September 20 2025

Saturday September 20

“Made Us Alive Together With Christ”

Ephesians 2:4-9

4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

Welcome to Pastor's Chat today. Well, this morning I have a special prayer request for you. Today I am leaving along with my son Jonathan and a nephew Jason Riggins for Egypt, Jordan, and Slovakia. I'll be driving this morning to Raleigh to catch my first flight up to Dulles. And there we'll meet with Jonathan and Jason. And then from there, this evening, we'll be flying to Egypt where we'll land on Sunday evening. We will have a couple days in Egypt to tour with some Egyptian ministry friends. We will also be preparing for our tour that we're doing October the 14th with a wonderful group of people, who are very excited about the upcoming trip.

I'm saying all that to tell you that I might not be able to do a pastor's chat each day as we'll be spending many hours in flight and also in foreign countries and might not always have good internet connections. I'll do what I can to keep you updated on our trip and if possible, post some Pastor Chats. On Tuesday afternoon, we'll be leaving Egypt to go to Jordan where we'll spend at least a couple days and there visit with some of our ministry partners. We hope to spend some time encouraging some of the leaders there that we work with in the refugee ministry in Amman, Jordan.

From Amman we'll be flying to Slovakia to spend a few days with my sister Janet and her husband Charles Baldis. They have been faithful missionaries for over 30 years. The occasion that really prompted this whole trip is a wedding I have been asked to speak at by my niece Tina Baldis. She has also served faithfully with her parents over all these years. We are very excited that on Saturday, Tina is getting married to a wonderful young man named Jozef Ličko.

I am looking forward to this trip with my nephew and my son. And we're excited about the divine appointments that we're going to have along the way. We ask for your special prayers for traveling mercies and for these divine appointments. Pray that God gives us open doors of opportunities to share with the people that we will providentially meet along the way. We always have that great privilege and see miraculous things that the Lord does and we're looking forward to that. We need your prayers. Your prayers will help us have those open doors. They will give us boldness to speak and give us wisdom to know what to say, how to say it and when to say it.

It is a volatile world in the Middle East. And we are there to help bring the peace of God into those different locations and places in people's lives by showing them the way through Jesus Christ. Just the fact that we're there, there will be more light in the spiritual darkness there because Christ lives in us.

And that's what we're talking about today in Ephesians 2:5. We talked yesterday in verse 4 about how “God because of His great love with which He loved us”, has provided mercy and grace that saves us through the blood of the cross of Jesus Christ. Now we find here in verse 5, even when we were dead in our trespasses and sins, God made us alive together with Christ. Not only did the Lord Jesus Christ love us, He has made us alive. The King James version says that “He quickened us”, which means the same thing. He made us alive.

The way He makes us alive is through the gospel, through the Word of God. In the Gospels, it's recorded that Jesus raised at least three people from the dead. Remember the widow's son in Luke 7:11-17, Jairus's daughter in Luke 8:49-56, and Lazarus in John 11. In each case, Jesus spoke the Word and His Word brought forth life. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 4:12 that “the Word of God is quick” which means it is alive. It's living and it's powerful.

These three resurrections that we read in the gospels are pictures of the spiritual resurrection that comes to the sinner when he hears the word of God and he believes. He has made us alive. Not only has He made us alive, our spiritual resurrection is even greater because it puts us in union with Christ. “He made us alive together with Christ”. Please take the time to read Romans chapter 6. We are told because we have been baptized into Jesus Christ, when He died, we died with Him. When He was buried, we were buried with Him. And when He rose again, we rose with Him. We're alive together with Him today because He indeed is risen Himself. Now we can live a great new life without sin having dominion over us.

What a glorious truth!!!! “God made us alive together with Christ”!!! 

Thank you again for your prayers. We'll try to stay in touch on this trip and keep you updated. We are so grateful and excited about all that God is doing here in America and around the world. Keep on praying!!!!

God bless!