The crucifixion - perfect in every way

What happens when the Son of God, the King of the Universe is put to death by wicked men?

The crucifixion happened because God permitted it. As Jesus himself said, he could have called up a hundred legions of angels to stop this awful crime at any point.

Once Jesus had been nailed to the cross, the first sign was darkness coming over all the land from the sixth to the ninth hour (12 noon to 3 pm). Luke adds the details that the sun stopped shining. This was no solar eclipse over in a couple of minutes. This was creation bowing its head in homage and grief as the Lord of all light was crucified. How could the sun still shine as the Prince of Peace, the Son of God was murdered. It had to be done in the darkness of night.

Then, Jesus’s heartrending words, ‘My God why have you forsaken me?’ As the sins of the world were laid upon Jesus and the wrath of God fell on his beloved son, the perfect Lamb of God, Jesus was separated from his loving Father. What a sacrifice. 

As the time came for Jesus to die, he cried out in a loud voice.  Jesus did not die the death of the crucified in exhaustion, unable to hold up his body anymore and suffocating to death. He died in triumph with the loud cry on his lips, ‘It is finished’. Jesus gave up his spirit and breathed his last.

The work of salvation was complete. The wrath of God had fallen on Jesus for all the sins of sinful, wicked men and Jesus, the perfect, innocent Son of God could now proclaim his victory over sin, death, the grave, sickness and all the other outworkings of man’s rebellion to their Creator. 

The temple curtain, woven of a heavy material more like a carpet, was supernaturally torn in two from top to bottom – nothing a man could do. Access to the holy place, to the Father had now been granted to all who came in humility trusting in Christ’s work of salvation and not their own efforts. 

Matthew recorded two more events, first a great earthquake which then caused tombs to break open and the bodies of holy people came to life. This speaks I think of salvation now coming to all, even those from the past, who then testify about Jesus in the city. What better testimony could there be to challenge the lies of the Romans that Jesus’s disciples had stolen his body. Instead, people known to have died have arisen as a foretaste of the many who would come to life by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. 

Finally, the ungodly Roman centurion, the one who had carried out the execution, proclaimed, ‘surely this was the Son of God.’ Salvation had come to all – Jews, Gentiles and even Romans. 

These were not random events but carefully orchestrated to reveal to all those willing to see that Jesus’s crucifixion was in the hands of God the Father. The great work of salvation for all who believe and trust in the Lord Jesus was complete, and they would now have access to him and eternal life in heaven.

What a wonderful work salvation is – complete and perfect in every detail. 

The resurrection - restoring relationship with Man

Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying.

He (Jesus) asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” John 20: 13, 15 - 16

The Gospel accounts of the resurrection vary but the basic facts are consistent. Jesus appeared first to the faithful women who had gone to the tomb, not sure what they would do as they could never move the stone, but they had to be there. 

John’s Gospel is my favourite account. Jesus met Mary who only recognised him when he called her name. How precious. 

As I was pondering again the terrible account of the death by crucifixion of our Saviour, I came back to the original thought ‘Why? Why would Jesus do it?’ The answer has to be love and love of a magnitude that we have no comprehension of. 

If we consider all other ‘gods’, and many other leaders only interested in power, all they demand is slavish obedience, fearful worship. They only want people who will bow down and do their will. They may sit in fake grandeur, high and distant from their subjects surrounded by obsequious attendants and ‘ministers’ but all they engender in these people is fear. There is no relationship.  

Instead, our wonderful, magnificent God created a beautiful world with Man as the pinnacle of his creation, made in his image, with whom he desires to walk in the cool of the day. Ever since Man rebelled from God’s plan, He has been working towards restoring the original design and the only way for Man to be redeemed from his sin and rebellion was for His precious, sinless son to pay the penalty in our place. 

