Black Friday – *FREE GIFT*

If you died tonight, where would you go? Heaven or Hell?  If you confess your mouth, JESUS IS LORD & believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross for our sin & rose from the grave, you will be saved! -Romans 10:9. For all have sinned & fall short of the Glory of God! -Romans 3:23. For the wages of sin is death, but the Gift of God has everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 6:23.

What is truth? Who has it? Let’s face it: In today’s world, it’s hard to know what’s true anymore. How’s your journey going? Has your search for real answers only led you down a dead end? Truth is more than just talk. Real truth is soul bending. It’s deep, profound and life changing.  We invite you to find this truth and enter The Passage.

God created you in His image. He wants you to know Him personally, so you may experience the love, peace and destiny He offers.

GOD’S DESIGN “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” (Genesis 1:27)
GOD’S LOVE “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’S PLAN “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.” (John 17:3)

What prevents us from experiencing the life of love and destiny God desires for us?

Our Refusal

PEOPLE ARE SINFUL. Sin keeps us from knowing God personally and from experiencing His love, peace and destiny. Sin enslaves, blocks and separates us from God.

PEOPLE ARE SINFUL “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23)
Sin is our innate refusal to go God’s way and instead, to go our own way and do our own thing. God is holy, that is, perfect in who He is and all He does. Our sinful nature and actions offend God’s holy nature and result in a broken relationship and separated from Him.
PEOPLE ARE ENSLAVED “Jesus replied, ‘I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin’” (John 8:34).

PEOPLE ARE SEPARATED “For the wages of sin is death…” (spiritual separation) (Romans 6:23)
WAGES = PENALTY
People are sinful and separated from a holy God by a great gap. We may try to cross that gap by living a good life, not harming anyone, attending church or other religious meetings, or by giving money to our favorite charities. All of these efforts fail because the sinful condition of the heart remains unchanged, enslaved to sin.

The third principle (Below) explains the only way to cross the gap…

The Message

Jesus Christ came to provide the bridge back to a destiny with God. Jesus Christ alone forgives and removes our sins so we can know God personally, and experience His love, peace and freedom forever.

HE DIED ON THE CROSS IN OUR PLACE “For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God…” (1 Peter 3:18). Jesus Christ was able to pay the penalty for our sins not find Him guilty of any wrongdoing.

HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD “Christ died for our sins…He was buried, He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures…He appeared to Peter, and then to the Twelve. After that, He appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers…”  (1 Corinthians 15:3-6)
Christ’s resurrection proved that He has the power over death to enable us to live eternally with God.
HE IS THE WAY TO GOD “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6).

HE SETS US FREE “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:36).

His Son, Jesus Christ to die on the cross for our sins, in our place. In this way He paid the death penalty that we deserve.

What would a person need to do in order to change their destiny to know God and experience the love, and freedom from sin that He offers?

Our Respect

We must individually receive Jesus Christ, because only He provides the destiny to God. Only then can we experience His love, and live in freedom for eternity.

WE MUST RECEIVE CHRIST “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12).
WE RECEIVE CHRIST THROUGH FAITH “By grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works that no one should boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9, NASB).
Faith = trust, dependence on God
WHEN WE RECEIVE CHRIST, WE HAVE A NEW DESTINY.  WE EXPERIENCE HIS LOVE, FREEDOM, AND ETERNAL LIFE. [Jesus speaking] “I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly” (John 10:10 NASB).
To receive Christ:

1. Recognize and admit you need to be forgiven of your sins.
2. Admit you can do nothing on your own to free yourself from your sins.
3. Turn away from your sins (repentance) and place your trust in Jesus Christ alone.
4. When you trust Christ, you receive His complete forgiveness and an eternal relationship with God.

Knowing intellectually that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is not enough. Having an emotional experience will not change your destiny and allow you to experience His love, peace and freedom.

We receive Jesus Christ by faith, as an act of our will.

Think About It

These two circles represent two kinds of lives or paths that people choose:

SELF-DIRECTED LIFE Christ is outside the life. The different areas of life represented by the dots are self-directed and not in harmony with God’s desires.

CHRIST-DIRECTED LIFE Christ is in the life. This person has received Christ and His forgive-ness for their sins. Christ directs every area of life, resulting in harmony with God’s desire and plan.

Which circle represents your life right now?
Which circle do you want to represent you life?

