No amount of exercise or diet can make us outlive this human life. Only in Jesus do we have life everlasting. ~ DickEvans.org
Monday, May 09, 2016
WWJD
In the 1990's a fad started with WWJD bracelets, bumper stickers, T-shirts, and many other paraphernalia prompting the question "What would Jesus do?" It would remind the person seeing it or wearing it that his or her actions should not be any different than what they perceived Jesus' actions would be if it were Him instead of them.
John 14:12-14 NKJV
Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
Do we believe this scripture when it says we will do greater works? We believe the end of it that says Jesus will do anything we ask, if we ask in His name, the name of Jesus. I have to wonder if we really understand what He meant by Greater Works than these? Instead of asking what we are to do, perhaps we should be asking what didn't Jesus do. This may seem like a strange question, but how often are we adding things to what Jesus did?
Luke 10:19 NKJV
Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
We Has been given authority. Authority to trample on a monsters of any kind trying to attack us or standing in our way as we step into what He has assigned to us. Authority over the powers of satan. Nothing shall harm us. We are under the protection of God as we walk forth doing the work He has predestined for us to do.
And in Mark Jesus gave us the The Great Commission which reads "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."
Jesus tells us we will deliver demons from people and perform miraculous healings by laying on our hands. But do we do as Jesus did, or do we add our own twist? Do we add to what Jesus who is perfect did? Do we trust in God and lean to Him first or do we lean to our own understanding first?
Someone becomes sick in our presence. What is our first response? Do we reach out, lay hands on them and see them recover? Or do we call 911? What would Jesus have done? Would He have called for a physician of that time to help the person and if that did not work laid His hands on them praying for God to heal the person? Of course not. Jesus simply would have told them they were healed. Why do we add to what Jesus would do instead of trusting in His words that told us we would do greater things?
How often do pray for someone by for Jesus to heal them, to deliver them from their illness? We beg God to do what He has told us to do. We believed and therefore received salvation. Our spirit and His spirit are one in us. Holy Spirit was sent to be our guarantee that we are saved. He fills us with all power and authority to do all Jesus did and even greater things.
When someone is troubled by demonic activity we say they are in need of deliverance. Do we just lay hands on them and tell the demons to go in the name of Jesus? This is what Jesus did. No, we enroll them in a series of classes or deliverance sessions where the demons are expelled using a series of methods developed over the years. Why do we add to the simple gospel Jesus brought us? Why do we create our own methods to do what only Jesus can do?
It is time we stopped leaning to mankind to solve our problems. Jesus went to the cross as us and paid our debt in full. He took all our sins, sicknesses, demons, curses, and earthly situations and crucified them. We are free of all of these things. We are free to walk forth in Christ with His mind and His righteousness. We are to be all we can be and that is to be Jesus in this world we live.
Monday, May 02, 2016
Saved
Romans 10:9-10 NLT
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
It seems that each church has created its own "sinner's prayer" for those who want to be saved to say. Some are as simple as asking Jesus into their heart to save them and others seem to be shot sermons having them confessing everything, agreeing they believe Jesus died for them, and on and on to finally asking to be saved. These are fine and nothing is wrong with them, but they can tend to complicate a simple process.
Jesus said to just believe. Paul confirms that in this scripture-believe and you will be saved. Jesus died as us on that cross. Our total debt was paid. No longer does sin count against us. All curses, sickness, disease, and anything else satan can try and throw at us was removed on that day at the cross. And yet satan continues to try and deceive us into thinking otherwise.
As a guarantee that we have been saved, God sends the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ, to live in us. He take residence in us and His spirit and ours become one. Christ is in us and we are in Him. Our spirit man is righteous, but our soul, mind, and body has a way to go. And that is our transformation walk.
Day by day as we allow Holy Spirit to teach us all things, to comfort us, to guide us in the paths of righteousness. As we receive from Him, we allow our mind to become more and more Christ like. We learn to shut out the voices of the enemy and the voices from our own past life. We cannot go back there because we are a new person in Christ. The old has past away. And yet satan continues to put thoughts in our carnal mind that tempt us to go back where we came from.
Lord, help me to listen to your Holy Spirit as I go about each day. Help me to think Your thoughts and not my old ones. Help me to be a reflection of You to all I come in contact with. May my mind be transformed into the mind of Christ. It is in Jesus name I pray.
If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
It seems that each church has created its own "sinner's prayer" for those who want to be saved to say. Some are as simple as asking Jesus into their heart to save them and others seem to be shot sermons having them confessing everything, agreeing they believe Jesus died for them, and on and on to finally asking to be saved. These are fine and nothing is wrong with them, but they can tend to complicate a simple process.
