If You Go Into Ministry…

Posted on by Dr. Linda Agnes Knowles

IF YOU GO INTO MINISTRY expecting to make a great amount of wealth, then you do not understand what ministry is. Ministry is about reaching out to the hopeless, speaking for those who have no voice, and reaching the lost and dying by proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ so they may inherit eternal life. Ministry is about winning souls for Jesus Christ. “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost,” Luke 19:10.

IF YOU GO INTO MINISTRY expecting to make a great amount of wealth, then you have lost the purpose of what ministry is about. “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many,” Mark 10:45, Matthew 20:28. We lay down ourselves, our ego, our desires, our will in exchange for picking up our cross, dying to selfishness, and following His Will, giving our lives in service to Him, and going forth to tell others about Jesus Christ and who He is. “He must increase; I must decrease,” John 3:30. “And he said to all, ‘If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me,” Luke 9:23. Note the words “Let Him Deny Himself.”

THE WORD “MINISTER” on its own means “servant.” MINISTERING TO (SERVING) OTHERS is a calling.

IF YOU GO INTO MINISTRY JUST SO YOU CAN GET WEALTHY AND MILK PEOPLE DRY, then your ministry is built on the foundation of self and on things that will collapse when the storms come. IF YOUR MINISTRY IS BUILT ON SELF, THE LOVE OF MONEY, EGO, GREED, AND BUILT WITHOUT CHRIST BEING THE FOUNDATION, your ministry will eventually collapse.

“Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have dens and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head,” Luke 9:58. There isn’t a bible verse that says Jesus lived in mansions while He on earth, and there’s isn’t a bible verse that shows Him demanding payment before or after He ministered to people. There isn’t even a verse that shows Jesus demanding money for His ministry. You will find Jesus preaching repentance and bringing hope to the hopeless, healing the sick, teaching crowds of people, delivering those who were possessed. He is Savior and Lord, and we see Him in the Scriptures as ministering to those who cried out to Him, those who recognized their need for salvation. In those same Scriptures, we see Jesus overturning the table of the money changers for taking advantage of those who were purchasing animals they needed to make sacrifices, “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. ‘It is written,’ he said to them, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers,'” Matthew 21:12-13.

I will end this post with these words from the book of Jude Verses 10 and 11 and 2 Peter 2:11-13, “These men, however, slander what they do not understand, and like irrational animals, they will be destroyed by the things they do instinctively. Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion,” and “Yet not even angels, though greater in strength and power, dare to bring such slanderous charges against them before the Lord. These men are like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be captured and destroyed. They blaspheme in matters they do not understand, and like such creatures, they too will be destroyed. The harm they will suffer is the wages of their wickedness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deception as they feast with you.”

Linda A. Knowles

Always Remember Jesus’ Sacrifice At Calvary

Posted on by Dr. Linda Agnes Knowles
“Thank You For The Cross” Sung By Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

…Always.

Remembering the death of Christ is not just for one day.

As children of the Most High God, we remember daily the death AND the resurrection of Christ. His death, burial, and resurrection are essential to the Christian faith. Through the shedding of Christ’s blood, we have have forgiveness of sin. He was wounded for our transgressions and He was bruised for our iniquities. Because of His death, we are healed, saved, and delivered. “Surely He took on our infirmities and carried our sorrows; yet we considered Him stricken by God, struck down and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed,” (Isaiah 53:4-5BSB).

Praise the Lord that we have been redeemed. He is our Risen Lord and Savior, and we have been made victorious.

PRAYER: Thank You, Jesus, for the cross. Thank You for dying on the cross and shedding Your blood for me. Thank You for delivering me from death, hell, and the grave. Through Your blood, I have been saved and redeemed. Lord, there is none like You for You are my Kinsman Redeemer. Through Your blood I am made more than a conqueror. Because You have overcome death and are my Risen Lord and King, I am made victorious. Thank You for forgiving me of my sins and making me clean that I can come into Your presence to worship You. You alone, O God, are worthy of all praise. To You be all the glory and the power and the honor forever. Amen.

Linda A. Knowles

Blood of Christ

Posted on by Dr. Linda Agnes Knowles

 

Jesus 2

I find it disturbing how many of those that claim to be Christians want to push the blood of Jesus Christ aside as if the blood doesn’t matter.  The fact is Christianity is a ‘bloody’ religion (there’s no getting around that) because we believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, because of His death, burial, and resurrection which is the core and crux of Christianity.

Jesus 5

“And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness.”

Hebrews 9:22

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Christ considered us very valuable, and we are told by Him, in John 10:18, “No one can take My life from Me. I sacrifice it voluntarily. For I have the authority to lay it down when I want to and also to take it up again. For this is what My Father has commanded.”  To know you are so valuable He would lay down His life to die for you is not only thought-provoking but also an awesome thought; to know God sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for our sins, shows us how much God loves us.   We are told in Romans 5:8, “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”

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I’m so grateful and thankful because it is by the blood I have been saved, sanctified, healed, and delivered from sin.  And Jesus is still saving and healing and delivering today.  If we continue reading Romans 5, we see in verses 9-10, “And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, He will certainly save us from God’s condemnation.  For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of His Son while we were still His enemies, WE WILL CERTAINLY BE SAVED THROUGH THE LIFE OF HIS SON.”

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This is the Good News of Jesus Christ.  He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  He died for us, was buried, but He didn’t stay buried.  He conquered death, hell, and the grave; and He has made us victorious.  He is alive, and He still changes lives today.  We have forgiveness for our sins because Jesus paid the ultimate sacrifice.