YOU CAN RECEIVE CHRIST RIGHT NOW BY FAITH THROUGH PRAYER. (Prayer is just talking with God)
God is not so concerned with your words as He is with the attitude of your heart. You must mean what you pray, for God knows your heart and you cannot deceive Him.

Here is a suggested prayer: Jesus Christ, I need you. I confess that I have sinned against You and have been running my own life.  Thank you for dying on the cross for my sins. Please come into my life and forgive my sins and set me free. Begin directing my life. Change my destiny.  Make me into the person you created me to be. Thank you for answering my prayer by coming into my life and giving me eternal life. Amen.

Does this prayer express your heart’s desire? If it does, pray this prayer right now and Christ will come into your life, as He promised.

How to Know…

HOW TO KNOW THAT CHRIST IS IN YOUR LIFE Know He answered your prayer and came into your life? You can know that Christ is in your life because of the 1 John 4:14-15:

“And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in

God and His Word are completely trustworthy.
THE BIBLE PROMISES ETERNAL LIFE TO ALL WHO RECEIVE CHRIST “And the witness is this, that God has given us eternal life, life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life.(1 John 5:11–13, NASB)
Thank God daily that Christ is in your life and He will never leave you (Hebrews 13:5).  You can know on the basis of His promise that Christ lives in you and you have eternal life, from the moment you invited Him in.  He will not deceive you.)

What if you don’t feel any different?

DO NOT DEPEND ON FEELINGS This train diagram illustrates the relationship between fact (God and His Word), faith (our trust in God and His Word), and feeling (the result of our faith and obedience).  Read John 14:21.

The train will run with or without the caboose (feeling). In the same way, we as Christians do not depend on feelings or emotions. We rely on the promises of God’s Word, not our feelings. The Christian lives by faith in God and His Word.

Enjoying God
THE MOMENT YOU RECEIVED CHRIST BY FAITH, AS AN ACT OF YOUR WILL, MANY THINGS HAPPENED, INCLUDING THE FOLLOWING:

1. Christ came into your life (1 Corinthians 6:17; Colossians 1:27).
2. Christ set you free from your sins and forgave you (Romans 8:1-2; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Galatians 5:1; Colossians 1:14).
3. You became a child of God (John 1:12).
4. God lavished His love on you (Romans 8:35–39; 1 John 3:1).
5. You received eternal life (John 5:24).
6. You began the new and satisfying life for which God created you (John 10:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17; 1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Being freed and loved by Christ is all good! He changed your destiny.  Would you like to thank God in prayer right now for what He has done for you?  By thanking God, you demonstrate your faith.

To enjoy your new relationship with God to the fullest…

SUGGESTIONS FOR CHRISTIAN GROWTH Our relationship with Christ grows as we trust God more and more with every detail of our lives. “The righteous will live by faith” (Galatians 3:11). This trust develops as we:

G	Go to God in prayer daily.  (Col 4:2)
R	Read God’s Word daily (Acts 17:11).  Begin with the Gospel of John
O	Obey GOd moment by moment. (John 14:21)
W	Witness for Christ by your life and words (Matthew 4:19; John 15:8)

GET INVOLVED IN A GOOD CHURCH (Bible-based, Christ centered) God’s Word admonishes us not to forsake “the assembling of ourselves together…” (Hebrews 10:25; Acts 2:42–47). Several logs burn brightly together; but put one aside and its fire goes out. So it is with your relationship to other Christians. If you do not belong to a church, do not wait to be invited. Take the first step; call the pastor of a nearby church where Christ is honored and His Word is preached. Start this week and make plans to attend regularly. hear from you!

If you prayed this prayer & meant it. WELCOME to God’s family! Please email us at 11sixboyz@gmail.com to share the good news & we will help you walk with the Lord and we help find a good church for you. Jesus bless you abundantly! If you want to talk with someone on the phone please call 1-888-NEED-HIM

Prayer Request

 

We all have enemies (many of them), we all handle our enemies different. But we are called to LOVE them and do good to them (bless them) If you have an enemy (focus on 1/2 people) and would like more people to prayer for their salvation, please comment below. Please only use their first names only. Thank you.

This passed 1/16 Unashamed of Jesus Day, I felt by the Holy Spirit to share Jesus with a certain group of people that I kind of know. One man said something very harsh, a brother of mine asked if I was okay. You know, I have never felt sooo much LOVE come out of me before like this. This man needs Jesus, I have been trying to lead him to Jesus. All I can do is now, pray for him, which I am. But felt called to lift him up in prayer. Now, what he is dealing with (so you know what/how to pray for him), he has been under the influence of drugs and demons. John is his name, Jesus bless you abundantly.  Jesus bless all of our enemies.

