to make whole,” to give total well-being. – It is also significant to note that people went to Jesus for one purpose: and that was to be made whole!
In Matthew 9:21-22, we read where a distressed woman, who had suffered for twelve years, with a bleeding problem, (and had sought a cure from every doctor within kilometres), came to Jesus and said to herself, before she had even touched Him, “If I can just touch His clothes, I will be healed.”
The Scripture records that Jesus turned and saw the woman and said, “Be encouraged, dear woman. You are made well because you believed.”
Later, in that same book of Matthew 14:30, we read where Simon Peter attempted to walk on water, but “But when he saw the wind, he became afraid and began to sink and cried out, Lord save me.” Then we read that: “Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and saved Peter.”
Friend, I can imagine early Christians telling these stories years later, and recalling the cry, “Save me!” – But this cry came to mean more than salvation from the agony of a disease, or from drowning in the water because people knew that Jesus brought Salvation of a much deeper kind. You see, Jesus gave their lives Forgiveness of their sins, along with the Wholeness and HOPE they were looking for.
It is also undeniable, that the very questions, for which Jesus the Nazarene was the answer in the 1st Century, are still being asked today, in the 21st Century, and people are still finding the answers as they believe and trust their lives to JESUS.
In a real sense, those questions are being asked wherever men and women say, “I am no good!” – You see, the modern search to be someone, to amount to something, to gain self-respect, is not far at all from the quest we saw in a man named Zacchaeus, or a prostitute who lived centuries ago. – In fact, they wanted nothing so much as they wanted self-respect and a new beginning. And what they were looking for, before they even knew His name, was Jesus the Nazarene!
Friend, some of us may work in executive offices and seem to have everything we want, such as education, a good income, and a very bright future. – However, there are moments for everyone---perhaps as we’re traveling to work, or at the end of a long day working on the farm, or whatever our vocation in life might be---when we ask ourselves the questions: “Is this all there is? Am I missing something valuable in life that this hurried pace is not providing me?”
When you and I stop to reflect on these questions, they are not very different from that of the rich young ruler who came to Jesus wanting to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life.
When we look at our own family life and reflect on what values we must have to hold it together, we need to ask ourselves some serious questions. Such as, are there any ultimate commitments that lead us to make sacrifices for the sake of others in the family?
As I think about these thoughts, I am sharing with you today, it comes to my mind that as long as we live in a world that is beyond our control, we will search for a SAVIOUR!
Friend, as long as we are faced with trouble in this world, such as disease and the fear of pandemics, like COVID-19 and its variants; as long as our world is threatened by terrorism; as long as we ask, “Isn’t there more to life than what we have discovered?” – We Will Be Looking For a SAVIOUR
When Christianity first spread in the ancient world, the Christians never found a culture that was not looking for a SAVIOUR!
The truth is, Christianity will not go away! - In Reality, Jesus the Nazarene and (Jesus alone), is the only One who can fulfill the longings of the human spirit, and He does this by His example and His teachings!
Friend, because Jesus was God Incarnate, as He lived upon this Earth, He was able to show each of us the way into the presence of our Heavenly Father, who makes available to us a wholeness of life, where each of us can experience inner peace, regardless of what outward circumstances may exist!
In Christ Alone
To hear and View this ~Video ~
Please click on the link below
“HE WILL BE!”
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“Everything you will ever need, He Will Be!”
Friend, as you and I reflect on the words of the song we have just listened to, we can be reassured that Jesus is the person sent by God to provide each of us with the WHOLENESS and SECURITY OF LIFE we all inwardly look for. Today, we sincerely hope you will want to BELIEVE and TRUST YOUR LIFE TO JESUS!
However, if you desire to examine further the life and teaching of Jesus before you make that commitment, we encourage you to watch a series of Videos, which asks the question Who is Jesus? In these Videos, you will find the evidences forJesus' existence and the proofs of His Deity! You will discover evidence that Two-thousand years ago Jesus of Nazareth lived on this earth, walked and taught.
Friend, we sincerely hope that the short videos in this program will stimulate your desire to learn about Jesus and to share this message with others.
To View this Video
Please click on the link below
Friend, we look forward to sharing a new message of encouragement with you soon. Until then, may our Loving God lift you on eagle’s wings and provide you with His Peace, Wisdom, and Love.
Ron Bainbridge
Co-ordinator of:
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“Mighty to Save!”
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