How much is Jesus worth?

$15 for a Bible, $10 for a necklace with a cross, $2 to put in the offering plate in church on Sunday and maybe $20 for the Salvation Army once a year… Christianity really seems to be quite affordable. But is that all it takes to be Christian? Somebody might say you must give 10% of your income to God. But even that is quite affordable. Is Jesus worth only that much? Just our loose change and maybe a little extra every now and then?

Think about it: What is most the most valuable thing or person in the universe, which we should give everything for in order to get? The answer is simple: Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ surpasses riches, family, health, religion, houses, holidays, fame, cars, fun, music, sex, drugs and football by far. This life on earth will soon be over and all you have accumulated and achieved will be gone forever. Here today and gone tomorrow. But one thing will not be gone - your soul. Your soul will live on forever in one of two places: heaven or hell. Then everything you have lived for on earth will account for nothing and will be worthless – unless you lived for Christ.

Jesus once said,

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? (Mark 8:36-37)

Your soul is far more valuable than everything this world offers. Therefore, you should make it your top priority in this life to guard and protect your soul and make sure that it is not lost in the everlasting torments in hell when this life is over. Seriously, who cares about movies or football? Don’t get me wrong. These things are not necessarily bad in themselves. I love football. But they are completely worthless and absurd in light of eternity! What difference will it make to your life 100 years from now? Hopefully, these kind of things will not make the decisive difference in that they kept you away from the most important thing - the salvation of your soul.

Jesus Christ is the One who will make the difference when it comes to the eternal destiny of your soul. Therefore, He is infinitely valuable. All the money in the world cannot buy your way into heaven. Jesus has already paid the price for you by shedding his own blood on the cross and dying for the sins of the world. God gave everything so that you could be forgiven. And this shows you how great your sins are in the sight of God – the perfect, holy Son of God had to suffer a cruel death on the cross and suffer God’s wrath. It was the only way your sins could be forgiven.

What will you give in order to know this God and have Jesus Christ as your Saviour? In one of His parables, Jesus made the following point:

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field. (Matthew 13:44)

This is what Jesus is worth – everything. All your possessions, all your time, all your money, all your health, all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, all your dreams, all your relationships, all your past, all your present, all your future. Every penny, every word, every thought, every deed, every breath, every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year. All your life.

Not only is Jesus worth giving up everything in order to know Him, He is also worth giving up everything in order to make Him known to others, even if this means being ridiculed, despised, hated, persecuted, abused and tormented by others for His sake. The apostle Paul regarded these things merely as a “light affliction” compared with the “far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor. 4:13). This kind of attitude has also been demonstrated by countless Christians who have died for their faith throughout history – from the earliest days of Christianity right until today.

The great Protestant reformer Martin Luther, whose life was under threat when chose to remain true to his faith in Christ, penned these words in the last stanza of his famous hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”:

Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also;

The body they may kill: God's truth abideth still,

His kingdom is forever.

Somebody once said, “Until you find something worth dying for, you’re not really living.”

Are you clinging on to worthless, deadly pleasures, or are you giving everything for the greatest treasure?

Jesus’ worth is immeasurable. Treasure Him above everything.

(The 5-minute video below probably does a much better job of communicating what I am trying to put down in my own words.)

See, amid the winter's snow...

Haven't we been surprised by all of the snow in recent weeks?!? Well, at least here in Europe... It seems like everybody is commenting and twittering and blogging and posting photos about the snow! Okay, so now it's my turn!

Let's start with some pictures from the snow we had earlier this month in North Cotes, close to the end of the school term - from what I heard, it was the heaviest snowfall in that area anyone can remember!

Credit goes to Marina for most of these photos - thanks for letting me use them!

Because of the snow, we had a number of prolonged power and internet outages and, for a few days, we were completely cut off from civilisation as the only road out of the neighbourhood was impassable! The annual Christmas programme had to be cancelled for safety reasons and a number of local churches in Grimsby also cancelled their Sunday services.

All of this was just a week or so before term break when we were to go home again, so we were getting a bit worried about whether that would even be possible. But, praise God, the snow melted away more and more, so that everyone could get out once the holidays began! :-)

There were no problems whatsoever on the road driving back to Germany, but then the very next day it started snowing again! This past weekend, I went to a wedding in northern Bavaria, where we saw even crazier amounts of snow! See for yourself...

As Christmas approaches, all of the snow brings to mind a lovely Christmas carol:

See, amid the winter's snow,

Born for us on Earth below,

See, the tender Lamb appears,

Promised from eternal years.

Hail, thou ever blessed morn,

Hail redemption's happy dawn,

Sing through all Jerusalem,

Christ is born in Bethlehem.

Lo, within a manger lies

He who built the starry skies;

He who, throned in height sublime,

Sits among the cherubim.

Say, ye holy shepherds,say,

What your joyful news today;

Wherefore have ye left your sheep

On the lonely mountain steep?

