JESUS APPEARS TO SEVEN DISCIPLES

After this, Jesus appeared once more to his disciples at Lake Tiberias. This is how it happened. Simon Peter, Thomas (called the Twin), Nathanael (the one from Cana in Galilee), the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples of Jesus were all together.  Simon Peter said to the others, “I am going fishing.”

“We will come with you,”  they told him.  So they went out in a boat,  but all that night they did not catch a thing.  As the sun was rising, Jesus stood at the water’s edge, but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.   Then he asked them, “Young men, haven’t you caught anything?”

  “Not a thing,” they answered.

  He said to them, “Throw your net out on the right side of the boat, and you will catch some.”  So they threw the net out and could not pull it back in,  because they had caught so many fish.

  The  disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”  When  Peter heard that it was the Lord, he wrapped his outer garment round him (for he had taken his clothes off) and jumped into the water.  The other disciples came to shore in the boat pulling the net full of fish.   They were not very far from land, about a hundred metres away.  When they stepped ashore, they saw a charcoal fire there with fish on it and some bread.  Then Jesus said to them, “Bring some of the fish you have just caught.”

  Simon Peter went aboard and dragged the net ashore full of big fish, a hundred and fifty-three in all; even though there were so many, still the net did not tear.  Jesus said to them, “Come and eat.”  None of the disciples dared ask him, “Who are you?” because they knew it was the Lord.  So Jesus went over, took the bread, and gave it to them; he did the same with the fish.

  This, then, was the third time Jesus appeared to the disciples after he was raised from death.

 (John 21:1-14)

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May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

JESUS APPEARS TO HIS DISCIPLES

While the two were telling them this, suddenly the Lord himself stood among them and said to them.  “Peace be with you.” 

They were terrified, thinking that they were seeing a ghost.  But he said to them, “Why are you alarmed?  Why are these doubts coming up in your minds?  Look at my hands and my feet, and see that it is I myself.   Feel  me, and you will know for a ghost doesn’t  have flesh and bones, as you can see I  have.”

He said this and showed them his hands and his feet.  They still could not believe,  they were so full  of joy and wonder;  so he asked them, “Have you anything here to eat?  They  gave him a piece of cooked fish,  which he took and ate in their presence.

Then he said to them,  “These are the very things I told you about while I was still with you:  everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the writings of the prophets, and the Psalms had to come true.”

Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, and said to them, “This is what is written:  the Messiah must suffer and must rise from death three days later, and in his name the message about repentance and the forgiveness of sins must be preached to all nations,  beginning in Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.   And I myself  send upon you what my Father has promised.  But  you must wait in the city until the power  from  above come down upon you.”

 (Luke 24:36-49)

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May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

PETER’S MESSAGE

“All the people of Israel, then, are to know for sure that this Jesus, whom you crucified, is the one that God has made Lord and Messiah!”

When the people heard this, they were deeply troubled and said to Peter and the other apostles, “What shall we do, brothers?”

Peter said to them, “Each one of you must turn away from his sins and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins will be forgiven; and you will receive God’s gift, the Holy Spirit. For God’s promise was made to you and your children, and to all who are far away--- all whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”

Peter made his appeal to them and with many other words he urged them saying, “Save yourselves from the punishment coming on this wicked people!” Many of them believed his message and were baptized, and about three thousand people were added to the group that day.

(Acts 2:36-41)

May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

THE WALK TO EMMAUS

On that same day two of Jesus’ followers were going to a village named Emmaus, about eleven kilometres from Jerusalem, and they were talking to each other about all the things that had happened.  As they talked and discussed, Jesus Himself drew near and walked along with them; they saw Him, but somehow did not recognise Him.  Jesus said to them, “What are you talking about to each other, as you walk along?”

They stood still, with sad faces.  One of them, named Cleopas, asked Him, “Are you the only visitor in Jerusalem who doesn’t know the things that have been happening there these last few days?”

“What things?” He asked.

“The things that happened to Jesus of Nazareth,” they answered.  “This man was a prophet and was considered by God and by all the people to be powerful in everything He said and did.  Our chief priests and rulers handed Him over to be sentenced to death, and He was crucified.  And we had hoped that He would be the one who was going to set Israel free!  Besides all that, this is now the third day since it happened.  Some of the women of our group surprised us; they went at dawn to the tomb, but could not find His body.  They came back saying that had seen a vision of angels who told them that He is alive.  Some of our group went to the tomb and found it exactly as the women had said, but they did not see Him.”

Then Jesus said to them, “How foolish you are, how slow you are to believe everything the prophets said!  Was it not necessary for the Messiah to suffer these things and then to enter His glory?”  And Jesus explained to them what was said about Himself in all the Scriptures, beginning with the books of Moses and the writings of all the prophets.

As they came near the village to which they were going, Jesus acted as if he were going farther; but they held Him back, saying, “Stay with us; the day is almost over and it is getting dark.”  So He went in to stay with them.  He sat down to eat with them, took the bread and said the blessing; then He broke the bread and gave it to them.  Then their eyes were opened and they recognised Him, but He disappeared from their sight.  They said to each other, “Wasn’t it like a fire burning in us when He talked to us on the road and explained the Scriptures to us?”

They got up at once and went back to Jerusalem, where they found the eleven disciples gathered together with the others and saying, “The Lord is risen indeed!  He has appeared to Simon!”

The two then explained to them what had happened on the road, and how they had recognised the Lord when He broke the bread.

(Luke 24 : 13 -35)

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May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

THE EMPTY TOMB

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away from the entrance.  She went running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, whom Jesus loved, and told them, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”

Then Peter and the other disciple went to the tomb.  The two of them were running, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and reached the tomb first.  He bent over and saw the linen wrappings, but he did not go in.  Behind him came Simon Peter, and he went straight into the tomb.  He saw the linen wrappings lying there and the cloth which had been round Jesus’ head.  It was not lying with the linen wrappings but was rolled up by itself.  Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in; he saw and believed.  (They still did not understand the scripture which said that he must rise from death.)  Then the disciples went back home.

(John 20 : 1 – 10)

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May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ

DEAD TO SIN BUT ALIVE IN UNION WITH CHRIST

For surely you know that when we were baptized into union with Christ Jesus, we were baptized into union with His death.  By our baptism, then, we were buried with Him and shared His death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from death by the glorious power of the Father, so also we might live a new life.

For since we have become one with Him in dying as He did, in the same way we shall be one with Him by being raised to life as He was.  And we know that our old being bas been put to death with Christ on His cross, in order that the power of the sinful self might be destroyed, so that we should no longer be the slaves of sin.  For when a person dies, he is set free from the power of sin.  Since we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with Him.  For we know that Christ has been raised from death and will never die again – death will no longer rule over Him. And so, because He died, sin has no power over Him; and now He lives His life in fellowship with God.  In the same way you are to think of yourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but living in fellowship with God through Christ Jesus.

Sin must no longer rule in your mortal bodies, so that you obey the desires of your natural self.  Nor must you surrender any part of yourselves to sin to be used for wicked purposes. Instead, give yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life, and surrender your whole being to Him to be used for righteous purposes.  Sin must not be your master; for you do not live under law but under God’s grace.

(Romans 6 : 3 – 14)

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Thanks be to God

May the Lord bless you and take care of you. May He be kind and gracious to you. May the Lord look on you with favour and give you peace.

With love filled blessings,

Your Sister in Christ