Jesus said to just believe. Paul confirms that in this scripture-believe and you will be saved. Jesus died as us on that cross. Our total debt was paid. No longer does sin count against us. All curses, sickness, disease, and anything else satan can try and throw at us was removed on that day at the cross. And yet satan continues to try and deceive us into thinking otherwise.
As a guarantee that we have been saved, God sends the Holy Spirit, the spirit of Christ, to live in us. He take residence in us and His spirit and ours become one. Christ is in us and we are in Him. Our spirit man is righteous, but our soul, mind, and body has a way to go. And that is our transformation walk.
Day by day as we allow Holy Spirit to teach us all things, to comfort us, to guide us in the paths of righteousness. As we receive from Him, we allow our mind to become more and more Christ like. We learn to shut out the voices of the enemy and the voices from our own past life. We cannot go back there because we are a new person in Christ. The old has past away. And yet satan continues to put thoughts in our carnal mind that tempt us to go back where we came from.
Lord, help me to listen to your Holy Spirit as I go about each day. Help me to think Your thoughts and not my old ones. Help me to be a reflection of You to all I come in contact with. May my mind be transformed into the mind of Christ. It is in Jesus name I pray.
Monday, April 25, 2016
No Debt
Romans 3:23-24 NLT
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
We all desire to be free of all debt. Yet we have grown up in a society that makes it easy to buy now and pay later. We have zero percent credit cards for six months or a year. When the time is up we find another one with the same deal. And our credit scores go up as we charge more and more as long as we make our payments.
Need a new car? No problem. With our great credit score we can get one for a few dollars down using our credit card and then make monthly payments for the next four or five years. It is so easy to go into debt and satan loves to see it. We live like there is no tomorrow buying the latest and greatest with no concern for how high our debt level. Most of our income goes to pay down the debt.
Because of what Jesus did for mankind on the cross that day, we are freed from the debt of sin. There is no longer any outstanding debt for the sins we had committed. He even rescued us from any future sin debt. He stands in the gap between the Father and us. Since Father God only sees us through His son, Jesus, we are righteous in His eyes forever. We are right with God.
Does this mean we never do anything wrong from the day we became a Christian? I wish that were so. Our spirit man was made one with Holy Spirit that day we became a believer. Our human man has a lot of catching up to do. Our mind is being renewed to the mind of Christ. Although we know what we should do, we fall back into our old way of thinking and take our focus off of the Father.
When Holy Spirit brings our shortcoming to our mind, we stop and rethink what we have said or done. We repent and turn our focus back on God asking Holy Spirit to help us to not do that again. It may happen each day, but because of the Grace of God we remain forgiven and right in His sight. Thank you Jesus for our debt being canceled for all times.
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard. Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
We all desire to be free of all debt. Yet we have grown up in a society that makes it easy to buy now and pay later. We have zero percent credit cards for six months or a year. When the time is up we find another one with the same deal. And our credit scores go up as we charge more and more as long as we make our payments.
Need a new car? No problem. With our great credit score we can get one for a few dollars down using our credit card and then make monthly payments for the next four or five years. It is so easy to go into debt and satan loves to see it. We live like there is no tomorrow buying the latest and greatest with no concern for how high our debt level. Most of our income goes to pay down the debt.
Because of what Jesus did for mankind on the cross that day, we are freed from the debt of sin. There is no longer any outstanding debt for the sins we had committed. He even rescued us from any future sin debt. He stands in the gap between the Father and us. Since Father God only sees us through His son, Jesus, we are righteous in His eyes forever. We are right with God.
Does this mean we never do anything wrong from the day we became a Christian? I wish that were so. Our spirit man was made one with Holy Spirit that day we became a believer. Our human man has a lot of catching up to do. Our mind is being renewed to the mind of Christ. Although we know what we should do, we fall back into our old way of thinking and take our focus off of the Father.
When Holy Spirit brings our shortcoming to our mind, we stop and rethink what we have said or done. We repent and turn our focus back on God asking Holy Spirit to help us to not do that again. It may happen each day, but because of the Grace of God we remain forgiven and right in His sight. Thank you Jesus for our debt being canceled for all times.
Monday, April 18, 2016
New Life
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 NLT
Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
Sure, we believe Christ died for us. We are believers and followers of Him. But what about us? Are we living as the new person we became when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior? Or are we still hanging around with the same crowd, going to the same places, watching the same stuff on television, listening to the same type of music, and the list goes on.
