Jesus said in one of his sermons during his final days that the gates of hell would not prevail against Peter, or against the church which was built on him.
Now. Can anyone tell me how Peter died?
Exactly. He was hung upside-down on a cross. Yep.
What did Jesus say? Not that Peter wouldn’t die. Not that he wouldn’t suffer. But that hell would not prevail against him.
After everything Peter did and everything he went through in his denying of Jesus and then meeting him again on the beach all those days later. I wonder what was going through Peter’s head? I wonder if Peter needed to be reminded that hell would not Prevail against him, that his mistake was not the end of his connection to Jesus. Because it was the devil causing Peter to fear which made him deny his Jesus three times. That day the Gates of Hell tried to prevail. But Jesus reassured Peter that the gates of hell would not Prevail against him. They knocked him around and caused him to sin, but they did not win. If only that had come to Peter’s mind before he denied Jesus. Yet in the end Jesus’s prophecy came true, as they always do, and Peter never lost the war aginst hell. Judas ate at the supper but so did Peter. Judas sinned against Jesus and so did Peter. But Peter was the only one of the two of them who fully repented and turned his life around and went back 100% to serving Jesus. That was Peter’s redeeming quality. The moment he fell on his knees before his Lord and friend and declared never again God will I deny you.
Now some will say that Jesus wasn’t talking about actual hell he was talking about that place of execution and religious ceremony of the Romans. They claim that this place was referred to by the Romans as the gates of hell. Some claim when Jesus said the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you he was talking about this place. I for one do not believe at all that he was talking about that and not actual hell. My Bible which is a study Bible does bring up the gates of hell in the Roman culture later on in a different thing Jesus was talking about. However in this circumstance the study Bible does not ever suggest that Jesus wasn’t talking about the very real hell to which we are all fighting against every day. Now setting that aside and going forward in what we believe in Jesus actually meant. Jesus said the Gates of Hell will not Prevail against you. He was talking to Peter but he was also talking about the church. Too often does it look like hell is getting a foothold within the church. Too often does it look like we are losing ground and the devil is winning. But Jesus told us that the gates of hell would not Prevail against us. He told us that he was always with us. He told us that where he is evil cannot abide. He told us that he walked into hell took the keys from the Devil and now through Jesus we have the freedom to have our bonds loosed. He can take those keys and we can raise our chain hands to him and he will unlock our Fetters and set us free. Christ did not die in vain and he stands in the biggest Gap there is protecting us from the Devil. Jesus never said you were so powerful that you can go out into this world without Him and the Gates of Hell would never Prevail against you. The Gates of Hell will not Prevail against us because Jesus walks with us, he is there holding us guarding us. Like the Cub who runs under the feet of the Lion we are safe from the jackals and the crocodiles and the wild beasts that would hunt us and kill us. Because our Lord Jesus Christ is a great Lion of Judah and he protects us.
We may feel like we are losing ground. We may feel like that person we pray for will never be saved. We may feel like the titans are too large for us to fight. But Jesus is on our side.
Author: carriedinthecross
I am a young woman who grew up in British Columbia. In BC was all I ever wanted; I had my poodle (Max) and all my friends, Saturdays at the Vancouver Aquarium and Sunday afternoons at one of my favorite beaches it was paradise. But God had a different plan for my life and my dad's job landed us in Alberta and now where I remain, in small town Souris Manitoba. The transitions from paradise to prairie were difficult and I will admit that now 10 years later I still refer to home as Abbotsford BC. Through this crazy pathway trek across Canada I have had one true constant, God; and though none of it was easy, everything that has happened in my life has formed in me a true lasting friendship with the one I call Immanuel. Because no matter how far from home we are God is with us, and thanks to God I have found an almost completely over looked beauty in Manitoba. If you open your eyes you will see that God has planted wondrous things everywhere you go.
In the box of grief
I don’t know who needs this tonight. But grief is like a box. You feel trapped by walls that you can’t touch or see and you feel a need to escape but can’t. This is why so many turn to suicide, because the box is everywhere. You run one direction and it follows you, you go another direction and it’s still there. The worst part of the box is that it is there even when you try and escape into sleep. It follows you into your dreams and makes you feel like you can’t breathe.
No one else sees the box, so they don’t understand how you feel.
But Jesus sees the box. He alone can hear you pounding on its barriers and screaming for help. The best part is, counselors and support groups -though great – can only meet you outside of the box. They try to coax you out and then meet you on the other side. But Jesus doesn’t need to wait until you are free from the box. He goes into the box with you. He sits there with you as long as you feel you need to be there. Because sometimes fighting the box takes too much out of us and we need time to sit and cry. When you are ready, Jesus will hold your hand, tap the box wall and make it fall before you. He will set you free.
If you are in a box right now, take a moment to speak the name of Jesus and realize that you are not alone.
