Power of the Cross Blog

 

A Christian blog with articles, devotionals and videos that will inspire and edify. All content is created from the belief that faith in Christ and Him crucified is how we receive every good thing from God. When our faith is in the correct object, the Holy Spirit can work through us, bringing out the Power of God in our life. 

 

Roadblocks

 
Are you at a point in your life that you feel like throwing in the towel? Do you feel like you are stuck and cannot move forward? Don’t feel alone. Roadblocks happen to every child of God at some point in their journey. The great Apostle Paul encountered delays in his efforts to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles.
 
Wherefore we would have come unto you, even I Paul, once and again; but Satan hindered us.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:18
 
Look at the word hindered. This is an old Greek word ( EGKOPTO ) originally used to describe a depreciated road that was impassable. Paul used this word to describe the efforts of satan to stop him from traveling to the churches in Thessalonica. The devil was putting up roadblocks to halt the great Apostle because of the great calling Paul had from God.

What if Paul allowed those roadblocks to stop him? What if Paul would have just his calling to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles? Thank God he didn’t!!! Paul understood that evil forces were hindering him. He knew that satan was trying to put up roadblocks to stop the calling of God.

The lesson for us is this: the next time you want to quit in your walk with God, rest assured that you are by no means the first Christian to have these feelings. In fact, the greater the call upon your life, the greater the opposition will be from satan.

Paul’s faith in the promises of God kept him going. Despite what satan tries to do, God will always have the last word. His will for your life will come to pass if you will not quit. The Power of the Holy Spirit will give you the strength to finish your course in life if you just don’t stop.

Your journey may seem like an impassable road with roadblocks are every turn. Just remember the old adage “IF YOU WON’T QUIT, GOD WON’T QUIT!”


Holy Spirit Comforter

The Comforter

Holy Spirit Comforter

The Comforter, which is the Holy Spirit – John 14:26


The dispensation of the Holy Spirit has been ongoing since the birth of the Church ( Acts 2:47). This is the time in which Jesus cheers us on. Not by his personal presence but by the indwelling and constant abiding of the Holy Spirit, who is the Comforter of those who have accepted Jesus as Savior. It is his office to console the hearts of God’s people. He convinces of sin. Holy Spirit illuminates and instructs. But still the main part of His work lies in making glad the hearts of the regenerated believer. He strengthens the weak and lifts up all those that are downtrodden. He does this by revealing Jesus to them. The Holy Spirit consoles, but Christ is the consolation.
 
The Holy Spirit is the Physician, but Jesus is the medicine. Holy Spirit heals the wound, but it is by applying the holy ointment of Christ’s name and grace. He takes not of his own things, but of the things of Christ. So if we give to the Holy Spirit the Greek name of Paraclete, as we sometimes do, then our heart confers on our blessed Lord Jesus the title of Paraclesis.
 
Holy Spirit is the Comforter. Jesus is the Comfort. Now, with such rich provision for our need, why should the Christian be sad and depressed ? The Holy Spirit has graciously engaged to be your Comforter. Why should the believer be weak and trembling? Do you think Holy Spirit will be negligent of his Sacred trust? Do you think He has undertaken what he cannot or will not perform? If it is His work to strengthen you, and to comfort you, do you suppose he has forgotten you? Do you think He will fail in the loving office which He sustains towards you? No!  Think no such thing of the tender and blessed Spirit whose name is “the Comforter.” He delights to give the oil of joy for sorrow, and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Trust in him and He will surely comfort you till the house of sorrow is closed for ever, and the marriage feast has begun.
 
 
Modern translation of Spurgeon “Morning and Evening” by Pastor Wilson


Your Advocate

 

“If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
1st John 2:1


Even though we sin, we still have Jesus as our intercessor. The Apostle John does not say, “If any person sins they have forfeited their advocate,” but “we have an advocate,” but sinners we still are. All the sin that a believer ever did, or can be allowed to commit, cannot destroy His love for you and remaining your advocate.
 
The name here given to our Lord is suggestive. “Jesus.” Ah! then he is an advocate such as we need, for Jesus is the name of one whose business and delight it is to save. “They shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” His sweetest name implies his success as our advocate with the Father.
 
Next, it is “Jesus Christ”-Christos, the anointed. This shows his authority to plead. The Christ has a right to plead, for he is the Father’s own appointed advocate and elected priest. If he were of our choosing he might fail, but if God has laid help upon one that is mighty, we may safely lay our trouble where God has laid his help. He is Christ, and therefore authorized; he is Christ, and therefore qualified, for the anointing has fully fitted him for His work. Jesus can plead so as to move the heart of God and prevail. What words of tenderness, what sentences of persuasion will the anointed use when he stands up to plead for us!
 
