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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

believe: the bible is true...

Grace and mercy; are key to our Christian walk. It is also key to winning one to Christ if you will. You tell people of the grace of God and the mercy of God; which is seen and implied in John 3:16-18. Sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Now there are many ways of sharing, Christmas story, Easter story, Romans road... but there are not many listening... and the ones who are, are on the defensive. The other day another brother and I had the opportunity to talk to two people about Jesus, both were not followers. It was interesting for both had different back grounds, one didn't believe in God... and had had bad experiences when confronted about Jesus. The other had had some "religion" in her life but it never drew her to God... to believe. You see belief is the key factor for one to be saved; for one to be a Christian, for one to keep on walk through life as a Christian. One needs to believe in the one true God and His Son Jesus Christ and all that is said about them and all that They told us They will do... This is all found in the Bible! It is not my words or words of men that we need to believe; it is the words of God that needs to be believed. The bible is so key to our faith... it is what makes our belief sure. God's word says that the creation point to him or declares that God is... It gives us a starting point if you will to seek the one true God. The word of God is what gives us the direction/instruction... for us to have a relationship... with Him That why John 3:16 is so important, that is what gives us our firm conviction, that we all need Jesus. "Jesus loves me this I know for the bible tells me so... " this simple children's song is so true. So one needs to believe in the word of God as true and all that it says... Oh, if the masses would stop believing in the lies of men.. and come to believe the truth of the bible and to believe in the True God and His Son Jesus. 2Timothy3:16-17 "All scripture is inspired by God..." One more note one needs not only believe the bible as true but more important is that they believe in Jesus the Son of God...

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

God's Mercy

Last time we talked about grace, as something that Christians do. That we are to give grace as you give a gift. If we are really honest with ourselves, sometimes we only give gifts because we have to... or we give at a special time... Now with grace it needs to be given at times that are not conveniant. How is it that we give grace? Is there a right way to give grace? Now let me say that one should be giving grace no matter what. That sometimes we give grace even when we do not want to. Sometimes giving grace is a matter of obedience to our Lord. Which is ok. to begin with. But there is a better way. That would be that "love" is behind the giving. Now before we get to what love is let's talk about another important thing that Christians do; that would be mercy. Now mercy also has 2 components; one who asks for mercy and the one who grants mercy. Mercy has a few definitions, but overall it involves compassion to person(s). For example, beg for mercy or a merciful deed of kindness(helping...) We will focus on the first, for in the first; one who begs for mercy wants something... That one needs the mercy of a judge; so that the penalty will be lessen... What I would like to do is to walk through how this applies to us as Christians. We talked about grace last time, using John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." That the gift of grace was God's son Jesus. So what do we do with this gift, the gift that we believe in? Well first we need to believe, yes too really believe... not to be well maybe... but to believe that Jesus is the son of God... Now we are opening the gift that God has given to us (you, me) with that belief and right away we are able to put it to use! For we see that we are sinners... and the penalty for sin is death. So we cry out for mercy, and we claim the gift of Jesus to the Judge( God), for the price of sin is death and Jesus paid that price for me, for you! So the Judge pardons... us, you , me not for what we have done but on what Jesus has done on the cross. If you read on further in the Gospel of John it says, " that he who believes in Him is not judged" You don't even have to go through the whole trial... Because you have Jesus, He takes care of it all! He sees your name on the docket and says this has been taken care of by Me. This is how salvation works but Jesus does a lot more for us, even now for He is a living God working... So grace is a free gift and mercy is granted because of what is in the gift, Jesus. Grace we receive and mercy is asked for and granted because of grace.