1st Birth, We learn early in life that anything worth having is worth earning.
Some go as far as saying nothing is free in life. I have learned the best things in life are in fact free. Take for instance salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. This my friend is the most precious gift which has no price.
Nevertheless, it takes more than a lifetime to enjoy the fullness thereof.
My prayer today is for you to experience the benefit of Christ's free gift of salvation so you may go to heaven one day. Moreover, Jesus not only came that you might have life but that you might enjoy your life in abundance here on earth too.
2nd Birth, As sure as change is the constant in life we can not undo, we may as well make intentional changes for the better. Like the caterpillar endures metamorphosis in order to fly. It is best if people change for the good before they die. As I point you to Christ, the lover of your soul, join me in His mutual love and be made whole. I'm inviting you to more than a ceremony a couple times a week. I'm inviting you to relish in joy that will lift your life to where you belong by the grace of God. Once you are free to worship God for His mercy on your life, I look forward to rejoicing with you in the Lord always. Whatever you decide, His grace is sufficient for all who believe.
Allow me to start at the heart of the issue. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised the third day according to the Scriptures,"i On the home page you read my words, 'The best things in life are in fact free.' Well free to one does not necessarily mean someone didn't pay a price for a gift. In fact a gift is almost always provided at a cost to the giver. The same is true with salvation, otherwise known as peace with God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.ii God created the heavens and the earth with the objective of holiness and divine purpose for every aspect of creation. However, thanks to evil, mankind has played a role in allowing the human experience to go array. In short as people, "we all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus."iii At one time on our part all of us lived, humanly speaking, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. ...we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgression - it is by grace you have been saved.iv By what Christ did on the cross 2000 years ago all who believe are saved.
The only thing that can void your personal benefit of salvation is unbelief.
In effect your salvation will not be withdrawn. You will have merely rejected it condemning yourself. "For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten son that whoever believes would not perish but have everlasting life."v The name of Jesus was divinely assigned by God by way of angelic messenger. The name means "He will save His people from their sins."vi The man, Jesus, who was born over 2000 years ago was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the virgin womb of His mother Mary. Her response to the heavenly news from the mouth of the angle was... " Be it to me according to your word, O God!" In essence this is how all things heavenly are born in the earth. Not unlike in creation, the Word of God gives birth to His glory in a believers life today.vii God speaks humanity's way at times by angels. He speaks to His chosen people through prophets and through life & creation itself. Today He is speaking through the tongues of preachers sent across our paths.
Nevertheless, the good news is the power of God for salvation for all who believe.viii Do you believe?
Church is more than ceremonial ritualism. It's not just a futile human system to try and reach God. Salvation constitutes a personal relationship with God. God Himself initiates the relationship, not ourselves. We didn't merely choose Him. We learn to love Him because He first loved us. It is out His great love for you ... Christ Jesus' body was brutalized, broken, and hung on a tree. He was crucified for you and me. His blood was spilled to the ground on our behalf. Because of His great price, we today may enjoy the free gift of life eternally. What we do with it is our choice.
Nevertheless, God expects us to dedicate our second lives to Christ as we reckon the first one dead with Him.
All who call on the name of Jesus will be saved!
Secondarily, here's the free gift I mentioned on the home page. If you want to learn how to receive Christ's spirit for empowered living, go here.
Discipline is required in order to be successful at anything. The world did not originate this concept. It is by God's creative design. When He made us, He set a proper decency and order to our harmonious existence. Anytime anyone stretches or breaks the order of God's purposes, one has selected the wrong enemy of life itself. The problem is that it's all too human for us to want to blaze our paths as we see fit in whatever arbitrary order. It's no different for believers in general, especially new ones. This is why God provided for inward discipline under the authority of His Holy Spirit.
Humans typically are not to be trusted with their own welfare until they have matured sufficiently. I you don't believe me visit a nursery at the hospital and be convinced, or a juvenile delinquency center for that matter.
The Scriptures instruct believers to be continually filled with the Spirit of God. ix The instruction is given as a antidote for self-medication many practice in random terms of alcoholism and addictions of the sorts. You name it, from sexuality to egotism people are compulsively out of control idolizing their own immediate gratification. Thank God He not only granted His son in sacrifice for our sins that we might live. He also grants us His Spirit that we might thrive in the second life He gives.
The discipline we enjoy as believers in Christ is not from the outside in, but from the inside out. God by His Spirit writes His laws and statutes on our hearts and minds.x By His Spirit He leads us into all truth teaching us how to live.xi To think, our Creator / Redeemer instructs us personally in addition to providing the divinely inspired Scriptures as a road map reference and owners manual to life.xii The Holy Spirit is the earnest deposit of our eternal inheritance. It's our guarantee of what is to come for us in the age to come.
Empowerment in its purest form is a direct connection with God. Such being the case, for Him to impart His Holy Spirit to help us navigate our lives, lead and guide believers into all truth, and enable you to effectively witness to others is amazing. Conceptually profound as all this is, it really is technically simple. Given the chance, the continual filling of the Holy Spirit takes on a life of its own and happens automatically as a believer grows competent to Him and His divine ways.
When the Holy Spirit comes on you or fills you several miracles occur.
a) You are baptized by the Spirit into the body of Christ initially as a member in particular of Christ's body, the church;xiii and repositioned by the Spirit's direction from time to time.xiv (The church is mentioned here as His living corporate body of believers in unified obedience to Him, not necessarily the various buildings and organizations called churches in socio- political cases) b) You overflow from your belly (born again spirit, or Spirit to spirit connection) with rivers of living water (words of life) to the benefit of your listing audience.xv c) You are personally comforted and counseled by God Himself by way or the Holy Spirit.xvi Functionally speaking, your desires transform to divine desires as your mind is renewed to the Word of God. Your God mimicking conversation dictates a more orderly conduct for your lifestyle and attracts godly personalities while repelling ungodly ones. You metaphysically induce God's tangible blessings on your life by allowing His Word to fill your heart, become your pre-meditation, and recreate your experience to one more mindful of His Glory!
Can you see how the Holy Spirit is essential for effective Christian living in the earth today?
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