Posts Tagged ‘salvation’
Christmas Ambivalence
Ah, Christmas! Lights, Santa, a Nativity scene, not to mention greed, sorrow and stress. Why? What for? Sometimes I wish that Christmas never happens, and I say that as a Christian. So, what gives? No, I’m not a Scrooge nor am I heartless. Just seeing the holiday a little different.
Christmas, while being a Christian holiday, was never celebrated in the early Christian Church. In fact, it is not known exactly when Jesus was born, only where and that is in Bethlehem. Even though there is an account of the birth of Jesus in two of the gospels, the early Church never recognized nor celebrated the birth of Christ. In fact, Paul the Apostle, in 1 Corinthians 2: 1, 2 made the following statement about Jesus and the teachings about Him:
And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
Paul made it very clear that what is important about Jesus is that He had been resurrected from the dead. Our “faith” depends on it. In 1 Corinthians 15: 14 Paul tells us:
And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty.
What Paul made clear in all of his teachings is that Jesus was crucified, He died, was buried and was raised again to save people from sin, and to give life eternal to those who would believe in Him. Paul never celebrated the birth of Christ as well as none of the other Apostles or even those who were taught by them. Christmas is not a celebration of the early Church and was not commanded by God to be observed.
Since that is the case, should Christmas be celebrated today? It depends.
If you believe that we need to celebrate Christmas, in order to be an obedient Christian, and it is something that should be done in order to gain favor of God to be allowed into Heaven, the answer is no. Think of this.
In Galatians 4: 9 – 11 Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, said the following:
But now after you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have labored for you in vain.
In other words, if one celebrates Christmas because they feel they have to, they are doing so for the wrong reason and it could even call into question whether or not they truly are a Christian.
However, in Romans 14: 5 – 7 we are told this:
One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it. He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.
Here we see that it is OK to keep one day special, if we do so to the glory and honor of God. Likewise, if we decide not to honor that day and we do so to the praise of God that, too, is OK. For we do all these things to honor God and not ourselves.
To celebrate Christmas then is OK if you do so to honor God and to give Him praise. If you feel that you do not want to celebrate Christmas and you do it to honor God and to praise Him that, too, is OK to do. For both reasons are done to give God the glory, honor and praise that He so deserves.
But, what has happened to Christmas? To many it has become a time of greed, stress and sorrow. We worry about making sure we have the right decorations, the best gifts and going into debt just to give something that is fleeting, never lasting and gone in a moment of time. Christ is being pushed out of the public view, placed on the back lots and pushed back into buildings that never show His glory to those who truly need the Gospel message which is about the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
If it were not for the crucifixion of Jesus – His death, burial and being raised from the dead – Christmas would have no meaning at all to Christians, and it would be nothing more than a meaningless holiday worthless to the salvation of anyone.
Could you celebrate Christmas if you had none of the glitter and glitch of decorations, the trappings of the commercialization of expensive gifts and the need to please others? What if all that was needed was to fall to your knees and give thanks to God for sending His own Son into the world to save sinners?
It’s OK to celebrate Christmas as long as your priorities are in the right place. You can do the decorations, buy the gifts and celebrate the birth of Jesus as long as you do so to the glory and honor of God. If you do, I think you will see that all of the trappings that make up the Christmas holiday is really not needed at all.
Christmas is a day that can be celebrated – for the right reason. We only need to honor Jesus for giving up what He Had to become what we are. That alone is enough for celebrating the birth of Jesus. But, then again, we could do that anytime that we wanted, any day of the year. And we can do so without all of the greed, sorrow and stress that comes upon us this time every year.
