One of our dear sisters from the care group blessed us with 3 tickets to the musical performance 'Voyage De La Vie' at Sentosa Resorts World. God is really so good. For this free favor from God, I felt so loved by God like the last time we went for a buffet lunch at Hard Rock Hotel and there was a one-for-one promotion. The tickets were at the stall and they were the most expensive tickets. It would have cost us $400 for our whole family to watch the performance. Yet because of God's unmerited favour on us, these tickets came FREE! It was good entertainment and best of all, Joshua enjoyed it very much despite the loud sounds and fire and smoke.
All these blessings were made possible because of one Man's death on the cross. He is Jesus Christ. Because of what He did at the cross 2000 years ago, we are still enjoying the benefits of what He purchased for us at the cross. In today's Resurrection Sunday's message, Pastor Prince preached about why in the old testament, God always seemed to favor the younger son over the elder one though the eldest son had the birthrights to the best blessings. The eldest son was rejected yet the younger son was blessed and loved. Examples are: Jacob over Esau, Ephraim over Manasseh and the prodigal son over his elder brother.
In Genesis 48:13-20, Joseph brought his sons Manasseh and Ephraim for his father Jacob to bless. He purposely placed Manasseh the eldest son at Jacob's right hand and Ephraim at Jacob's left hand. Yet Jacob stretched his right hand and laid it on Ephraim's head and his left hand on Manasseh's head. (By doing this, Jacob was crossing his hand, which is a picture of the cross.) Jacob pronounced that the younger son shall be greater than the elder one.
Pastor Prince said that God our Father had rejected His eldest son Jesus Christ (who is also the firstborn) so that all of us, the younger sons could be accepted and loved. Wow, to me, it is such a revelation! It is totally unfair but we get to enjoy all that Christ has done for us; the most important of all being the forgiveness of our sins. The fact that Jesus is risen from the dead meant that He has paid the penalty for all our sins and God our Father has accepted His payment totally.
After He is risen, Jesus is now seated at the right hand of God interceding for us. He is our Mediator, our Advocate. The Father is pleased with Jesus and hence He is also pleased with us because we are in Christ. As Christ is, so are we in this world. We do not have to rely on our efforts focusing and reflecting on how we could be more Christ-like or how we could emulate Jesus' example. We just have to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord and we are effortlessly changed into the same image by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor 3:18). Oh how lovely is my Lord Jesus!
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