REPRESENTING THE LORD JESUS!

COLOSSIANS 3:17

"And whatever you do or say, do it as A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS,

giving thanks through Him to God the Father."

You may not think of yourself as a representative of anything, but, in fact you are.  As a member or your family, you represent them.  As a citizen of your country, state or city you represent them to others.   You may be a member of a political party and if you are, you are a representative of their agenda.  Do you belong to a fraternity, athletic team or social group, then you are one of their representatives and people will identify the group with you.  Are you a Christian?  Have you ever thought of yourself as A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS? Suddenly it can seem like a heavy duty or a huge task.  People are listening to you and watching you if they believe that you are one of God's children.  What do they hear and what do they see?

Whatever you do or say, no matter the word or deed, you must remember to do it as A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS!  We must depend on the Lord and His Holy Spirit to lead us in the paths of righteousness.  You are no longer your own.  You can not speak just for yourself, for you represent to others the difference between the saved and the unbeliever's.

If you involve yourself in actions that are immoral or sinful it will be seen and heard and you will not only hurt yourself, but as A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD JESUS, you will be an embarrassment to Christianity.  You belong to the Lord and you are responsible for your actions.  

We need to always give thanks to the Lord for His Grace and Salvation.  How we can do this best, is by honoring Jesus Christ and His Word.  Show your love and faith and demonstrate the nature of God by being a new person, filled with the Holy Spirit.  We need to continually thank the Father for His plan of salvation and the birth, death and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ.  We are now part of the kingdom of God and an eternal child of Heaven.  Our duty is to honor the Lord and avoid any actions that can diminish His Kingdom.  That is why we avoid immorality and sinfulness because we want to honor the Lord.  Our job is to do the best that we can as A REPRESENTATIVE OF THE LORD!  

LET YOUR ROOTS GROW!

COLOSSIANS 2: 6-7

"Now,  just as you accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord,   you must continue to follow Him.  LET YOUR ROOTS GROW down into Him, and let your life be built on Him.  Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught and you will overflow with thankfulness."

Have you ever planted anything?  Remember how small and fragile little seedlings are in the beginning?  They require great care and constant tending and watering if they are to survive. Remember how anxious you were until they passed that critical initial growing stage?  Then when the plant started to grow and bloom and even produce fruit there was great pride and satisfaction.  The Lord feels that way about each one of us.  Jesus is the water for our lives and your growth in Him will be in direct proportion to how deep your roots grow in the Lord.  It is God's desire that each one of us blossom and bloom.  If you continue to follow the Lord your roots will grow down deep into Him and your life will be built on Him as your faith grows!

The first step is to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour.  Once He has entered your heart and filled it with the Holy Spirit, He will dwell with you and help lead you in the right path and in righteousness.  You will learn to regulate your lives and conduct yourselves in conformity with His Word.  Jesus want your roots in Him to be firmly and deeply planted.  He wants you to continue to grow and become strong in His Truth.  When you do you will overflow with thankfulness.  We are to grow ever upward and bear much fruit in increasing abundance. LET YOUR ROOTS GROW!

The best part of being rooted in the Lord Jesus Christ will be the flowering of your life.  You will be like a prize plant in the Lord's garden.  You will become so beautiful that you will attract others to see what the Lord has done in tending your life.  There will be an overflowing of thankfulness on the part of everyone involved in the process, the Lord, yourself and the ones who view you.  As your roots grow you will continue to flourish and grow even stronger and more beautiful.  Year after year you will produce delightful fruit and flowers.  The One Truth Today is that you will become more and more pleasing to the Lord if you will LET YOUR ROOTS GROW in Him!

SEEING IS BELIEVING

COLOSSIANS 1: 15

"Christ is the VISIBLE IMAGE OF THE INVISIBLE GOD.  He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all of creation."

To many people, SEEING IS BELIEVING.  Mere talk or conjecture is not enough, the proof of the pudding is seeing it.  Their attitude is what you see, is what you get.  To them reality is available to our senses, no more and no less.  Now let us apply that to God.  Since time began men have tried to see and sense God.  In fact the true God has remained invisible to the eye and senses of man.  Man has made many idols or images of God, but they are not God.  That had been the dilemma for man, how do you visualize something that is invisible?  What was God's answer to the prayers of man who wanted to see, sense and visualize God?

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us!  Jesus Christ was born as a human being and He was visible to those around Him.  You could hear Him, you could touch Him, you could use all of your five senses to be confident of His existence.  SEEING IS BELIEVING.  Jesus Christ was the visible image of the invisible God.  His miracles were seen.  His messages and His voice were heard.  He was touched and felt by many that had there life changed.  For that moment in time, man was able to sense God in every way possible.  Not everyone realized that Jesus Christ was the Lord God!  Even though they had all the evidence they needed right in front of them they still could not understand it.  Nothing has changed even today.  Although the difference is that we do not have the advantage of using our five senses to confirm the Lord in the flesh. That is why faith is of paramount importance to our belief in the living God.  It was then and it is now!