Wouldn’t that be great? It can be if you celebrate Christmas to honor Jesus and not to sacrifice your wallet to ease your conscience or place an offering on the altar of greed in buying the biggest, the best and the most. I’m sure you will find it more satisfying and not stressful at all. At Christmas time it would be best to practice what we read in Hosea 6: 6 where God says…
For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Make this Christmas the best ever. You can take away the greed, the sorrow and the stress. You can do so by giving the best gift you will ever know – yourself to God. Ask Him to forgive you for living a sinful life ( we all do ), submit to the Lordship of Jesus and receive the gift of life – eternal life. You will know a love that you have never experienced and you will have made peace with God.
May you have a most wonderful Merry Christmas and celebrate it for the true meaning behind it – the day that God became a man and we call his name Jesus…
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Must You Die In Your Sins?
In the Gospel of John Jesus makes a very simple, but life saving, comment. If you read it, think about it and just dwell upon what Jesus said it will make you face your eternal destiny, and will give you a quick insight as to whether you will go to Heaven or Hell.
In chapter 8 of John Jesus is talking to some Pharisees. They had been accusing Him of falsely bragging about Himself and they wanted to know who He was and Who His Father was. To answer them He said:
“You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world. 24 Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
Simply put, Jesus basically told them that the only thing that can be done to keep them from dying in their sins and being condemned to Hell was to just believe that He is God. Now, unless you know the Bible and unless you are a Christian you will not understand this nor see where it is that Jesus said that.
What He said was:
“if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins.”
So you are saying to yourself, “believe that Jesus is what?” That is the secret that only God can reveal to you, but I’ll give you a clue as to what Jesus is saying with this.
In this same chapter the Pharisees and Jesus were talking about Abraham and the following conversation ensued:
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad.”
57 Then the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have You seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Now when Jesus said this the Jews took up stones to throw at Him in hopes of killing Him. Now why would they do that? Well, here’s another hint.
In Exodus 3, at the Burning Bush Moses is talking with God. Then, when God tells Moses that he is to go to the Jews in Egypt and bring out the children of Israel we read the following:
13 Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?”
14 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’
Moses is to tell the children of Israel that the great “I AM” has sent him, meaning that it was God Himself that told Moses to do this. So now you should see why Jesus said:
“Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”
The reason that the Pharisees took up stones to throw at Him is that Jesus was proclaiming that He was God. And that is why Jesus said, “for if you do not believe that I AM, you will die in your sins.”
And the same goes for you. Unless you believe that Jesus is God and bow before Him and submit to His Lordship over you, you will die in your sins. It’s that simple. There is no other way. If you deny Jesus, He will deny you.
This is why God tells us in Acts 4:12:
“Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”
So, why die in your sins? You cannot earn your way to Heaven, you cannot will your way into Heaven and you cannot work your way into Heaven. The only way you can get there is by believing that Jesus is God, and you will easily show your belief by submitting to Him as Lord of your life.
The simple Gospel message is this… Believe and be saved… Why die in your sins? Just believe in Jesus and you will spend eternity in Heaven. It’s that easy. It’s that simple.
Just believe!
Do You Know The Father?
Do you really know and love the Father?
You say that you are a Christian and you follow Jesus. You go to church and maybe even sing in the choir or teach a Sunday School class. You say grace over meals and read the Bible on occasion, but how well do you really know the Father? Maybe you don’t know Him that well and that He is Someone out there somewhere and you feel that just talking with Jesus is enough.
However, if you don’t know the Father, it may be an indication that you may not be a true born-again Christian after all. You see, it takes the Father to bring you to Jesus and it takes Jesus to reveal the Father to you. If you are born-again you will know the Father because Jesus will reveal Him to you, and only Jesus can do that.
In Matthew 11:27 (as well as in Luke 10:22) we read the following:
All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Once you have been born again, once you have submitted to Jesus as Lord of your life, Jesus will reveal the Father to you. You cannot, and will not, know the Father unless Jesus reveals Him to you and you must be born-again in order for that to happen. Think about that for a moment. If Jesus chooses to reveal the Father to you it is because the Father has brought you to Jesus to be saved.
In John 6:44 we read the following:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;”
Then, in John 6:37 Jesus says this:
“All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out.”
