Take a look at this scenario.
A lady returns home from work very late. Her car broke down on her way back and she had to have it towed to the mechanics for repairs before finally heading for home. She resides with her husband, three kids and a nanny but her husband is not always around since he works with an oil firm offshore.
On this particular night he is on duty at work. She reaches her home to find it is on fire. There is a crowd outside and her nanny is at the side of the building crying. She looks around for her children but doesn’t find them. She is told they are still inside. In sheer apprehension she crashes in through a side door and begins to look for them. She can hear her baby who is barely a year old, crying and following his voice eventually finds him in his pram in the parlour.
There is smoke coming from the rooms so she leaves him in the parlour and rushes off to the children’s room to get the girls, hoping to bring them to the parlour also, so she can set off outside at the same time with all three of the kids. But she is prevented from doing so. The ceiling caves in at the passage way separating the rooms from the parlour. She can’t go back to the parlour through this passage. She has to get the girls out fast through the back door and then go back in, for the baby some other way.
But as she steps outside, with arms clasped tightly around both girls held to her chest, she hears a loud noise. She quickly drops the girls with some of the neighbours and rushes to the front of the house to find that the roof in front has collapsed. The entire building is now engulfed in flames and her baby is still inside. She can still hear him crying and can’t bear to think of what might be happening to him right now.
Despite all the attempts to restrain her she breaks away from the neighbours and crashes into the building through the front door. She makes her way through the flames heading for the parlour. Her clothes catch fire, but that’s the least of her worries right now. She has to get to the baby! She finds him in the pram where she left him. Luckily the fire hasn’t reached him. Her clothes are burning but she still ignores it. She has to move fast. She picks up the baby, pulls down a curtain, and rushes off to the kitchen where she soaks the curtain in water. Then she pours some water on her burning clothes, wraps the wet curtain around the baby, makes her way to a side window through the flames that has now engulfed the entire building, and crashes out.
Her baby is unharmed and the girls are safe.
She is rushed off to hospital in severe pains, but doesn’t make it.
She dies on the way.
Strange, but it seems she had a smile in her face when she died.
If the tabloids carry the story, some of the possible captions would be;
*Woman dies to save children
*Lady sacrifices her life for her children’s
*Woman dies that her children may live
*Woman pays supreme sacrifice; dies for her children
Now the question is did she want to die? Was suicide the reason she entered the fire? Was she happy because she was dying at last?
On the other hand, was she happy because she had successfully saved the lives of her children and it didn’t matter if it cost her, her own life?
This question is very pertinent.
The children need to understand that the reason their mother entered the fire was not to die but to save them from a certain danger.
They must see that because of her love for them, she was prepared to lose her own life in order to save them from this danger.
They must know this danger.
If they cannot appreciate the real reason for her entering the fire; if they must place more emphasis on her death rather than on the danger from which she was trying to save them, then they would not be in the best frame of mind to avoid courting the danger in the future. In order words, the threat of the danger will for ever be present. Even after the great sacrifice of their mother.
So why was Christ born?
It is said that He came to die for our sins.
Is this true? Did He really come for that purpose? Did He come to be abused, flogged, stabbed and finally murdered to please God, his father in order for our sins to be forgiven?
Let’s put it this way. If as a sinner, I had offended God by killing my fellow man, would He require that I beat up His Son and finally murder Him in order to be forgiven for murder?
Is this thought or opinion not blasphemy?
Who tempted the Pharisees and the Scribes? Who tempted Judas?
Was it God?
…Or Satan, the devil!
If indeed God had wanted His Son to be killed He would either have needed to tempt man Himself, relied on the devil to do it for Him, or probably have worked hand in hand with the devil to achieve it. It also means that all those who helped to make it possible would be blessed. Why then should Judas who made the death of Jesus possible not be a Saint? Why is the name "Judas" not being happily given by parents to children? After all he did make it possible for man to be saved.
But God couldn’t have worked with the devil; He couldn’t have wanted His Son to be murdered.
And that is why in speaking about the betrayal of Judas, Jesus says in Matt 26:24, “How terrible for that man who betrays the Son of Man; it would have been better for that man if had had never been born!”