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  – Luke 23:34

Sunrise and The Empty Tomb

John 20

The Resurrection

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”

Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.“Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize Him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will go and get Him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to Him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

“Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them His message.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” He said.  As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.”

Then He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.”

Purpose of the Book

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name.

 

Without the Resurrection

When Preaching Christ without the resurrection… equals ending up with a dead religion. For God’s Word tells us that without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, our faith is in vain. Without the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Christianity is dead and done for.

The real reason why some people deny the resurrection because they do not want to accept the fact that Jesus is the one and only true God who appeared in human flesh. It is because they do not want to worship Him as such. It is because they refuse to acknowledge that they are sinners and desperately need His forgiveness. It is because they want to remain in their sins, but do not know how to deal with the guilt aspect.

So they say Jesus was just a man—that is the bottom line. But why? So that they can pull Him down to their level. So that they may feel equal with Him. So that they can ease their own guilt. So that they can feel good about doing that which is troubling their conscience. So that they may try to convince themselves that they are not in need of repentance.

The Bible says that if Christ was not raised from the dead then your faith is in vain. But praise God, that is not the kind of faith that God has given us! Our faith is alive and is based on a living Christ. Jesus did not stay dead in a tomb, but was resurrected!

And we can trust in God’s Word completely to tell us the truth about what happened that first Easter Sunday.

Prayer: God, thank You for Your Word which assures us that Jesus did not stay in that tomb, but that He was resurrected and we serve a living God! Amen.

And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith (1 Corinthians 15:14).

The Gift of Forgiveness – Be Set Free!

The Gift of Forgiveness – Be Set Free!

Matthew 6:14-15

For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, you’re Father will not forgive your sins.

Is not forgiving someone holding you back in your Christian walk? It could be a father, a mother, a sister, a brother, a friend or even someone you hardly know, like a neighbor, a member of your own church, or a gamer that you had played online with or against. Do not become a prisoner to your anger against someone. Ephesians 4:26 “In your anger do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.” Get that heavy load off your shoulders so God can use you to ADVANCE THE KINGDOM. That’s why we are here. You won’t be able to serve HIM and advance HIS kingdom unless you GET RID of all grievances you have against someone. Jesus Himself gave the best example of forgiveness when He was put up on a cross to die for your sins, and forgave ALL, in spite of what they had done to Him.

If you want to be able to forgive as Jesus did, please join our ministry, get involved. Please take the spiritual gift test, which is under the salvation tab. Please let us know you gifts, so we can help you use them. And let’s work together as a Christian family to help you let go of the anchor that’s been holding you back.

Relationship Repair‏

“I will give half my wealth to the poor, Lord, and if I have
overcharged people on their taxes, I will give them back four times as
much!” – Luke 19:8 (NLT)

When Zacchaeus uttered these profound words, it was after he
discovered you can not be right with God until you are first right
with those you’ve hurt.  Joseph discovered that being Prime Minister
does not mean much if your family relationships are strained.  A
relationship is a lot like a house . . . if you fail to maintain it,
your task will not be to repair it; it’ll be to rebuild it.  We each
carry within us the experience of our yesterdays.  They influence our
relationships, our choices, our view of ourselves, even our
understanding of God.  Friends, please allow this next statement to
really sink in: You can not live in a spiritually healthy fashion if
you have an unrepaired past.

For a long time, Jacob lived that way.  He took advantage of his
brother Esau, manipulating him out of his inheritance.  Then when
things got bad between them, he fled the country.  When he returned
home, he did so fearing the face of his brother.  In his case, the
relationship was healed, but it does not always end that way.
Repairing the past is best done immediately.  Patching up wounded
relationships, dealing with festering regrets, letting go of feelings
toward someone who’s betrayed you; these issues lie deep within us as
if asleep.  Then suddenly, they’re awakened by some “trigger”.  It
could be an anniversary, an old face in the crowd or a particular
song on the radio, but they do not go away until we deal with them.

So how do we do that?  By forgiving, and when possible making
restitution.  You see, forgiveness isn’t just for the other person’s
benefit; it’s for you.

Is there a relationship you need to repair today?  If so, take care of
it!