First the Father draws you to Jesus and, if you are drawn, you will come to Jesus; Jesus said so. But look at what else Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him;”. Before the Father draws you, you will not, of your own free will come to Jesus. Not only that but you cannot come to Jesus. It takes the Father choosing to draw you before you can come to Jesus and, when drawn, you will come to Jesus to be saved.
You see, first it takes the Father to bring you to Jesus, and then Jesus in turn reveals the Father to you, so that you will know the one who has done this for you. For, if the Father does not bring someone to Christ first they will never be saved, they will never be forgiven for their sins, they will never experience the new birth and they will not spend eternity in Heaven.
The Father chooses you, He brings you to Jesus, He makes you alive in the spirit so that you will see Jesus and so come to Him for salvation and, in return, Jesus reveals the Father to you so that you will know who to worship and whom to give thanks for your salvation. If you truly know the Father you will have a desire to talk with Him, to seek guidance from Him, to cast your cares upon Him, to love Him in a way that you could never love anyone else.
You will know and experience His love, a love that cannot be surpassed, an everlasting love that will care for you, guide you, seek out the best for you and for His glory. You will seek Him in the morning and say goodnight to Him as the last thing you do at night. He will constantly be with you and make His presence known when you drift from Him, and He senses your distance, and He will lovingly bring you back to His arms and give you the feeling of peace when you least expect that you need it.
Jesus reveals the Father to those who are being saved so that they will know the One Who has done all of this for you. Your salvation begins with the Father and the keeping of your salvation ends with the Father. No one can take you out of His hands. If they could, they would be more of a god than God Himself, and there is no one who can do that.
The fact that you know the Father is evidence of your salvation. If you sense that you really don’t know Him, this would give rise to the possibility that maybe you are not saved at all, and that you are just a Christian in name only. Remember, Jesus did say in Matthew 7:21:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
What is the will of the Father? That everyone He draws to Jesus will come and be saved, and then Jesus reveals the Father to us so that we can thank Him and worship Him for what He has done for us and for Who He is.
“Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”
Do you know the Father? Do you love Him? Do you really? How often do you pray? How often do you read the Bible? How often do you take some time and just talk with Him; to share your joys, sorrows, thoughts and concerns? How well do you know Jesus? You cannot say that you know Jesus and not know the Father; for Jesus will reveal Him to you.
So, let me ask you one last time. Do you know the Father?
How To Know That You Are Abiding In The Love Of Jesus
Are you really abiding in the love of Jesus? If you are a Christian you can know for sure.
Jesus knows that by abiding in His love you will be what the Father wants you to be. But, He has given one basic rule for you to follow in order to abide in His love. You can know how to abide in His love. Breaking this rule will not cause you to lose your salvation, that can never be done. However, it can break your fellowship with the Father, but that fellowship can be restored.
In the Gospel of John chapter 15 Jesus talks about abiding in His love and He is very specific when He says in verse 9,
“As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you: abide in My love.”
So, how can you know that you are truly abiding in His love. Actually it is very easy to know. He tells us how to abide in the very next verse, verse 10,
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
Think about that for a moment. If you are not obeying Jesus you are not abiding in His love. Look at what He said again.
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.”
It’s very simple, if you love Jesus and want to abide in His love you will be obedient to Him. He said this same thing earlier. In John 14 beginning with verse 21 Jesus said the following:
“He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
Some examples of being obedient to Jesus can be found in His teachings on sex. Basically any sex outside of marriage is wrong and should not be done. If you do, then you are disobedient and are living in sin. As for marriage, in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 19 Jesus said the following:
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Just these few examples will give you an idea of how well you are being obedient to Jesus. These will also let you know if you are truly abiding in the love of Jesus. Don’t kid yourself and say that Jesus loves you no matter what. That is not found anywhere in the Bible and Jesus did give you specific ways of how to know whether or not you are abiding in His love.