And in Luke 23:28 He told the women to weep, but not for Him, rather for themselves and their children. He actually told them to weep.
Again we see in Matt 27:45&51, that the whole country was covered in darkness for three hours as he suffered on the cross; the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom as He breathed His last. The earth shook and the rocks split apart. Surely, these signs cannot mean that the death of Jesus was pleasing to His Father.
In Matthew 21:33-39 the Son of God gave a clear picture of the evil that was about to happen. See 37 “Last of all he sent his son to them. ‘Surely they will respect my son.’ He said.” And 38 “This is the owner’s son. Let us kill him and we will get his property!”
Indeed God sent His Son to save mankind
He did this because He saw the path we were treading and where it was leading. He saw how far we had sunk. There was so much evil and it was spreading rapidly. Those who were supposed to guide us were themselves lost. The works of the prophets were no longer understood. There could have been only one outcome…Hell.
So as an act of emergency and out of His Grace, He sent His Son to save us from Satan; from self destruction and from death. The coming of Jesus was prophesied but the prophecy was misunderstood. The Jews had expected a king that would deliver them from hands of the Romans. An earthly king! But when he offered no resistance to his arrest and crucifixion, when He allowed Himself to be insulted, flogged and finally murdered, with no help whatsoever from God, He either had to be a fake or a Messiah sent to die for mankind. He was neither!
The mission of the Son of God was not a physical or earthly one. It was a Spiritual one! Yes, He was a Messiah, but not one sent to establish an earthly kingdom neither was He a Messiah sent to die. Rather he was here to point the way to a Spiritual Kingdom. A kingdom where He reigns as king; where all activity is in harmony with the will of God His Father!
In John 18:37 Christ said “I was born and came into this world for this ONE purpose, to speak about the Truth. Whoever belongs to the Truth listens to me.”
Let us not be deceived! Christ came to show us His Father; He came to tell us about His kingdom; to warn us against sin and by so doing to save us from eternal damnation. He came to show us the road we must follow; the kind of lives we must live. He came to ask us to live a new life, to be born again.
And He also came to tell us that, “unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
A lady returns home from work very late. Her car broke down on her way back and she had to have it towed to the mechanics for repairs before finally heading for home. She resides with her husband, three kids and a nanny but her husband is not always around since he works with an oil firm offshore.
On this particular night he is on duty at work. She reaches her home to find it is on fire. There is a crowd outside and her nanny is at the side of the building crying. She looks around for her children but doesn’t find them. She is told they are still inside. In sheer apprehension she crashes in through a side door and begins to look for them. She can hear her baby who is barely a year old, crying and following his voice eventually finds him in his pram in the parlour.
There is smoke coming from the rooms so she leaves him in the parlour and rushes off to the children’s room to get the girls, hoping to bring them to the parlour also, so she can set off outside at the same time with all three of the kids. But she is prevented from doing so. The ceiling caves in at the passage way separating the rooms from the parlour. She can’t go back to the parlour through this passage. She has to get the girls out fast through the back door and then go back in, for the baby some other way.
But as she steps outside, with arms clasped tightly around both girls held to her chest, she hears a loud noise. She quickly drops the girls with some of the neighbours and rushes to the front of the house to find that the roof in front has collapsed. The entire building is now engulfed in flames and her baby is still inside. She can still hear him crying and can’t bear to think of what might be happening to him right now.
Despite all the attempts to restrain her she breaks away from the neighbours and crashes into the building through the front door. She makes her way through the flames heading for the parlour. Her clothes catch fire, but that’s the least of her worries right now. She has to get to the baby! She finds him in the pram where she left him. Luckily the fire hasn’t reached him. Her clothes are burning but she still ignores it. She has to move fast. She picks up the baby, pulls down a curtain, and rushes off to the kitchen where she soaks the curtain in water. Then she pours some water on her burning clothes, wraps the wet curtain around the baby, makes her way to a side window through the flames that has now engulfed the entire building, and crashes out.
Her baby is unharmed and the girls are safe.
She is rushed off to hospital in severe pains, but doesn’t make it.
She dies on the way.
Strange, but it seems she had a smile in her face when she died.
