Today our minister delivered a sermon about The 10 Commandments and he also mentioned Jesus’ crusifixion. How God is so ‘jealous’ of other ‘gods’ in our life that He sent His own Son to die for us on the cross so that we could be saved from other ‘gods’ which has a hold over us. He also compared the 10 commandments to a dance of life, because we had a baptizm in church this morning.

I’ve also listened to the radio this morning before church where a guy talked about the hold drugs can have over you, before he gave His life to Christ.

So many things can have a hold over you and then you hurt other people in the process to go where you want to go in life and that makes you feel empty inside eventually.

HELMA KELLERMAN
DURBANVILLE
SOUTH AFRICA

Unfortunately I can understand how Peter could deny that he knew Christ when he was surrounded by darkness and pressed for an answer. I have too often felt the deep remorse of both saying and doing things for which I am totally ashamed!

It was, to say the least, not popular, maybe even dangerous, for Peter to admit to following someone who was going to be hanged on a cross. Even though Jesus warned Peter that before the rooster would crow he would deny him three times, Peter still denied him. Even though I know how weak I can be when it comes to serving the Lord, I still fail just when he needs me the most!

It was what Peter did next that I know we need to do as well. When the rooster crowed and Peter realized what he had done, he wept bitterly and turned back to Jesus to serve him, even to the death. When our deeds or our words deny the Christ of glory and Satan has hold of our ankle to drag us down further into a tarpit, we are not done for! (Like Phil in the tunnel, when he felt totally and hopelessly trapped—through Christ we can escape!) None of our horrible deeds can be used against us when we belong to Christ. No dangerous trap can hold us, no drugs can control us, no darkness can extinguish THE LIGHT—-nothing can separate us from Christ and his Love!

“Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.

No in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:35-39.

Praise God that he did not spare His Own Son, but sent Him to die for us! Praise God that Jesus did not use his power to escape death on the cross! Praise God that his power and Christ’s perfection fueled the resurrection when death’s hold on us was broken!

If we do not take advantage of Christ’s offer to rescue us from Satan, where else could we possibly turn for help? Let us, those who would otherwise be stuck in Satan’s traps, encourage each other to totally and completely accept Christ’s saving hand of rescue. Nothing in this world or the next could be more important than being in Christ’s protection. Nothing.