Church Of Christ Ime-Obi Agbor

Prayer: Power from God

Prayer has the power to move mountains. This is certainly so if our prayer is to the God of Ages. Yes, there are many examples of prayers in the Bible which have literally changed the world. Moses parted the Red Sea and Israel vanquished great armies, and many other events are examples of the power of prayer.

The power of prayer lies in the power of the God of Ages and His willingness to listen to our requests and to respond in a powerful way because He cares about us. Prayer is powerful because our God is powerful.

Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, that you and your descendants might live! Choose to love the LORD your God and to obey him and commit yourself to him, for he is your life. Then you will live long in the land the LORD swore to give your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”— Dueteronomy 30:19-20
Life is full of choices. Some are made for you, the rest you make. You cannot choose to be born, but you can choose how to live. You are not free to select your DNA, but you can choose to pursue a career. The choices you make shape the life you will live.

Before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses required them to choose how they would respond to God and to face what would happen as a result—choices and consequences. He also explained that if they strayed from God’s path and were disciplined by him, they should return to him and be reconciled to him. But whether sooner or later, the choice between life and death was clear: loving God meant life, while turning away from him meant death.
We today still need to confront courageously the choice between life and death, blessing and cursing. Blessing is not automatic. It does not flow unbidden into a man’s life. Blessing comes when we respond affirmatively to the Lord’s call to live obediently. Echoing Moses, Jesus said, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind” (Matt. 22:37), and he commanded potential disciples, “Follow me.” In words similar to Moses’, Jesus warned people, “You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a fewer people ever find it” (7:13-14). God still lays before us the options of trusting obedience.

Continued lesson.
The resurrection of the dead.
Ordinary men have no power with death.
The famous magician, Houdini, was fascinated with the subject of communication with the dead, and wanted to prove that it was possible. He diligently planned an experiment in which he hoped to communicate with his wife after his death. After he died, however, nothing at all of the planned experiment was realized, to the great disappointment of his loving wife. Houdini had no power after death.
Houdini's failure is a simple reminder of the human limitations surrounding the fact of death. None of us had power over our own birth, and we will ultimately have very little power over our death.

Jesus, on the other hand, was the first and only person to have the ability to resuscitate himself after three days in the grave. Subsequently through Jesus Christ, ordinary men are given the opportunity to affect their destinies beyond the grave.

Scripture strongly supports the notion of life after death.

"It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:" (Hebrews 9:27).
If death of the body meant annihilation, then there could be no judgment afterward.

Solomon taught that the body of a man returns to the dust from which it came, and the spirit of man returns to God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

John saw the souls of the righteous dead under the altar in heaven, praying for the day of God's vengeance on their persecutors. (Revelation 6:9). They were given white robes and told to wait for the rest of their brethren who were yet to come.

Paul taught that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Corinthians 5:8).

There are eternal benefits associated with living for God.

Psalm 58:11 declares that "there is a reward for the righteous." Conversely, "there shall be no reward to the evil man" (Proverbs 24:20).

Daniel spoke of two very different kinds of resurrections: "some to everlasting life, some to everlasting shame and contempt" (Daniel 12:3).

The Resurrection of the Dead
Jesus Proved that the Dead Can Live Again.
I cannot think of a more enticing discussion. Can the dead be raised? History shows they can be. Jesus showed that fact clearer than anyone who ever lived. After raising several people from the dead during his lifetime, He personally returned from the dead after three days.
Let's talk about it.
If Jesus could do what He did, what are the real possibilities?

"But now is Christ risen from the dead,
and become the firstfruits of them that slept."
1 Corinthians 15:20
Here is a subject that is both controversial and enigmatic. Will dead men really live again?

Christians are at the forefront of this controversy. No other segment of society holds the views we do in this important matter.
Paul was straightforward in his approach to the subject of the resurrection:
"But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:

And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain. Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.

For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept," (I Corinthians 15: 13-20).
With those words, Paul sets forth his own firm belief that Jesus is in very fact alive from the dead. Our eternal hope, and our ultimate motivation for living for God today rests in those statements.
One single fact isolates Jesus Christ from every other human being who ever lived.
Jesus had complete control over his own death and resurrection.
Jesus himself explained it better in John 10: 17-18

how can I know that I am saved?
When a person first arises from that watery grave of baptism to walk in newness of life(Romans 6:1-6) he or she experience a tremendous sense of relief and comfort, the feeling of safety and security is overwhelming, this is the work of God.