THINK ABOUT IT

 America is the richest nation on the planet 🌎, but is one of the poorest when it comes to true riches. Husbands and wives are making more money than ever but divorce rates are out of control. They say financial difficulties are the cause of many divorces but I am here to tell you the true cause is couples are broke when it comes to love. In the past the man used to work, the woman worked in the home. One income supported the family and divorces were less. In many poor countries people live in abject poverty and yet stay together, so financial difficulties while serious is not the cause of divorce but the poverty of love in our hearts . Our women are more financially independent than ever but I don't think we have ever seen so many single women in a time of peace before. The more financially successful our women become, the poorer they become in love. The poorer in love our women become, the more homeless they become in their singleness. While financial wealth, physical beauty may

 God created both the man and woman in His image. But each have an important role to play in His great plan. The women represents certain characteristics of God and the man other characteristics. The woman represents tenderness, nurturing, beauty inward and outward etc.. But the man is supposed to represent stength, a protector, a provider for those under his care. When a man and woman work together in harmony with God, a better and more beautiful image of the Divine being will be seen. But something tragic has happened. We have an enemy who hates God and who seeks to corrupt and destroy everything good thing created by God. The enemy is Satan the Devil.  In the beginning, when God created Adam and Eve, He set Adam up as the leader and Eve as his helpmeet, his equal but Adam was the leader of the leader of the home 🏡, leader of the family, leader of the world. God spoke to Adam concerning the forbidden fruit and Adam passed the message to Eve. God established a structure of leadership

 When the Devil tempted Jesus in the wilderness to turn stones into bread 🍞, Jesus responded saying, " man shall not live by bread alone ,but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God." God is all powerful, so powerful that He created all things with His Word. The angels who are the highest created order of beings were created by the Word of the Lord. Psalm 33: 6," By the word of the Lord were the heavens made ; and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth."  God spoke the angels into existence 😮. How powerful is the Lord our God?  Lucifer who became the Devil was the highest angel in heaven before his fall. Lucifer was created by the Word of God.  Since Lucifer was created by the Word of God, it means that the Word of God is more powerful than Satan and all his angels. The Word of God created the world, created our body and the food we enjoy 🥪. Since the Word of God created everything we see and need, it's fair to say that God's Word is of

 The Devil is a tyrant. The ultimate tyrant and to listen to his suggestions, to follow him is to soon find yourself in bondage. The evil one has many tools at his disposal to ensnare us and keep us in bondage. One of his most powerful tool to keep us in bondage is "shame."  Now according to the dictionary definition,  shame "is a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior." Shame comes when you realized, " man how could I fall for this, how could I have done such a foolish thing." Many of us have done things in our lives we are deeply ashamed of. We have committed sinful acts that we are even terrified to think of . We have things that we hope no one will ever find out and try to bury in our minds. Many of us are depressed and walking around feeling heavy because of shame. Some of us are fearful of others ever found out about our past, about the things we have done. We show confidence in public but

 Love is an act of strength. It requires great strength to love others. The Bible says God is love and we know that God is Almighty, the omnipotent One. There is absolutely no weakness in God at all. Matter of fact in 1 Corinthians 1:25 it says ," the weakness of God is stronger than men." That is what appears to be a weakness in God, being Christ nailed to the cross is stronger than men. Christ dying on the cross to save us from our sins was a revelation of God's love for us and yet it was an act of strength, of power. Love is strength, to love others is an act of strength.  Anybody can lust after another, but only the strong can love. Lust is an involuntary act, an act of the flesh, an act of nature, but love is an act of the will. You don't even have to know someone to lust after them, but to love require knowing a person with all their flaws ,weaknesses and still showing them love. Loving others is an act of strength. Our society is a weak one and you can tell by

 I am tired of the weakness that I hear being promoted in many pulpits 🤦🏾‍♂️.  In many churches christians look defeated, pitiful and sorrowful. And the reason is because they serve a " weak Jesus" of their own imaginations.  A Jesus who is too powerless to help them, who's hand is too short to save and who's wisdom is too limited to guide them. As a result many Christians are just wallowing in their sins, in their guilts, in their shortcomings and being miserable. No wonder many of them soon find themselves back into the world, back under the bondage of Egypt.  In many pulpits you hear things like its okay, " God is still working on me" to justify weakness. Things like where " sin abounds, grace abounds much more"  which is true from the scriptures but is used in many churches to promote weakness. The weakness that I can keep on sinning and God will keep on forgiving . From many pulpits we hear a powerless gospel that turns many Christians into

 We are in trouble! Our society is producing weak men like a factory assembly line. Modern christianity is producing weak men like it's nobody's business. No wonder christianity is so weak in the land. God called the man to lead, to lead requires one to be strong. But from the beginning we saw Adam abandoning his leadership position and allowing his wife to lead him. We saw Adam again fail to take accountability for his own decision and blamed his wife, showing weakness of character.  And so many men throughout history continue to follow in the footstep of Adam, neglecting their duty and following the woman. According to the Bible in 1 Peter 3:7 ," the woman is the weaker vessel." It means women are weaker than men in many ways. Which mean men are responsible before God to lead , protect and guide women . But we now have a society in which women are the one leading in many areas because the men have become weak.  Being a leader by definition means to guide, direct. It