Jesus promised He would send the Holy Spirit to live in us. And He is our guarantee that we have been saved and are going to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus. He lives in us and wants to live through us. Are we allowing Him to do that? Are we His hands and his mouth?
Our fleshly desires do not all change the moment we ask Jesus to come into our heart. We are changed on the inside because our spirit and Holy Spirit are now one. But our old man is still in our lives. We have to allow He who is in us change us.
Do we still sin by putting things of this world before God? On the inside we do not want to. We want to do everything as pleasing to our Father God. But our old man does not want to change everything. We know better, but the pull of the things we were comfortable with is strong. We must resist the devil and he will flee. We must resist the pull of the old and walk in the new man Jesus' saving grace has allowed us to become.
Either way, Christ's love controls us. Since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive his new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.
Sure, we believe Christ died for us. We are believers and followers of Him. But what about us? Are we living as the new person we became when we accepted Jesus as our Lord and savior? Or are we still hanging around with the same crowd, going to the same places, watching the same stuff on television, listening to the same type of music, and the list goes on.
Jesus promised He would send the Holy Spirit to live in us. And He is our guarantee that we have been saved and are going to spend eternity in heaven with Jesus. He lives in us and wants to live through us. Are we allowing Him to do that? Are we His hands and his mouth?
Our fleshly desires do not all change the moment we ask Jesus to come into our heart. We are changed on the inside because our spirit and Holy Spirit are now one. But our old man is still in our lives. We have to allow He who is in us change us.
Do we still sin by putting things of this world before God? On the inside we do not want to. We want to do everything as pleasing to our Father God. But our old man does not want to change everything. We know better, but the pull of the things we were comfortable with is strong. We must resist the devil and he will flee. We must resist the pull of the old and walk in the new man Jesus' saving grace has allowed us to become.
Monday, April 11, 2016
W A R N I N G
Bible Usage Can Be Habit Forming, Regular reading can cause Loss of ANXIETY and FEAR; decreased appetite for LYING, CHEATING, STEALING, HATING, ANGER and ENVY.
Symptoms include: increased sensation of LOVE, JOY, PEACE, COMPASSION, AND CONTENTMENT. If Symptoms Persist, Just Praise Jesus.
Side effects are Forgiveness, Grace, and Love!
Symptoms include: increased sensation of LOVE, JOY, PEACE, COMPASSION, AND CONTENTMENT. If Symptoms Persist, Just Praise Jesus.
Side effects are Forgiveness, Grace, and Love!
Freedom
Ephesians 1:7 NLT
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
In Luke 4:18, while reading from Isaiah, Jesus told all in the synagogue in His hometown that He came to set the captives free. He came so all could receive freedom; freedom from oppression, from bondage in any form.
Notice that He did not purchase our freedom to hold on to it and give it to us later after we performed certain things. It was a once and for all purchase for all mankind. The only requirement for us to believe it!
We are not required to do anything to keep our salvation. Jesus did it all on the cross. If we mess up, grace covers us. Holy Spirit guides us to the work for us to do. We do not have to come up with God projects on our own. Often we can be so busy doing what we perceive to be work for God that we miss what He really wants us to do.
By God's grace our salvation is secure. Our past sin has been forgiven. Our present sin is forgiven. All future sin is forgiven. However, this is not license to sin. Oh no, as born again believers we no longer have the desire to sin.
When we are tempted and even step over the line, we can turn to God and ask Him to bring us back and show us the direction we should be walking. We are to keep our eyes on Him and ask Holy Spirit to keep us on track. He will teach us all we need to know.
He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.
In Luke 4:18, while reading from Isaiah, Jesus told all in the synagogue in His hometown that He came to set the captives free. He came so all could receive freedom; freedom from oppression, from bondage in any form.
Notice that He did not purchase our freedom to hold on to it and give it to us later after we performed certain things. It was a once and for all purchase for all mankind. The only requirement for us to believe it!
We are not required to do anything to keep our salvation. Jesus did it all on the cross. If we mess up, grace covers us. Holy Spirit guides us to the work for us to do. We do not have to come up with God projects on our own. Often we can be so busy doing what we perceive to be work for God that we miss what He really wants us to do.
By God's grace our salvation is secure. Our past sin has been forgiven. Our present sin is forgiven. All future sin is forgiven. However, this is not license to sin. Oh no, as born again believers we no longer have the desire to sin.
When we are tempted and even step over the line, we can turn to God and ask Him to bring us back and show us the direction we should be walking. We are to keep our eyes on Him and ask Holy Spirit to keep us on track. He will teach us all we need to know.
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