You are to name Him Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.  (Matthew 1:21) 

When the time comes for a baby to be born, most parents are ready with a name. Some of them have spent hours going through lists of names, and choosing their favourite. 

Some parents are ready to give their newborn the name of a cherished parent or grandparent.  But no such choice was given to Joseph and Mary.  Why?  Because theirs was a truly unique child.  Mary and Joseph each received visits of a supernatural nature, of angels bringing them the astounding news that, though they were both unmarried and celibate, nevertheless Mary would become a mother, and would give birth to a son. 

In Western culture, parents often simply like the sound of a name, and the meaning of that chosen name is not that important.  In other cultures, however, particularly in Israel, the meaning of a name is of great importance.  Over 3000 years ago, Joshua took over from Moses as Israel’s leader.  Joshua means ’God is salvation’ and, as great a leader as he was, Joshua could only do so much and lived for just over a century.  There was a Joshua to come who would lead perfectly, and, as the Source of life, would break the power of death over Himself and those who trust in Him.  This Joshua would not simply point others to the God who is salvation, but would Himself be the God who saves! 

God is perfect, but we are not.  We are all guilty of rebelling against God.  We do not want Him in charge of our lives, and seek to please ourselves instead.  We deserve God’s judgement – and that is what we will endure if we continue to refuse Him. 

The good news – the Bible’s big message – is that God came to deal with our sin –  our wrongdoing – that separates us from God. 

The name ‘Jesus’ is the Greek translation of Joshua.  Jesus Christ, the One born of a virgin at Bethlehem, the One who lived a perfect life yet was crucified, willingly laid down His life of infinite goodness to pay for the millions of sins we have committed. God is salvation – Jesus truly lives up to His name! 

This Bible verse tells us that Jesus will ‘save His people from their sins’.  Who are ‘His people’?  All those who realise they are guilty sinners before Him, and who call out to Him, knowing He is the only Saviour! 

When will you call out to Him, and ask to become one of His people, saved from your sins? 

Jesus said: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) 

Are you walking in darkness or living in the light? 

Notice Jesus does not claim to be ‘a’ light in the world, a choice among many lights, but ‘the’ light of the world. This is a big claim! But what does Jesus mean? 

Light reveals the truth about something. For example, a room might look clean in the half light, but when the light is turned on the dust covering everything is revealed – the truth is seen. Another example might be the grading of diamonds. Looking with the naked eye the diamond might look wonderful, but under a powerful microscope any flaws will be seen – the truth is revealed. 

When the truth is revealed we can act accordingly. We can clean the dust from the room. We can pay the true value for the diamond. 

The light that Jesus shines reveals the truth about us and everything around us. He enables us to see things as God sees things – broken, damaged, separated from Him. It is important that we are able to recognise these truths, for when we do we can take steps towards the remedy. 

We might think that we are okay – well, maybe a few minor faults, but nothing serious. That is not how God sees us. These ‘minor faults’ are just the surface of the deep brokenness that exists within us all. Whereas God made us in perfection to know Him, we have chosen our own pathway in life that has led us away from God. This is the darkness referred to in the above verse. 

Here is the good news. The light of Jesus does not just reveal our true condition before God but lights the path back to a relationship with God.

Jesus promises to give all who follow Him the light of life, thus enabling them to live life as God originally designed it to be lived – in tune with God. 

The only way to find this true light is by following Jesus. Today is the day to begin the new way of living – in the light of Jesus. 

If you would like to know more, please get in touch.

Alternatively, to read more about Jesus, the light of the world, click on these links: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=NKJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203&version=NIV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8&version=NIV

Jesus declared: … whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty (John 6:35) Are you thirsty?

I am not asking if you are in need of water to drink, but are you longing for something more from life? Unless one has a drink when thirsty, the thirst becomes increasingly greater until it becomes all one thinks about. The thirst must be quenched at all costs. The drink once taken quenches the thirst and one is satisfied. The problem is, however, it will not be long before the thirst returns, and satisfaction must be sought once more.

