Continuing
Michael’s Message: The fourth category is those of us who know that we have received
salvation. We who have been "born
again of the spirit of life in Christ", repented - having done a
"180 degree turn" and have changed Lordships. We are no longer
our own lord. Salvation is not "who we are" but rather,
"whose we are." As the Apostle Paul said in 2 Timothy 1:12, “For I know whom I have believed, and am
persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against
that day (of judgment.)” For those of us who are in this category
"the spirit (of God) bears witness
with our spirit (of Christ in us) that we are sons of God." Those
who have been saved by grace, have accepted the free gift of salvation
according to Ephesians 2:8, "For
by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift
of God. Not of works lest any man should boast."
Jesus
said, "whosoever will may come." He woos everyone, but not all
accept His offer to receive God's gift of salvation. Today is "the
acceptable year of the Lord." Hebrews 3 says, don't harden your
hearts like Israel did when they were led out of bondage in Egypt: "harden not your hearts as in the day of
provocation, as in the day of temptation in the wilderness." All have sinned and come short of the glory
of God. However, we who have accepted his gift of salvation have been made
the righteousness of God in Christ. God sealed us by entrusting His Holy
Spirit within us when we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord. This is similar to
our marriage covenant with our spouses. When we take our marriage vows,
one of the "covenants and conditions" is that "we'll be under
constant surveillance of our spouses." When we love our spouses, we
don't want to do anything to disappoint them ... we don't want to break
our fellowship with them by violating our sacred covenant of trust. Similarly
when we were saved, God called us to be "holy." Sanctification
or holiness means to be "set apart for the purpose for which he designed
us."
This is not a burden. We gladly submit because we love Him. When
we're walking in fellowship with our Lord, when we've lovingly surrendered our
hearts to Him, doing His holy will is the joy and rejoicing of our heart. However,
our Heavenly Father knows that because we're still human and carry the fallen sin
nature of the flesh, we will sometimes stray from the "straight and narrow
way." Even though we're still saved, we break fellowship with our
Lord by trusting our own way instead of His way. When we stray, He still
loves us and gives us a way to return our hearts back to him: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
(1
John 1:9).
The
job of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into the "all truth"; for Jesus
Christ is the way, the truth and the life. The Holy Spirit will
"check us and convict our conscience" so that we can "confess
our sins" and maintain our fellowship with Him. Our prayer is for
the Lord to "blot out our transgressions." We're guilty as
charged when we stray. However, our Lord doesn't beat us up when we
sin. Jesus Christ didn't come to condemn the world but that the world
through him might be saved. Today is the "acceptable year of the
Lord." He didn't come to "kick us when we're down." He
loves us much more that we could ever love ourselves. Even though, every
time we sin and repent of it, we nail Christ to the Cross again to pay for
them, He came to set us free from the bondage of resentment and bitterness, to
heal our broken heart and to open our blinded eyes. This is the freedom
that we have in Christ: He set us captives free when we confess that we're
broken by our own sins. Jesus Christ shed His innocent blood to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. The purpose of the cross is that we may be made
the righteousness of God “in Him”; not in us. When we understand and
accept His grace and forgiveness, then we can give the bondage of our sin away:
"I forgave and set the prisoner free, only to find that the prisoner was
me."
What's
the difference between an oak and a seedling? An oak has stood the test
of time. It has persevered through the ages ... through good times and
bad. When we turned to Jesus Christ for salvation, He planted us as a
seedling in the holy ground of His Holy Word. When we faithfully return to
the Lord for fellowship, like the oak tree that has endured over many seasons
of life, He will give us beauty for ashes, the oil of Joy for mourning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that we may be called "oaks
of righteousness" to the glory of our Lord.
.
May
God richly bless you!
Your
brother in Christ, Michael
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