There is no way around it. Unless you are being obedient to Jesus you are not abiding in His love. You are showing by your disobedience that you either do not love Jesus or you do not believe in Jesus or both. And this is a grave mistake because both is proof that you may not have born again in the first place. And you are destined to spend eternity in hell. Is that what you want?
In John 15 beginning with verse 5 Jesus said the following:
“I am the vine, you are the branches. he who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned (being condemned to hell).”
You can know that you abide in the love of Jesus. It’s simple. Repent of your sins, your being disobedient to Jesus, and trust completely in Him that He knows what is best, what is true and what is right. No matter what the world says it’s what Jesus says that counts. And Jesus said:
“If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.”
So, now you know. From what Jesus has said to you. Are you keeping His commandments and abiding in His love?
So You Think That God Loves You?
I can hear you now. Of course God loves me. Isn’t that what the Bible says? Seriously, does it really?
This will be one of the shorter essays I have done because the verse that I will quote says it all. It’s found in the Gospel of John and it is in chapter 16. In verses 26 and 27 we read:
In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.
So, let me ask you one question. Do you love Jesus and believe that He came forth from God the Father?
Before you answer here’s what Jesus said in John 14: 21 about those who say they love Jesus:
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.
Do you follow Jesus and obey Him? Not looking good is it? Well, here’s one more thing that Jesus said about following him. In Luke 14: 33 we read:
So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.
In short, unless you are a born again follower of Jesus, God does not love you. In fact, well, here’s what we read in John 3: 36:
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
Do you really want to face the wrath of God? I can understand that you do not want to come to Jesus. You see, it is because of your sinfulness that you don’t want to come to Him. In John 3: 18 – 20 we read:
He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
Basically you are ashamed of the person you are. You do not want to give up your sin and you would rather stay in your sinfulness than come to Jesus and be cleansed and forgiven. The problem is, if you do not come to Jesus and submit to Him as Lord and believe that God has raised Him from the dead you will stay condemned to face the wrath of God.
And you will “never” know the Love of God.
God knows that you are a sinful person and in this sinfulness you can do nothing to be worthy of receiving forgiveness of your sins. That is why God, as Jesus, came to earth to do for us what man cannot do for himself.
Jesus has satisfied all of the demands of God the Father for receiving salvation and it is the work of God that you believe on Jesus and to come to Him for forgiveness. When you do, when you confess your sinfulness and submit to Jesus as Lord, you will then know the full love of God. The love that He has for those who love Jesus. There is no other way.
for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me,
You can stay in you sinfulness and never know the love of God or you can come to Jesus, be forgiven and cleansed of your sin, and experience the greatest love that man will ever know. Now, in this life, and for eternity.
Why would you not do so now? If you want to be loved by God, if you want to know what true love really is, then you must love Jesus. Come to Him now, submit to His Lordship over you and be saved.
Then you can answer the question, “So You Think That God Loves You?”, with a resounding… YES!
How Were You Saved?
Who gets the credit for your salvation? When you answer that question then you will know the answer to “How Were You Saved?”
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We know that no one can come to Jesus unless drawn by the Father, and that it is by His grace that we are saved. However, we argue over how man receives this grace.
One man says that even though God, by His grace, draws us to Jesus, we must still choose, by our own “free” will, to accept or reject Jesus as our Savior.
Another man says that God saves us by making us willing to receive Jesus, and that we do not have the power nor ability to make this decision for ourselves; that is, of our own “free” will.
The first man says that man is to determine whether or not he is to be saved. Thus he can say, “I know that it was by God’s grace that I was saved but, I had to choose whether or not I wanted to be saved. After all, I could have rejected Jesus, and I would have been condemned if I had done so, but I chose to trust Jesus instead. God didn’t save me until I accepted Jesus as my Savior. Besides, God won’t make me do anything against my will. He won’t do anything until I give in.”