This is the picture Jesus gives to depict the deep longing within people for something that truly satisfies. Maybe we long for more money, for example, so we work harder or longer to earn a greater income. The extra money provides greater comfort and we are satisfied. Before long, however, the contentment wears off and we long for even more money. The thirst has returned.

It could be that the thirst within us is at a deeper level. Financially we are okay. Relationships are good. Work is fulfilling, even exciting at times. On the surface we have all we can want. Deeper down, however, life has little meaning and the more we look for the meaning the more elusive it proves to be. Search as we may there is no answer and the spiritual thirst within us, for that is what it is, remains unquenched.

Jesus says: if this is where you are today, look no further. Believe that I can quench your deepest thirst and I will. What is more, you will never experience such thirst again. You will be completely satisfied.

There is nothing else in life that can equal the satisfaction that Jesus gives. With Jesus you can enjoy true peace and eternal contentment. Believe in Jesus and never thirst again.

If you would like to know more, please get in touch – see contact page.

Alternatively, to read more about Jesus, click on this link: John 1 NIV – The Word Became Flesh – In the – Bible Gateway

Jesus said: I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. (John 8:12) 

Are you walking in darkness or living in the light? 

Notice Jesus does not claim to be ‘a’ light in the world, a choice among many lights, but ‘the’ light of the world. This is a big claim! But what does Jesus mean? 

Light reveals the truth about something. For example, a room might look clean in the half light, but when the light is turned on the dust covering everything is revealed – the truth is seen. Another example might be the grading of diamonds. Looking with the naked eye the diamond might look wonderful, but under a powerful microscope any flaws will be seen – the truth is revealed. 

When the truth is revealed we can act accordingly. We can clean the dust from the room. We can pay the true value for the diamond. 

The light that Jesus shines reveals the truth about us and everything around us. He enables us to see things as God sees things – broken, damaged, separated from Him. It is important that we are able to recognise these truths, for when we do we can take steps towards the remedy. 

We might think that we are okay – well, maybe a few minor faults, but nothing serious. That is not how God sees us. These ‘minor faults’ are just the surface of the deep brokenness that exists within us all. Whereas God made us in perfection to know Him, we have chosen our own pathway in life that has led us away from God. This is the darkness referred to in the above verse. 

Here is the good news. The light of Jesus does not just reveal our true condition before God but lights the path back to a relationship with God.

Jesus promises to give all who follow Him the light of life, thus enabling them to live life as God originally designed it to be lived – in tune with God. 

The only way to find this true light is by following Jesus. Today is the day to begin the new way of living – in the light of Jesus. 

If you would like to know more, please get in touch.

Alternatively, to read more about Jesus, the light of the world, click on these links: 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+1&version=NKJV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203&version=NIV https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+8&version=NIV

Jesus declared: … whoever believes in Me will never be thirsty (John 6:35) Are you thirsty?

I am not asking if you are in need of water to drink, but are you longing for something more from life? Unless one has a drink when thirsty, the thirst becomes increasingly greater until it becomes all one thinks about. The thirst must be quenched at all costs. The drink once taken quenches the thirst and one is satisfied. The problem is, however, it will not be long before the thirst returns, and satisfaction must be sought once more.

This is the picture Jesus gives to depict the deep longing within people for something that truly satisfies. Maybe we long for more money, for example, so we work harder or longer to earn a greater income. The extra money provides greater comfort and we are satisfied. Before long, however, the contentment wears off and we long for even more money. The thirst has returned.

It could be that the thirst within us is at a deeper level. Financially we are okay. Relationships are good. Work is fulfilling, even exciting at times. On the surface we have all we can want. Deeper down, however, life has little meaning and the more we look for the meaning the more elusive it proves to be. Search as we may there is no answer and the spiritual thirst within us, for that is what it is, remains unquenched.

Jesus says: if this is where you are today, look no further. Believe that I can quench your deepest thirst and I will. What is more, you will never experience such thirst again. You will be completely satisfied.

There is nothing else in life that can equal the satisfaction that Jesus gives. With Jesus you can enjoy true peace and eternal contentment. Believe in Jesus and never thirst again.

If you would like to know more, please get in touch – see contact page.

