A Word from THE WORD

Good Morning Happy Church,

Today is GOOD FRIDAY, March 25^th 2016. Today is the 85^th Day of 2016.

Today is VALARIE NELSON’S Birthday!

There are only 281 days left in this year; and, there are only 16 Days Left until Our Spring Revival Meetings Begin!

We will begin the Revival Meetings on Saturday, April 9^th with a Banquet and Sermon at 6pm.

Sunday, April 10^th, we will hear Bro Bobby at 10am and again at 6pm.

Monday and Tuesday, April 11^th and 12, we will hear Bro Bobby at 7pm each night!

Please clear your schedule to attend as many of these meetings as possible.

As I often say, “The two things you have to invest to be blessed are your Attendance and your Attention!”

Please be in prayer for Dr. Bobby and Sandra Boyles as they travel here and back.

Pray that God will pour out HIS SPIRIT on us as never before!

Pray for the salvation of the lost; repentance and renewal in the life of God’s people; new people to become part of our Church Family; the calling out of ministers and missionaries; a spiritual awakening in our area; and, for Jesus Christ to be glorified in all that we do!

Since today is GOOD FRIDAY, I wanted to use this Devotional to share some details about this event with you…

Matthew 27:45-54
⁴⁵ “Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”
⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.
⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

There is far too much here to cover in a few hundred words… But, let me take on the most basic of truths revealed in the story of the crucifixion of Jesus: a holy and righteous God gave HIS Son to die to pay for the sinners for whose sins HE died.

WOW…

There are many “theories” about the death of Jesus loose in the world, but only one is correct – the substitutionary atonement of the Second Person of the Trinity on behalf of HIS sheep.

Substitutionary = Jesus took our place

Atonement = Jesus satisfied God

Fallen sinners cannot, cannot, cannot please God.

In 10,000 acts of sacrifice and contrition, we could not repay God for one single sin we have committed against HIM; let alone for the thousands upon thousands that we have thrown in HIS face and the hundreds that we will continue to commit as long as we live on this earth.

None. Zip. Nada.

Because HE has chosen to love us before the foundation of the world, the One, True, and Living God conceived what theologians call, “The Covenant of Redemption.”

The Son would become a human. HE would live a sinless life in perfect obedience to the commands of the Father. HE would die a horrific death to satisfy the righteous demands of HIS Father and then the Spirit would raise HIM from the dead.

The Spirit would then draw all of HIS chosen people to HIM and regenerate them by means of the “Good News” of what the Son had done.

WOW…

That is WHO Jesus is; and, that is WHAT Jesus did.

WOW…

There is, of course, more to the story…

Matthew 28:1-6
¹ “Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.
² And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.
³ His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.
⁴ And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men.
⁵ But the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified.
⁶ He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.”

BUT, I will save that for Sunday.

Our Good Friday Service is this evening at 7pm.

I dearly look forward to seeing you there.

REMEMBER: Our Revival Meetings begin in only sixteen days!

Get ready now… set aside the time now… Start praying now!

Revival CAN happen, it really CAN happen!

Will we really have revival?

Will you?

Carpe Diem!