Wednesday, August 9, 2023
God Will Defend Us One Way Or Another
Tuesday, August 1, 2023
The Flesh Tried To Crash My Fast!
I decided to fast from coffee, cakes and cookies that day for spiritual advancement. You know that fasting is a way to connect more deeply with God and we can fast from anything.
I had mackerel that day for dinner. When I finished eating I apologetically thought, Oh wow! I need to eat some cookies to counteract that fish breath!
When the thought came, I was mentally full steam ahead to the cookies. I felt it was needed and that excused me from slightly breaking my fast. Sometimes, all it takes is a positive reminder, a reminder that the flesh will never give.
The Holy Spirit said, Not so fast. Floss and brush you teeth, sister, and get to your spiritual advancement!
The flesh always wants a way out of rightness and discipline and is there to trip us up and cheat us. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (Matthew 26:41) God's Holy Spirit is a powerhouse and guides us to success!
The Holy Spirit is a person, the third person of the Triune/Trinity of God. He has a personality and God sends him to comfort and guide us. The Spirit of God takes up residence in our bodies, His temple, when we accept Jesus as Our Savior. Being filled with The Spirit, however, is a more advanced position that many Christians do not experience but whom anyone can if he/she desires. God does not withhold his goodness from us.
*****
Sunday, July 30, 2023
Grace & Truth Came Through Jesus
~ The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ~
Jesus came and fulfilled all of the requirements of the law because we could not. The law was given to man to show us where we fell short because we were blind to this truth. The Law is a tool. We are born into darkness and can't understand the truth of our condition until God reveals it to us. He used The Law as a bridge to get us to what we must have.
Our blindness and ignorance to the state of our fallen existence doesn't change the fact of our eternal death. We are still in danger of spending eternity, the life when we leave this earth, in separation from God, in desolation. We are still under penalty though we don't understand.
God, in his perfect love, revealed the truth to man in two parts. Sin is the strength of the law. When God gave man The Ten Commandments, the first part of the revelation, sin in man was revealed to man. Man found that he could not totally perform the law because his thoughts were wicked.
As we often succeed in being good, our thoughts are consistently breaking The Ten Commandments. God in his mercy showed this to man. Satan wanted man to be ignorant to the truth of their condition. God's plan was for his cherished creation to come into the knowledge of the truth of his condition.
The 2nd part of God's revelation to man was redemption, salvation from the curse of The Ten Commandments, restoration to fellowship with Our Creator. He provided the only sacrifice that could fulfill the requirements to destroy the works of the devil, the shed Blood of Jesus Christ. The Law is man's bridge to Jesus.
Jesus accepted Our Father's request to take the penalty for our condition, for every single human past, present and future. Through Jesus' suffering, death, burial and resurrection, the power of The Law over us was destroyed forever. Jesus became the first to be resurrected from eternal death into eternal life. Because he lives, those who love him will live also.
Jesus and the Father are one, and separate. God came to earth in the form of His Son, both divine and of the flesh, born of a virgin yet fathered by the will of Our Father. The pure Blood of Jesus and his unblemished Body covers us, when we choose to believe and accept his sacrifice for us. Sin is the strength of The Law and Jesus Christ is the destroyer of the power of sin over us.
We may fail, but we are covered. We may transgress but we are covered. We may stumble, but we are covered. We can come boldly and respectfully to God because Jesus is on his right hand interceding for us. We can talk with God at any time because Jesus restored our fellowship with Him. We can live in confidence that we have eternal life, that we will live and not die because Jesus is The Resurrection and the Life!
~ The law was given through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ~
Wednesday, July 26, 2023
How To Be Saved
If you would like to be sure that you are Saved,
Tuesday, July 25, 2023
Witness In Peace
Don't stress yourself or press yourself into pressuring others to come to Jesus. There is no one way or perfect way to witness.
Sharing salvation should flow with your spirit and personality type. God reveals our personality types to us and how we are most inclined to share The Gospel.
Every person who knows Jesus can witness. It is talking at the appropriate time, to anyone who is receptive, about our relationship with God and what his Son Jesus Christ has done for us. The Holy Spirit reveals to us those who are ready.
It is not we who bring people to salvation. It is the Holy Spirit. God prepares the heart of a person to receive. If it's not the right time and God's Holy Spirit has not yet prepared that person's heart, then he/she will not accept Jesus. No amount of cajoling, pressuring, threatening and shaming that person will work. He or she will only become stubborn in spirit and be pushed further from God.
Be at peace. Work with God, not against him. Let the Holy Spirit do his work and go with God's flow in talking to people about Jesus. Witnessing should always be done in peace.