Now the second man says that he was saved because it was by God’s will and not his that he was saved. He says, “When I was dead in my sins I did not see my need for a Savior. I did not see myself as a sinner, so there was no need for me to be willing to be saved. However, God gave me ears to hear His word, and He took away my heart of stone and gave me a new heart, a soft heart, where His word would take deep root and grow into understanding so that I would believe in Jesus.
Then He placed within me a new spirit, His Spirit, to free me from bondage to Satan and to make me alive so that I could respond to His calling. When these things happened I saw myself as the detestable sinner I was, and I was filled with a great sorrow. I knew I was destined for Hell.
Finally, I understood why Jesus died for me, to set me from sin. He saved me from God’s wrath, and that if it had not been for God’s divine influence in me, to show me all these things, I would never, of my own “free” will, have believed in Jesus. Whereas, I had been unwilling, God came in and made me willing. I had no choice because where I once was a slave to Satan, and unwilling to be saved, I was now a child of God and willing only to obey Him. It was by God’s will that I was born again, not mine.
Now, who gets the credit for your salvation?
In the case of the first man, man gets the glory because, in effect, he saved himself. His salvation came to him because of “his” actions. This is salvation by grace “plus works”, man’s works, because of his actions, for he (man) can say that he contributed to his salvation.
In the second man, God gets the glory for man was saved because of what “God” did. It is God who “wills” for man. It is by the faith that is given to him that he believes. It is God who gives an understanding to man. It is God who gives faith to man. Salvation in man is all of God. Man does not tell God what man will do.
So, who gets the credit for you salvation? When you answer that question truthfully, then you will know how you were saved. I pray that it was by God’s will and not yours…
For further study:
John 6:37, 39, 40, 44, 45, 65… Matthew 13:3-9, 18-23… Mark 4:3-9, 11-12, 13-20… Luke 8:5-8, 10-15… Jeremiah 31:31-34… Ezekiel 36:21-28, 31, 32…
Does God Ever Get the Blues?
First published as a short article (written by me) back in the “80’s”…..
The roots of the blues, like gospel music, grow deep into the past of mankind’s sorrows and salvation. Both come out of everyday experiences that we encounter on our way through life, allowing us to sing about what is either troubling us or giving us joy.
Sometimes we can find both wound together through urgings that pulls from deep within us, and only in song can we express our true feelings. This is when gospel and blues become one in words that are truly an expression of man’s turmoil in his bout with coming to terms with God.
Gospel music is about living once we have submitted to Jesus as Lord of our life. It’s not a perfect life, but when trouble occurs we look to a different source for help; a source apart from us, and that source is God. When we try to solve these problems, apart from God, what you would have would be the “Gospel Blues”.
The Law of Moses, better known as the “Ten Commandments”, was given by God to point out sin in man. With sin, man experiences a myriad of emotions that is summed up in one word, “blues”. Because of sin in this world, we experience all of the effects that it causes; miss-guided love, sadness, depression, anger, fear, jealousy, dejection, selfishness, lust, etc.
What is it that we sing about in the blues? The blues are about life, real life that you and I live each day. Nothing is as close to expressing what our true feelings are more than the “blues”.
Now God knew you before you were born, and the reason He made you was so you could have fellowship with Him. But, you can’t. You see, you have sin in your life, sin that comes from the seed of man. This sin has separated you from God and, spiritually, you are dead to what God wants for you. And, in this condition, you cannot have any friendship with God. You cannot even experience God’s love.
You are not a sinner because you sin, no; you sin because you are a sinner. You were born that way. You were born of the seed of man, which is contaminated with sin, and you cannot do anything about it. However, God can, and did. He sent His Son to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves, and that is to pay the penalty for sin in our life.
When Jesus walked on this earth He preached more about Hell than He did about Heaven. You see, He knew that each one of us was destined for Hell because of our sinful nature, our wanting to do things our way and not His. God hates sin, and more so.
In a dreadful statement, David, in Psalm 5: 1 – 6 tells us:
Give ear to my words, O Lord,
Consider my meditation.
