When I Say "I Am A Christian"

When I Say "I Am A Christian"

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not shouting "I am saved"
I'm whispering "I get lost!"
"That is why I chose this way."

When I say..."I am a Christian"
don't speak of this with pride.
I'm confessing that I stumble
and need someone to be my guide.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not trying to be strong.
I'm professing that I'm weak
and pray for strength to carry on.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not bragging of success.
I'm admitting I have failed
and cannot ever pay the debt.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I'm not claiming to be perfect,
my flaws are too visible
but God believes I'm worth it.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I still feel the sting of pain
I have my share of heartaches
which is why I seek His name.

When I say..."I am a Christian"
I do not wish to judge.
I have no authority.
I only know I'm loved.

The heavens declare the glory of God

Psalm 19

    For the director of music. A psalm of David.


¹ The heavens declare the glory of God;
   the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
² Day after day they pour forth speech;
   night after night they reveal knowledge.
³ They have no speech, they use no words;
   no sound is heard from them.
⁴ Yet their voice^[b] goes out into all the earth,
   their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
 ⁵ It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
   like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
⁶ It rises at one end of the heavens
   and makes its circuit to the other;
   nothing is deprived of its warmth.
 ⁷ The law of the LORD is perfect,
   refreshing the soul.
The statutes of the LORD are trustworthy,
   making wise the simple.
⁸ The precepts of the LORD are right,
   giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the LORD are radiant,
   giving light to the eyes.
⁹ The fear of the LORD is pure,
   enduring forever.
The decrees of the LORD are firm,
   and all of them are righteous.
 ¹⁰ They are more precious than gold,
   than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey,
   than honey from the honeycomb.
¹¹ By them your servant is warned;
   in keeping them there is great reward.
¹² But who can discern their own errors?
   Forgive my hidden faults.
¹³ Keep your servant also from willful sins;
   may they not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless,
   innocent of great transgression.
 ¹⁴ May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart
   be pleasing in your sight,
   LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

Praise the LORD

Psalm 104

 ¹ Praise the LORD, my soul.   LORD my God, you are very great;
   you are clothed with splendor and majesty.
 ² The LORD wraps himself in light as with a garment;
   he stretches out the heavens like a tent
 ³ and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters.
He makes the clouds his chariot
   and rides on the wings of the wind.
⁴ He makes winds his messengers,^[a]
   flames of fire his servants.
 ⁵ He set the earth on its foundations;
   it can never be moved.
⁶ You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment;
   the waters stood above the mountains.
⁷ But at your rebuke the waters fled,
   at the sound of your thunder they took to flight;
⁸ they flowed over the mountains,
   they went down into the valleys,
   to the place you assigned for them.
⁹ You set a boundary they cannot cross;
   never again will they cover the earth.
 ¹⁰ He makes springs pour water into the ravines;
   it flows between the mountains.
¹¹ They give water to all the beasts of the field;
   the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² The birds of the sky nest by the waters;
   they sing among the branches.
¹³ He waters the mountains from his upper chambers;
   the land is satisfied by the fruit of his work.
¹⁴ He makes grass grow for the cattle,
   and plants for people to cultivate—
   bringing forth food from the earth:
¹⁵ wine that gladdens human hearts,
   oil to make their faces shine,
   and bread that sustains their hearts.
¹⁶ The trees of the LORD are well watered,
   the cedars of Lebanon that he planted.
¹⁷ There the birds make their nests;
   the stork has its home in the junipers.
¹⁸ The high mountains belong to the wild goats;
   the crags are a refuge for the hyrax.
 ¹⁹ He made the moon to mark the seasons,
   and the sun knows when to go down.
²⁰ You bring darkness, it becomes night,
   and all the beasts of the forest prowl.
²¹ The lions roar for their prey
   and seek their food from God.
²² The sun rises, and they steal away;
   they return and lie down in their dens.
²³ Then people go out to their work,
   to their labor until evening.
 ²⁴ How many are your works, LORD!
   In wisdom you made them all;
   the earth is full of your creatures.
²⁵ There is the sea, vast and spacious,
   teeming with creatures beyond number—
   living things both large and small.
²⁶ There the ships go to and fro,
   and Leviathan, which you formed to frolic there.
 ²⁷ All creatures look to you
   to give them their food at the proper time.
²⁸ When you give it to them,
   they gather it up;
when you open your hand,
   they are satisfied with good things.
²⁹ When you hide your face,
   they are terrified;
when you take away their breath,
   they die and return to the dust.
³⁰ When you send your Spirit,
   they are created,
   and you renew the face of the ground.
 ³¹ May the glory of the LORD endure forever;
   may the LORD rejoice in his works—
³² he who looks at the earth, and it trembles,
   who touches the mountains, and they smoke.
 ³³ I will sing to the LORD all my life;
   I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.
³⁴ May my meditation be pleasing to him,
   as I rejoice in the LORD.
³⁵ But may sinners vanish from the earth
   and the wicked be no more.
   Praise the LORD, my soul.
   Praise the LORD.^[b]

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38, 39 

He died for you!

At the age of 33,

Jesus was condemned to death .

At the time

Crucifixion was the "worst" death. Only the worst

Criminals were condemned to be crucified. Yet it was

Even more dreadful for Jesus, unlike

Other criminals condemned to death by

Crucifixion Jesus was to be nailed to the

Cross by His hands and feet.

Each nail

Was 6 to 8 inches long.

The nails

Were driven into His wrist. Not

Into His palms as is commonly

Portrayed. There's a tendon in the wrist that

Extends to the shoulder. The Roman guards knew

That when the nails were being hammered into the

Wrist that tendon would tear and

Break, forcing Jesus to use His back

Muscles to support himself so that He could

Breath.

Both of His feet

Were nailed together. Thus He was forced to

Support Himself on the single nail that

Impaled His feet to the cross. Jesus could

Not support himself with His legs because of the pain

So He was forced to alternate between arching His

Back then using his legs just to continue to

Breath. Imagine the struggle, the pain, the

Suffering, the courage.

Jesus endured this

Reality for over 3 hours.

Yes,

Over 3 hours! Can you imagine this kind of

Suffering? A few minutes before He died,

Jesus stopped bleeding. He was simply pouring water

From his wounds.

From common images

We see wounds to His hands and feet and even the spear wound

To His side... But do we realize His wounds

Were actually made in his body. A hammer

Driving large nails through the wrist, the feet overlapped

And an even large nail hammered through the arches, then a

Roman guard piercing His side with a spear. But

Before the nails and the spear Jesus was whipped and

Beaten. The whipping was so severe that it tore the

Flesh from His body. The beating so horrific that His

Face was torn and his beard ripped from His face. The

Crown of thorns cut deeply into His scalp. Most men

Would not have survived this torture.

"

He had no more blood

To bleed out, only water poured from His

Wounds.

The human adult body contains about 3.5 liters

(just less than a gallon) of blood.

Jesus poured all 3.5

Liters of his blood; He had three nails hammered into His

Members; a crown of thorns on His head and, beyond

That, a Roman soldier who stabbed a spear into His

Chest..

All these without

Mentioning the humiliation He suffered after carrying His own

Cross for almost 2 kilometers, while the crowd spat in his

Face and threw stones (the cross was almost 30 kg of weight,

Only for its higher part, where His hands were

Nailed).

Jesus had

To endure this experience, to open the

Gates of Heaven,

So that you can have free

Access to God.

So that your sins

Could be "washed" away. All of them, with no exception!

Don't ignore this situation.

JESUS

CHRIST DIED FOR YOU!

He died for you!