Anchor Of Hope Christian Reformed Church

God disciplines and instructs those whom he loves. Earthly fathers are to love their children enough to sacrifice themselves for the sake of not only their wives, but also their children so that their children will grow in the truth of God. God's word is to so permeate the words, actions, conversations and instructions of the father so that the truth of the one true Heavenly Father is always front and center so that everything focuses on glory to God! Their is no room for provoking to anger when God's glory is always to be of greatest significance. Amen!

Parents are to raise their children in the love, truth, word, and in obedience to God. Children are to learn, honor, respect, and obey their parents in all good and right things. Obeying parents is training for obeying God; disobedience and disrespect to parents is training in disobedience and disrespect for God. Jesus shows all of us children what it means to live out obedience to our heavenly Father. Even if our parents are godless and haters of God, we honor them in whatever ways we can knowing that ultimately we have the best and most wonderful Father in heaven who always loves, teaches, and disciplines us perfectly. Amen!

A husband and wife are one flesh. This is a mystery and it is to help us better understand the mystery of how every believer, the church, is a part of the body, flesh, of Christ. This is part of the reason that marriage is "until death do us part." Just as the church can not be separated from Christ its head, a husband and wife are to be one flesh, the wife respecting her husband and the husband loving his wife. Let us pray that our marriages display the unity, love, tenderness, self-sacrifice, and care that represents Christ and His body, the church, well. Amen!

Jesus cares for the church more than we can hope, imagine, or fully comprehend. Jesus gave His life for the Church! Jesus frees the church from the bondage of sin, death, the devil, eternal judgment and wrath! Jesus interceded to God on behalf of the church. Jesus is returning for His church when all will be made well in the New Heavens and New Earth. Husbands, how much are you sacrificing for, serving, caring for, and loving your wives? Hopefully, as much as Jesus does for His church.

In Jesus Christ, wives are able to live out the most God glorifying and Christ exalting life of submission to Christ depicted in submission to their husband. God has created an order of husband as head over their wife to model and display in beauty Christ's head of the church. Christ is a perfect husband to the church, let husbands be like Christ! Christ displayed perfect submission and obedience to His Father, let wives be like Christ!

Christ is the Head of the Church and each Christian is a member of His body. The hand cannot say to the foot "I do not need you!" We must care for one another as Christ cares for us. This means sacrifice, suffering, service, and the willingness to die to our self, pick up our cross, and follow Christ. To love Christ is to love our brothers and sisters as Christ loves them.

Be careful little eyes what you look at, be careful little ears what you listen to, be careful little mind what you think about and meditate on, be careful little mouth what you say, be careful little one how you live because your heavenly Father up above is looking down in love, so be careful. Because of Jesus Christ's obedient life, sacrificial and atoning death on the cross, and victorious resurrection - those who believe in him can be set free from sin, death, and foolishness. The wisdom God's children receive from God is how to live new lives of freedom, love, and gratitude for His amazing grace and mercy. Let us sing this out whenever and wherever we can!

I love to sing the song I learned as a child in Sunday School "This Little Light of Mine." Hide it under a bush, o no! Wont let Satan blow it out! I'm gonna let it shine! It turns out that the source of this light is not "little." The Scriptures tell us that, "God is light and in Him is no darkness." Jesus is spoken of as the "light of the world." God's word is a "light unto our path." For us to let the light of Christ shine in our words, thoughts and actions means imitation of God's holiness and turning away from the darkness of sin. Jesus died on the cross for all those who would come into the light of faith and believe in Him so that they would no longer be in the darkness of sin, death and eternal judgment. Praise God for the light of His love. I'm gonna let it shine!

We need Jesus! We need new hearts that will love God and desire what God desires. We need new minds, transformed by the Holy Spirit, to think of and meditate on God's word and truth and holiness. We need new mouths that will speak truth, love, and holiness to one another. We need salvation and to be made holy as God is holy by His grace. O Lord, help us to put to death what is of the disobedient flesh within us and live according to your Holy Spirit in all things! Amen!