Give heed to the voice of my cry,
My King and my God,
For to You I will pray.
My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord;
In the morning I will direct it to You,
And I will look up.
For You are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness,
Nor shall evil dwell with You.
The boastful shall not stand in Your sight;
You hate all workers of iniquity.
You shall destroy those who speak falsehood;
The Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.
That is a terrible thing to know about God! He will punish the person living in disobedience to Him. But God, in His mercy and greatness, knowing that we cannot save ourselves has provided a way of salvation. And that way is Jesus.
Jesus died for sins to satisfy His Father’s demand that sin be paid for. Also, He arose from the grave to conquer death and to give us eternal life. So that even though we may die physically in this life, in the life to come, we can have eternal life with Him, in Heaven.
Since God made us for Him, and since He made a way for us to be with Him, and since His love is so great, how do you think He feels when we won’t come to Him? God can experience every emotion you can, and has. If you can have a feeling called the blues, don’t you think He can?
There is nothing, in this life that you can think of, which has caused you pains that God has not already experienced. He knows how you feel. If you come to Him with all that you have, with every bit of baggage that you are carrying around and weighing you down, He will gather you to Him, forgive you for your sins and love you with an everlasting love.
That love, however, can only be experienced through Jesus. In the Gospel of John, chapter 14 and in verses 21 and 23 Jesus tells us that if we love Him and obey Him, He will love us and the Father will love us. He will reveal Himself to us and He, and the Father, will come to live with us.
He doesn’t promise to take away your problems, but He will guide you and show you how to overcome them, if you will just put yourself in His hands and surrender yourself to Him. How do you do that? How do you submit to God and receive forgiveness for your sins? What is that you can say? Simply this.
The word is in your heart and in your mouth, that is the word of faith that we proclaiming: “That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10: 9, 10
Won’t you do that right now? There’s nothing fancy in talking with God. Just tell Him how you feel, that you want forgiveness for your sins and for having lived life your way, and not His. That you are willing to submit to Jesus as Lord and Savior of your life, and that you want to know and experience God’s love.
You can experience the love of God. You can know Jesus and have Him come into your life and love you. You can be filled with an everlasting joy; a heavenly joy filled with a love that only God can give. With God’s love in your life, and with you living a life submitted to serving Jesus you will never have to wonder, when God looks at you , does God ever get the blues?
When the sun sets at the end of your life, the ultimate blues experience will be one of not going to Heaven to spend eternity with Jesus. I pray that is one blues experience you will never have.
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Glenn is an Evangelical rooted in the Reformed Faith…
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What Defines A Christian?
From an early age, I was a very religious person. I attended Church twice on Sunday. I went to Sunday School and in the Summer I was a teacher in Vacation Bible School. I was the President of our Church’s youth group. At one time I was the youngest Acolyte in the diocese of Maryland. All of this, and more, while still a child.
However, I was not a Christian.
Like so many people today, who call themselves Christians, I was involved in all kinds of church activities and enjoyed them all. Yet, when away from church I was a completely different person. I definitely was not “Christ” like.
What is a Christian? What is the difference in being a religious person and in being a Christian? What is it that defines a Christian?
If you ask the average Christian today to describe what makes one a Christian, you would almost always hear, “someone who has accepted Jesus as Savior”. However, that does not make one a Christian. You want to know how I know this to be true? Just look at them when they are not in church. How do they act?
Accepting Jesus as Savior does not make one a Christian. Nor does going to church or being baptized make one a Christian. So, if none of these actions makes one a Christian, what does?
In the Epistle to the Philippians, chapter 3, verse 3, we find an excellent and short verse describing a Christian.
