The Bible for Women

Weekly Devotional

Christ

" I still can't help wondering how we can explain away what to me is the greatest miracle of all and which is recorded in history. No one denies there was such a man, that he lived and that he was put to death by crucifixion. Where is the miracle that I speak of?

Well consider this and let your imagination translate the story into our own time...possibly in your own home town. A young man whose father is a carpenter grows up working in his father's shop. He has no formal education. He owns no property of any kind. One day he puts down his tools and walks out of his father's shop. He starts preaching on street corners and in the nearby countryside. Walking from place to place preaching all the while even though he is in no way an ordained minister he never gets farther than an area perhaps 100 miles wide at the most. He does this for three years.

Then he is arrested, tried and convicted. There is no court of appeal so he is executed at age 33 along with two common thieves. Those in charge of his execution roll dice to see who gets his clothing -- the only possessions he has. His family cannot afford a burial place so he is interred in a borrowed tomb. End of story?

No, this uneducated, property less young man who preached on street corners for only three years who left no written word has for 2000 years had a greater effect on the entire world than all the rulers, kings and emperors, all the conquerors, the generals and admirals, all the scholars, scientists and philosophers who ever lived -- all put together.

How do we explain that? ...Unless he really was what he said he was."

The words you just read were written by one of our nation's greatest Presidents--Ronald Reagan

"When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? And they said, Some say that you art John the Baptist: some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, You art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you, but my Father which is in heaven." Matthew 16:13-17

Acts 1:10 states, "They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. 11"Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."

We must believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God if we are to inherit eternal life and a home in heaven with Him. He is who he says he is. Read the words Jesus spoke to his disciples in Matthew 10:

14And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when ye depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet.

 15Verily I say unto you, It shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment, than for that city.

32Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.

 33But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

38And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

 39He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

 40He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.

May God bless you in this race and may we all strive to live in a way that others will see and want to know Christ.

Margie