In Heaven There Is Room For All

John 14:2-4

"In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would

have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and

prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive

you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be

also  And whither I go ye know and

the way ye know."

    There is a very simple and very lovely meaning here. There are many abiding places in my Father's house which simply means, that in heaven there is room for all. An earthly house becomes overcrowded; an earthly inn sometimes turns away weary traveler's because its accommodations are exhausted, or they just don't want to give up a room. It is not so with our Father's house, for heaven is as wide as the heart of God and there is room for all. Jesus is saying to his friends: and to all that was around Him "Don't be afraid" Men may shut their doors upon you. But in heaven you will never be shut out."
    "If it were not so," My friends, this tells us the honesty of Jesus. No one could ever claim that Jesus had lured anyone into Christianity by misleading promises or under false pretenses. Jesus told men bluntly that a Christian must bid farewell to comfort. He told them of the persecution, the hatred, the penalties they would have to bear. He told them of the cross which they must Carry.   
    Jesus said: "Where I am, there you will also be." Here is the truth put in the simplest way; for the Christian, heaven is where Jesus is. We do not need to speculate on what heaven will be like. It is enough to know that we will be for ever with him. When we love someone with our whole heart, we are really alive only when we are with that person. That is the way it is with Christ. In this world our contact with him is some what shadowed, for we cannot see, or touch Him; but we talk to Him In Prayer, We sing to Him in Church, and He talks to us through His Holy Word. My Friend, the best definition  I can give you, is to say that heaven is that state where we will always be with Jesus. 
Amen!

Reading: (John 14:2-4)
Ref: (HG SB, DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

   

"Washing" A Pardon From Sin

John 13:8  

"Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. 

Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, 

thou hast no part with me." 

    At first Peter refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet. Jesus tells him that unless he accepts this washing, he will have no part with him. Peter then begs that not only his feet, but his hands and his head should also be washed. But Jesus tells him that it is enough that his feet should be washed. The difficult sentence and the one with an inner meaning, is: "Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all," (John 13:10). My Friends, Jesus said that because He knew who would betray Him. 
    Let's look at this event in three ways: (1) Was Peter rejecting salvation from his sins by not wanting Jesus to wash his feet? The word "wash" or "washing" represents free forgiveness or pardon from sin, and the "newness of life." (2) Did Peter look at this as a physical cleansing instead of spiritual? If so Peter was focused on himself, and missed the whole point of Christ's illustration; "that being Humility." (3) Jesus warned Peter that he would be disobeying the Lord if he did not allow the Lord to wash his feet. In other words , Peter would be standing apart from Christ, renouncing Him as Lord.
    My Friends, when you are standing in Church during the Alter call and you know the Holy Spirit is working in your heart, drawing you to Jesus Christ, or your are backsliding into your old nature. The three statements above could fall on you like they could have fallen upon Peter, but Peter excepted and wanted to be washed all over his body. My Friend, what will be your choice?    
    Jesus was well aware that he was about to be betrayed. His knowledge of being betrayed. might so easily have turned Him to bitterness and hatred; but it made His heart run out in greater love than ever. The astounding thing was that the more men hurt Him, the more Jesus loved them. It is so easy and so natural to resent wrong and to grow bitter under insult and injury; but Jesus met the greatest injury and the supreme disloyalty, with the greatest humility and the supreme love. The nearer we are to suffering humanity, the nearer we are to God.  
Amen!

Reading: (John 13:1-20)
Ref: (HG SB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

   

A Kings Welcome

John 12:12-13  

"On the next day much people that were come to the feast, when they heard 

that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, Took branches of palm trees, 

and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: 

Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh 

in the name of the Lord."