Alternatively, to read more about Jesus, click on this link: John 1 NIV – The Word Became Flesh – In the – Bible Gateway

‘He was pierced for our transgressions … the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.’ (Isaiah 53v5)

‘He’ was pierced – who is ‘He’? 

This verse is found in the prophecy of Isaiah in the Bible, which speaks of the suffering then the glory of God’s Servant.  700 years later, when Jesus came to Israel, as He lived out His life, then willingly went through great torture and crucifixion, it was clear that Jesus Christ is the Servant of Isaiah’s prophecy, and the One of whom this verse speaks. 

Why was Jesus, this ‘suffering Servant’, pierced for OUR transgressions – for the things we have done wrong?  That seems utterly unfair! 

The truth is, though mankind was made by God to have a wonderful fellowship with Him, we can no longer have such fellowship after Adam, the one representing all humanity, rejected God and instead trusted in the devil’s lies.  From that time on, all creation was under God’s curse and only God Himself could provide an answer to a seemingly impossible situation. 

 

How could sinners such as us not be consumed by God’s awesome holiness? 

How could He welcome us into His heaven without violating His own character? 

God the Son came to earth – eternal God, perfect in every way, yet now wearing a vulnerable human body, like yours and mine. 

While He lived those 33 years, He showed to everyone around Him what God looks like – in His life-changing and life-giving power.  Yet it was all leading up to the central reason He came – that He, the only sinless one, would endure God the Father’s righteous anger for our wrongdoing – OUR transgressions – so that we could know the peace with God we were all created to enjoy! 

 

This is the heart of Easter – the heart of the Bible – the central point of history – that you and I need to make the central part of our lives: 

– as you confess your wrongdoing to God 

– as you ask Him to forgive you 

– as you recognise that Jesus died for YOUR sin, and receive, through God’s Holy Spirit, His gift of new life and everlasting fellowship with God! 

‘He was pierced for our transgressions … the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him.’
– Isaiah 53v5 

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. (1 Timothy 1:15)

All of us have done wrong and although in this life the things we do wrong, our sin, might not have any consequences for us, they will in the life to come.  God is good and has to judge sin.  None of us can rightfully complain for being punished for doing wrong.   

The good news, what Christians call the gospel, is this:  God in his mercy and love sent Jesus who, through his death on a cross, took the punishment for our sins on himself and spared us from God’s righteous judgement.  By saying sorry to God for our sins and asking him to forgive us, believing that Jesus, the Son of God, died for our sins and rose again, we can give our lives to him and live for him as Lord.  

As God himself, God the Holy Spirit, comes to live in us, we are saved from the power that sin holds over us in this life and, as our eternal destination changes from hell to heaven, we are saved from the consequences of sin in the life to come.  

In Jesus, our lives have a new identity, meaning and purpose as we no longer live for ourselves but for him.  This is what we were made for.  The wonderful news of Christmas is that God loves us so much that all of us, no matter what we have done, can be saved from the consequences of our sins.  Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 

 

To read the whole chapter visit  

1 Timothy 1 NIV – Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the – Bible Gateway 

 

If you would like to know more about Christ Jesus, please get in touch – see contact page. 

Jesus said:  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.  (John 4:14)

Water has always been one of the most essential factors for sustaining life.  Without it we die in a short space of time.  To survive we all drink water, with or without added flavour, several times per day.  Water is, therefore, of huge importance to everyone. 

The verse from John’s Gospel (above) is part of a story about Jesus.  He had been walking for hours and had arrived at the town of Sychar.  There he went to the well, as he was thirsty, to obtain a drink.  As he had no means of drawing water from the well himself, he waited for someone to arrive who could draw the refreshingly cold water.  How good that would have tasted!  There is nothing quite like quenching a desperate thirst.   

Soon a woman arrived at the well, so Jesus asked her for a drink.  Whether or not the woman gave Jesus the longed for water is not known, but they got into a conversation about something even more important than natural water – Living Water.   

What did Jesus mean by Living Water? 

