Month: April 2023

The Revelation of Jesus Christ

/ Karen / 6 Comments

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show to His bond-servants, the things which must soon take place; and He sent and communicated it by His angel to His bond-servant John.”

Revelation 1:1 NASB

As we prepare to return to our survey of the book of Revelation, let’s begin by remembering Christ’s words to John, which frame the purpose for this book of prophecy:

‘Therefore write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after these things.‘

Revelation 1:19 NASB

Jesus directed John to write things that were past, present, and future, beginning with the messages to the seven churches in Asia. Each letter outlines specific commendations of excellence and warnings of failure, but concludes with a promise of rewards for overcomers. In fact, the purpose of these seven-fold messages is to overcome. Let’s review Christ’s encouragement to each church.

Ephesus:

‘To the one who overcomes, I will grant to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of God‘ (Revelation 2:7 NASB).

Smyrna:

‘The one who overcomes will not be hurt by the second death’ (Revelation 2:11b NASB).

Pergamum:

‘To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it’ (Revelation 2:17b NASB).

Thyatira:

‘The one who overcomes, and the one who keeps My deeds until the end, I will give him authority over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are shattered, as I also have received authority from My Father; and I will give him the morning star‘ (Revelation 2:26-28 NASB).

Sardis:

‘The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels‘ (Revelation 3:5 NASB).

Philadelphia:

‘The one who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God, and My new name‘ (Revelation 3:12 NASB). 

Laodicea:

‘The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne‘ (Revelation 3:21 NASB).

Notice that Jesus concludes His message to each church the same way. ‘The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

As we prepare to delve into the fourth chapter and beyond, let’s be aware that we’re entering a realm of spiritual mystery. There will be fantastic, wonderful descriptions of heaven and what it’s really like. But there will also be a description of the wrath of God poured out upon the earth, and at times it will be very dark and troubling.

Keep in mind that through it all, God is in complete control. We don’t have to fear what we read, neither do we have to understand every detail. At some point, God will send Jesus to rapture the Church out of the Great Tribulation because the wrath of God is only for the wicked (see 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The bottom line is to be a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to escape what is coming on the earth. We can rest assured that God will protect us through it all.

Our survey will glean the surface and hopefully bring encouragement to dig deeper in a Bible study on Revelation. Why should we read this book of prophecy? The answer is here:

Blessed is the one who reads, and those who hear the words of the prophecy and keep the things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Revelation 1:3 NASB

Dear Father, thank you for blessing us as we read this great book of prophecy. Let us listen closely to Your words and be obedient to its instruction. May we be overcomers in Your kingdom. Come quickly, Lord Jesus–we anxiously look for Your return. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

The Revelation of Jesus Christ by Karen Jurgens copyright © 2023 All rights reserved.

He is Risen!

/ Karen / 6 Comments

He is Risen! I trust your Easter weekend has been a wonderful experience, from Maundy Thursday to Good Friday to Easter Sunday. Hasn’t it been a mixture of emotions?

The Garden of Gethsemane

We witnessed the dread of Jesus’s coming to terms with His assignment in the Garden of Gethsemane where He shed drops of blood in fervent prayer.

And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.’

Matthew 26:39, NASB

Good Friday

On Good Friday, we turned our heads as Judas hanged himself and Peter denied Christ three times.

We agonized with Jesus as He was unjustly accused and sentenced to die by crucifixion.

We cringed in horror as they lashed His back thirty-nine times and slapped the crown of thorns on His head.

We wept as He carried His cross, assisted by Simon the Cyrene, up the hill to Golgotha where they drove nails into His hands and feet.

Blessed Resurrection Day by Karen Jurgens

But Jesus was saying, ‘Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.’

Luke 23:34

We sat amazed when He forgave His tormentors as well as the thief crucified next to Him.

And he was saying, “Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom!”  And He said to him, ‘Truly I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise.’

Luke 23:42b-43

We mourned with Mary, His mother, as she watched her Son suffer unto death.

But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’  Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.