If the tabloids carry the story, some of the possible captions would be;
*Woman dies to save children
*Lady sacrifices her life for her children’s
*Woman dies that her children may live
*Woman pays supreme sacrifice; dies for her children
Now the question is did she want to die? Was suicide the reason she entered the fire? Was she happy because she was dying at last?
On the other hand, was she happy because she had successfully saved the lives of her children and it didn’t matter if it cost her, her own life?
This question is very pertinent.
The children need to understand that the reason their mother entered the fire was not to die but to save them from a certain danger.
They must see that because of her love for them, she was prepared to lose her own life in order to save them from this danger.
They must know this danger.
If they cannot appreciate the real reason for her entering the fire; if they must place more emphasis on her death rather than on the danger from which she was trying to save them, then they would not be in the best frame of mind to avoid courting the danger in the future. In order words, the threat of the danger will for ever be present. Even after the great sacrifice of their mother.
So why was Christ born?
It is said that He came to die for our sins.
Is this true? Did He really come for that purpose? Did He come to be abused, flogged, stabbed and finally murdered to please God, his father in order for our sins to be forgiven?
Let’s put it this way. If as a sinner, I had offended God by killing my fellow man, would He require that I beat up His Son and finally murder Him in order to be forgiven for murder?
Is this thought or opinion not blasphemy?
Who tempted the Pharisees and the Scribes? Who tempted Judas?
Was it God?
…Or Satan, the devil!
If indeed God had wanted His Son to be killed He would either have needed to tempt man Himself, relied on the devil to do it for Him, or probably have worked hand in hand with the devil to achieve it. It also means that all those who helped to make it possible would be blessed. Why then should Judas who made the death of Jesus possible not be a Saint? Why is the name "Judas" not being happily given by parents to children? After all he did make it possible for man to be saved.
But God couldn’t have worked with the devil; He couldn’t have wanted His Son to be murdered.
And that is why in speaking about the betrayal of Judas, Jesus says in Matt 26:24, “How terrible for that man who betrays the Son of Man; it would have been better for that man if had had never been born!”
And in Luke 23:28 He told the women to weep, but not for Him, rather for themselves and their children. He actually told them to weep.
Again we see in Matt 27:45&51, that the whole country was covered in darkness for three hours as he suffered on the cross; the curtain hanging in the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom as He breathed His last. The earth shook and the rocks split apart. Surely, these signs cannot mean that the death of Jesus was pleasing to His Father.
In Matthew 21:33-39 the Son of God gave a clear picture of the evil that was about to happen. See 37 “Last of all he sent his son to them. ‘Surely they will respect my son.’ He said.” And 38 “This is the owner’s son. Let us kill him and we will get his property!”
Indeed God sent His Son to save mankind
He did this because He saw the path we were treading and where it was leading. He saw how far we had sunk. There was so much evil and it was spreading rapidly. Those who were supposed to guide us were themselves lost. The works of the prophets were no longer understood. There could have been only one outcome…Hell.
So as an act of emergency and out of His Grace, He sent His Son to save us from Satan; from self destruction and from death. The coming of Jesus was prophesied but the prophecy was misunderstood. The Jews had expected a king that would deliver them from hands of the Romans. An earthly king! But when he offered no resistance to his arrest and crucifixion, when He allowed Himself to be insulted, flogged and finally murdered, with no help whatsoever from God, He either had to be a fake or a Messiah sent to die for mankind. He was neither!
The mission of the Son of God was not a physical or earthly one. It was a Spiritual one! Yes, He was a Messiah, but not one sent to establish an earthly kingdom neither was He a Messiah sent to die. Rather he was here to point the way to a Spiritual Kingdom. A kingdom where He reigns as king; where all activity is in harmony with the will of God His Father!
In John 18:37 Christ said “I was born and came into this world for this ONE purpose, to speak about the Truth. Whoever belongs to the Truth listens to me.”
Let us not be deceived! Christ came to show us His Father; He came to tell us about His kingdom; to warn us against sin and by so doing to save us from eternal damnation. He came to show us the road we must follow; the kind of lives we must live. He came to ask us to live a new life, to be born again.
And He also came to tell us that, “unless a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”
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