    News and rumor had gone out that Jesus the man who had raised Lazarus from the dead was on his way to Jerusalem. There were two crowds, the crowd which was accompanying Jesus from Bethany, and the crowd which surged out from Jerusalem to see him; and they must have flowed together in a surging mass like two tides of the sea. Jesus came riding on a ass' colt. As the crowds met him they received him like a conqueror. And the sight of this tremendous welcome sent the Jewish authorities into the depths of despair, for it seemed that nothing they could do would stop the tide of the people who had gone after Jesus. This is an incident so important that we must try to understand just what was happening. 
    In such a situation it was obviously impossible for Jesus to speak to the crowd. His voice could not have reached such a large assembly of people. So he did something that all could see; he came riding upon an ass' colt, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass," (Zech. 9:9). There is no doubt at all that Jesus' claim was a messianic claim! 
    The point is that a king would come riding upon a horse when he was waging war; but he would come riding upon an ass when he was coming in peace. This action of Jesus is a sign that he was not the warrior figure men dreamed of, but the Prince of Peace. No one saw it that way at that time, not even the disciples, who should have known so much better. "Here was the one who was to come." But they looked for the Messiah of their own dreams and their own wishful thinking; they did not look for the Messiah whom God had sent. Jesus drew a dramatic picture of what he claimed to be, but none understood the claim.
    My Friends, we cannot leave this passage without noticing the simplest thing of all. Seldom in the world's history has there been such a display of magnificent deliberate courage as the Triumphal Entry. We must remember that Jesus was an outlaw and that the authorities were determined to kill him. Common sense would have warned him to turn back and make for Galilee or the desert places. If he was to enter Jerusalem at all, all caution would have demanded that he enter secretly and go into hiding; but He is Jesus, and He came in such a way as to focus every eye upon Himself. It was an act of the most superior courage, for it was the defiance of all that man could do; and it was an act of the most powerful love, for it was love's last appeal before the end; "God's Love For All Humanity." 
Amen!

Reading: (John 12:12-19)
Ref: (HG SB, DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr. 

The Cross Life Ministry

   

The Voice That Wakes The Dead

John 11:15  
"And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, 
to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless 
let us go unto him." 

    Jesus began by saying that Lazarus was sleeping. To the disciples that sounded like good news, for there is no better medicine than sleep. But the word sleep has always had a deeper and a more serious meaning. Jesus said of Jairus' daughter that she was asleep (Matt.9:24); at the end of Stephen's martyrdom we are told that he fell asleep (Acts 7:60). Paul speaks about those who sleep in Jesus (1Thess. 4:13); and of those witnesses of the Resurrection who are now fallen asleep (1Col. 15:6). So Jesus had to tell them plainly that Lazarus was dead; and then he went on to say that for their sake this was a good thing, because it would produce an event which would strengthen them even more firmly in their faith. 

    The final proof of Christianity is the sight of what Jesus Christ can do. Words may fail to convince, but there is no argument against God in action. It is the simple fact that the power of Jesus Christ has made the coward into a hero, the doubter into a man of certainty, the selfish man into the servant of all. Above all, it is the plain fact of history that again and again the power of Christ has made the bad man good. 
    That is what lays so tremendous a responsibility on the individual Christian. The design of God is that every one of us should be a living proof of his power. Our task is not so much to argue about the Gospel of Jesus Christ in words, but to demonstrate in our lives what Christ has done for us! The death of Lazarus brought a crisis to Jesus, and he was glad, because it gave him the opportunity to demonstrate in the most amazing way what God can do. My Friends, for every crisis

there is an opportunity! 

Amen!

Reading: (John 11:11-16)

Ref:        (HGSB, DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry 

 
 

Light For The Blind

John 9:1-2 

"And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, 

this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?"

    This is the only miracle in the gospels in which the sufferer is said to have been afflicted from his birth. In Acts we twice hear of people who had been helpless from their birth (the lame man at the Beautiful Gate of the Temple in Acts 3:2, and the cripple at Lystra in Acts 14:8). When they saw him, they used the opportunity to put this problem before Jesus.

    The Jews connected suffering and sin. They worked on the assumption that wherever there was suffering, somewhere there was sin. So they asked Jesus their question. "This man," they said, is blind. Is his blindness due to his own sin, or to the sin of his parents?" How could the blindness possibly be due to his own sin, when he had been blind from his birth? 
    Jewish theologians had the strange notion of prenatal sin. They actually believed that a man could begin to sin while still in his mother's womb.  This is the text they used to support their view. "If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him," (Gen. 4:7). But the argument does show us that the idea of prenatal sin was known.     In the time of Jesus certain Jews did believe that a man's affliction, even if it be from birth, might come from sin that he had committed before he was born. It is a strange idea, and it may seem to us almost fantastic; but at its heart lies the idea of a sin-infected universe.
    The alternative was that the man's affliction was due to the sin of his parents. The idea that children inherit the consequences of their parents' sin is woven into the thought of the Old Testament. "I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;" (Ex. 20:5). Let us also look at, (Ps. 109:14) "Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out." 
     Isaiah talks about their iniquities and the "iniquities of their fathers, and goes on to say: I will measure into their bosom payment for their former doings, "Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, saith the LORD, which have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom,"(Is. 65:7). One of the keynotes of the Old Testament is that the sins of the fathers are always visited upon the children. It must never be forgotten that no man lives to himself and no man dies to himself. When a man sins, he sets in motion a train of consequences which has no end. My friends, The bottom line is God wants His people to understand that the ultimate fate of each person was and still is determined by his or her individual relationship with Him. (Ezek. 18).
Amen!