“For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh…”
First, in referencing “circumcision”. Now circumcision represents a covenant. In regards to God and man, a covenant is an agreement that God states that He will do such and such and that this agreement is based solely on God and not on man. So here, in stating that “we are the circumcision”, Paul is saying that a Christian is one chosen by God for salvation, and this covenant is based solely on what Jesus has done and not on man’s will or ability. (See John 1:13 & Romans 9:16)
Second, we see that a Christian is one who worships God in the Spirit. Only a person who has been born again, that is made alive in the spirit, by the Spirit of God, has the ability to worship God in the Spirit. Only when one is led by the Spirit of God, do we have the ability to approach the throne of God in a manner worthy of God.
Third, since a Christian belongs to the true covenant of God and has the ability to worship God in the Spirit, we can rejoice in Christ Jesus, Who has given us the ability to do so. Only by the person and work of Christ are we given the faith with which we believe in Him, and because of His resurrection from the dead are we promised eternal life in Heaven with God.
Fourth, becoming a Christian is a work that can only be done by God and not in any way accomplished through the work of man. That is why there is “no confidence in the flesh.”
Therefore, we can then say that “what defines a Christian” is what we see in the life of a person after having become “born again” by the Spirit of God.
As I said in beginning of this essay, I was a religious person but not a Christian. Only years later, when I had an exciting experience in being shown by the Holy Spirit that I had been chosen by God unto salvation that I realized that my only hope of being forgiven for my sins and for spending eternity in Heaven had been based solely on what Christ had done for me.
I saw how sinful my religiosity was and that all I had done was to show how good I was, and it was all based on what I was doing and not on what God had done. I was looking to myself for being “good” enough to be worthy to go to Heaven. I was rejoicing in myself and trusting in my works to save me. Just like so many people, today, who call themselves a Christian.
In short, the life of a person who calls themself a Christian, defines what a Christian is.
Look at your life. Do you worship God by the Spirit of God? Do you rejoice in Christ for what He has done? Do you trust in yourself, as I had done, for being “good” enough to get to Heaven, or do you place your trust in Christ with the faith of Christ given to you to do so?
If you call yourself a Christian then you are the best definition of what a Christian is. I pray that it Is a definition with which Christ would agree. For you see, you are what defines a Christian…
Is It Really Judging?
Why is it that whenever one points out the sin that another is doing that someone always brings up the thing about “judging others”.
Here’s an example.
Recently, I made a comment that pointing out to someone about a sin they are doing is a good thing, I used this verse to support it:
“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.” James 5: 19, 20
Right after that another responded with the comment of “who are you to judge another” and quoted from James 4: 12:
“There is one Lawgiver….. Who are you to judge another?”
Now I have to admit that this got me to thinking. How can these two verses be reconciled? Then it came to me and it was quite easy.
You see, all laws are based on a morality standard, but whose standards of morality do we use? Actually there are only two from which to choose; mans or Gods.
Mans standard of morality is always changing, and it does so based on what man is doing at the time. In other words, at one point something may be declared to be wrong only to be changed somewhere down the line and made to be good. There’s never a true standard of what’s right and wrong because someone will always state that for them it is not wrong. This basically is called “situation ethics”.
Situation ethics states that if it is wrong for you then it is wrong, but only for you. I may not think it is wrong and for me, since I enjoy it and want to do it, then it isn’t wrong for me to do so. In that case, then, it would be correct to say, “who are you to judge another?”
Or as Jesus said in Luke 6: 42:
“Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”
In this case you have one person pointing out the wrong doing of another when they have something in their own life that is just as wrong as the wrong they are condemning.
However, it is just the same as “situation ethics” in which one is pointing out the wrong that someone else is doing when to them is isn’t wrong or the wrong they may be doing is OK to do by someone else.
Man just cannot come up with a “black & white” way of stating what is right and what is wrong. Maybe that is why in the Bible it is written:
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” Proverbs 14: 12
Man will always choose a way that pleases him and not look to what God wants and this will always lead to death; spiritual and physical. For it is not always God’s way.
Now with God. His standard of morality is always “black & white”. There are no questions and God does not say, “OK it’s alright to do this now, but don’t do it again.” God is not wishy-washy and His ways do not change.