The reason he would do this is love. God doesn’t want slavish obedience, he wants relationship based on love, his love for us and our love and adoration in return, freely given. We have only to read the accounts in the Bible of God’s presence and we see clouds of glory, majesty that creates such awe in sinful man that they fall flat upon their faces. Anyone who has come face to face with God in any measure whether Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Peter becomes overwhelmed by their sinfulness. Yet God wants to breach that gap between sinful man and holy, holy, holy God and the price was high, extremely high. 

Love always finds a way because love grieves over separation, love wants relationship - face to face relationship and the only way was the death of the sinless, perfect, beautiful Jesus.

As we celebrate again the victory of Easter – not just the death but the glorious resurrection conquering death, sin and all its attendant woes, let us be those who walk in the victory that Jesus won for us, not wallowing in our sin, guilt and shame but letting the work of the cross, the body and blood of Jesus do the work God intended to set us free, to walk in beautiful relationship with him. He loves us and all he wants is our hearts, our love and everything follows on from that. Our salvation and freedom came at a terrible cost, but Jesus says again, ‘I love you. It was worth it.’ 

Love never fails

Recently, I watched the film Quartet again. It is a funny and moving story surrounding an old people’s home for retired musicians. What a lovely idea. Every year they hold a concert to raise funds for the home and every musician who is still able takes part.

Into this scenario comes a retired diva to live in the home, once married to one of the other residents. The air crackles with tension which is gently resolved. The finale is four of the finest operatic voices from their day singing the Quartet from Rigoletto.

 

I love the film which is extremely witty and filled with uplifting music. However I knew nothing about the opera Rigoletto or its storyline. I was shocked therefore to discover it is all about the debauched court of an Italian duke. It is bawdy and frankly vulgar as well as being a story of betrayal, revenge and murder. It is a true tragedy.

 

How can such a terrible tale have such wonderful music? Everything evil wrapped around by everything enriching and beautiful. How can it be?

 

I immediately thought of the Garden of Eden – God’s paradise on Earth. Totally beautiful, perfect and everything that is good into which comes evil incarnate. Why did God permit the devil to enter his perfect world?

 

The answer is love.

 

William Shakespeare wrote ‘Love is not love that alters when alteration finds.’

 

God is love and he does not change even when evil comes into his perfect world.  True love is not fickle, it doesn’t give up. As we read 1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 8, we see what true love is really like.

⁴ Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. ⁶ Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.⁸ Love never fails.

The reality is that love has to be freely given and freely received.  Love permits terrible choices to be made - to choose evil over good even though the consequences are terrible.

 

God allowed the devil to deceive Eve even though the outworking would be tragic. If he had stopped her or not let the devil into the Garden, it would be a form of manipulation and control, not love. Eve’s decision, freely made, led to the destruction of so much of God’s incredible creation and cost the life of his Son.  

 

But love always wins. Romans 12: 21 says, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Love overcomes even terrible wickedness. In the end God will have his way – he will restore his beautiful creation, planet Earth to the perfection he always intended. This time evil will be completely destroyed and Man, the highest of God’s creation, his redeemed ones who have freely chosen him, will inhabit this restored world for all eternity.

 

It never fails to move me deeply. The perfect Son of God killed in the most barbaric manner in order to save his wayward, sinful and uncaring creation, Man. That is true love.

Show not tell

As an author, I am constantly encouraged in my writing to ‘show not tell’.  This means that it is not enough to say ‘The sunset was beautiful.’ Far better to write, ‘the sun sank in a magnificent blaze of red, orange, and pink that stretched across the sky, before disappearing below the western horizon, ushering in the night.’

God is the master craftsman of ‘show not tell’. In the book of Genesis, God tells us about creation; what he created, but when we gaze upon the creation, seeing what God has shown us, it makes us exclaim like David,

When I consider your heavens,
   the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars,    which you have set in place,

 what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them? Psalm 8: 3- 4

 Creation, despite man’s terrible plundering, abusing and despoiling of this ‘green and blue planet’,  it is still superb, glorious, stunning. The night sky unspoiled by light pollution has to be the light show to surpass all light shows.  There are times when I am literally speechless at the stunning beauty of majestic mountain ranges or overwhelmed by the chilly splendour of the polar regions in all their breath-taking snowiness or the loveliness of solitary marshland, winding rivers and estuaries.

