Anchor Of Hope Christian Reformed Church

We need Jesus! We need new hearts that will love God and desire what God desires. We need new minds, transformed by the Holy Spirit, to think of and meditate on God's word and truth and holiness. We need new mouths that will speak truth, love, and holiness to one another. We need salvation and to be made holy as God is holy by His grace. O Lord, help us to put to death what is of the disobedient flesh within us and live according to your Holy Spirit in all things! Amen!

If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior with all your heart and confess Him with your mouth through the power of the Holy Spirit then you are a loved child of God! As God has loved us -- let us talk, walk, think, act, and display His perfect, holy, and just love. Christ died on the cross so that we could live. He became sin so that we could be credited with His righteousness. He intercedes on our behalf and is returning to make all things right! This is love unspeakable and full of glory! Amen!

What comes out of our mouths begins in the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds. When we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are given new hearts and new minds and are to grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Let us pray and be disciplined through the power of the Holy Spirit to meditate on and speak out only love, truth, grace, peace, forgiveness, justice, and kindness. Thank you Jesus, help us Jesus!

To believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and that he paid the full debt for your sins and has made you right with God is life-changing and life-saving! Your life is changed in that you become free from lying, free from sinning in your anger, free from stealing, free from selfish pride and only thinking about yourself. You become free from the devil and can now resist him firm in the faith and not give him an opportunity for division and conflict within the Body of Christ! Only true freedom exists in Jesus Christ! Let us be His slave! Amen!

If you have been taught the truth about Jesus Christ by faithful teachers, then you have learned that the good news of Jesus Christ is of life and death importance because it is about living and dying. Jesus died on the cross so that the elect could could be forgiven and set free of sin and go from eternal death to eternal life. Believers are then to die to their old lives of sinful rebellion and hatred of God and live out the new lives they have in Christ. Let us live out the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ more and more by God's grace! Amen!

To become saved through faith alone in Christ alone by God's grace alone means we are given a new mind, a new heart, and a new life because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit enables us to become sensitive and be able to experience love for God, love for one another and the desire to be holy as God is holy. Let us no longer live like the fallen rebellious God hating world, devil, and fallen flesh! Let us live like Jesus Christ! Amen, help us Jesus!

You can be the fastest, smartest, strongest, most creative, and considered the top of your profession or area of discipline, yet, if have not been born again by God's grace to faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then ultimately all you are is dead. Dead in sin means no life and no hope. Once you have been made alive in Jesus Christ then you are able to grow and flourish in His life, His truth, His grace and His love. The people of God are to grow up into Jesus Christ! Growing up means "attaining unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God." Let us grow up in God's word, prayer, and service to one another! Amen!

Jesus has won the victory over sin, death, the devil, all rulers and authorities! Jesus is King, and as a loving and gracious king he gives gifts to His servants so that they can do His work in the power of the Holy Spirit for God's glory! What an honor and privilege it is to be equipped for the work of ministry and for the building up of the saints. Service to Christ should be first and foremost in everything we think, say and do! Amen!

Praise the Lord with joy and thanksgiving! Boast in the Lord and give Him all glory, praise and honor! Jesus comes alongside God's elect, speaks His word into their lives and gives them eyes to see that He has saved them from sin, death, and the devil and freed them to sing God's praise! I hope that through this time of Holy Week as we consider Good Friday and Easter Sunday the Holy Spirit will make the Scriptures and the gospel burn in your hearts as you consider more and more the love your Heavenly father has for you. Amen!

Zechariah 13:7-9

We need a King who is righteous. In a world so full of corruption and sin we rejoice in a King who is righteous and good. We need a King who is a savior. Before salvation, we were prisoners of sin, the world, the devil, and our fallen rebellious nature. We need a King who is humble enough to die, spill His own blood and pay the penalty for our sins and bear the wrath of God we deserved so that we can be forgiven. Praise God; Jesus is such a King! Amen!

How does knowing that our brothers and sisters in Christ are members of Jesus body affect our thoughts words and actions concerning them? When we understand that there is only one Lord and God over all, whether they know and or believe it or not, how does this affect our evangelism? How does “one Lord, one faith” support the Biblical truth that there is only one true Gospel and one way of salvation? Paul wants us to ask these questions and find the answers in the person, work, words and life of Jesus Christ. Amen!

Is knowing, having, loving, and having life in Jesus worth more to us than our earthly comforts, fleshy pleasures, and personal "rights" and "freedoms?" Is the work of Christ more important to us than our anger, frustrations, impatience, grievances, and hatred toward other people? Do we want the gifts of salvation and suffering from Christ? These questions expose our hearts. Are we living in the flesh or in the Spirit? O Lord, we are not worthy; help us by your grace to live worthy to our calling to pick up our cross and follow you in life and in death. Amen!

Paul is praying that we would begin to know, comprehend, and understand something that "surpasses knowledge:" the love of God fully displayed in Jesus Christ. Such a love as this will drive out of our hearts, minds, mouths, and actions our sins, doubts, and fears. To know the love of Christ means we are freed and enabled to love God and those around us. God can do this in your life if you have faith in Jesus Christ! God can do more than what you can ask or imagine! God gets all the Glory! Amen.

Do you ever feel physically, mentally, spirituality or emotionally weak? Do you want to be strong? If you will believe, confess, and trust Jesus Christ as your savior, friend, and Lord then he will give you the strength of new life, freedom from sin, peace with God, love for God and love for others.... Jesus gives you this strength through the Holy Spirit to all the Father has given to Jesus. A person with such Jesus granted, Holy Spirit enabled, Father directed strength is able to declare, "I love you God!" no matter the emotional, physical or mental suffering, pain or weakness. Let us learn from Job and live by faith with Jesus living in our hearts! Amen!

We can only boast in God! The riches of Jesus Christ are unsearchable! Jesus is higher, greater, more wonderful, above all, with everything that was created, created by, for, and through Jesus Christ! How can we come into the presence of a holy almighty God with boldness and confidence? Only by, in, and through Jesus Christ. Let Jesus be your everything because He is you all in all! Amen!

To be a servant of Jesus Christ means a willingness to obey Jesus your Master, Savior, and Lord in all things and at all times. Paul suffered much so that we who are gentiles could hear the Gospel and have the mystery explained of how we can be united to Jesus Christ through faith and by God's grace. Christ is our everything! Let us also be willing to pick up our cross and follow our Master Jesus! Amen!

We are one in the Spirit and one in the Lord! Our salvation is a trinitarian salvation. God the Father has chosen from eternity past who will be made alive to trust and believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. God the Son, Jesus Christ, pays the full wages of our sin on the cross so that we can be saved and forgiven, and God the Holy Spirit makes and gives us the gift of faith so that we can believe and be saved! God does this because He is gracious and loving. Just as there is one God, there is only one people of God. In Christ there is no longer Jew or Gentile, but one body, one family, one dwelling place for God- the church. Praise the Lord!

Jesus Christ has made forgiveness, reconciliation, and an eternal life of peace with God possible for everyone whom the Lord our God calls to Himself. God is calling people from every tribe, language, and people group from all over the world to be one family in Jesus Christ. This is why we can go to every person on the earth and tell them the gospel - that they need a savior; and Jesus Christ is the only savior. If you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior and lord then you become God's child, made alive through the Holy Spirit. The hostility is removed! Amen!