What is Useless Faith?

10 04 2020
Amy Israel 1

Sunrise on the Sea of Galilee       Photo – Amy Wolf

Both Passover and Christian Passion Week culminate in firstfruits. For Jews it is the beginning of the barley harvest. For Christians it the beginning of eternal life and the defeat of death’s power over believers. Yeshua, our Messiah, did not stay in the tomb. He was raised from the dead. He is alive! His resurrection was the absolute vanquishing of Satan’s final trump card. The phrase “useless faith” is self-contradictory, it is an oxymoron. It is no faith at all. There is no more critical foundation of our faith than resurrection from the dead and eternal life with Yehovah God through His Son, Yeshua ben Yehovah. Anything less is totally useless faith. It is no faith at all. We don’t follow Jesus because He was a great teacher or did miracles. We serve Him because He paid the price for our sin with His own blood, death, and resurrection. We will live eternally because He lives!

The Resurrection of the Dead – But tell me this—since we preach that Christ rose from the dead, why are some of you saying there will be no resurrection of the dead? For if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, then all our preaching is useless, and your faith is useless.And we apostles would all be lying about God—for we have said that God raised Christ from the grave. But that can’t be true if there is no resurrection of the dead. And if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then your faith is useless and you are still guilty of your sins. In that case, all who have died believing in Christ are lost! And if our hope in Christ is only for this life, we are more to be pitied than anyone in the world. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first of a great harvest of all who have died.  1 Corinthians 15:12-20 NLT

Hallelujah! Pray for the peace of Jerusalem through Jesus, Prince of Peace: Yeshua Sar Shalom! And pray for rain to fill up the Sea of Galilee this month.

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists                 (Read more)


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Persecution and the Resurrection

31 03 2018

Dry Bones Jews of Europe

Jews have the right of return to their own country, but where do persecuted Christians find refuge? Christians rejoice in the resurrection of Jesus, but are the most persecuted. Christians are the world’s most-persecuted religion

You would think that America would be the place of refuge for Christians, but that has been a problem. In 2016, under the Obama administration, Muslim refugees were given priority over Christians. Yet, Christians are the most persecuted group world-wide. How ironic that we celebrate the resurrection this week while our brothers and sisters are killed. Why can’t Muslim countries take Muslim refugees?

Of the nearly 85,000 refugees admitted to the U.S. in fiscal 2016, 38,901 were Muslims, while 37,521 were Christians, according to a Pew Research Center report. 

According to that same report, about 99 percent of Syrian refugees admitted to the U.S. were Muslim, while less than 1 percent were Christian.

The good news is that President Trump is trying to correct the problem. Trump: Persecuted Christian refugees will get priority. 

We are so insulated in the U.S. that most Christians are oblivious to the oppression and death of Christians in other countries. 215 MILLION?

The Top 50 Countries Where It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus Approximately 215 million Christians now experience high, very high, or extreme levels of persecution; that means 1 in 12 Christians live where Christianity is “illegal, forbidden, or punished,” according to Open Doors researchers.

We have always known as believers, that our only hope is in Yehovah God and His Son, Yeshua. We face death with the confident hope of eternal life, which is quite different from those who have no hope. However, as we pause to celebrate the supernatural resurrection and the defeat of death itself, remember the millions of fellow believers enduring persecution for the same faith. Pray for them. Don’t feel pity, because they testify of the honor of suffering for Him and they rejoice, just as Jesus predicted.

“Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:11-12

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: 
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​​“For Your sake we are killed all day long;
​​We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
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Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:31-39

Pray for persecuted Christians and pray for the peace of Jerusalem.

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists                 (Read more)


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Why Observe Passover?

24 03 2018

Dry Bones No Bread

Why should Christians observe Passover, starting next Friday night, March 30? The cartoon above inserts a little humor “explaining” why the first Passover is still remembered. Of course, the real reason centers on the lamb sacrifice that pointed to the reality of the death of the Messiah as the Lamb of God.

The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” John 1:29

As a Christian Zionist, I consider Passover as the hinge of history. I don’t do eggs or bunnies. Is the story of the  exodus from Egypt 3,500 years ago the main point, or was it a preview of the event to occur thousands of years later? The answer is: Yes! It was the main starting point of Yehovah’s plan of redemption of the blood of a lamb atoning for sin. But, it is also the ending point with the actual sacrifice of the Son of God in our place.

who does not need daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for His own sins and then for the people’s, for this He did once for all when He offered up Himself.Hebrews 7:27

By that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.Hebrews 10:10

The cross is often called the hinge of history, and rightly so, but it was not the method of His death, but the fact of Yeshua’s death that is the hinge. There are three parts to a hinge. One part attaches to the door and another to the doorframe, but the pin holds it together. There are also three parts to Passover: the lamb, unleavened bread, and first-fruits. The three parts are clearly seen in Yeshua.

First, He was sinless (unleavened by sin) and chose to deny His own will and submit to the Father’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane temptation. He reversed the curse of  “self-will.” Three times! Then He willingly laid down His life at His execution, as the Lamb of God, which was the pin of the hinge.

But it would have all been meaningless if He had remained dead. The third and most critical part of the hinge is that He was raised from the dead, defeating death itself! As the personal fulfillment of first-fruits, He paved the way for all who follow Him to also be raised from the dead to life eternal. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God!

And with great power the apostles gave witness to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And great grace was upon them all.Acts 4:33

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists                (Read more)


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Messiah Died

7 04 2012

Sandpoint Sunrise by Ross Hall

(The following is an excerpt from my newest book, Generation LIFE Chapter 1 – Jesus is Alive, being published this summer.)

JESUS DIED

Do you believe in Him, I mean, do you really believe Him? Do you follow Him? Do you have a deep desire in your innermost being to be like Him? I want to know all I can know about Jesus. Getting to know Him personally is really possible. Do you know Him?

Do you believe He really died? Or do you think He just sort of passed out and then woke up a little later? If Jesus didn’t die, we are still in our sin. Guilty! I want to talk about His resurrection LIFE, but first we need to get this. Jesus really died. He was dead. He was so dead that He Himself could not come back to life. We need to understand this. It was not a charade. When He gave up His last breath, He was utterly dependent on the faithful true Promise of His Father to live again. That is why this chapter is named: Jesus is Alive. Of course He was eternally alive and existed with the Father before Creation, and He is alive now. But between, for three days, He was dead.

You may think it strange to begin a book about life with a dead Jesus. But, if you don’t know that He died and why He died, you are missing the best part. Yes, it is the resurrection, but it is meaningless if He did not die. Jesus died, and on the third day, rose again. Hallelujah! I really want to talk about His life. But we must understand His death to appreciate the all-encompassing glory of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Jesus did not then, nor does He now possess some super power called “resurrection power”. If it were up to Him, He would still be dead. As we will soon see, Jesus is LIFE, He is resurrection LIFE. It is His own personal experience of redemption from death. Here is a verse to confirm how He was raised back to life.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you Romans 8:11.

So Jesus was dead and was resurrected by the Holy Spirit of God. We know that Jesus lived by the Spirit and was raised by the Spirit. Therefore, through His ultimate trust in Yehovah, the Father, He qualified to die for all who believe in His finished work. I honestly believe in Him, do you?

He is no longer in the grave, He arose from the dead. Jesus is alive!

Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, And He shall divide the spoil with the strong, Because He poured out His soul unto death, And He was numbered with the transgressors, And He bore the sin of many, And made intercession for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12

Les Lawrence, Voice of Christian Zionists       (READ MORE)


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