Happy Easter!

Jesus allowed Us to Live a Good Life—R Fritz

Jesus gave us all that opportunity for a good life but how many will take him up with belief in that opportunity. It is investigating who Jesus is and how it affects us. Jesus has a plan for each one of us, and that is why we need to examine who Jesus is; our lives depend on it. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken (listen) unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” It gets down to us investigating and searching for Jesus with all our heart. Where do we look, first in the Bible then by calling out to him. God is waiting for us to call out to him and being part of our life.

Our choices bring us to a place where I am not saying we will die physically; I am saying we will die spiritually without him. Our spiritual life comes alive when we choose Jesus. That is what we have been missing up to that point. The things that have happened to us in our life up to this point are how we decided, or did God have a hand in our life? I have been shown why my life went the way that it did because of fear that took me down a path. God used that path to keep me safe in living that life until life itself forced me to choose Jesus. Decisions are made as life happens as our mindset is changed. That change comes because of what we are going through or things that happen to people around us or relatives. What we see other people go through affects our thoughts and what we believe. The battles we go through make us look for other options and we get around different people that we listen to because something they are doing is changing their life. That is what happened to me, I am speaking from my experience. We have two choices, do nothing, and keep heading downward or decide to look at Jesus from what we hear until we know him, we know Jesus’s Spirit is different, it is the light of the world. Those with the Holy Spirit will be noticed by other people of seeing something different in us, that being the Holy Spirit.

God sent Jesus for a reason, which being the last sacrifice that was needed, the Passover lamb. John 1:29 says “The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” This is John the Baptist that saw Jesus for the first time and knew who Jesus was just by looking at him. Jesus was the Passover lamb because that is when Jesus died on preparation day for the Passover just before the Sabbath. Passover was where God told the Israelites to take a male lamb without defect that was killed, and the blood applied to the doorposts and doorframe. Other rules had to be followed as they could eat the lamb. Those who did this, their first born would not be killed and those that did not know this being the Egyptians lost their firstborns. It was a way for the Egyptians to let God’s people leave. This is called the “passover” where the “destroyer” would come into the house and smite (strike down) this family’s child, see this in Exodus 12:23. Jesus showed his disciples through communion which Jesus did with his disciples. 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 says with Jesus speaking For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, “Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.” After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, “This cup is the New Testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come.” This is how we honor Jesus and what he did for us on the cross. This is what we are supposed to do in remembrance. Every time we do this, we are bringing up what Jesus did so we will not forget till Jesus comes back. This is what we are to celebrate.

There is things Jesus tried to show us, but we are not looking for them as there are many, they are in the Bible. We do not want to find them until we are in trouble. Our heart becomes hardened, and we can no longer hear God’s voice. We do not hear because we do not listen, for those that do not have the Holy Spirit, he is near us. For those that have the Holy Spirit he lives inside us, no reason to not hear him if we listen after we ask something of God. We are in too big of a hurry to do something else when we can spend time with our maker and the “who” that has our answers. When I was working the most sleep I got, was five hours so I asked the Holy Spirit not to wake me up early so when I was awake even though my eyes were not opened, he would speak to me through my thoughts even though the next forty-five minutes were spent with the Holy Spirit, I was blessed every day. God did not just choose me; I chose him because I could count on him. My actions proved what I believed. Our actions show how much we love God. John 15:16 says and this is Jesus speaking “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” We do not understand God because he is not like us. God loves us, he is not mad at us because of our decisions that are not good, he is saddened because we did not ask him. I have learned in the last couple of weeks that sometimes we need to wait for God to move the mountain in our life instead of us trying to force what we need. We get what we got because we decided to do it our way, good or bad. We need to ask God what he wants us to do because our gifts might not be utilized how they were meant to be. I say that because I could not write more than two sentences even in emails until I was almost sixty-three years old after I retired because the Holy Spirit is giving me what to write.

Jesus laid down his life for us, we need to lay down our life for a friend. John 15:11-14 says, and this is Jesus’ speaking “These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.” Jesus calls us friends if we do what he commands. This shows him that we love him and are faithful friends. Jesus showed us love changes lives, show Jesus’s love to all. God Bless.