Jesus Christ came in the likeness of God in human form.  Man was made in God's image and so this is not unusual.  Although God exists in a different dimension, conceptually Jesus became the visible image of the invisible God.  His contemporaries who saw Him and touched Him and saw His miracles did not always believe even there senses.  Enough were touched by Him that understood and believed and realized that this was the Son of God in human flesh.  They even saw Him ascend into Heaven.  Because of their words and accounts of His life we have a record that is irrefutable and witnessed by so many that could say, SEEING IS BELIEVING.  That is the One Truth Today, that Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.  He was made known to man in all of their senses.  The Word contains the record of His time on earth and it is reliable evidence to those who will listen.  You see just because you can not see something does not mean it does not exist.  In time all believer's will come face to face with their Lord and they will confirm what they all ready know.  Christ existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation.

WHO KILLED JESUS?

JOHN 10: 18

"NO ONE CAN TAKE MY LIFE FROM ME.  I sacrifice it voluntarily.  For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also take it up again."

Throughout the ages many accusations have been made about who killed Jesus Christ.  Was  it the Romans and there Governor Pontious Pilate?  Was it the Jews and there Pharisees and Sadducee's that turned Jesus Christ over to the Romans?  Was it the Devil or some of his demons?  The One Truth Today answers those questions.  NO ONE CAN TAKE MY LIFE FROM ME!  Jesus Christ is the only one on earth or in heaven who has the authority to lay down His life and He is the only one who can take it up again.  The Lord sacrificed Himself voluntarily in order to save those who believe in Him.  Although many have perpetuated a myth that the Jews or Romans or the devil are responsible for Jesus Christ's death it is not true and is only used to divide people and to obscure the "Good News" of the Saviour Jesus Christ.   

The next question that is without foundation is whether or not Jesus Christ the Lord God is dead.  If Jesus Christ died on the cross and was placed in His tomb, did He remain dead?  Once again the One Truth Today had the answer.  Jesus Christ told us that He has the authority to take up His life again, after His sacrifice.  In fact Jesus Christ is alive and He has risen from the grave and ascended to heaven.  He is seated on His throne and is welcoming all those who are His children and have received the Lord into their hearts.  So no one killed Jesus Christ and He is not dead, He overcame death and the grave and so is alive eternally.  This is the story of redemption that is the good news that saves us all who believe from, death and the grave!

Jesus Christ the Lord God is the only one authorized and powerful enough to carry out His plan of redemption.  This was the plan for the salvation of man from the beginning.  So if someone tries to tell you that God is dead, they are in fact fools for they do not even have the beginning of wisdom, which is the fear and knowledge of God.  You know the truth and you have His Word to explain what happened and why.  Jesus Christ took on the sins of every person and died on the cross for us.  He sacrificed Himself and Rose again and prepared a place for each of us in Heaven.  He made it possible to save us from certain death and give us new life.  WHO KILLED JESUS, nobody!

BRIGHT LIGHTS!

PHILIPPIANS 2: 15

"Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like BRIGHT LIGHTS 

in a world full of crooked and perverse people."

If you find yourself in the dark there is nothing more comforting than a BRIGHT LIGHT, that shines and shows you the way.  If you are on the dark seas and you see a beacon of light on a far shore, it gives you direction and comfort, knowing that you can find your way safely home.  We find beauty and majesty when we look up in the dark sky and see the twinkling and shining stars. They give us a method of determining our position here on earth.  The above are examples of what children of God, who live clean and innocent lives, bring to a world full of crooked and perverse people, in this dark and wicked world.  Christians bring a bright light to the world around them.  How about you, how bright is your light shining? 

If you can live a life blameless, guileless, clean and innocent, you will be an example of the children of God.  If you come forward without blemish or fault as a result of the mercy of God, then you can be a BRIGHT LIGHT, for the Lord.   If you do not give in to this wicked and perverse world and remember to confess your sins to the Lord, you can be the beacon of hope that everyone is looking for.  For the most part this generation is wicked and perverse and their path is crooked and not toward the Lord.  They seem to prefer the darkness rather than the light.  In some cases there is no end to their depravity.  What a contrast between the darkness of their lives and the brightness of the light shining forth from believer's in Jesus Christ the Lord God.  Without the Lord there is no light!

In this world the truth is that without true believer's and followers of Jesus Christ there would be extreme darkness.  We are the beams of light that hold of the oppression of darkness and evil.  We receive our light from the the Lord and and act as His instruments in bringing light to the world.  The darkness hates the light, just as non believer's hate and run from the light given off by believer's.  The reason is that the light shows them for what they are, crooked and perverse.  One of the most important functions of a true believer in Jesus Christ is to shine His light as well as our own throughout the world.  We do it by how we live and the example we give.  May we all be BRIGHT LIGHTS, to the world!