Posts Tagged with "40 Days with Jesus"

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Day: 40 To the End of the Earth

Your witness starts in “Jerusalem” - in your city, neighborhood, and family - but it doesn’t stop there! Jesus goes on to say that His followers will also be witnesses “in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”...

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Day 39: The Home Front

Jesus’ mission was to do the will of the Father. What was the Father’s will? To spread His message of good news, that those who believe in Him will be saved. Jesus’ life and death were dedicated to showing those around Him what God was like and what God wanted from them....

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Day 38: Do as I Say and as I Do

Have you ever heard the saying, “Do as I say, not as I do”? It points out that most people don’t live up to their ideals. It’s easier to know what’s right and tell it to others than it is to actually do the right thing so that others can learn by example....

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Day 37: A Baby Church

Giving the disciples the Holy Spirit was part of Jesus’ mission to create His church, the group of people who would continue to carry out His gospel-mission for the rest of time and throughout the whole world....

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Day 36: A Promise for Now, a Promise for Eternity

After Jesus’ resurrection, the mission He had to carry out on earth was almost over, but He had to make sure His disciples will be ready to carry on His mission in the future....

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Day 35: Our Spiritual Resurrection

Jesus’ resurrection shows us what the resurrection of our physical bodies will be like. It also shows us what our spiritual resurrection is like. ...

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Day 34: Our Physical Resurrection

Jesus told the disciples that He would send them like the Father sent Him. Does this mean that the Jesus’ followers will die and be resurrected, too? Yes! But not in exactly the same way Jesus did. ...

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Day 33: Evidence of Things Not Seen

Jesus’ disciple Thomas is famous for being the one who said he would believe Jesus’ resurrection when he saw it with his own eyes. But Thomas wasn’t really unique in that respect. ...

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Day 32: Resurrection: Proof of Power

Remember the miracle of the paralyzed man who was lowered through the roof? The religious leaders thought Jesus’ claim to forgive sins was blasphemy, so He also healed the man....

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Day 31: Where Did He Go?

When you’re looking for something you have misplaced, have you ever said, “Well, it couldn't have walked off by itself”? You expect objects to be where you last left them. ...

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Day 30: A living sacrifice

Jesus willingly gave up His life so that our relationship with God could be restored, We are also called to sacrifice. Jesus’ sacrifice is the only one that can save us, and no further sacrifice is required for salvation. ...

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Day 29: Jesus’ sacrifice changed everything

Jesus’ sacrifice changed everything about how people can relate to God. We remember that His death atones for our sin and that His resurrection shows that we can be resurrected, too. ...

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Day 28: The thief on the cross!

You could say that the first two Christians--the first two people who really understood Jesus’ sacrifice--weren’t His disciples or followers. Jesus had told the twelve disciples that He was going to die, and yet they were confused and scared when Jesus died. None of them stayed with Jesus....

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Day 27: What did Jesus give?

Jesus was the King of the Jews, and the most crucial part of His sacrifice was His death. Giving up His life paid the penalty for the sins of the whole world. But Jesus made many other sacrifices, too....

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Day 26: What is a sacrifice?

The Jews were looking for their messiah. They thought He would be a king or a general or a political leader who would free them from the Roman Empire. So even though many of them saw or knew about Jesus’ preaching and miracles, few thought He was the Messiah....

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Day 25: Reconciliation and Forgiveness

Forgiveness isn’t just something we need in order to restore our relationship with God or to offer to those who sin against us. Forgiveness is part of our mission to work with God to spread His message to the whole world. 2 Corinthians 5 gives us instructions and a description of how God’s forgiveness should affect us...

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Day 24: No condemnation

When someone suffers a tragedy, they often receive the most comfort from others who have gone through the same thing. They know something about how they are feeling and understand the struggles and difficulties they must endure. ...

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Day 23: Hypocrisy

The Bible tells us that this woman was caught in adultery. Notice something missing? Where’s the man she was sinning with? If she were caught in the act, the Pharisees had to have caught him, too, yet they didn’t bring him to be accused publicly....

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Day 22: Justice or Mercy

Have you ever been punished as an example? You broke a rule and the enforcer threw the book at you, not because you needed to learn a lesson yourself, but to deter others from doing the same thing. It feels humiliating, especially if you have already repented and tried to correct your mistake....

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Day 21: It’s a trap!

In John 8, the scribes and Pharisees (Jewish religious leaders) are trying to trip up Jesus by getting Him to break Jewish laws. This time, they bring Him a woman who, under the Jewish laws given by God, clearly should have been condemned to death. They wanted to see if Jesus would forgive her anyway. ...

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Day 20: All in the Family

God gives us gifts, talents, and strengths to use us in the local church ministry. No one can do everything, and most people focus their efforts in a few areas. That’s good! The Apostle Paul calls the church a family, where all the family works together for the good of everyone. All the different roles, but for the family to work well, everyone needs to be doing somethin...

