Jesus Christ The Risen Lord Transforming Lives Today

Jesus died and rose from the dead at Easter offering himself as atonement for man’s sins.  We often focus only on the death of Jesus at Easter, and while this is important, we can sometimes forget that 3 days later Jesus rose from the dead.

In so doing Jesus conquered death and provided us all the way to salvation. He suffered so that we may be justified and sanctified.  As Paul explains, in Romans 8:29 “he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters”. His assurance to the robber on the cross demonstrates this clearly, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise” Luke 23:43.

There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. We can’t add to Jesus’ sacrifice by further works. So we need to ask ourselves what we can do with God’s perfect gift to live in a way that’s pleasing to Him.

There are two really important pieces to this puzzle:-

1.We learn to receive God’s love for us and fully experience the freedom this provides. As the author George Herbert stated, “a life well lived is the greatest praise we can offer God”.

How can we bring about this freedom?

1. In relationships
2. In our attitudes
3. In our gratitude
4. In our service
5. In our invitations
6. In our leadership
7. In our humility

2. We invite others into a relationship with Jesus. We don’t do this because we are earning our stripes, or because we were instructed to share the gospel, no-no! We do it because we recognise how much Jesus did to achieve our salvation and because there is nothing we can do to honour this except to recognise and receive his love for us and be determined to share this love with others.

How can I do this in a realistic and meaningful way in 2017, I hear you say?

An easy way is as Phillip did for Nathaniel to invite others “Come and see” John 1:46-51 As Christian counsellors our mission states “we will transform lives, with flourishing relationships and changed communities through Christian counselling and equipping people for life”.

What greater way could we fulfill Jesus incredible commitment of dying and rising from the dead than to equip other people to heal communities and nations?

We are not asking you to stand on a street corner and convince people of who Christ is no. Simply to make those people in our social groups, in our church groups, in our social media groups, our friends and families about what an awesome experience it is to serve God through counselling.

Prayer 

Gracious Father in Heaven I thank you for all you’ve done for me. You gave your son Jesus Christ who lived a holy and blameless life to die on the cross for my sins.  I accept your forgiveness and ask to come into my heart that I may be filled with the Holy Spirit so I can learn more about you and walk with you all the days of my life.  Amen.

Source: 

Written by:  David Watkins – aifc
B, Bus, Cert IV T&A, Grad Cert Couns, Grad Dip Theol.
Under-graduate Program Co-ordinator
Sydney and Canberra & Business Development Manager

Pen With  A View – The Resurrection of Jesus Christ & Birth of Christianity

The Bible Gateway

Studying at aifc

Have you thought about counselling?   It’s a great opportunity to learn how you can extend God’s love and grace to the hurting out in the community.

For those who would like to enrol in aifc’s accredited Christian counselling courses we have two intakes per year for courses commencing around the following months:

• At The beginning of each year in February.
• Mid-Year courses commence in July.

Enrolments open approximately 3 months prior the courses commencing. Enquire below; fill out the form with your details to receive course information by email.