John 19:25-28

We waited on Saturday. But where was Jesus from Friday night to Sunday morning?

Descent into Sheol

After death, Scripture tells us that Jesus descended into the bowels of the earth to Sheol. Sheol is a two-sided holding tank for the dead, with the righteous on one side and the wicked on the other, separated by a chasm. We know this from the story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-30.

First, Jesus took away the keys of death, hell, and the grave from Satan. Then He preached the Good News to the damned, giving them the opportunity to escape from their prison of hell. Every person who has ever lived must make the choice to accept or reject Jesus as Savior. Last, the righteous vacated Sheol to live in heaven.

I am the first and the last, and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.

Revelation 1:17b-18

Good Friday seals the forgiveness of our sins and the healing of our physical bodies through Jesus’s shed blood at Calvary.

The Third Day

The miracle of Jesus’s bodily resurrection on Sunday seals our eternity with Jesus Christ in heaven. We rejoice because His tomb is empty! Our Lord is risen, just as He said.

Blessed Resurrection Day by Karen Jurgens

What joy fills our souls as we rejoice in the goodness of our Savior! To realize that He loved us that much–to come down from heaven to be the perfect sacrifice for us. We owed a debt we couldn’t pay, and He paid a debt He didn’t owe. He restored our broken relationship with God out of his abundant love for each one of us.

Christianity isn’t a dry, dead religion. It’s a living, personal relationship with the One True God Jesus Christ.

Dear Father, May we carry Easter in our hearts all year long. May we be forever humble and grateful, showing our sincere thanks to Jesus for providing us with the precious, priceless gift of salvation. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

Blessed Resurrection Day by Karen Jurgens

He is Risen! by Karen Jurgens Copyright 2018, 2022, and 2023 All rights reserved.

The Passion of Christ

/ Karen / 4 Comments

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness.

Romans 3:23-25a

How will you be spending Good Friday this year? My desires today are:

  • to humble myself before Him;
  • to be still and know that He is God, my Savior, and my Redeemer;
  • to meditate through Scripture on the depths of His sufferings;
  • to remember His sacrifice;
  • to thank and worship Him for His gift of salvation;
  • to listen to what the Holy Spirit would speak to me.

On this holy day of Passion week, may we take time to prayerfully ponder the meaning of what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. Let’s remember the ways Jesus shed His precious blood and the benefits He purchased for each of us. It cost Him everything, but by His grace, it costs us nothing. How wonderful that salvation is a free gift!

For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. 

Ephesians 2:8-9 NKJV

Christ shed His blood in seven places.

Let’s discuss the seven places Christ shed His blood (if you wish to read a medical explanation of how Jesus could be born with pure and sinless blood, click HERE).

The seven places where Jesus shed His blood fulfilled Old Testament Scripture in Leviticus 16. When the Jewish High Priest made atonement for the sins of the people once a year, he sprinkled blood seven times on the mercy seat, seven times in front of the mercy seat, and seven times on the horns of the altar. (Click HERE to read the full account in Leviticus 16:11-19 NKJV.)

The first place Jesus shed His blood happened during His prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. 

“And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly. Then His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground” (Luke 22:44 NKJV). Just as in the Garden of Eden where Man lost his state of innocence through Adam’s sin, it was in this garden that Jesus’s blood began the redemption process for all mankind.

The second place occurred when Pilate ordered His scourging.

They flogged the back of Jesus with thirty-nine lashes–just under the legal limit of forty. “Then he released Barabbas to them; and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered Him to be crucified” (Matthew 27:26 NKJV). This blood paid for all our sicknesses and diseases: “The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5b NKJV).

The bruises he bore under His skin marked the third place He bled for us. 

“Then they spat in His face and beat Him; and others struck Him with the palms of their hands, saying, ‘Prophesy to us, Christ! Who is the one who struck You?’ (Matthew 26:67-68 NKJV). This blood was shed for our inherited weaknesses or iniquities, as Isaiah states. “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5a NKJV).