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Day 19: Crazy Courage

Friends bring out different aspects of your personality. With some people, you might be serious. With others, you might do crazy, silly things. The paralyzed man had friends who were serious about ministering to him, even it took some crazy steps to do it. They were ready to do whatever it took to help him....

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Day 18: Ministry of Mercy

How do you react when someone hurts you? It probably depends. Was it accidental or intentional? Are they sorry or unconcerned? Will they do it again, or are they making sure it won’t happen a second time? As Jesus was ministering to sinners, the way He treated people varied a lot....

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Day 17: All Kinds of People

Have you ever tried to teach or train someone who didn’t want to learn? It’s hard! On the other hand, when someone is motivated and eager to learn, teaching can be much easier. Jesus ministered to people of all kinds, to His followers and opponents alike....

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Day 16: Jesus' Holistic Ministry Approach

After Jesus’ baptism and temptation, He began going all over Israel, starting His public ministry--the time He spent interacting with others to show them why He had come. From the story of the paralyzed man, we can see three key parts of His ministry....

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His temptation, our temptation

Jesus suffered temptation, fought it, and succeeded so that we could know that we could do it too. He also experienced how difficult and painful it can be, so He knows that fighting temptation is difficult....

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Fighting sin the Jesus way

Jesus fights temptation with scripture. Three times the devil tempts Jesus, and three times Jesus says, “It is written.” He is quoting the Bible. Using God’s own words is the most powerful weapon we have. The devil can’t argue with God Himself. By using scripture, you can be certain the thought or words you use to defend yourself are true and right!...

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Three kinds of temptation, part 2

The final temptation the devil has for Jesus is, in some ways, the most basic. In other words, the kind of sin that leads to all other sins. He wants Jesus to worship something besides God and to take God’s power and glory for Himself....

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Three kinds of temptation, part 1

The devil presented Jesus with three different kinds of temptation. They aren’t the only kinds of temptation, but they are some good example of the types of temptations we all face....

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What is temptation?

We’ve all seen cartoons in which a tiny white, winged angel and a tiny red, horned devil appear on a character’s shoulders to try to convince him or her to do something. It’s supposed to be funny, but the devil is a real being who really interacted with Jesus--and who interacts with us! Being tempted is one of the ways Jesus became like us, so that he could set us an...

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Don’t delay

A wedding is a marker in life. Before, these two people were part of two different families; now they are one new family. A wedding ceremony isn’t the only thing that creates a marriage, of course, but it does mark the beginning of a new chapter of life and it has a real spiritual and legal effect on the couple’s relationship. And it’s done in public so that everyone...

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Hear and obey

You’ve heard the saying “Do as I say, not as I do”? When teaching others, it’s easy to see where we are hypocritical or lazy. Fortunately, Jesus wasn’t like that all. His death and resurrection is the means of salvation, but His life, including the things He did AND said, are an example of what we too should do in order to be sanctified (to be more holy)....

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God blesses Jesus’ baptism

When was the last time you were at a high school graduation? It seems like there’s always one family that just can’t hold back from shouting and cheering when their graduate is announced. They are so proud they just can’t keep from identifying themselves as the family...

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Jesus and John

Sometimes when I’m eating with my children, I eat things I don’t enjoy, even some things I dislike. I could just insist they try new foods on their own, but I want to set a good example. Asking them to do something I won’t do myself makes teaching them much less effective....

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John’s baptism

Before Jesus started preaching Himself, His cousin John has his own ministry of preaching repentance, calling the people to confess their sins, and baptizing them. The old Testament prophets had predicted that there would be a messenger who came to prepare the way for the Messiah, and that was John....

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Jesus’ birth, our birth: being born again to new life

We have a lot of ways to talk about apologizing to other people. Bury the hatchet, kiss and makeup, wipe the slate clean, extend the olive branch. How about “start over”?...

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Our birth: the glory of God

When you think someone you like and respect, do their faults and weaknesses come to mind first? You probably could name some of their less-than-perfect qualities, but when you think of loved ones, you probably remember their good points first....

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Our birth: nothing very special

Just like Jesus started out life as a helpless baby, part of a normal human family, we also share many of the same weaknesses He had: having a body that is subject to hunger, injury, sickness, and death; experiencing difficult and broken relationships; facing temptation....

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Jesus’ birth: a man like us

Every new baby is helpless. Even if a child is born as a king or a billionaire, he still needs help to eat, to sleep, and to stay clean. Jesus was born as God, with great majesty and power, but He was equally and genuinely human....

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Jesus’ birth: Born with honor and royalty

When we think of Jesus’ birth, we often think of His humility...

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