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Today is Wednesday August 11, 2010 and we are reading through the Bible in a year. Today's message comes from the reading of the Book of Isaiah, chapters 52-57. If you would like to read the chapters along with us here online you can Click Here to read them or copy & paste this link onto your browser: http://www.imfollowingjesus.com/bible-august-11

Today's Message: Our Redeemer

Out of all the people in the world who consider themselves Christians, how many actually know what it means to be a Christian. Being a Christian is not about going to church, trying to be good, and helping others less fortunate than us. The key word within the word is Christ, to be a Christian, one needs Christ. If you from the bottom of your heart believe in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ and confessed to Him that you are a sinner and asked Him to save you than you are a Christian. If you have never asked Jesus to save you than you are not and all that work you have been trying to do is getting you no where.“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” - Romans 10:9,10. This is nothing new, it has always been in the Bible. False religions and doctrine try to change this, but no matter what they try they can not hide the truth and are deceiving all who believe them. It is sad when I get people telling me that they believe by their religion they are going to heaven or that heaven and hell do not even exist. The truth is, heaven and hell are real, Jesus is the only way to heaven, and anyone who has not personally called on Him to save them, if they died today, would be in hell. “He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” - Revelation 21:7,8.

You know, the sad thing about all this is that good people truly do think that if they do enough good that it will save them, but being good does not save us, Jesus saves us. We think that Jesus is someone who just came around a couple thousand years ago, but the truth is, Jesus was around before God created the heavens and earth and He is still around. Even the Israelites knew of Jesus, known by them as the Messiah. Jesus was, is and will always be our Savior. Through Isaiah God reveals to all, not just Israel, that He was making a way for us to be redeemed without paying for it. “Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean. Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion. For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money....The LORD hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.” - Isaiah 52:1-3,10. When God speaks of Zion and Jerusalem, He is speaking of all nations. Jerusalem being the holy city, while Zion is the hill where the Temple was built and will be the final destination for all believers .

Isaiah continues and reveals the coming of Jesus and how He would be rejected, persecuted, and suffer for the sins of everyone, “For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him. He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed....Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” - Isaiah 53:2-5,10-12. Jesus became our intercessor, the one who would sacrifice His life, just as a sin offering was given to redeem a person, to save us from our transgressions (sins). Jesus was perfect and sinless and God allowed Him to die for the sins of all of us, people think that God would not send a person who tries to be good to hell, but no matter how good one tries to be we have sin in us, therefore, unless one knows Jesus personally they will end up in hell when they die.

God is not trying to send people to hell, He loves everyone and wants to see all of us in heaven, but He will not save anyone who does not want to be saved. “For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer....And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children. In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee....No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD.” - Isaiah 54:7,8,13,14,17. A redeemer is someone to make amends for, to pay off, or to recover possession or ownership of by payment of a price or service. Jesus is our Redeemer, He paid the price for our sins by dying for us. Before Jesus, Satan has possession of our soul, but the second we call on Jesus he no longer owns our soul, it is free and on it's way to heaven when the body dies. Praise God!

Christ suffered and died on the cross in our place and conquered death by His resurrection. It was on the cross He revealed His love and made the supreme sacrifice so each one of us could receive forgiveness for our sins. “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” - Isaiah 55:1-7. All we have to do to be free from our sin and go to heaven is call on Jesus. He is our Redeemer and the only one who can save us and pardon us. Think about it. If a person was drowning and did not call for help the lifeguard would not see him drowning until it was too late. It is only by yelling and calling for help that he would be saved. The same thing applies to eternal life, if we want to be saved from hell we need to call on Jesus. He is our only life preserver. Praise God that He loved us so much that He sent Jesus and gave Him up to save all of us, but to be saved we must first call Him.

Enjoy the rest of your day/night and week.
God Bless You, I am praying for you,
Christina

All Scripture is quoted from the King James Version.
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