****NOTE: In an effort to bring encouragement to others during these uncertain times I have recorded (albeit lamely!) some Scripture recitation. If you are interested in viewing these they are on the links below or you can go to Beth Yoe at Instagram. I will be changing out these links each Monday (Lord willing!) ****
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-xtpI9Bj8X/?igshid=uh57rjvsia12
NOW NO CONDEMNATION
BREAD
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. Romans 8:1-4 (NIV)
14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. 16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 As God’s fellow workers we urge you not to receive God’s grace in vain. 2 For he says, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” I tell you, now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day of salvation. 2 Corinthians 5:14-6:2 (NIV)
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4 Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. 5 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 wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:2-6 (NIV)
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, 14 having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. 15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. Colossians 2:13-15 (NIV)
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6:23 (NIV)
BUTTER
“When Jesus started to cry out [on the cross], he didn’t say, ‘My friends, my friends’ ‘My head, my head!’ ‘My hands, my hands!’ He said, ‘My God, my God.’ On the cross, Jesus was forsaken by God. He said, ‘My God’. That’s the language of intimacy… Jesus the Maker of the world was being unmade. Why? Jesus was experiencing our judgment day. ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?’ It wasn’t a rhetorical question. And the answer is: For you, for me, for us. Jesus was forsaken by God the Father so that we would never have to be. The judgment that should have fallen on us fell instead on Jesus.” Dr. Tim Keller, King’s Cross
“When suffering floods us — the question that often rises is WHY? Why would a loving God allow this crisis, this grief, this heartbreak, this suffering? Why does suffering happen in a world held by a Wounded God? And when suffering surrounds, the Wounded God with the nail scars, He does not ask us to deny it, or turn a blind eye to it, or beautify it. He ask us to hold space for it, to collect it, to gather it, like the questioning mystery of manna, and cup it in hand and believe that something in the suffering offers sustenance for the soul. In every hard thing that happens — God is happening to work a million things for good. The Wounded God does not say, ‘Do not fear, I will give you all the answers.’ He does not say, ‘Do not fear, I will take away all your pain.’ He does not say, ‘Do not fear, I will do whatever you all think.’ The Wounded God who is the one High, Almighty Wise God, who says it like a wide open embrace: ‘Do not fear — for I am here.’ What if instead of wanting good things for us — we wanted a good God with us? The problem of evil is answered by the presence of Emmanuel: God is with us. There are always arms under you carrying you, there are always hands carved with your name holding yours, there is always a waiting embrace Who is your safe place. You will never be abandoned — because He will never abandon you, Love will never abandon you, Hope will never abandon you, Grace will never abandon you. With-ness breaks brokenness and He who is with you is larger than any suffering around you.” Ann Voskamp
“And if you don’t lie prostrate on the ground before that cross, you have never seen it: if you are not humbled in the presence of Jesus, you don’t know Him. You were so lost that nothing could save you but the sacrifice of God’s only begotten. Think of that, and as Jesus lowered Himself for you, bow yourself in lowliness at His feet. A sense of Christ’s amazing love to us has a greater tendency to humble us than even the conscious awareness of our own guilt……Pride cannot live beneath the cross.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“Consider Christ. He was of a meek and quiet spirit, and of a most long-suffering behavior…He was very much the object of bitter contempt and reproach, and slights and despised as of but little account. Though he as the Lord of glory, yet he was set at naught, and rejected…He was the object of the spit and malice and bitter reviling of the very ones he came to save…He was called a deceiver of people, and oftentimes he was said to be mad, and possessed with the devil…He was charged with being a wicked blasphemer, and one that deserved death on that account. They hated him with morbid hatred, and wished he was dead, and from time to time tried to murder him…His life was an annoyance to them, and they hated him so they could not bear that he should live… Yet Christ meekly bored all these injuries without resentment or one word of reproach, and with heavenly quietness of spirit pass through them all…On the contrary, he prayed for his murderers, that they might be forgiven, even when they were nailing him to the cross; and not only prayed for them, but pleaded in their behalf with His Father, that they knew not what they were doing.” Jonathan Edwards
“Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy Cross I cling.” Augustus Toplady
“Many people have difficulty believing God is a God of love….If you really want to know the reality of God’s love, look at the Cross….It was love that restrained Him when He was falsely accused of blasphemy and led to Golgotha to die with common thieves. He raised not a hand against His enemies. It was love that kept Him from calling legions of angels to come to His defense. It was love that made Him, in a moment of agonizing pain, pause and give hope to a repentant sinner who cried, ‘Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom’ (Luke 23:42)….Does God love us? Yes….and the proof is the Cross.” Billy Graham
“Don’t sit in the shadow of the broom tree saying, ‘It is enough!’ Instead, sit in the shadow of the cross and say, ‘It is finished!’” Paige Benton Brown
“How deep the Father’s love for us, how vast beyond all measure that He should give His only Son to make a wretch His treasure. How great the pain of searing loss, the Father turns His face away As wounds which mar the chosen One, bring many sons to glory. Behold the Man upon a cross, my sin upon His shoulders ashamed I hear my mocking voice, call out among the scoffers. It was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished His dying breath has brought me life I know that it is finished. I will not boast in anything no gifts, no power, no wisdom but I will boast in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection. Why should I gain from His reward? I cannot give an answer but this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom.” Stuart Townsend
“See the cross. See who was hanging there, why he had to die, and why he couldn’t stay dead. Sin is worse than we think. The good news is better than you imagine. Jesus lived. Jesus died. Jesus lives again. Christ arose. Christ reigns. Christ will return. We have sinned. We will die. We can live again. Let us not tire of singing the same old songs. Let us not be bored in preaching the same good news. And let us never grow weary of the old rugged cross.” Kevin DeYoung
“When Jesus is Lord of a life there is a deep and reverential awareness of accountability to Him coupled with a strong affection to please Him in all that we say and do. It really does matter how we live our lives. It will be either for Him Who spoke the world into being as well as died for our sins on the cross or we live for ourselves. We will either serve the Creator or the created. “Lord” rightly means owner, master, might and power.” BHY
“The most important thing in life isn’t what we think about ourselves or what others think about us, but what God thinks about us. He is the final Judge. When He examines and evaluates our motives, words, and actions, are we commended, as was Abel, or are we condemned, as was his brother Cain? ‘The Lord does not look at the things man looks at,’ God told the prophet Samuel. ‘Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart’ (1 Sam. 16:7). Warren Wiersbe
HEART SAVOR
• In Christ, there is now no condemnation.
• Jesus took away my sins by nailing them to the cross.
• He rescued me “from this body of death”.
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 