"As we watched at dead of night,

Lo, we saw a wondrous light:

Angels singing 'Peace On Earth'

Told us of the Saviour's birth."

Sacred Infant, all divine,

What a tender love was Thine,

Thus to come from highest bliss

Down to such a world as this.

Teach, O teach us, Holy Child,

By Thy face so meek and mild,

Teach us to resemble Thee,

In Thy sweet humility.

Merry Christmas, everybody! Hopefully any snow you may have will add to the Christmas spirit and remind you of the wonderful words of this beautiful carol. What a wonder that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to earth to bring us peace and hope and life!

kʰæn ju ɹid ðɪs?

wɛlkʌm tʰu ðə ɪntənæʃnəl fənɛtɪk ælfəbɛt (ɑⁱpieⁱ) wɛɹ wɹdz ɑɹ spɛld ɛgsækli æz ðɛⁱ ɑɹ pɹoᵘnæᵘnst. ðɪs ɪz wʌd ɑⁱ hæv bɪn lɹnɪŋ ðə pʰæst fju wiks ɪn mɑⁱ kʰɹɔs kʰʌltʃʊɹəl kʰɔmjunɪkeⁱʃnz kl̥æs. si bɪloᵘ foɹ sʌm pɪktʃəɹz ænd wɑtʃ dænjəl mɛⁱk ə mɛs ɔv θɪŋz.




Translation:

Can you read this?

Welcome to the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) where words are spelled exactly as they are pronounced. This is what I have been learning the past few weeks in my Cross-Cultural Communications class. See below for some pictures and watch Daniel make a mess of things.

And here is Daniel trying out one of those difficult R sounds...
 

 
The most fun class of the year so far! =)

Please repent of your sin

Please repent of your sin.
It is killing you.
It is killing others.
It is contributing to the horrific nature of the world.
It is separating you from God.
It could cause you to spend eternity in the conscious, eternal torments of hell.

Repentance is a gift that God gives.
Repentance is the love of God in action.
Repentance is only possible because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.

And friends, you and I, we are sinners. And Jesus came to save sinners.

These words were spoken by Mark Driscoll in a sermon about the fall of man. Don't take this as a personal accusation or judgment from my part. I am just as bad a sinner as anyone else and I know it. So I am not pointing the finger at you. But the Bible says that we all are sinners and God warns us about the consequences of sin. Don't let sin destroy you. Come to Christ in repentance and let him change your heart.

As the great Puritan writer John Owen said, "Be killing sin or it will be killing you."

6 minutes of good news

No matter what nation or people group or culture or language or religion, the gospel is good news for everybody. It is good news for you. Good news for every day of your life and for all eternity.

Will you take just 6 minutes to watch the following video about the gospel and find out how this is good news for you?



Think about it.

Meditate on it.

Let it sink in.

Believe the gospel and live.

You never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never, never outgrow your need for the gospel!

Woodlands survival

Last week, I spent 4 days out in the woodlands in Derbyshire receiving survival training with my classmates as part of our Cross-Cultural Communication course. On site, we were provided with a few pots and pans, a limited amount of water every day, and an experienced instructor to give us training in how to survive in the woods. We were able to bring our sleeping bags and clothes and food, but only what we were able to carry on our backs. Tents were not allowed. We would have to learn how to build our own shelters from what is available in the woods.

We packed our cars early Monday morning and drove for about 2 1/2 hours to a place in Derbyshire where we could leave our cars.

From there, we hiked about 40 minutes into the woods.

After we arrived, our instructor Dave first taught us how to build a shelter.

And then it was up to us to gather materials for a shelter...

... and to make a shelter that would hopefully be waterproof!

Here is the finished product and my bed for the next three nights (with a makeshift mattress out of branches and foilage)!

This was what our camp looked like:

We learned how to make string from plants...

... start a fire ...

... even without any matchsticks or the like!

Plenty of smoke!

And useful for roasting a chicken or two!

We also learned how to make traps for animals...

 ... and where and how to find and make sense of animal tracks.

We had great weather every day, with just a few raindrops landing on my face on Thursday morning at around 5 a.m. - because my head was sticking outside of the shelter, not because my shelter wasn't waterproof! ;-)

And then it was time to pack our bags and head back to the car park again.

Goodbye woodlands!

The first to arrive back at the car park! =)

All in all a great experience - learned lots of interesting new things and had a good few days out in the woods with my classmates!

Life without limits!

Are you living life to the full? Or are you struggling with your daily circumstances and quickly become depressed? Life is not always easy. In fact, everyone of us will have to go through really difficult times. But this does not mean that there is no hope and we cannot have joy.

This morning in church, I was greatly encouraged when we watched the following amazing video about Nick Vujicic, a man who probably has much more reason to despair of his circumstances than any of us, but whose life nevertheless is bursting forth with joy. If he can find joy in his condition, then so can you!






Visit Nick's website at www.lifewithoutlimbs.org.

Jesus says: "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." (John 10:10b)