Telling Others About Christ

I received this encouraging quote in my emails today. It is taken from the writings of Bishop J.C. Ryle:

If we have anything to tell others about Christ, let us resolve to tell it. Let us not be silent, if we have found peace and rest in the Gospel.

Let us speak to our relations, friends, families and neighbours, according as we have opportunity, and tell them what the Lord has done for our souls.

All are not called to be ministers. All are not intended to preach.

But all can walk in the steps of the man of whom we have been reading, and in the steps of Andrew, and Philip, and the Samaritan woman (John 1:41, 45; 4:29).

Happy is he who is not ashamed to say to others, “Come and hear what the Lord has done for my soul” (Psalm. 66:16).

Edging Closer To Target

Donations from churches and individuals have now exceeded £35,000.

This is a tremendous level of giving - and brings us to within £15,000 of our target.

Many thanks to all who have contributed to this cause! May "the Lord recompense your work" (Ruth 2:12), and flood your life with His blessing.

Are We Doing What We Can For Jesus?

With the Rich in His Death

July 25, 2010

"And He made His grave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death; because He had done no violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth." (Isaiah 53:9)

It is generally recognized that the amazing 53rd chapter of Isaiah, written over 500 years earlier, is the most explicit and complete exposition of the substitutionary suffering and death of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the Bible, including even the New Testament accounts.

And this prophecy that His death and burial would be with both the "wicked, and with the rich" is surely one of the most remarkable.

How could such a prediction possibly come to pass?

Yet it did!

Unjustly condemned, not for any violent or deceitful acts, but only for telling the truth, Jesus was crucified between two wicked criminals, yet He was buried in a garden tomb lovingly built by a rich member of the council that had condemned Him to death.

Furthermore, that elaborate tomb had almost certainly been personally designed and built ahead of time by Joseph in specific anticipation of using it to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy.

That wealthy owner of the tomb lived in Arimathea and would never have built a tomb for himself or his family near Calvary, the place of crucifixion. But he and a friend on the council (Nicodemus) had somehow come to believe in Jesus and His gospel and decided they were the ones that should render this service.

Perhaps, as they looked up at the body of the Lord on the cross just before removing it for burial, they remembered His words to Nicodemus three years earlier, when He had said: "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:14-15).

They had indeed believed, no doubt suffering severe loss, but they had done what they could for Christ.

(Henry M Morris)