The crown of long thorns the soldiers wove and pushed onto Jesus’s head was the fourth place He shed His holy blood. 

This blood gives us the mind of Christ, freeing our thoughts from the control of the enemy. (Click HERE to read this account in Matthew 27:27-31 NKJV.)

When the centurion drove the nails into Jesus’s hands and feet, these were the fifth and sixth places Christ bled for us. 

His blood-stained hands freed us to receive all that God has for us and to lift our hands in holy prayer (Click HERE to read 1 Timothy 2:8 NKJV). His blood-stained feet gave us back dominion on the earth that we lost through Adam’s sin. Through His blood, we can claim righteousness and power over Satan wherever our feet touch the ground (Click HERE to read Luke 10:19 NKJV).

The blood and water that came out of His side was the seventh place He shed His blood for us. 

After Jesus had surrendered His spirit into God’s hands, the centurion speared His side. (Click HERE to read John 19:31-37 NKJV). The release of blood and water proved medically that Jesus’s heart had burst, making this blood the provision for the healing of our broken hearts.

Dear Lord, may we truly understand the depth of Your love for us. Thank you for suffering and dying in our place on this holy day. We worship You, precious Lamb of God. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

May the Lord touch you as we continue worshiping with Kari Jobe and Gateway Worship.

The Passion of Christ by Karen Jurgens copyright 2021 and 2023 All rights reserved.

Despising the Shame

/ Karen / 2 Comments

“…looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Hebrews 12:2 NKJV

As Christian believers, we observe the crucifixion of Christ beginning on Maundy Thursday and concluding on Good Friday. This year Passover will intersect with Good Friday on April 7th. The Passover story celebrates the Israelites’ deliverance from Egyptian bondage and their redemption through the blood of a lamb. Jesus became that Passover lamb when he died for our sins and redeemed us with His blood. Christ is truly the fulfillment of Passover as seen in the book of Revelation where He is referred to as “the Lamb of God” twenty-nine times.

The definition of shame

When Jesus died as our Passover Lamb, He bore our sins and despised the shame. What is the meaning of shame? The Merriam-Webster online dictionary defines it as, “a painful emotion caused by consciousness of guilt, shortcoming, or impropriety;  a condition of humiliating disgrace or disrepute; something that brings censure or reproach” (Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/shame).

We have all experienced shame at some point in our lives. The good news is that Jesus not only took our sins to the cross, He also took away our disgrace. When we humbly confess our sin and receive God’s forgiveness, He throws both sin and shame into the Sea of Forgetfulness.

Freedom from sin involves Jesus’s blood, which cleanses our spirits, while freedom from shame involves cleansing our minds and emotions. Since habits and memories dwell in a deep place in our souls, we must allow the Lord to purify them with His sinless and atoning blood. We may not be able to forget them completely, but Jesus can take away the sorrow and pain, and give us His perfect peace that defies logic.

Let’s regard shame another way. Did you know that it can also refer to physical nakedness?

Adam and Eve’s shame

 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 2:25 NKJV

Adam and Eve experienced shame and fear after they ate of the forbidden fruit. Their sin opened their eyes to their nakedness, and they hid from God’s presence. How did God react?

Also for Adam and his wife the Lord God made tunics of skin, and clothed them.

Genesis 3:21 NKJV

Why is this act significant? God slayed an innocent animal–perhaps a lamb–marking this event as the first blood covering for forgiveness of sins. God requires a blood sacrifice for sin, which continued until Jesus, the perfect Lamb of God, shed His sinless blood once for all for the sins of mankind.

King David’s guilt

Psalm 51 reveals King David’s heart when he repented from his sin against Bathsheba and Uriah.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Psalm 51:7 NKJV

David also pleaded with God to cleanse his guilty conscience so he could again sing praises to Him:

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
The God of my salvation,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.