Surely God shows us his glorious creativity in the sheer variety of birds, fish, reptiles and mammals that inhabit planet Earth. One of the creatures that most amuses me most is an extravagant black and white bug that hovers in the heat of South Africa, all quivering frills and tassels. It never fails to make me laugh. However it is fish that amaze me in their incredible diversity and when we think that most of them were unknown, concealed in the depths of the ocean until the technological advances of 20^th century brought them to our television screens. What an extravagant, magnificent Creator God we have!

However the greatness of Creation is nothing compared to how God has shown his love for us. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5: 8. 

God did not wait for us to get our lives sorted or even turn to him. He initiated the great sacrifice of his life for ours whilst we were still sinners.

God so desired to restore man’s broken relationship with him that he was prepared to go to any lengths necessary.  It was love, incredible love that took Jesus to the cross and love that kept him on the cross.

How did this amazing gift come to us? By grace – the greatest demonstration of God’s love towards sinful man.  Simon Ponsonby writes: ‘Grace – abundant grace – grace is a gift. Grace is not grace if you earned it; a gift is not a gift if you bought it. Grace is not a reward, or a payment, or a due. It is outrageous, undeserved, unmerited, divine favour’.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.  Ephesians 2: 8- 9

We have nothing to bring to God, there is no sacrifice we can offer, no treasure that didn’t first come from him, all he asks of us is our love – that rather poor trickle of affection that draws us into the richest of relationship. In his arms we truly learn how valued, loved, appreciated, adored and precious we are to him.

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God!  1 John 3: 1.

God is showing us the greatest treasure of all – his love. He doesn’t tell us how much he loves us, he shows us through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross, taking our punishment, forgiving our sins and as we surrender our lives to him, he takes us on the greatest adventure of all -  the discovery of our true identity as children of God and the amazing plan and purpose he has for our lives.

Can we know we are going to heaven?

Randy Alcorn in his book Heaven tells the story of Ruthanna Metzgar , a professional singer, and her husband who were invited to the wedding of a very wealthy man. She was the singer at the ceremony. Afterwards the couple went to one of the most prestigious venues in the area for the wedding feast. They climbed the stairs to the reception area glimpsing the most sumptuous food and wines being offered by waiters, tables laden with all manner of delicacies and decorated with ice sculptures.

At the top of the stairs a Maître d’ had a book with all the names of invited guests but when Ruthanna told him their name, he could not find it in the book. She explained that she was the singer at the wedding but the maître d’ was adamant, only those whose names were in the book would be allowed to the feast. Her name was not there.

He ordered a waiter to show the couple to the service lift where he pressed the button for the garage in the basement. In the car on the way home, her husband asked Ruthanna what had happened. Tearfully, she told him that she was too busy to reply to the wedding invitation. As she was the singer she didn’t think she needed to reply.

Heartbroken, she realised that this was a picture of how it will be for many people when Jesus comes again and they find their names are not written in the Lamb’s Book of Life. They may have been too busy to reply to Jesus’ invitation or thought their activities would gain them entrance to heaven. Unfortunately nothing could be further from the truth.

But can we know we are going to heaven?

First of all we must realise we have nothing to offer God to get us into heaven. We are all sinners according to the Bible (Romans 3: 23) and therefore we have no automatic right to heaven.  ‘The wages of sin is death’ it says but fortunately goes on ‘but the gift of God is eternal life’ Romans 6:23.

Salvation is a gift – a free gift but it has to be asked for and accepted. This is no time for false modesty and feelings of unworthiness. No one is worthy of this gift. Realising that is a great place to start.

Being sinners our eternal destination is hell, separated from God forever (see my blog 'O hell!'). We need a Saviour, someone perfect who can save us by taking our place and dying for us. But no one is perfect, not even one. The most well known verse in the Bible says For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life John 3: 16. God sent Jesus, his son, as the Saviour of the world. 

