haar

In our our walk with Christ, we will encounter trials and temptations. We are to stand firm and steadfast because our hope is in the Lord. We shall rise at the end of the day to eternal glory. We will receive the crown of life and thus our labour is not in vain.

The assurance I have about bodily ressurection is based on the scriptures which tell us that the dead will rise firsft at the second coming of the Lord and those still alive will be lifted up bodily too to meet the Lord in the clouds. Since Jesus rose bodily we will also rise bodily. He is the fisrt to rise bodily and never died again, thus the term the fisrt born.

When we are immersed in water at baptism, it sympbolises our death with Christ. Our sins are burried with him. As we come out from the water, this symbolises our resurrection to a new life, in union with Christ. The union with him gives us power to live spiritually victoriously over sin with the power of the holy spirit.

Jesus' resurrection validates our salvation. He died on the cross taking our sins and nailing them on the cross. His resurrection completes the work of salavation as he is alive and we too will live after death. Lord help us to doubt our doubts about the Resurrection and our salvation.

If Jesus had not risen from the dead, there would have been no Christianity because no one would have kept faith on a saviour that could die and could not rise as predicted. Glory be to God however, he is risen. This was a way of establishing his divne status. Jesus is Lord, my Lord.

Every proof about the Resurrection is compelling. I however think that the inability of the Jews and all the Lord's enemy to reproduce the body of Christ to convince the world that He was not risen, is the most compelling one. As the Resurrection story was spreading, all they could do to stop its spread was to trace the body and show it to the world. They could not because the Lord's body was no where to be reproduced. This is what I will tell my friend who finds difficult to believe in the Resurrection story. My Lord is risen and I'm risen with Him!!!!!!!!!

The disciples were so discouraged, disheartened after the death and the burrial of Jesus. They did not believed that Jesus had resurrected despite the fact that he had told them that he would die but rise after three days. They thus could not have concocted a story about the bodily resurrection of Jesus.

The disciples did not have a motive for stealing Jesus's body. All others- the Romans, the Jews and Jesus's enemy did not have a motive to steal him and in deed, did not steal my Lord Jesus. Period.

The bodily resurrection is the cornerstone of Christianity and it is a faith iand spiritual issue and not an academic issue. The liberals scholars cannot prove the bodily resurrection by experiments or other physical parameters of the world. They thus do not beileve in it.

Jesus' Resurrection is his victory over death when he rose from the grave. His ascension is his exaltation, seated at the rght hand of God. This happened 40 days after the resurection. The two events are related in that the ascension was the conclusion of the resurrection.

The properties of Jesus' Resurrection body: - He had flesh and bone. - His body was physical as it was before his death thus he could eat. He however had more power thus he could pass through walls.

What beefed up the faith of Peter and John was the fact that the grave cloth were not disturbed as the Lord slipped out of them as he resurrated. The explanation that Pastor Ralgh gave that if the Lord's body was stolen, the cloth would have been useful in carrying him away and would not have been there has opened my spiritual eyes more. Jesus is risen and is Lord in deed.

The similarities in the resurrection story as found in the different Gospels: - Jesus really died and was burried. - The disciples were not prepared for his death even though he repeatedly told them about it before he died. - His tomb was found emty. - The disciples proclaimed the resurrection story in jerusalem. My Lord Jesus Christ died, was burried, rose on the 3rd day, was seen by Mary magdalene, the disciples and about 500 others. This is what I believe irrespective of any differences in the eye witness report.

One thing I am sure of is that Jesus' enemies did not believe that he would rise in the third day as he predicted. This explains why they requested permission to secure the grave to prevent the Disciples from 'stealing' His body in the night. In other words, they did not expext him to rise. His followers did not initially believe that he would rise. Their actions shortly before the crucifiction and shortly after comfirms this.

When Jesus declared that He was the resurrection and the life He meant that any one that believed in Him, even though he died, he would rise from the dead in the last day and would live. When Jesus comes back, the second coming, scripture tells us that at the sound of the trumpet, the dead will rise first and those living will all go to meet him in the sky.

Scripture especially John 5.28-29 and Acts 24.15 indicated that both the righteous and unrighteous will experience the resurrection. The righteous will rise to receive commendation and reward for righteousness while the unrighteousness will rise to condemnation.

Jew's former understanding of death was that once someone died, that was the end as he went to Sheol, a dark isolated region where God was absent. However, as God began to give His prophets more revelations, Job realised that he would see God. That is, there was still hope after death. Progressive revelation is the revelation of more truth with the passage of time.

An ambassador represents his conuntry. As Christ's ambassadors, we represent the Lord Jesus Christ. The responsibility of an ambassador is to represent his country, trnsmit his country's policies, programmes and any other thing that advetises his country to the country where he lives. We as ambassadors for Christ we should live lives that advertises the Lord jesus Christ, and proclaim His message of salvation to the world around us.

Paul was awaiting trial when he would appear before the Roman high ruling authority. He would usually use such occasions to proclaim the Gospel. He thus needed every resource available at that time to be able to declare the message of truth at his trial without fear, and without compromising his faith. Boldness is vital in warfare, or else one will easily surrender to the enemy. s The opposite of boldness is wimpy faith, fearful and unstable faith that easily give in to the enemy.

We are always in batle with Satan and his demons. He distracts us from praying effectively through wandering thoughts while we pray. We thus have to remain fully alert; to be on guard so that we will not be taken unawares. Paul knew from experience, the tricks and schemes of the evil one thus the timely exhortation so that we will always be alert and to persvere for a successful and victorious batle against satan and his agents, whether demons or humans.

Prayer is communicating to God. In a warfare situation, there is need to keep in touch with the Head quarters for support, guide, directives and logistics. This is essential for success and victory. Our source of Power is from God and thus we need to stay connected. To pray in the spirit means to pray in power of the holy spirit, to be led or be guided by the spirit.

Our faith in God is our shiled. It is important to keep trusting God all the time otherwise the devil will get at us when we doubt and exibit fear (ie when we let the shiled drop ) When we put our trust in God continuosly, this protects our heads from the lies of the devil. I read elsewhere that the sword of the spirit was the only offensive pieace of armour. I now know that the sword of the spirit is for both offensive and defensive purpose. We can sharpen the 'sword' by reading and studying the Bible then commit the word into memory so that we can use it when the devil strikes.

He will be sluggish and ineffective.

Things as truth and personal holiness are powerful armament because they deny satan the stronghold needed to attack and defeat us. These armament are deffencive as the offencive weapon in the list is the sword of the spirit, the Word of God

It is diffult to stand in today's world because most of us do not see the spiritual world. We thus fight people instead of fighting the devil. Furthermore, we easily give up and yield into doing satans biddings, instead of holding our ground and resisting him by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Saints in Rev 12:11 are considered victorious because they resisted and overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimonies.