Our walk with Christ is a Walk of Faith...

Jesus demonstrated God’s authority which as the Son of God, was to offer sinners mercy, compassion, grace and His love.  Jesus tells us and told the disciples the two most important commandments: Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and then to love your neighbor as yourself.

When the disciples asked Lord how are we to love our neighbor. He told the parable of the good Samaritan… Think of that parable as a demonstration of God's entering into this fallen world into our darkened mind in order that we find Him and His truth which is the truth of our being; that in fact, we were created in His image and we are destined to live an eternal life in His Kingdom.

Bear in mind that God’s love is not the world’s love. Through His Son Jesus Christ, God the Father demonstrated the kind of love He offers and requires from us; mercy and compassion. We can understand this more than anything more than the love men engage in; because, God's mercy and compassion is what every fallen human beings wants more than anything in a fallen world.

Such love is freeing. It frees us from the chains of this fallen dark world… not the love man imagines… its not sex, its not money, nor toleration and perpetuation of sin as a kind of 'right'. Indeed, His mercy and compassion are freeing… we are free indeed in Jesus Christ. In this revelation, we sin no more. We live life abundantly in Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We are called to demonstrate God’s love to others… that is the mercy and compassion demonstrated by Christ as in the parable of the good Samaritan that Jesus spoke to the disciples. We can and should be the good Samaritan, we, as God did by sending His Son, enter into someone’s darkened life when a situation appears, and we can offer mercy and compassion as a way out of the darkness of this fallen world. 

Just as God did by sending His Son, just as Christ himself showed everyone He ministered to; and now, we having the Holy Spirit can do the same. Jesus said so. You can do these things and greater..."Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father" ~ John 14:12.

When we intervene into someone's life, we do not condemn. We deliver the truth of God’s Word and if someone rejects that truth, we can only shake the sand off and walk away lest the longer we stay on we end up joining in or losing the ground we established for ourselves in our walk with the Lord Jesus Christ and we also risk losing ground we might have gained for that person whom we intervened for regarding their decision to walk away from darkness. Each and every person must make that choice alone.

Do we judge? No! We discern 'evaluate' a situation; we offer mercy and compassion just as Christ did and we give them the Good News. We say there is another way, repent and follow Christ.  The discernment we make is as Christ's evaluation of a person in darkness…. Look around, you can see such people everywhere and from all social groups.

We who are born again in Jesus Christ should never want to leave someone in the darkest muck of things; and, so like the good Samaritan, we reach out to them. At first, they may accept our immediate help but when they hear that they need to repent (renew their mind…leave the drugs or alcohol or porn behind and sexual immorality behind) they may reject this offer of truth, light and life…

In the end of days, many will be given over to a reprobate mind. They have chosen darkness and to remain there even though the Good News, God’s love, His offering of mercy, compassion and grace is theirs for the taking, theirs for the living life abundant in Christ.

There will be occasions when we will have to move on… shake the sand from our shoes hoping those yet it darkness who refuse to hear will see the direction we go. Jesus went where there was faith. And, He healed where there was faith in Him that He could heal...would heal those that sought Him in faith.

Our walk with Christ is a walk of faith and we are only able to do that in a fallen world by the power of the Holy Spirit; we walk according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh.

Our first steps begin by asking Jesus into our hearts, then by reading His Word and giving thanks and praise to God for all His creation and especially us.  We thank God that though we are in this world, we are not of it. That He through His Son’s offering on the cross we have been given mercy and compassion and grace, we have been redeemed. Because, no matter how wicked, corrupt, evil, entropic the world is we know that He lives and we live in Him.

So, as scripture tells us… We do not love the world as the world does. We love what God created, though the world is still fallen, we love that He created all things seen and unseen, that He sent His Son, and most of all we love that He redeemed us through Christ His Son and we Love the Fact that He Jesus Christ is Coming back. We believe it!

 

 

 

 

God's Power is Working in Us....

 

It is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile ~ Romans 1:16.

You yourselves know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee with the baptism that John proclaimed: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him. We are witnesses of all that He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And although they put Him to death by hanging Him on a tree…Acts 10:37-39.

We preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.…1 COR 1:23-25.

Yes, we faithfully preach Christ crucified and risen… We faithfully preach the truth. God’s power is working in us. We use the weapons of righteousness in the right hand for attack and the left hand for defense. 2 COR 6:7.   For regarding His Son… who through the Spirit of holiness was appointed the Son of God in power by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord ~ Romans 1:4.

The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him--the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD~  Isaiah 11:2

It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age ~ Hebrews 6:4-5.

For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline ~ 2 Timothy 1:7.

So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News ~ 2 Timothy 1:8.

He has saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works, but by His own purpose and by the grace He granted us in Christ Jesus before time began.…2 Timothy 1:9.

Although he was crucified in weakness, he now lives by the power of God. We, too, are weak, just as Christ was, but when we deal with you we will be alive with him and will have God’s power ~ 2 COR 13:4.

SO, we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, yet our inner self is being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal glory that is far beyond comparison. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal ~ 2 COR 4:16-18.

Now to Him who is able to do so much more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen ~ Ephesians 3:20-21.