He was perfect and a man. He lived amongst us and died the most awful, cruel, painful death on the cross even though he had done nothing wrong. Though we deserve to die for our sins, Jesus died in our place, our substitute. Our debt has been paid in full. We have not only been declared innocent of all of our sins but God has given us his righteousness as well. We are in right standing with God. Therefore we can enter heaven to spend eternity with him.

No one else could do this – only Jesus. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.’ Acts 4: 12.

God freely offers us forgiveness of our sins and his righteousness but we have to avail ourselves of it. It is not automatic. If we want to be forgiven we must recognise and confess our sins. We have to stop doing things our way and start doing them God’s way. We have to invite Jesus to be Lord of our life.

Everyone is offered this free gift of forgiveness for sins, salvation and eternal life with him in heaven. Neither religious activity (Matthew 7: 21 – 23) nor assuming you are a Christian gains us entry to heaven.  There is nothing we can do, achieve or offer that will earn us a place in heaven. It is a gift of grace For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God –  not by works, so that no one can boast Ephesians 2: 8 – 9. God gives it to anyone who asks. Every sin is covered. God knows it all, loves us and forgives us freely and totally - if we ask. That's grace.

Only Jesus can get us there but we have to believe, humbly ask his forgiveness and hand control of our lives to him. Then we will receive the gracious gift of eternal life. When we do that our names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life – no turning away from heaven.

You were made for Jesus and you were made for heaven but the two go together.  You cannot have one without the other. You have to accept this wonderful gift offered to you so one day you can experience the wonder of spending eternity with Jesus in heaven.

‘On the cross, Jesus experienced the Hell we deserve, so that for eternity we can experience the Heaven we don’t deserve.’

If you would like to become a Christian and receive this free gift and know that you are going to heaven, please pray this:

Lord Jesus, I acknowledge I am a sinner. Thank you that you love me so much that you came to earth and died on the cross for me.  I ask that you forgive me for all my sins. I am truly sorry and repent of them all. I now ask that you become Lord of my life. I hand control of my life and destiny to you. Thank you. In Jesus’ name. Amen

If you have said this prayer truthfully and sincerely, it is vital you tell someone preferably another Christian what you have done.  You then need to find a church or some other believers to help you come to know Jesus better and grow in your Christian faith.

Satan has no authority over us

The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil’s work.  I John 3: 8

A conviction came to me with great certainty this morning that Satan has no authority over our lives.  If we have truly repented and given ourselves to living for God and not to please ourselves, we are living in the Kingdom of God. Satan has no authority in that Kingdom at all.

Adam and Eve walked on the earth in purity and perfect relationship with God.  They were the rulers over the earth in joyful submission to God.  Satan had no entry into the earth or their lives except by lying and persuading them that in order to fulfil their God given destiny, they must do something God had told them not to do. Through their sin and disobedience, Satan was able to gain control of the earth.  Jesus however came and lived the life that Adam and Eve had not lived and by perfect obedience to God, even to death on the cross, he took all of mankind’s sins, griefs and sorrows and overcame death itself. He won back for us what Adam and Eve had lost. 

Now by repenting of our selfish lives and giving ourselves to live for God, our sins are forgiven and we now live in the Kingdom of God. Satan has no authority in the Kingdom. He lives outside it. As Alan Vincent wrote, ‘Even to this day Satan has never been able to enter the kingdom and never will be able to. Anything inside the kingdom is out of his domain and he cannot touch it.’

The only authority Satan has over our lives is what we permit him to have. He can only come into our house, our life, by our permission. He will lie and tell us that he has the right to be there but he does not.  He will try and persuade you that the work of Jesus was not complete or that some bad habit or past failure keeps you outside of God’s protection and grace.  Lies, all lies. Jesus’ work on the cross was complete and Jesus came to destroy all the works of the evil one.  By learning to take authority over our lives in Jesus’ Name, every sin, addiction, rejection, hurt, inadequacy, insecurity, every sense of worthlessness, guilt, shame and generational curse is broken.

