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ASK FOR MIGHTY THINGS - 8

Jeremiah 33:
2 Thus says the Lord Who made the earth, the Lord Who formed it to establish it - the Lord is His name:
3 Call to Me and I will answer you and show you great and mighty things: things fenced in and hidden, things which you do not know, things which you do not distinguish and recognize, things which you do not have knowledge of and things which you do not understand.   (The Amplified Bible)

The Word of God instructs us to ask God for great and mighty things. Today we will again consider the Apostle Paul. He knew how we ought to understand the salvation God is offering us.
1 Corinthians 2:
1 Brothers and sisters, when I came to you, I didn't speak about God's mystery as if it were some kind of brilliant message or wisdom.
2 While I was with you, I decided to deal with only one subject - Jesus Christ, who was crucified.
3 When I came to you, I was weak. I was afraid and very nervous.
4 I didn't speak my message with persuasive intellectual arguments. I spoke my message with a show of spiritual power
5 so that your faith would not be based on human wisdom but on God's power.
6 However, we do use wisdom to speak to those who are mature. It is a wisdom that doesn't belong to this world or to the rulers of this world who are in power today and gone tomorrow.
7 We speak about the mystery of God's wisdom. It is a wisdom that has been hidden, which God had planned for our glory before the world began.
8 Not one of the rulers of this world has known it. If they had, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory.   (God's Word)

The Apostle Paul began explaining God's great and mighty salvation by concentrating on the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. Why was this death of Jesus Christ on the cross so crucial to Paul's message?
That was because, from the time the Lord Jesus Christ entered the earth realm as a baby, our enemy and God's enemy, Satan, tried at every opportunity, to take His life.
But the purpose of Jesus was to be crucified on the cross.

1 Peter 2:
24 Christ carried our sins in his body on the cross so that freed from our sins, we could live a life that has God's approval. His wounds have healed you.   (God's Word)
Galatians 3:
13 Christ paid the price to free us from the curse that God's laws bring by becoming cursed instead of us. Scripture says, "Everyone who is hung on a tree is cursed."
14 Christ paid the price so that the blessing promised to Abraham would come to all the people of the world through Jesus Christ and we would receive the promised Spirit through faith.   (God's Word)
If Satan had succeed in taking the life of Jesus Christ before the cross, Jesus would not have been able to accomplish our salvation. The purpose of God for Jesus becoming a human being would not have been fulfilled.
But because the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross
we have been freed from our sins
we have the privilege of living a life that has God's approval
we have access to God's healing because of his wounds
we have been freed from the curse of God's law
the blessing of Abraham has been made available to us
we now have the faith to receive the Holy Spirit.
All these things were accomplished when the Lord Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross.
This is why, if the rulers of this world had known all this, they wouldn't have crucified the Lord Jesus Christ!
Then, of course, the crucifixion made way for the Lord Jesus Christ to come alive again from the dead! The rulers really couldn't foresee that wonderful, world-changing, human-changing event!

1 Corinthians 1:
18 The message about the cross is nonsense to those who are being destroyed, but it is God's power to us who are being saved. .
21 The world with its wisdom was unable to recognize God in terms of his own wisdom. So God decided to use the nonsense of the Good News we speak to save those who believe.
22 Jews ask for miraculous signs, and Greeks look for wisdom,
23 but our message is that Christ was crucified. This offends Jewish people and makes no sense to people who are not Jewish.
24 But to those Jews and Greeks who are called, he is Christ, God's power and God's wisdom.
25 God's nonsense is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength.   (God's Word)

Prayer:
Father in heaven, thank You for the message of Jesus Christ and His death on the cross. Thank You for all the benefits this brings to me today. Thank You for Your great and mighty salvation.
I receive all that You have give me today, in the name of Jesus Christ, whose death purchased for me, all these wonderful blessings and privileges,     Amen.

See you tomorrow, God willing,
so we can continue knowing the Lord together!
Meanwhile, have a great day walking with the Lord!