Psalm 51:14 NKJV

Jesus bore our shame

Let’s envision Jesus as He hung on the cross. Do you know that the familiar artwork of Christ is partly wrong? The Romans imposed a cruel penalty, crucifying a person naked. On that Passover day, Jesus wore no loin cloth. Yet, although He despised the shame of His nakedness, He endured it for our sakes and for the joy placed before Him.

For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’

Romans 10:11 NKJV

What a wonderful promise! No shame for believers! No condemnation, as Romans 8 explains:

There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

Romans 8:1-2 NKJV

As we ponder the wondrous cross on this day of Christ’s passion, may God give us a deeper and fuller understanding of what Jesus purchased for each one of us. He has freely given us this priceless gift of salvation and taken away our guilt and shame.

Let’s pray with King David:

O Lord, open my lips,

And my mouth shall show forth Your praise.

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;

You do not delight in burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,

A broken and a contrite heart—

These, O God, You will not despise.

Psalm 51:15-17 NKJV

“Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and keeps his garments, lest he walk naked and they see his shame.”

Revelation 16:15 NKJV

Dear Father, we humbly worship You on this day when You suffered and died for our sin and shame. Apply Your blood to our hearts, just as the Jews applied lamb’s blood to their doorposts. Deliver us from the evil one, just as You delivered the enslaved Jews from the Egyptian Pharaoh. Thank you for freeing us from sin and shame through the cross of Christ. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

Despising the Shame by Karen Jurgens Copyright 2022 All rights reserved

Dread in the Garden of Gethsemane

/ Karen / 4 Comments
Dread in the Garden of Gethsemane by Karen Jurgens

Jesus faced incomprehensible dread as He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane.

What do you dread?

  • The first day of school?
  • A medical diagnosis?
  • Facing a new job?
  • Speaking in front of a group?

No matter our circumstances, we all can plug in a memory that makes our palms sweat and our stomachs knot, where we’re forced to tiptoe through a tunnel laced with fear of the unknown.

Do you think Jesus felt dread on Thursday night following the Passover meal? Unlike us, He knew the future because He was God as well as Man. As He entered the Garden of Gethsemane with His disciples, as was His custom, He encouraged them to pray that they not enter into temptation.

And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray, saying, ‘Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.’ Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.

When He rose up from prayer, and had come to His disciples, He found them sleeping from sorrow. Then He said to them, ‘Why do you sleep? Rise and pray, lest you enter into temptation.‘

Luke 22:41-46 NASB

Can you imagine drops of sweat turning into blood?

I researched that condition and found that it’s indeed possible. Blood vessels clustered near the sweat glands can burst under extreme stress, producing bloody sweat. (To read more about drops of sweat turning into blood, follow this link.)

Luke, a physician, is the only apostle who includes this detail about Jesus. It lends understanding about the tremendous dread our Lord must have felt as He prepared to suffer and surrender His life for the sins of all mankind—past, present and future. God even sent an angel to minister strength to Him in that hour.

On this Maundy Thursday, let’s reverently give humble thanks to our precious Lord who willfully pressed through the dread of the coming cross. There He would painfully bear our sins, knowing He would face temporary separation from the Father—the price He willingly paid to redeem us at Calvary.

The precious blood of the Lamb sets us free from sin and death.

My prayer is for all to find salvation in Jesus, God’s perfect Passover Lamb. Would you like to know Jesus personally? These verses tell how:

…if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the Scripture says, ‘WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for ‘WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’

Romans 10:9-13 NASB

Dear Lord, may we come to the cross, confess and turn from our sins, and invite You into our hearts. Thank You for saving us and writing our names in the Lamb’s Book of Life, so we may spend eternity with You in heaven. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

May God richly bless you this Resurrection Season as together we worship our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus.

Dread in the Garden of Gethsemane by Karen Jurgens Copyright 2017 and 2023 All rights reserved.

Resurrection Week: Palm Sunday

/ Karen / 2 Comments

Have you ever wondered about the significance of waving palm branches to the Lord? Let’s glean a richer understanding of this Palm Sunday celebration. Come along as I share this nugget from God’s treasure chest with you.

