Pastor Herk continues that in Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Maybe our world needs a transformational change to clean up our thoughts, words and actions and be more godlike. Likewise, in baptism there is a spiritual and positional change that affects our entire being. Romans 6:3-4 asks, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.” We find ourselves praising God anywhere and anytime for being our loving and merciful God, that provides, protects and blessings in our lives.
Ephesians 5:18-20 “Do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father.”
There are so many lost sinners in the world that do not know or believe in Christ. They all want to go to Heaven but they don’t know how to get there. They are waiting for someone to tell them the way, the truth and the life. Some believe falsely and in error that everyone goes to Heaven, some believe that if their good outweighs their bad then they deserve to go to Heaven, some believe that they can earn their way into Heaven on their own, and some believe that doing good works buys their way into the pearly gates.
There are many in the Christian church that do not know the Gospel message of Salvation and lack understanding of what it takes to get to Heaven. Some are timid and weak, having lost their first love, and many never found it in the first place. We still need the Holy Spirit to come upon us today to change of our lives direction and purpose. The problem is: How many of us believe that we need to be changed? You hear people say: “I’m not so bad. I try to do the right things. I am nice to people. I’m okay the way that I am. What do I need to change?” A lot of things. Christians are still in the flesh and have sinful habits. Anger, envy, covetousness, lust and unforgiveness are to name a few. If we are filled with the Holy Spirit, sinful vices should start dropping away, and the others should become less and less as our indwelling Counselor convicts those sins unto repentance and transformation of the heart, mind and soul. We come to understand forgiveness when we come to realize all that God has forgiven in our lives.
We all have moment of selfish pride and misunderstanding of what God is trying to tell us in the Bible. We may have different interpretations of passages and verses. We may fail to share our faith to our to other lost souls who do not know the Lord, of His Gospel of Salvation and how your life has been changed by the Lord. The moment we accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord of our live, we are saved but still need to change in the sanctification process of growing into the image of Christ. We need to be bold as and disciples of and ambassadors for Christ, children of God and citizens of the kingdom of Heaven. Each and every day, we need to become more and more like the person that Christ wants us to be. Stronger in our faith, bolder in our faith, growing in our faith, maturing in our faith, and spreading our faith to others – telling others how they can change also, save their soul and gain access to Heaven in blessed assurance of salvation through Christ.
Matthew 5:13-16 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by people. “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Your light must shine before people in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
Trying to be a better person is not going to get the job done in and of itself. We need to seriously think about our salvation, our life purpose and what God put us of this planet at this time to do. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever. Keep the main thing the main thing … it’s all about God. The lost generation do not believe in God, have nothing to do with God, and desire to be totally self-centered and lord of their life. Why? Partially because parents and grandparents have failed to teach the next generation to basics of the Gospel. They must teach them the truth of God, of sin, of Jesus Christ salvation, go to church together and, by example, show them what it means to holy walk with the Lord and walk in the Spirit. We need read them the Bible as the Word of God, to talk about the Lord and His standards for all people, and to encourage each other all along the way. Part of the problem with our society turning further away from God is that Christians are not being the Christians that we are supposed to be … being salt and light. What society needs is someone working on their soul; not a church that capitulates and compromises the Word of God in a secular world.
Let's conclude Pastor Herk's message on transformational change in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
No comments:
Post a Comment