 Goodness! Something we all look for. We all are looking for good things for ourselves, regardless on how we define it. The drug dealer is looking for his own good. The thief steals because he thinks it will do him good. The promiscuous girl have sex with different people because she thinks it will do her good. The adulterer cheats because he thinks he will find satisfaction. Some people help others because it bring them satisfaction. Everything everyone of us do in life is in search of satisfaction, in search some perceived good . We all are in search of goodness in our lives. This life is tough, miserable with rare moments of goodness. Have ever met someone who is pleasant, kind etc..? Man, how much do we want to stay around that person, spend hours with him/her. Being around such a persom evoke all kinds of good feeling from us, make our hearts melt with pleasant feelings and temporarily uplift us from the despair and miseries of this world. Everyone loves to be around such a person

 No death 💀, no heaven ! And no I am not speaking about the death of Jesus Christ. While the death of Christ is what gives us access to heaven, " for without the shedding of blood there is no sacrifice for sin." ( Hebrews 9:22) Christ shedding His blood on calvary for our sins paid the debt required for the transgressions of God's Holy law  and opened the way to paradise for the whole human race 🛣 Jesus has opened the doors of paradise for us all. While heaven is accessible to us all, the only way to enter is through death 💀. No one who remains alived will ever enter heaven , only the dead will enter there 😱. What do you mean Ric ? How is it only the dead will enter heaven when the Bible say " those who are alived will see Jesus coming down and be caught up with Him in the air ?" 1 Thessalonians 4:17.  Those who are alived in Christ but dead to self will be caught up with Him in the air.  Jesus is the only way to heaven. Jesus said, " I am is the way, t

 The worst thing that can happen to you in this life is not death, not loss of health, not the loss of a job, not a loss of a loved one etc...Whatever evil you can think of in this life is not the worse thing that can happen to you. The worst thing that can happen to anyone in this life is when God declares " you are joined to your idol, leave him alone." 😱 (Hosea 4:17)  To be forsaken by God is the greatest calamity in existence. To be forsaken by God is to be forsaken of true joy, true peace, true contentment and of life itself.  To be forsaken by God is to literally receive a death sentence, for there is no life outside of God.  Now why would God forsake anyone ? Why would the loving, merciful God forsake any of His creatures? I mean God so love us that He was willing to sacrifice Himself to save us, to reconcile us to Himself, so what could cause the loving Savior to forsake those He died for ? Notice what the verse said again. Hosea 4:17, Ephraim is joined to idols; lea

 Imagine you standing before the Lord, the King of the universe, in front of billions of beings and you are lost 😮. And the proceedings begin with Jesus speaking. He says before the witnessing universe, " I have left heaven to redeem the human race, I became a human being, walked amongst men, taught in their streets, heal them, give them hope, invite them to come unto me, to bring their burdens to me. I offered them eternal life, a life of peace and blessings forevermore. I have endured all their hatred, I endure their mockings, their spitting upon me, I endured their crown of thorns." Jesus continues, " I endured their cruel beatings, my skin was ripped for you, I bled for you, I carry the heavy cross for you, I endured separation from my heavenly Father for you, my hands ✋🏾 and feet  👣 are pierced for you, I enjoyed the agony of the cross for you, I drank the cup of the wrath of God for you, I died for you, I resurrected for you, I ascended to heaven to intercede fo

 God is love ! God loves you! But the problem is many of us don't understand what true love is and I can't really blame you because many of us have not experienced true love. One area many find if hard to experience love is our past . Many of us , if not all have done things we are shameful of in the past. Many of us have done things we wish we had never done and wish we could go back and change. Many of us walk around heavy, depressed because of a guilty conscience from past mistakes, sins . Many of us walk around feeling worthless because of our past and what make things worse is we find ourselves unable to speak about them because people will judge us, look down on us and hold us to our past. Many people identified us for what we did and the past and still see us as the same person. As a result many of us identify ourselves with our past, unable to break free from our past traumas. Being bound to our past can lead to toxic behaviors in the present as we can be secretly angry

 Jesus is on a journey 🚶🏿‍♂️. He left heaven on a journey, a mission. A mission of mercy and salvation, to rescue me and you from the burden of sin, the miseries of this life.  In the gospel we find Jesus having different encounters with people from all walks of life. Jesus had encounters with religious leaders, from the  conservative pharisees to the liberal sadducees . Jesus had encounters with Roman soldiers, other pagan people. Jesus had encounters with the sick, the grieving, the rich publicans( tax collectors), the prostitutes, the adulterers etc.. Jesus was on journey to save people from all walks of life because we are all in need of salvation.  These encounters of Jesus with people from different walks of life is called Divine encounters. Every encounter of Jesus with someone is for the purpose of rescuing, of healing and saving. Today we will focus on Jesus' final encounter. His encounter with two thieves on the cross. Two wicked men who have commited murders and robber