STAGE DIVE!

I went to bed last night determined that today I would blog about something other than sin. However, I opened up The Word and started reading Romans 6. This morning I read it again and it dawned on me...preachers (that preach The Word, not pieces of it) must struggle to preach on something other than sin.
When you read The Word, our condition of sin and God's view and response to it is EVERYWHERE! So, for a preacher or teacher to spend 90% of their time discussing sin seems to be the logical thing to do. After all, if our relationship with sin hasn't changed, our relationship with God has not changed either. By that I mean; we are, by nature, children of Wrath. By nature WE LOVE SIN! Until we surrender to Christ and He transforms us we will continue to love sin. In our sinful nature we love gossip, slander, profanity, blasphemy, fornication, pornography, lust, masturbation, and other sexual impurity. We love to hold on to bitterness, anger, rage, malice and hate. We love to get drunk, covet and our greed consumes us. We will put anything and everything before God.
Take a look at Romans 6 and read the different descriptions of our relationship to sin. We are slaves to it, it reigns in our life, it is our master, we are instruments of wickedness....all this in one small section of one short chapter. Does this describe you?....I know it used to describe me! How do we become “dead to sin” as Paul talks about? Answer: Surrender!
Let me give one quick illustration of surrender. Much to my wife's horror, when my kids were small enough I would always holler “STAGE DIVE” when they were at the top of the stairs. With my wife yelling, “NO”....the kids would jump off the top step and in to my arms. They had no thought that dad couldn't or wouldn't catch them. Then as they got older, they quit trusting that dad 'could' catch them. As much as I 'would' catch them, they doubted whether I 'could'. In other words, they were not willing to surrender the firm footing of the carpet and make a leap of faith. This is kind of like our relationship with sin and this world. We are either too in love with the things of this world to leave our firm footing in it, or we do not think God could or would transform us if we make the leap of faith.
God promises a new heart with new desires when you surrender to Him; however, He does want your surrender. If you are still a slave to sin and you secretly or openly love it....you are still under God's Wrath. If you are a slave to sin, but do not want to be, God can and will transform you. Imagine the things of this world that you love becoming a foul taste to you, and the things of God bringing you more joy than you thought possible when you were living for this world....that's what happens. The joy of serving Him is not a struggle, it is a joy that surpasses all understanding. Give Him your surrender today, we are not guaranteed tomorrow.
Link to Romans 6

What does that even mean? Accept Jesus in to my heart?

Hello Everyone!

I just wanted to drop a quick note regarding a commonly used phrase in Evangelical circles today. It seems like everywhere you look the Gospel message is being watered down....this is even happening with "well meaning Christians" and preachers. The phrase I am referring to is "accept Jesus in to your heart".

God's Word doesn't say "accept Jesus in to your heart"....it says "Put your faith in Christ for the forgiveness of sins and REPENT"....."lest a man be born-again he will NOT see the Kingdom of Heaven"....."Flesh gives birth to flesh, but Spirit gives birth to spirit"....to be born-again means the old is gone and the new has come; the desires of your heart change from having a love for the passions and lusts of this world to a love for the things of God....when we are born of the Spirit we will have a HATRED for the things of this world.

I love what Paul says in Galatians 4:16; "Have I now become your enemy because I tell you the Truth?" This is The Truth and the enemy has done a number on our society in that when we hear certain words we automatically tune out the person speaking....words like Judgment, Wrath, Born-Again.....we prefer phrases like, "accept Jesus in to your heart".....there is no "us accepting Jesus"....it is "us pleading with Jesus to accept and forgive us".

As Little Children

I didn't intend to make another post so quickly; but this is too good not to share. I just got done with Lesson #2 in The Full Armor of God Study from TheOneBridge.com; my kids and I are working through it together. If you read lesson #2 you'll see that God's Word says "the heart is deceitful above all things"...my 14 year old daughter (who's birthday is today) said; "you always hear songs that say follow your heart...that's not right." I asked her why, and she said, "because the heart is wicked until Jesus changes it." We can learn so much from kids, everything seems so simple to them. Then my 7 year old asked if his cousins could come to our study next week...AMAZING...when you receive the knowledge of the Truth your heart will desire that everyone know the Truth. Please pray that their cousins will accept the invitation.