The water we drink every day quenches our thirst for a short while, after which we need more.  This will be the same until the day we die.  Jesus is talking about a very different thirst and a very different water, indeed He used these words to describe a spiritual thirst or longing.  We might use phrases such as ‘what is the purpose of life?’ or ‘is there something beyond this physical existence?’  This ‘thirst’ for knowledge takes us to the basics of who we are and why we exist. 

We, as human beings, were created to enjoy a relationship with God.  We, however, rejected this ideal by telling God that we did not want to follow His way, we would rather do our own thing.  By adopting this attitude we broke the relationship with God, which is why we feel unfulfilled and thirsty for deeper meaning.   

Jesus came to earth to restore this broken relationship.  He said to the woman at the well: ‘If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.’  Jesus is the ‘gift of God’ and He alone can bring us into a relationship with God.  This is Jesus’ promise – if we acknowledge the wrong way we have gone and ask Him to restore us to God, He will do just that.   

Jesus fills our emptiness, gives life its true meaning, and quenches our thirst for knowledge of our true identity.  Jesus described this as ‘life-giving water’ that gives us eternal life, or to put it in another way, restoration to a living experience of eternal God, enabling us to realise our true purpose. 

To read the complete story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well – https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+4&version=NRSVA 

If you would like to know more, please get in touch – see contact page.

Jesus said: God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son so that anyone who believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  (John 3:16)

Why did God give His only Son?

Why does anyone perish?

What does it mean to ‘believe’ in Jesus?

Every one of us has a moral code – things that we believe are wrong to do, after all, even criminal gangs have things that are off-limits to them.

Where does any sense of right and wrong come from?

The Bible tells us the reason we have this sense of right and wrong is because God, who made us, is Himself perfect, truly knowing what is right and good, and what is not.

But what we have as a sense of right and wrong isn’t working as it should be within any of us.  The Bible tells us that God made mankind perfect, yet with the ability to choose to obey or disobey Him.  We may not understand why God gave mankind free will whilst knowing full well that rebellion and chaos would come upon this world because of mankind’s wrong choices.

Yet the Bible tells us that God promised to send Someone to restore all things to the perfect state in which they were created – because God knows about every wrong, every hurt, every disease and all decay.

This Bible verse, John 3:16, shares so simply yet powerfully that that promised Saviour was none other than God the Son – a Son in that He takes a lower role, rather than someone who is born as a result of the union between a man and a woman.  God could not come to us as He is, for we would be consumed in the glory of His presence.

If I had a message to give to a colony of ants, I couldn’t do it as a human – I would first have to become an ant to share that message with them.  In the same way, God had to clothe Himself in a human body before He could deliver His message to us, and we could understand Him.

God told mankind right at the beginning of time of the happiness that would come through trusting and obeying Him and the consequences of not trusting and obeying Him.  Our death – a separation from the God who made us and in whom we are fulfilled – is the result of our disobedience.  Can anything or anybody overturn this verdict of ‘guilty and condemned’?

I cannot ask to die in your place, neither can you offer to die for my sake, for, like everyone else, we must face the death sentence for our own wrongdoing.  That is why God Himself was the only One who could step into our world and be punished in our place on the cross – cursed for our sake.  His perfect, infinite life and infinite love was more than enough to pay for all the pride and rebellion in our hearts that believes we’re good enough the way we are.

To believe in Jesus is to confess to Him your wrong thoughts, words and actions.

To believe in Jesus is to trust Him as the One who took God the Father’s righteous anger at your disobedience, so that you might have freedom from the power of sin in your life, and know the close fellowship with God that He made you to enjoy!

To believe in Jesus is to hate sin and turn away from it.

To believe in Jesus is to know His power over sin in your life, and to live a renewed life – a life so different Jesus described it as being ‘born again’!

To believe in Jesus is to read the Bible regularly – even every day – knowing that God uses it to speak to you.

To believe in Jesus is to pray – simply sharing with Him, thanking Him, asking Him, trusting Him.

To believe in Jesus is to belong to Him and also to belong to a local Bible-believing church, using the gifts that God’s Holy Spirit gives you when you trust Him for yourself.

If you would like to know more, please get in touch – see contact page.

Alternatively, to read more about Jesus, click on this link:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John%203&version=TLB