“The next day a great multitude that had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went out to meet Him, and cried out: ‘Hosanna!“ Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!” The King of Israel!’”

John 12:12-13 NKJV

Here’s the story…

As Jesus and His disciples approached Jerusalem, He sent two of them ahead to find and untie a colt on which no one had sat. The Lord instructed them to answer anyone who questioned their actions by saying that the Lord had need of it, so they would allow it. As the disciples obeyed, it happened exactly as Jesus had said. They spread their cloaks over the animal’s back where Jesus then sat and led him down the hill into Jerusalem.

When the multitudes who had come to the feast heard that Jesus was arriving, they ran to meet Him. They laid their cloaks on the ground and cut down leafy branches as a “red carpet” for Jesus’s entrance into the city. The excited crowds consisted of those from Bethany who had witnessed Lazarus’s resurrection from the dead and those in Jerusalem who had heard about this great sign. They congregated joyfully around Him, waving palm branches and chanting Scripture taken from Psalm 118:25-26:  “Hosanna! ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!’ The King of Israel!” (John 12:13 NKJV).

The Jews intended to cast off Caesar and his Roman rule and crown Jesus as their king. This uproar, however, distressed the Pharisees because they were losing the fight to suppress His popularity. Caiaphas expressed fear over what would happen to them politically, realizing they had to side with Rome against Jesus in order to save themselves.

What’s the significance?

What is the significance of people waving palm branches? We can trace this practice in both the Old and New Testaments.

In Leviticus 23:39-44 (Click HERE), the Israelites waved beautiful palm branches for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles (also called the Feast of Booths or Sukkot). This feast memorializes how God brought them out of slavery from the land of Egypt.  (For more study about the Feast of Tabernacles, click HERE.)

During Jesus’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem, the people rejoiced by waving palm branches in His honor.  They welcomed the deliverance they believed He was bringing to them—freedom from Roman tyranny and the political occupation of Israel. They honored Him as a king riding victoriously into His kingdom. A worldly king would come riding on a horse—a symbol of war—but He came riding on a donkey’s colt—a symbol of peace.  Later the disciples would understand how this act fulfilled Zechariah 9:9:

“‘Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion!
Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem!
Behold, your King is coming to you;
He is just and having salvation,
Lowly and riding on a donkey,
A colt, the foal of a donkey.’”

NKJV

Future Significance

Lastly, we find a future waving of palm branches during a thrilling time in heaven.  Revelation 7:9 describes those who will be saved out of the Great Tribulation wearing white robes and holding palm branches. They will cry out, “‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (v.10). (Click HERE to read more about it.)

Do you understand why waving palm branches is significant to God?  It represents people showing thanks for God’s deliverance.

  • In Leviticus, God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt and entrance back into their Promised Land.
  • The Gospels describe how the Jews expected deliverance from Rome’s political tyranny and the beginning of Messiah’s reign.
  • Revelation reveals the Lamb of God who will deliver a multitude from the evil rule of the Anti-Christ. They will stand before God’s throne and will serve Him day and night in His temple.

The triumphant entry into Jerusalem will happen one day in the future.
At the Second Coming of Christ, Jesus will be riding on a white horse, not a donkey’s colt.  He will come to make war on the Anti-Christ and destroy his reign. This is the age when the Messiah’s eternal reign will begin. (Click HERE to read Revelation 19:11-16.)

As we joyfully wave our palm branches on Palm Sunday, let’s remember to be deeply thankful to God for His gift of deliverance.  Jesus loosed us from the bondage of sin and death and gave us the right to become God’s sons and daughters through Jesus’s shed blood. We will be joint-heirs with Christ in His kingdom forever.

“But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”

John 1:12 NKJV

Dear Lord, thank you for becoming our King of kings and Lord of lords. We wave our palm branches to you with hearts full of thanksgiving and praise for Your gift of deliverance. In Jesus’s Name, Amen.

Resurrection Week: Palm Sunday by Karen Jurgens, Copyright 2021 and 2023 All rights reserved.