Thursday, July 5, 2018

Treasure the Right Treasures – Part 1



This week, Michael writes: A man I know has been preparing for a mission trip to Nepal. He trained to do a concise presentation of the gospel message of salvation to the people of Nepal. He has been called to this mission and to this message which has been changing lives all over the world. The outline of this presentation is in an App called “Life on Mission”.

God originally created the world perfectly. He created the Angels as part of his perfect creation. One of his angels rose up with pride. Pride caused the angel Lucifer to attempt to usurp the throne of God. Lucifer fell and took one third of the Angels with him when he lifted himself with pride.

Lucifer was cast to earth as the Devil (aka Satan), the adversary of the one true God and His people. The devil, the deceiver, approached Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden and tempted them to disobey God's only commandment. When Adam and Eve questioned God and disobeyed God's command by eating of the “tree of the knowledge of good and evil”, they died spiritually that day (their spirit died). Mankind has been separated from God ever since. Since the fall of man, the sin nature that we inherited from Adam has separated mankind from the spiritual nature of God.  

However, God had a plan to redeem mankind, regenerate the spirit and restore the spiritual connection. The plan was through His only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. When we confess Jesus as Lord and believe that God has raised him from the dead, we shall be saved, redeemed, and made righteous in the sight of God. Salvation means that we have been “born again” of God's sprit. When we were born the first time, we inherited Adam's fallen nature of body and soul, but the spirit was dead. When we were born again of God's spirit, we inherited God's spiritual nature of the Holy Spirit. We who have been “born again” now have two natures: the sin nature of the flesh, the natural man of body and soul that we inherited from Adam, and the righteous nature of the Holy Spirit of life in Christ.

The devil will indoctrinate the "natural" man of body and soul: those who are without God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and without hope. They do not have the regenerated spirit of life in Christ and are blind to the truth in a world of spiritual darkness. In our broken world, lying is encouraged, if the outcome is advantageous. The natural man says, "What's in it for me?"  Rebellion is required for worldly acceptance. Doctrines of this world have also infiltrated the church.  For example, what the sacred and holy Word of God says is "sexual sin" is now accepted practice in many church congregations. These biblical sins are "welcomed and affirmed". Sin is inevitable when condoned by those who are supposed to be living a holy life. When the church is no longer a beacon of light, Sin becomes commonplace as the cultural norm for acceptable behavior. Then this false church is walking in darkness and not the body of Christ.  In America, churches and Christians used to stand against sin, and those who practiced sin were considered shameful. However sin is now is welcomed, affirmed, and openly celebrated by our godless culture.  

Let's continue Michael's message on "Treasures" in our next post.
In Christ, Brian

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