If you believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior with all your heart and confess Him with your mouth through the power of the Holy Spirit then you are a loved child of God! As God has loved us -- let us talk, walk, think, act, and display His perfect, holy, and just love. Christ died on the cross so that we could live. He became sin so that we could be credited with His righteousness. He intercedes on our behalf and is returning to make all things right! This is love unspeakable and full of glory! Amen!

What comes out of our mouths begins in the deepest recesses of our hearts and minds. When we are saved by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior we are given new hearts and new minds and are to grow in the likeness of Jesus Christ. Let us pray and be disciplined through the power of the Holy Spirit to meditate on and speak out only love, truth, grace, peace, forgiveness, justice, and kindness. Thank you Jesus, help us Jesus!

To believe in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and that he paid the full debt for your sins and has made you right with God is life-changing and life-saving! Your life is changed in that you become free from lying, free from sinning in your anger, free from stealing, free from selfish pride and only thinking about yourself. You become free from the devil and can now resist him firm in the faith and not give him an opportunity for division and conflict within the Body of Christ! Only true freedom exists in Jesus Christ! Let us be His slave! Amen!

If you have been taught the truth about Jesus Christ by faithful teachers, then you have learned that the good news of Jesus Christ is of life and death importance because it is about living and dying. Jesus died on the cross so that the elect could could be forgiven and set free of sin and go from eternal death to eternal life. Believers are then to die to their old lives of sinful rebellion and hatred of God and live out the new lives they have in Christ. Let us live out the righteousness and holiness of Jesus Christ more and more by God's grace! Amen!

To become saved through faith alone in Christ alone by God's grace alone means we are given a new mind, a new heart, and a new life because of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit enables us to become sensitive and be able to experience love for God, love for one another and the desire to be holy as God is holy. Let us no longer live like the fallen rebellious God hating world, devil, and fallen flesh! Let us live like Jesus Christ! Amen, help us Jesus!

You can be the fastest, smartest, strongest, most creative, and considered the top of your profession or area of discipline, yet, if have not been born again by God's grace to faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior then ultimately all you are is dead. Dead in sin means no life and no hope. Once you have been made alive in Jesus Christ then you are able to grow and flourish in His life, His truth, His grace and His love. The people of God are to grow up into Jesus Christ! Growing up means "attaining unity of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God." Let us grow up in God's word, prayer, and service to one another! Amen!

Jesus has won the victory over sin, death, the devil, all rulers and authorities! Jesus is King, and as a loving and gracious king he gives gifts to His servants so that they can do His work in the power of the Holy Spirit for God's glory! What an honor and privilege it is to be equipped for the work of ministry and for the building up of the saints. Service to Christ should be first and foremost in everything we think, say and do! Amen!

Praise the Lord with joy and thanksgiving! Boast in the Lord and give Him all glory, praise and honor! Jesus comes alongside God's elect, speaks His word into their lives and gives them eyes to see that He has saved them from sin, death, and the devil and freed them to sing God's praise! I hope that through this time of Holy Week as we consider Good Friday and Easter Sunday the Holy Spirit will make the Scriptures and the gospel burn in your hearts as you consider more and more the love your Heavenly father has for you. Amen!

Zechariah 13:7-9

We need a King who is righteous. In a world so full of corruption and sin we rejoice in a King who is righteous and good. We need a King who is a savior. Before salvation, we were prisoners of sin, the world, the devil, and our fallen rebellious nature. We need a King who is humble enough to die, spill His own blood and pay the penalty for our sins and bear the wrath of God we deserved so that we can be forgiven. Praise God; Jesus is such a King! Amen!

How does knowing that our brothers and sisters in Christ are members of Jesus body affect our thoughts words and actions concerning them? When we understand that there is only one Lord and God over all, whether they know and or believe it or not, how does this affect our evangelism? How does “one Lord, one faith” support the Biblical truth that there is only one true Gospel and one way of salvation? Paul wants us to ask these questions and find the answers in the person, work, words and life of Jesus Christ. Amen!