With that in mind, then, as a Christian, and only as a Christian, when one sees a brother or sister doing what God has called wrong – a sin – and lovingly brings that to their attention, they are doing good in helping that person get back onto the road to life.
This can also come into play when talking to a non-Christina about their eternal destiny and the salvation they can achieve from being forgiven for their sins, they must have pointed out to them the sin they are doing. For it is in seeing the Law of God that they will see their sinfulness and come to the realization that they are destined for Hell and they can do nothing about it.
Once they see this they will know that their only hope is in submitting to Jesus as Lord and believing that He has done for them what they cannot do for them self and that is being obedient to the Law of God. They will see that Jesus suffered the punishment they deserve and, because of that, they will be forgiven for the sins they have committed.
It is hypocritical for a non-Christian to point out the wrongs of another non-Christian because they are guilty of doing wrong themselves, even if it isn’t for the same wrong they are bringing to light.
Only a true Christian can bring to light the sins of another because it is not their standard of morality they are basing this on. They are basing it on the standard of morality set by God. God the Father speaks through His children and it is through them that He brings to light the sins of the world.
A Christian can say that “this is wrong”, and do so knowing that what they are saying are not their words. They are doing so because they can say, “In the Bible, it is written”. As Jesus says in Luke 10: 16:
“He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
When a non-Christian, and so-called Christians, reject what a true Christian says is written in the Bible, they are not rejecting them. In reality they are rejecting Jesus and, in doing so, they are rejecting God the Father.
It is not OK for non-Christians to judge another, as the Bible so correctly points out, but it is OK for a Christian to point out the sins of another. It is NOT really judging, as long as it is done with the notice that this is what God says, and as long as they say, “For in the Bible it is written”.
Does God Know You?
As we begin a new year the number one question that should be on your mind is this:
Does God Know You?
Silly question, you think, of course God knows me, He know’s everybody. That depends…
So, what am I getting at? In 2 Timothy 2:19 we read:
Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
Another question is this. Do you name the name of Christ? Depending on how you answer this question will give an indication as to what your answer is to our main question. To help you out, let’s look at another scripture verse.
In John 14: 21 & 23 we read:
He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”
“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.”
Here we see that if you love Jesus and are obedient to Him, then the Father will love you and He and Jesus will come and live with you. However, if you don’t believe in Jesus how can you say that you love Him? You can’t.
In fact, if you don’t love Jesus because you don’t believe in Him then God says this about you. In John 3: 36 we read:
He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”
You see, if you do not love Jesus it is because you do not believe in Him, and if you do not believe in Jesus you already stand condemned and you have the wrath of God abiding on you. So, how can you say that God knows you?
Still are not sure? Well, here are some other verses. In Matthew 7: 21 – 23 we read:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’
And, in Luke 13: 23 – 27 we read:
Then one said to Him, “Lord, are there few who are saved?”
And He said to them, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’
The one thing that ties all of this together, for you to be able to say that God knows you, is this. You must believe in Jesus, have submitted to Him as Lord of your life, and love Him enough to be obedient to Him. If you cannot say that you have done so, then the answer to the question “Does God Know You” is this.
No!
If you were to die right now, in this state, God will say to you “I tell you I do not know you. Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity.”
Is that what you want to here? I pray that this is not what you want. Remember what 2 Timothy 2: 19 says:
“The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
You must bow the knee to Jesus as Lord and proclaim Christ as your Savior. Having done so, God will tell you that He knows you and that you are His child. He will tell you that you have been forgiven for all of your sins and you will be able to live with Him for all eternity.
If you won’t you are doomed, and you will stand condemned to face the wrath of God. You must know that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of an angry God.
It is a new year and I pray that God will draw you to Him, forgive you of your sins and place within you a new heart. Having done so, you will know without a doubt that God does know you and when you are asked, “Does God know you?” You will be able to respond, in full assurance, with a resounding…
YES!
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