Whole heart ❤️
I love that when God says ‘when you seek me with all your heart,’ He does not mean (necessarily) shouting or crying or spending hours and hours going on about the same thing. He means ‘be real’ when you come. Be authentic. Come to me with your whole heart, not with your heart plus the next level on Halo you want to complete, and possibly that big fight you had with your sister (unless that is what you are seeking Him about) and throw in those sweat pants you wish you had bought. Wait. What were you seeking God over again?
Your brain pop up ads distract and get in the way of your seeking God. When you seek Him, !!FOCUS!! On Him. When you focus on Him and are honest with Him, then you are seeking Him with your whole heart.
Soak
Soak Him in.
We need time alone with God. Time set aside each day where we talk with Him and listen for His voice. He is my Jesus. He is yours too. Open your eyes to see Him today.
When you have an infection you are told to soak it. Soak it in bath salts. Or saline or some other product for healing. To heal you must Soak.
To heal your broken heart. Your sick body. Your needing and wanting mind. Soak yourself in the presence of Jesus. Don’t just spritz yourself with Him, dive in and Soak!
See what changes when you begin to sink in His presence and in His glory and grace.
Becoming the hero others need you to be
Becoming the hero others need you to be
Heros. They come in all shapes and sizes. Many who are claimed to be heros I personally wouldn’t consider a hero, and others who are not lifted to the hero level actually deserve to be up there. Heros are circumstantial. Winston Churchill was a hero in his time due to his efforts for the war. And yet after he wasn’t needed anymore he was thrown away and is often ridiculed by low thinking individuals. Circumstances made him a hero. When those circumstances were gone he went back to being who had started as. Some Heros are actually tagged as villains, but when you take a good look at what they have done and why, you can see their cape flutter slightly under their clothes. As one hero once said, ‘if I have to be a villain in the eyes of those who don’t understand then I will he a villain and get the job done.’
Why bring this up?
Things have been twisted in our world. Evil is seen as good and those who fight that evil are seen as the bad guys. It makes me think of my dog. One time while camping a set of off leash dogs attacked my dog and I. He was injured a bit but not badly, and only by the grace of God was he okay. I still don’t like him around off leash dogs after that and it was years ago. Later a friend of the owner of the two dogs who had attacked us came and confronted me because her dogs were bleeding and they said mine was to blame. I…. won’t go into what I said to that. But my dog was able to get away from those dogs. He fought for my sake. He became the hero that circumstance needed. And he was ridiculed for it. We were doing what we should have been doing. They came out of no where and attacked us and we got blamed. You see, the hero doesn’t always look like a hero, and the true villain can disguise himself to look like a victim.
As Christians we are often shown to be the bad guys. Even when we are helping people, even when we are risking ourselves to stop a bad thing from happening, we are still labeled as the villains. But so was Jesus. He healed people. Fed the hungry, loved the leper, raised the dead and every action was shown by his enemies to be wrong. I don’t mean just the Pharisees. The government saw Him as a threat. People would follow and mock His deciples. They were beaten and tortured for doing what God tells us to do. They rose as the Heros the world needed. Even now we look to tye deciples teachings and writings. Martin Luther burned at the stake for spreading the gospel. David Livingston was under threat from mercenaries when preaching and tending to the sick in Africa. Billy Graham had death threats and slanderous ( false) accusations. David Wilkerson had everything from death threats and physical attacks to poverty and personal health challenges. Kathrine Coolman had chronic pain from illness all her life.
The list goes on and on and on. God’s people have raised themselves up to become the heros other people needed them to be since the beginning. And they have been attacked and called every evil the simple minds of people could think of. But they kept going. They said, ‘if the world sees me as a villain because they don’t understand, then I will be a villain and get the job done.’
We aren’t weighed and measured by man. We are weighed and measured by God. And if we are pushing through rock wall because God has told us to, then we are doing the right thing no matter what people say about us. Go for God’s glory and you will succeed where it matters.
When it’s too late
When it’s too late
The question is, when do you give up?
Recently I had a friend pass away. But where she went is my struggle. We had often spoken about Jesus. Mostly to a grunt on her part or perhaps a sympathetic smile. She had grown up in a ‘live how you like but believe that God exists and you will go to Heaven’ church, convincing her of anything else was hard. But nothing is impossible for God. We prayed when she needed prayer, but when God answered she would find an excuse to show that the cure or help came from something other than God. Eventually I stopped pushing. Then she turned 95 and I began pushing again. I felt her time was running out. But I failed her. I never once had the courage to move past talking about God and all He can do and praying with her from time to time, to actually saying, “have you accepted Jesus?”
Now she is gone and I don’t know of she ever made that change. The type of “church” she had grown up in did not believe you had to accept Jesus to go to Heaven and she never did so while we were together. All I can do is hope that in her private time she turned her life over to God.