Let me repeat again Satan has no authority in your life. You do not belong to him. Move forward with confidence that you have been given the authority to see freedom in your life.  Please do not listen any more to the devil’s lies but live instead in the truth that you are a child of God, saved by grace, forgiven of all your sins, completely accepted and free from condemnation, guilt and shame. 

Maturity through obedience

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death
even death on a cross! Philippians 2: 5 – 8

If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. John 15: 10

I have been very challenged recently by the obedience of Jesus even to death on a cross. Jesus knew that the only way that sinful men, whom he loved so much, could be saved from sin and death was by his death at the hands of those very same sinful men.  It was sheer obedience to the Father that took him to and through the death on the cross.  Jesus had in mind the bigger picture, the salvation of the world, rather than his own personal comfort or desires.

This thought though can be rather overwhelming for those of us struggling with obedience on a much smaller scale. Jesus has set such a high standard that we feel we cannot get anywhere near so there can be a tendency to not even try especially when God seems to be asking us to do something that we find quite hard.
The first thing to remember though is that God knows how hard we find it and is only asking for our obedience because he knows we can do it, with his help. The second thing to remember is that there is always a greater good either for us or someone else or for both. God is not asking us to do something so we can fail but so we can succeed, even if it takes more than one attempt or even several attempts.

God is calling us up to higher things, to a Christ like nature, to maturity and that means obediently walking through some things we may find difficult. Most of us want a life where the flesh does not have to be constantly crucified but that is not the Christian walk. That walk is the one of denying ourselves daily.  Some go too far and are harsh on the body but Paul makes clear in Colossians 2: 23 that this has little value and some just like to indulge themselves. Neither is right.

Our path is one of obedience and some days and times that may be easy and at others very challenging; getting up early to go to the prayer meeting, fasting rather than eating that rather nice food in the fridge, going and talking to a stranger rather than our friends, making a stand against unrighteousness at work and so on. However God is spurring us on to something that will do us good, that will help us know him better and live the life he has planned for us. A self indulged child only thinks about themselves; a child brought up to consider others even when it is inconvenient is a joy to be around.

I am learning a hard truth that I do not need to look after me, to make sure I get what I need and even want. God will look after me and he will do a better job than I will even if it doesn’t always feel like it. Let us be encouraged to persevere in our training in righteousness and to press on to maturity through obedience.

Suffering and glory

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed. I Peter 4: 12 – 13

I struggle to get an understanding on the positive benefits of suffering and how God’s glory is revealed through it. The Bible though is full of exhortation when faced with suffering and different authors encourage us to rejoice in our trials. We know that God was greatly glorified by the suffering and death of Jesus and it was the only way that God could redeem condemned men from sin and death. In the same way it seems that in the places of the world where there is most persecution of believers, thousands come to faith and there are incredible signs, wonders and miracles.

Brother Yun, The Heavenly Man, underwent the most horrific torture and humiliation for the sake of the Gospel in China.  He was imprisoned, humiliated, beaten with electric batons, fasted without food or water for 74 days (a human impossibility without God) and forced into latrines full of human excrement by both prison guards and his fellow cell mates. When he was so weak the prison authorities thought he was about to die they ordered his family to visit him to try to persuade him to confess his ‘crimes’ and betray his fellow workers.  His wife and family did not recognise him and only his Mother knew who he was because of a birthmark. He broke his fast and took communion with them and something broke in the heavenly realms.

His cell mates who were all suffering from a plague became Christians. Brother Yun spent his days discipling them and the many other prisoners who got saved. Then a condemned, suicidal, incredibly violent murderer, shackled for his and everyone else’s safety was put in their cell.  They treated him with love, mercy and kindness.  He was saved and transformed.  As he was led off to his execution he was rejoicing in going to be in heaven with his Saviour.

What an incredible testimony!  Jesus was indeed glorified by Brother Yun’s suffering and many came to faith as a result. Was there no other way for these precious souls to be saved?

