Some things are too good to be true. But this is never the case with Jesus. He is always better than we think. He is the exact representation of God, the most important One, the purpose and sustainer of creation, the reason the church will never be destroyed and the One who died so that we might truly live.

We need nothing less than to be filled with the knowledge of God's will just to make it day to day. The only way we can be joyful and endure with longsuffering is by taking our eyes off our circumstances and fix them on Jesus. Because Jesus is better beyond all compare.

Understanding the endless love of God as displayed in creation, in His redeeming of His people and in His remembrance of His people (us) should bring confidence in trials.

There is no one like Jesus. When he died and rose, the definition of death changed. For the very first time, death became not an end but a beginning. He offers new beginnings.

For the Christian, the crucifixion means that we will never pay for our sins ever. The crucifixion purchased forgiveness and access to God forever and always. In dying, Jesus won. In HIS dying, WE won.

Jesus does not promise that when he enters your life it will get easier. Jesus is about much more than just making our life easier. He is about killing death and destroying our sin. That is not just a little improvement - his substitution changes everything!

Do you know what grace is? We can throw that word but how often do we think about what it means and how lavishly expensive it was. The glorious thing about grace for the Christian is that it is a wondrously, astoundingly free gift. But it was not without a purchase price. Let's go back to that courtroom 2,000 years ago to see how costly grace was.

Jesus faced something far more menacing, something far more horrendous, something far more horrifying, and something far more threatening than merely death. He faced God&rsquo's fury for the sins of the world, alone. For you and for me. He loved and obeyed the father for us. We have a savior who didn't suffer with us, but suffered FOR us.

We are better at remembering our sins than the fact that Jesus was killed instead of us. How you feel about yourself does not determine God's opinion of you. Jesus died so that we might live.'

Ron Boomsma, from Sovereign Grace Church of Pasadena, California, preaches from Revelation 21, helping us see that when we look to the glorious future in store for those who have trusted Christ, we find hope and provision for the present.