Reading: (John 9:1-5)
               (Ezek. 18:1-32)

Ref: (HGSB, DSB) 

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

            

Discipleship

John 8:31-32 

"Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue

 in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;  And ye shall

 know the truth,  and the truth shall make you free."  

    Discipleship begins with belief. Its beginning is the moment when a man accepts what Jesus says as true, all that he says about the love of God, all that he says about the terror of sin, all that he says about the real meaning of life. Discipleship means constantly remaining in the word of Jesus. 

    The Christian is the man who all his life listens for the voice of Jesus and will take no decision until he has first heard what he has to say. The life a Christian should be spent learning more and more about Jesus. A closed mind is the end of discipleship. No one can hear or read the words of Jesus once, and then say that he understands their full meaning. To remain in the word of Jesus means constantly to study and think about what he said until more and more of its meaning becomes ours. Discipleship issues in knowledge of the truth. To learn from Jesus is to learn the truth. "You will know the truth," said Jesus. What is that truth? There are many possible answers to that question but the most comprehensive way to put it is that the truth which Jesus brings shows us the real values of life. 

    The fundamental question to which every man has consciously or unconsciously to give an answer is: "To what am I to give my life? To a career? To the amassing of material possessions? To pleasure? To the service of God?" In the truth of Jesus we see what things are really important and what are not. My Friends, Discipleship results in freedom. "The truth will make you free." "In his service is perfect freedom." 

Amen!

Reading: (John 8:31-36)

Ref: (HG SB)

        (DSB)

May God Bless You

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry

   
 

 

Let Not The Spirit Of Christianity Die!!

John 8:5-7  

"Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?
This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus 

stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though 

he heard them not. So when they continued asking him, 

he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He 

that is without sin among you, let 

him first cast a stone at her." 

 
     The dilemma into which they sought to put Jesus was this: If he said that the woman ought to be stoned to death, two things followed. First, he would lose the name he had gained for love and for mercy and never again would be called the friend of sinners. Second, he would come into collision with the Roman law, for the Jews had no power to pass or carry out the death sentence on anyone. If he said that the woman should be pardoned, it could immediately be said that he was teaching men to break the law of Moses, and that he was condoning and even encouraging people to commit adultery. That was the trap in which the scribes and Pharisees sought to entrap Jesus. But he turned their attack in such a way that it recoiled against themselves.
    This incident shows vividly and cruelly the attitude of the scribes and Pharisees to people. They were not looking on this woman as a person at all; they were looking on her only as a thing, an instrument whereby they could formulate a charge against Jesus. They were using her, as a man might use a tool, for their own purposes. To them she had no name, no personality, no feelings; she was simply a pawn in the game whereby they sought to destroy Jesus.
    "It is always wrong to regard people as things; it is always unchristian to regard people as cases." The Bible is found of names. God says to Moses: "I know thee  by name" (Ex. 33:17). God said to Cyrus; " that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel. " (Is. 45:3).
     It is extremely unlikely that the scribes and the Pharisees even knew this woman's name. To them she was nothing but a case of shameless adultery that could now be used as an instrument to suit their purposes. "The minute people become things the spirit of Christianity is dead."
     God uses his authority to love men into goodness; "to God no person ever becomes a thing." We must use such authority as we have always to understand and always at least to try to mend the person who has made the mistake; and we will never even begin to do that unless we remember that every man and woman is a person, not a thing! 
Amen!!

Reading: (John 8:1-11)
Ref: (HG SB)
        (DSB)

May God Bless You 

And Your Family

Minister Robert A. Lail Sr.

The Cross Life Ministry