Thursday, June 18, 2009

DO YOU BELIEVE?


Do you believe the Bible is true? We will be judged by His word. Jesus Christ is the only one true living God. He is our Lord and Savior. Through repentance and baptism all sins will be washed away. We are no longer bound by feelings of guilt and shame from a sinful past, we are set free from those aweful feelings and made a new creature in the eyes of the Lord! The Lord told Nicodemus that anyone who wanted to enter the kingdom of God must be born again of water and of the spirit. The Bible tells us in John 17:17 "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." This confirms that the Bible is the living WORD of God and is the absolute TRUTH! In Luke 24:45 we read "Then opened he their understanding , that they might understand the scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name, among all nations, beginning in Jerusalem." God desires for us to understand the scriptures we read and apply them to our lives so that we will be saved and spend an eternity with Him. Faith without works is dead, right! Once a person has confessed their sins to the Lord and asked forgiveness with a sincere heart, they are then forgiven. The word goes on to tell us that once we have repented for our sins the Lord wipes them away and no longer remembers them. How awesome it is to have complete assurance in knowing we can and will be forgiven for our sins if we ask Him. In Acts 2:38 "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Acts chapter two tells us when the apostles were at Jerusalem, they along with many others were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues. At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. Acts 2:5-12; "When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. 7 They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, 8 and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! 9 Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” 12 They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. Peter, an apostle explained that the Holy Ghost was promised to everyone who was baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Speaking in tongues is the evidence of baptism of the Holy Spirit. Luke 11:13 "So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” What great joy, peace, love and understanding we can all obtain through obeying the word. Remember John 3:1-8, "we must be born again of water and of spirit to enter unto the kingdom of God." Our God is so powerful and we need His Spirit living within us. Seek Him, "he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).

1 comment:

Christi said...

I like it!!! I forgot too that I wrote a long piece on this topic a while ago and posted it on my myspace! It was like 2 years ago maybe or a little less. Anyway.... keep expounding on the Word and tell it like it is, not like they want to hear it!!!