Parents!!!...They are never too young to learn God's Word....remember what The Word says, "Raise a child up in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it"....what an amazing promise. Praise God

Liar, Lunatic or Lord

Hello Everyone, I was listening to David T. Moore's "Yea Butt" series for about the 100th time today. It is an audio series he did about 10 years ago that walks through the 7 main objections to Christianity. Studies have been done and the vast majority of objections to Christianity come done to basically 7 of them. Today I listened to the objection, "How can Jesus be the only Way to Heaven?" I love this intellectual break down of this answer. Although Born-Again Christians have come to realize that to be saved is a work of The Spirit; to reason with someone is Biblical; Paul says, "Come now, let us reason together". That is what David T. Moore does in this entire series and today's objection is no different. Let's take a look. We need to first answer the question Jesus actually raised to His disciples; "Who do you say I am?"....So who do you say Jesus is? Start with this....Was He a liar....a con man that duped the masses? Most people are not prepared to say Jesus was a liar; most would at least concede that He was a good moral teacher. So, then He must have been a crazy man....a lunatic. Most would not be willing to say that. Some might say He could have been and yet a few more might be willing to say, "yep, He was nuts!" The problem with that is, Jesus never said or did anything consistent with that of a lunatic. He was always in control, He was a very loving and caring Man whose actions or words were never inconsistent. If you have ever watched the news; you know that crazy people do crazy, off-the-wall, inconsistent things...Jesus never did this. You will not find anything in the Biblical record or a historical secular record indicating that Jesus may have been insane. So, if He wasn't a liar or a lunatic....YOU HAVE ONLY ONE CHOICE LEFT! He is who He said He is. John 14:6, Jesus said "I am The Way, The Truth and The Life, no one gets to The Father except through Me." You can reject that if you'd like; however, if you do reject Him, you dare not call Him a "good moral teacher" or "one of many ways to Heaven"....you believe He is who He said He is or you don't. As you ponder that, also ponder the words of Jesus in John 3:36: 'Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.' Isn't that interesting....Jesus includes the word obey along with belief. That indicates that there is more to it than mere belief. Our belief needs to show true by our obedience to Him. Let me illustrate. All of us (if we are sane) believe in gravity. We demonstrate that belief by not stepping off a building or in to an open staircase; we demonstrate our true belief by our actions. The same is true for those that are Born-Again (remember, Jesus said, unless we are born-again we WILL NOT go to Heaven)...so, if we are truly born-again....we are truly saved and believe Jesus is who He said He is, we will demonstrate that belief in our life....we will be obedient to Him and surrendered to Him for His Glory. This quick overview indicates two crucial things; if you choose to reject the claims of Jesus, God's Wrath remains on you; if you claim to believe in Jesus yet are not obiedient to Him, God's Wrath remains on you. Work through this, think it through, ask God to show you the Truth.

Why do people hate Jesus?

A very close friend of mine died a couple weeks ago. It was a very sudden and unexpected death. As the reality of him being gone has set in, it has been very difficult to think that I will not see my friend again. But, as The Word says, I do not need to grieve as those without hope. Jesus saved my friend 8 months ago...I know he is in Heaven and we will meet again. His death and funeral has given me a renewed sense of urgency to share The Gospel. I have been pondering many things since his death and yesterday I was thinking of the many things that distract people from The Truth. It seems like if people do get past the lusts of this world long enough to seek God there are many false religions and false teachers right around the corner to choke out The Truth. We need to remember, as The Word says, our battle is not of flesh and blood....the battle is spiritual and we don't have any clue of its magnitude and power. The main thing I thought about yesterday is the reason people do not come to "the knowledge of The Truth"...people hear the Truth, but most won't receive it and walk it out....WHY!?...the answer is simple and although it seemed to be a new revelation to me yesterday, Jesus spoke of it many times. People love their sin too much. That is why they will ignore God, discredit His message, ask questions like, "what about the people that have never heard?" OR "what about other religions, are they all wrong?"...the list goes on and on of people coming up with reasons they will not accept and receive The Truth. The fact is, however, these are not real reasons....they are smoke screens to justify their sinful lifestyle. People love their sin too much. Think about it....Jesus said, and I paraphrase, "I have the power to save you, I have the power to forgive your sin so you can enter my Kingdom, but now that I have done that, I want you to show the world that you belong to me by leaving your life of sin." Isn't it true that we love the story of Jesus up to a point. We love to say, "Jesus loves me and he forgives me and He is preparing a place for me"....we love that story....until He says, "now go and sin no more". Whoa, Whoa. We'd rather He said, "I love you and forgive you and I will go to prepare a place for you even if you continue in sin because you just can help yourself because, after all, that's the way you're wired." He didn't say that, He said, again I paraphrase, "your work is to believe in Me and demonstrate your belief in Me and love for Me with every part of your life...your public, private and secret life....with all of it; demonstrate that you belong to Me and not this world. That is why people don't get saved, they love their sin too much.I'll leave you with this, the words of Jesus in John 3:19-21:And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

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John3tv.com is an extension of TheOneBridge.com....both sites and this blog are committed to sharing The Truth of Salvation found in Jesus Christ that is communicated through The Holy Spirit and God's Word to all who earnestly seek Him.