One more letter of his name remains, “Jesus Christ the righteous.” This is not only his character but also his plea. It is His character, and if the Righteous One stands as our advocate, then our cause is in the will of God, or he would not have espoused it. It is His plea, for He meets the charge of unrighteousness against me by the plea that He is righteous. He declares himself my substitute and puts his obedience to my account. My soul, you have a friend well fitted to be your advocate, He cannot but succeed; leave yourself entirely in his hands.
 
Adapted from Spurgeon


What Really Happened At Sodom ?

 

 SINS OF SODOM

 
Many people think that God’s Judgment came upon Sodom and Gomorrah because of sexual sins which resulted in destruction. That is true but it is only one sin in a list of things God condemned those towns for.
 
Ezekiel 16:49-50  Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.  [50]  And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good.
 
The other evil activity God hated was pride, gluttoney (eating too much food) and not helping the needy. The people of those towns were arrogant and spoiled; they had everything they needed and still refused to help the poor and needy. They thought they were better than everyone else, and they did things God did not like without remorse – And so God destroyed them. Now ask yourself – what does God think of the United States?
 
The Book of Romans tells us we can be cut off from the blessings of God when we continue in a wrong direction.
 
Romans 11:14-21  If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.  [15]  For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?  
[16]  For if the firstfruit be holy, the lump is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches.  [17]  And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  [18]  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. [19]  Thou wilt say then, The branches were broken off, that I might be grafted in.  [20]  Well; because of unbelief they were broken off, and thou standest by faith. Be not high minded, but fear:  [21]  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.
 

 WAKE UP

 
Wake up church. The church has fell into a lull over the past 10 years. Many have become rich and increased with goods and afraid to tell the truth for fear of loss. 
 
Do not be afraid to declare the whole counsel of God. The Truth of God’s Word is the only hope this world has. Repentance must happen before its too late


Behind the Veil

“Behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom.” — Matthew 27:51


A great miracle happened in the tearing of the temple veil; but it was not intended merely as a display of power. Many lessons were taught to us through this divine display of power. The old law of ordinances was put away, and like a worn out curtain, was torn down the middle and laid aside.
 
When Jesus died, the sacrifices were all finished, because all fulfilled in him, and therefore the place of their presentation was marked with this evidences. That torn veil also revealed all the hidden things of the old dispensation: the mercy-seat could now be seen, and the glory of God gleamed above it.
 
By the death of our Lord Jesus we have a clear revelation of God, for he was “not as Moses, who put a veil over his face.” Life and immortality are now brought to light, and things which have been hidden since the foundation of the world are manifest in him. The annual ceremony of atonement was therefore abolished.
 
The atoning blood which was once every year sprinkled within the veil, was now offered once for all by the great High Priest, and therefore the place of the symbolical rite was broken up. No blood of bullocks or of lambs is needed now, for Jesus has entered within the veil with his own blood. Therefore, access to God is now permitted, and is the privilege of every believer in Christ Jesus.
 
There was not even the smallest space laid open through which the mercy-seat could be seen, but the tear in the veil reached from the top to the bottom, symbolizing the access we now have to the mercy seat. We may now come with boldness to the throne of the heavenly grace. Would it be wrong to say that the opening of the Holy of Holies in this marvellous manner by our Lord’s cry from the Cross was the type of the opening of the gates of paradise to all the saints by virtue of the Passion? Our bleeding Lord has the key of heaven; he opens and no man shuts; let us enter in with him into the heavenly places, and sit with him there till our common enemies shall be made his footstool.
 
Modern translation of Spurgeon devotional by Pastor FL Wilson 


woman with hands in air

Born Again

woman with hands in air

You must be born again

( modern translation of a Spurgeon devotional)
 
Regeneration is a subject which lies at the very basis of salvation. We should be very diligent to take heed that we really are “born again,”. There are many who think they are but are not. Be assured that the name of a Christian is not the nature of a Christian. Being born in a Christian land, and being recognized as professing the Christian religion is of no avail whatever, unless there be something more added to it-the being “born again,”. It is a matter so mysterious, that human words cannot describe it.
 
“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”.  Nevertheless, it is a change which is known and felt. It is known by works of holiness, and felt by a gracious experience. This great work is supernatural. It is not an operation

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