I recall a preacher once saying, “that person you feel will never change. The one you have given up praying for. Is your battleground. You have to fight past the doubt the devil puts in your mind and keep talking to that person and praying for him/her.”
It’s hard and scary to ask a friend a question that could ruin your friendship forever. But ‘too late’ comes faster than you might imagine. Take the chance. Don’t give up. People can change. God can work miracles. And you don’t want to be here. Sitting and wondering. Did she ever accept Jesus? Or is she forever in…. no, you don’t want to be here.
Oh Holy night
Oh Holy night
Fall on your knees, hear the angel’s voices.
Do we?
Here we are about to open gifts and sing Christmas songs, and yet so many don’t know what Christmas is all about. Even some who wear the badge of Christian don’t really get what it’s all about. Not the day, but the reason Jesus came to earth. It wasn’t just about Luke 2, or John 20, it’s also very much about Revelation 22.
Jesus came as a baby, He died as an man, He is returning as the King. And through all of it He is our Savior. He was our Savior while sleeping in the manger, He was our Savior while dying on the cross, He is our Savior as He lives in our hearts today, and He will be our Savior still the day He rides in with His armies to conquer all.
Fall on your knees and worship Him. Seek Him while He is still to be found. That line scares me, some of the modern prophets of the 50s would speak of a time when God would remove His Spirit from the world. We must run to Jesus while He is still to be found. Don’t wait. Don’t miss this.
Prophesies
What child is this?
Prophesies. Prophesies ushered in the birth of Jesus. Prophesies helped people understand who He was. Prophesies told of His death and resurrection. Prophesies are in part why the Wise Men walked across the desert to find a baby. Prophesies, Prophesies and more Prophesies.
Yet not all believed the fulfillment of the Prophesies. Many still don’t. Even now as we look around our world we are seeing the answers and fulfillment of Prophesies from the Bible and from true God seeking men and women from a later date. But do we believe that they are happening? Don’t we mock when we hear someone shout ‘Repent! He is coming soon!’
So. What about those Prophesies?
What child is this reminds us of the fulfillment of Prophesies. We have seen time and again when God spoke and answered. If we are going according to the past then I would say we should be listening for the trumpet because the Prophesies are being fulfilled.
If we are going by modern thinking, then there are no Prophesies and we can live as we like. But people who say that are already deceived, there are too few Christians these days who stand strong and preach the gospel, too few who have faith enough to hear when the angels speak and say ‘I am the Lord’s servant.’ We want to be royals, not subjects, and do to this we fall into false truth and spread it to the masses.
We promote positive thinking and speaking your words to the air so the blessing returns to you. This is not Christian. We never remind people to Repent, or dare to mention that a second coming is true and that He is already on the move. If God fulfilled the Prophesies in Isaiah about a Virgin giving birth to God’s son, and about that son being slain for the sins of men and women, and then rising again to conquer death. Why do we doubt the prophet’s claims that Jesus will return with the armies of Heaven and vanquish all evil once and for all?
What child is this? He’s the perfect lamb, the conquering king, and my Savior.
Cursed by God and still protected by God
Nebuchadnezzar was cursed by God for his pride and made to spend seven years living as a wild animal in a state of madness until he repented.
Seven years as a crazed man, humans only being a real preditor when holding a weapon and having the thought to create a trap, so in this environment- he was prey. Living in the wild with lions and crocodiles and wild dogs. How did he survive?
God had prophesied through Daniel that Neb would repent. To do that he had to be alive. So God sustained and protected him.
Even in punishment Neb was protected by God. God fulfilled His prophecy.
Even when we screw up completely and God is punishing us, He is still with us, protecting and loving us.
The tree
The tree
Today I ate a banana. Bear with me. I have a point 👉
As I ate the banana, I thanked God for loving me so much that He made fruit. Then later I remembered something. Something we all forget. God made everything. EVERYTHING! First. Then He made people.
He made it all for His own enjoyment.
Here’s the special part.
When mankind sinned and ate the apple, what happened? God cast us out of the garden where all was perfect.
But. Don’t miss this.
God didn’t take these wonderful things from us.
We have to work the gardens and cultivate the fruit. But He let us keep it.
We sinned and messed up big time, so we were punished. But God loved us and still loves us, so much that He permitted us to keep the things He had called good.
The sun. The shade. The stars. The sea. The animals and birds. The plants. The sweet fresh fruit. He let us keep it all. Despite what we had done.
When we mess up we feel like God will snatch away all our blessings. We worry and fall into works over faith very easily. (you need both. Don’t misunderstand me.)
But when the first sin happened and the ‘lie broke the stillness’ as Larry Norman said, God still loved us enough to let us keep things He had made to please Himself. As a Father letting his child keep an object that he himself loves. God let us keep His goodness and what He made out of His wonders.
I hope that thought brings you as much joy as it does me.
Carried in the cross 