Just a Minute!

What is salvation?

Many see it as nothing more than a golden ticket that grants them entry into Heaven when they die. Although this is true, salvation is much more.

It’ds the reality that God has found a home in you. It's the story of Pentecost where God poured out his Spirit on man and took up residence in human hearts.

It happened to you the moment you were saved. God filled your life with his presence. Paul put it this way, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Think about this – the God who created the universe is living in you. His love, grace, truth, and power are now coursing through your spiritual veins.

Take time and think through the ramifications. It will change how you live here and now.

Categories: Resurrection

In 1980, a freshmen sensation by the name of Hershel Walker turned the Georgia Bulldog nation upside down. 

I was a senior at UGA that year and I've never seen anyone like him! He was a man among boys. There was no limit to what he could do on the field. 

The Dogs went 11-0 that season and beat Notre Dame in the Sugar Bowl for its first national championship.

All this happened because a kid from south Georgia showed up.

The good news of the Gospel is this: someone showed up for you. Jesus is on the scene in your life.

When you put your full weight of trust in the Gospel, you get him. And with him, everything changes.

Categories: Resurrection

Jesus Christ is the bridge from spiritual death to eternal life. We cross over through him. There is no other way. 

I know that sounds exclusive and politically incorrect.

Life is found in Jesus – nowhere else.

Let's say a research team in Chicago discovers the cure to cancer. They develop a drug and have exclusive rights to administer it. Those who go to Chicago get cured.

“Well, what about those research teams in Atlanta, London, and Hong Kong?”

They might be doing fine work, but they don't have the cure.

There’s only one place to go – to the Chicago cancer facility.

This is the way it is with Jesus. He alone gives life. As John wrote: “He who has the Son has life.”

Have you come to Christ for life?

Categories: Resurrection

While Jesus was on earth he spent much of his time with sinners. He went into their homes. He ate dinner with them. He truly was their friend.

Now this confounded the religious leaders. They never understood why he hung out with the dregs of society. 

Paul gives us the reason. “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” That's you and me. 

But here's the good news. Every time Jesus saves a sinner, he gives that “sinner” a brand new identity.

It happened to you the day you were saved. You were born again into Jesus's family as a child of God. No longer a sinner by identity, but a saint by grace through faith.

“See what great love the Father has lavished on you that you should be called a child of God. And that is what you are!”

Categories: Resurrection

Jesus said to Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.”

Then he asked her, “Do you believe this?”

Martha and Mary and those gathered with them that day weren’t sure until they watched Jesus call Lazarus out of the grave.

He could have healed Lazarus long before he died. But He chose to do something far greater. He chose to demonstrated his power over death and to tell the real story of the Gospel.

You see, God doesn’t want better people. He wants new people—people who are fully alive in him.

People who genuinely believe that he is the resurrection and the life.

Categories: Resurrection

Resurrection is the only means for you to have genuine, authentic spiritual life.

This is what God wants for you. It is his first priority. It’s why Jesus came to earth.

As he said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”

Now a miracle of new life occurs every time someone turns to Christ by faith. It happens daily in every corner of the world — someone dead in sin is raised to walk in the newness of life.

This is the power of the Gospel, the amazing grace God pours out on those who look to him for life.

What does it mean to be saved by grace — it means you have been made fully alive with Jesus Christ.

Categories: Resurrection

The idea of resurrection seems far-fetched to many today, just as it did in the first century.

Peter and John were both arrested for proclaiming that Jesus had been raised from the dead. And so was Paul.

But in his defense before King Agrippa, Paul asked this question, “Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?” I mean God does have that power to raise dead people to life. He proved it by resurrecting Jesus.

In the same way, He gives life to those who are dead in sin.

If you are a believer in Christ, here is the good news. You were dead, and now you are fully alive in Christ.

Categories: Resurrection

Calvin called Basic Gospel, hoping we could help him sort out his life.

Of all the problems he shared, the one that was most troubling was the sense of emptiness in his heart.

He tried everything imaginable to fill that void, but nothing worked.

I’ve tried to do the right things, he said, I pray for God’s help night and day, but I keep going back to my old ways. Is there hope?

Calvin wanted change in his life, but that is not what he needed.

Calvin was spiritually dead. There is only one solution — spiritual life — and that life comes through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

With God it is life first and then change.

Categories: Resurrection

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the heart and soul of Christianity because it solves our deepest need.

For a long time, I would have told you that my deepest need was the forgiveness of sins. But that’s not true. Yes, I needed forgiveness, but according to the Bible I had an even greater problem. I needed life. And so did you.

Death is the problem. The Gospel offers us life. 

Jesus made this abundantly clear when he said, just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.

Jesus was raised so that you could have life. have you received this resurrection life?

Categories: Resurrection

We love to tell old stories. It’s just what we do when we meet old friends.

We jump back into the good old days and talk about life back then.

There are some people however who never get out of their past.

Have you ever met someone like that?

Their past sins define who they are today and as a result they never fully embrace the truth that God loves them.

But there is a way out of the past. You don’t have to be stuck there. The first step is to focus on the cross where God demonstrated his love for you.

It’s time today to open your hearts and let the the love and forgiveness of God pour in. It’s time to let his love set you on the path of genuinely living out who you are in Jesus Christ.

Categories: Forgiveness/Repentance