Christians persecuted in this way however seem to regard it as an incredible honour to suffer as Jesus did. They are overjoyed when Jesus is glorified by many coming to salvation and they consider their lives as nothing as long as the Kingdom advances. Surely this is how the Christian life should be? Help us God to live our lives selflessly for your glory in our situations.

Amazing love

Who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross   Philippians 2: 5 – 8

These words perhaps sum up, more than any others, God’s amazing love for mankind made in his own image. This is what God did to win back man from the self inflicted life of sin. This is a love we will never truly understand but which we can spend eternity plumbing its depths.

When Adam and Eve were disobedient in the Garden of Eden and did the one thing God had told them not to do, the consequences were so awful that if they had known what would happen, I am sure they would have kept well away from the tree. It doesn’t seem possible that just eating an apple can cause all the devastation and distress in the world that we see today. But it wasn’t the eating the apple, it was doing the one thing they had been told not to do. It was not trusting God that his way was best. As a consequence of this one act, sin was unleashed to touch every part of creation with its cankerous, deathly fingers. The results were devastating.

Why didn’t God just wipe it all out and start again? The answer is out of love and a sure knowledge that another Adam would do exactly the same again. What was needed was a man who would live the life of obedience that Adam did not live. And that man was God’s Son – Jesus; leaving all the glory and majesty of heaven and becoming man – 100% man and 100% God.

Paul tells us that though he was God, he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. As Andy Stanley says that means he never played the God card. He may have been God but he lived his life on earth as a man. Everything he did on the earth; all the miracles, healings, teaching and even his death – on a cross – was done as a man. The sacrifice had to be 100% perfect, obedient man.

That level of amazing obedience blows my mind away. That depth of love that endured the cross because of the joy it would bring (Hebrews 12: 2) was all for us. So we could live forever with him, free from sin and in wonderful intimate relationship with our Creator. Today let us spur ourselves on to greater obedience knowing the joy it will bring to the Father, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Thank you Father for sending Jesus. Thank you Jesus for your obedience even to death on a cross. Thank you that everything you did was as a man and is such a great encouragement to us that all things really are possible through Jesus Christ who gives us strength and is such a source of inspiration to us. Amen 

You are worthy

‘Through Jesus I am 100% loved and worthy to receive all of God’s blessings’ Steve Backlund

To him who ever loves us and has once [for all] loosed and freed us from our sins by his own blood. Revelation 1:5 Amplified Bible

Unworthiness is a trait many of us suffer from to some degree of other because of our upbringing, our past or even our present where we may feel inadequate, that we are not much good, that we are unable to do what God wants us to do. We may feel we have nothing to contribute, nothing worthwhile to say and no one wants us or our gifts. The truth is you have been made worthy by Jesus Christ. As Joyce Meyer says, ‘you are worth something because Jesus loves you and shed his blood for you.’ We have been freed from our sins and all unworthiness by the blood of Jesus.

The value of anything is the price that someone is prepared to pay for it. The value or worth that God placed on your life was that Jesus was prepared to die for you to have eternal life and fellowship with him. He so wanted you that he was prepared to pay the price for you by dying an awful death, taking the sin of the world on his sinless body.  That is how much you are worth.

Do not let the devil keep you bound by thoughts of unworthiness with no sense of self esteem other than comes from good works, from how you look or feel or from the approval of others. You are a child of God, bought with the precious blood of Jesus and worthy to receive all of God’s blessings. As Jesus hung on the cross his blood dripping out to pay for all of our sins, he was thinking of you and me; people saved from every tribe and nation down the centuries.

We have such value in God’s eyes. Do not let the devil rob you. Meditate on God’s amazing love for us that Jesus was prepared to do what no one else could do and buy us with his precious blood. You are worthy; worthy to be called a child of God, worthy to receive God’s blessings and worthy to be used by him to be a source of great blessing to others. Unworthiness will rob you of your destiny. Determine today that you will lay hold of all that God has laid hold of you for by being what he says about you – a loved and worthy child of God.