FROM SINNER to SAINT

FROM SINNER TO SAINT

 

This is an interesting journey from being born as a “sinner” from our mother’s womb, to becoming a “saint” by being “born again” by the Spirit of God. One of my favorite scripture passages that explain this process is found in the letter that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church he had founded in the city of Ephesus. Read (Eph 2:1-10) for the details, which in the NLT version of the Bible has the heading “made alive in Christ”. Paul begins in verse one “Once you were dead because of your disobedience and your many sins”. He continues through verses two and three to explain who is the cause of us being sinners, “the devil—the commander of the powers of the unseen world. He is the spirit that is at work in the hearts of those who refuse to obey God. All of us used to live that way, following the passionate desires and inclinations of our sinful nature. By our very nature we were subject to God’s anger, just like everyone else”.

 

Then in verse four Paul starts out with “But God is so rich in mercy, and He loves us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, He gave us life when He raised Christ from the dead. (It is only by God’s grace that we have been saved!) For He raised us from the dead along with Christ ands seated us with Him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus”. Paul continues in verse eight with “God saved you by His grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it. For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago”. I consider this passage of scripture to be one of the best in the Bible to explain the message of the Gospel of the Kingdom in only 10 verses.

 

Thank God for Paul who was known as the “Apostle to the Gentiles”, and for the “mysteries” of God that were revealed to him (Eph 3:1-13), and recorded for our benefit. My observations of the average church attendee would indicate that they don’t know the truth of the plain simple gospel message, probably because they have listened to “another gospel” that eliminates that fact that we are all sinners (Rom 3:9-21) and have believed in a “false gospel” like the church in Corinth (2 Cor 11:1-4) and in many churches today. A so-called gospel without repentance and the truth of what Jesus did for us on the cross, He is our one and only Savior from sin!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                     08/05/13                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

SIN REDEFINED

SIN, REDEFINED

 

Sin as defined by God’s Word has been purposely redefined by our humanistic secular society in the past century or two. All to make it more acceptable and less offensive to the modern or post-modern mindset! The Bible, which is our Creator God’s written standard for a life style that will please Him, is very specific in defining sin. It uses several words to cover the meaning of sin, but basically they all pertain to the breaking of the 10 commandments listed in the Old Testament book of Exodus, written by Moses and recorded in (Exodus 20:1-17). This is known as the “Moral Law” of God, which Jesus came to fulfill in his life time on earth. The Jewish religious leaders at the time of Jesus had multiplied these 10 laws to 613 rules and regulations that the people were expected to keep in order to live a life that would satisfy God! This is the natural outcome of any “religion”, which is always based on activities designed to earn acceptance with their particular understanding of their god, or “higher power”.

 

Those of us who have become followers of Jesus, since we were ”born again” by the Holy Spirit of God when we accepted Him by faith, now realize this is a gift from God. As a gift of grace, and not the result of religious good works, we receive it as a gift and thank God for it. Jesus came to reveal the Father to us, since He is Spirit and invisible. Jesus came to make Him known, and once we have accepted Jesus as Savior, we are then adopted into the Father’s Forever Family, and receive the gift of eternal life! (1 John 5:11-12). Some sins like homosexuality are condemned in the Bible, and listed as an “abomination” to God. Today it is simply called an “alternative gay life style”, and a woman who was once a “prostitute” is now given the title of being a “sex trade worker”, and on and on the redefining goes. I’m sure that God has not changed His opinion on anything He lists as sin in His Word, just because we have redefined it. God never changes, and is the same “yesterday, today, and for ever”. He refers to Himself as “Alpha and Omega”, the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet. (Rev 22:13). Jesus said “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End”. This should convince even hardened modern day Pagans, that they cannot get God to change His stand on what He considers as sin! So let us continue to pray for people who have not yet seen their need to repent, and ask Jesus for forgiveness. May they see Jesus in our behavior and life style, and be convinced He is who He claims to be!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                           revised 17/09/13                                                                                                                                                                    

The Thirst Quencher

THE THIRST QUENCHER

 

This could be used to describe Jesus, based on a story in the Gospel of John recorded in (John 4:7-14), where He spoke of “Living Water”. I got the idea for the title from ODB Fri Feb 28, 2014, where they told about a large spring in Northern Michigan called “Big Spring” that produces 10,000 gal. of water per minute at exactly 45 degrees Fahrenheit in summer or winter. This is a “miracle spring”, but compared to the water that Jesus promised to give in this story, that is a mild miracle compared to the “living water” He offers to anyone who asks for it! This is an interesting story of a Samaritan woman who had been married to several men and was living with another man who was not her legal husband at the time. She was coming to the well to draw water at noon when no one would ordinarily be there, and when Jesus asked for a drink she was very surprised because He was a Jew and she was a Samaritan. Jews never communicated with Samaritans in those days, so this caught her attention. Their discussion came to the matter of religion, and where the proper place to worship God was. Jesus used this opportunity to declare in (John 4:23) “But the time is coming—indeed is already here now—when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth”. A discussion that started about a drink of water, opened up to Jesus telling her about “Living Water”, and where to properly worship God!

 

Only Jesus Christ can supply “Living Water” that will slake the spiritual thirst of any person. That is why we can refer to Him as the “The Thirst Quencher”, because no one else but Him can do that. We are all born with a built in desire to seek after and worship Almighty God, but we are distracted by “other things”. And of course we have an enemy who also desires to be worshipped instead of God, and he who once was, the “god of this world” from the time he lied to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Gen 3:1-7) and he stole their position of “dominion” from them and became the legal ruler, or god of this world. He held this position “until” Jesus defeated him completely on the Cross of Calvary (Col 2:6-15), and he would like to make us think that he still has that position. But we know from reading (John 8:44) that he is the “father of lies” and hence the “Great Deceiver” who is the cause of deception that is spreading in the “church”. We were warned this would come in the letter days by Jesus and the other apostles in the early church, so we should not be surprised to see it happening in our day, because we are living in the beginning of those days!!

Sincerely submitted.

Dave Jamer                                         01/03/14