Jesus’ power over death

September 29, 2025
Image: freebibleimages.org

In the Bible we see that Jesus had the power over death. He raised at least three people from the dead and He Himself was raised to life.

  1. Lazarus – in John 11:38-44 we see Jesus raised Lazarus to life. He had been dead and buried for four days, but Jesus brought him back.
  2. Jairus’ daughter – in Matthew 9:18-26 Jesus raised the officials daughter after she died. The man came and asked Jesus to heal her, but she died while he was away. Jesus raised her to life.
  3. Widows only son – in Luke 7:11-15 Jesus came across a funeral procession. He told the young man to get up and he was raised to life. Jesus then gave him back to his mother.

As I read these three stories afresh they gave me a great hope. Hope that nothing is impossible to Jesus in this life. He even has the power over death!

As Christian we know that when we die we will be raised to life to be with Jesus. We will meet Him in heaven first and we will come back with Him when He calls time on this world.

1 Thessalonians 4:15-18 NLT
[15] We tell you this directly from the Lord: We who are still living when the Lord returns will not meet him ahead of those who have died. [16] For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. [17] Then, together with them, we who are still alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. [18] So encourage each other with these words.

Knowing that Jesus has the power over death means that nothing is impossible for Him in this life. Knowing that when this life is over we will spend eternity with Him gives me hope.

Today I want to encourage you with this great hope – nothing is impossible for Jesus. He can raise the dead and He can give us eternal life as we put our hope and trust in Him.

If you have not trusted Jesus for your salvation, I would encourage you to visit my finding salvation page.

What could I do more of…?

September 23, 2025

What could you do more of?

I would like more the Holy Spirit in my life. I would like to be empowered to live like Jesus and display more of the fruit of the Spirit in the world around me.

But in truth it is not about me getting more of the Holy Spirit, it is about the Holy Spirit getting more of me!

Paul Little in his book “Know What You Believe” said,“To be filled with the Spirit means we allow Him to occupy, guide, and control every area of our lives. His power can then work through us, making us effectively fruitful for God and flooding our hearts with His joy” (p. 78).

When we come to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we become born again by the Holy Spirit. He then takes up residence in us to empower us and make us more like Christ. So as Christians we all have the same Holy Spirit, in the same measure, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:9-11).

As Paul Little says in his book, it is about allowing the Holy Spirit free reign in our lives. It is allowing Him to have all of us in complete surrender. Then He can live in and through us.

If I am honest, this sounds really scary and really exciting at the same time! But what a journey it would be if we surrendered fully to the Holy Spirit. Imagine the difference we could make in this world.

Fight for your faith

September 21, 2025

1 Timothy 6:11-12 NLT – But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. [12] Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.

I love the words Paul uses in this passage to Timothy. He uses words like run, pursue, fight, and hold tightly. They are all active words that are actions.

Some times we need to sit and wait on God to act on our behalf. At other times we need to be active in our faith and press on and do what only we can do.

In this passage Paul tells Timothy to run from all evils things. Paul knows that evil things can shipwreck our faith. Running from them reminds us that we need to turn our back on evil and get away from it.

Next he gives Timothy the antidote for evil things – pursue righteousness and a godly life. How do we do this? By crowding out the bad things with good. Read the Bible, pray, serve in church.

Finally Paul tells Timothy to hold tightly to eternal life. We must hold on to our hope in Christ. Have faith in God, believe in His promises and look forward expectantly to Jesus coming back. He is our eternal hope.

Life without music?

September 18, 2025

What would your life be like without music?

I could not imagine what life would be life with music. It would certainly be different.

I love all types of music and I love singing along to my favourite songs, especially in the car where no one else can hear me! Although my wife assures me I have a good singing voice, I am not a confident singer.

Music is also tied in to worship for me. Some of my favourite songs are worship songs. I love to sing and worship God alone, but I also love worshipping with others in church.

So I think my life would be very different without music, especially worship music.