The most important decision you will ever make in life is what you do about JESUS CHRIST. Where you will spend eternity is determined by it. Your greatest need is PEACE WITH GOD.
You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:13) To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Revelation 2:7)
God is looking for people with FAITH (CONFIDENT EXPECTATION) on HIS PROMISES. FAITH TO OBTAIN RESULTS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS
Obeying Jesus
Although we are saved by believing in Jesus Christ. Living faith is not ONLY BELIEVING Jesus as your SAVIOUR, He must also be YOUR LORD OVER YOUR LIFE. You must be born again have a changed heart. This is a free gift that’s received by faith (our enduring commitment) through grace . You must come to Jesus personally and love Him. The “Pope” or going to CHURCH DOES NOT SAVE YOU.
One cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven unless he is BORN AGAIN (John 3:3-5). The subject of the Sermon on the Mount is how we enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, and Jesus said in John we must be born again, TO ENTER THE KINGDOM! Jesus is obviously telling us HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN IN THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT! The PARAMETERS OF HOW ONE OBTAINS THIS NEW HEART WILL BE FOUND IN MATTHEW FIVE, SIX AND SEVEN! God says that HE HIMSELF is going to give His people a new heart, and a new spirit. It is supernatural, not of man whatsoever. It also says that PRIOR TO THE GRANTING OF THIS NEW HEART AND SPIRIT, MAN IS WITHOUT IT. You need not be given something if you already possess it. Therefore the New Covenant concerns itself with the supernatural bestowment of God’s spirit (My Spirit within you). It is this NEW SPIRIT and NEW HEART that allows us entrance into the Kingdom.
It is impossible to follow and obey Jesus without a new heart and the Holy Spirit. It’s not about rules, but about a relationship where we put God first in everything. Only God can change our heart through our comittment and repentance.
If anyone would come after me, let him DENY HIMSELF and take up his cross daily and follow me. (Luke 9:23) Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:38)
To carry your cross means at least that when I follow Jesus as my Savior and Lord, the old self-determining, self-absorbed me must be crucified. I must every day reckon myself dead to sin and alive to God. This is the path of life: “Consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:11). It means that Jesus died so that we would be willing to bear his reproach. “Jesus…suffered outside the gate….Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured” (Hebrews 13:12-13). But not just reproach. If necessary, martyrdom. The Bible pictures some of Christ’s followers this way: “They have conquered Satan by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives
even unto death” (Revelation 12:11). So the Lamb of God shed his blood that we might defeat the devil by trusting his blood and shedding ours. Jesus calls us onto the Calvary road. It is a hard and good life. Come.
Ready To Change Your Mind?
To repent is to transform your thinking. Repentance includes sorrow for sin and a turning away from it. We shall not renounce sin unless we see its sinfulness; until we turn away from it in heart, there will be no real change in the life. There are many who fail to understand the true nature of repentance. Multitudes sorrow that they have sinned and even make an outward reformation because they fear that their wrongdoing will bring suffering upon themselves. But this is not repentance in the Bible sense. They lament the suffering rather than the sin. But when the heart yields to the influence of the Spirit of God, the conscience will be quickened, and the sinner will discern something of the depth and sacredness of God’s holy law, the foundation of His government in heaven and on earth. The “Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world,” illumines the secret chambers of the soul, and the hidden things of darkness are made manifest. (John 1:9). Conviction takes hold upon the mind and heart before the Searcher of hearts. He sees the love of God, the beauty of holiness, the joy of purity; he longs to be cleansed and to be restored to communion with Heaven. -Steps to Christ. If we receive forgiveness from God, we should also forgive our neighbor.
Repentence and obedience is the key to the entire Gospel and salvation itself. Faith at its root essence is OBEDIENCE OVER THE LONG HAUL, or we could say a FAITH THAT IS TRIED IN THE FIRES OF TRIAL AND TESTING. OUR FAITH WILL BE TRIED TO SEE IF IT IS AS THE FAITH OF JESUS CHRIST. Jesus exclaimed: “And WHY CALL YE ME, Lord, Lord, AND DO NOT THE THINGS WHICH I SAY ?” (Luke 6:46) The issue between man and God is a LOVE ISSUE, and THIS ISSUE ALONE determines one’s entrance into the Kingdom of God. As Christ said there was only one way to enter the New Covenant, and that was via the STRAIT gate and NARROW way. AGAPE LOVE is the issue between you and your God. It will prove that REGENERATION OR BEING BORN AGAIN involves agape love. True union with Christ involves agape love.
The Key of Heaven: Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; BUT HE THAT DOETH THE WILL OF MY FATHER which is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
Being a true Son of God involves agape love. The self MUST DIE before agape love is granted. By faith we have died to the flesh, ourselves and the world. We join Christ in His dead on the cross once and for all and share in the union with His life in the spirit (Romans 6-8). Without the “old man” dying, the new man cannot be born. This requires dying to ourselves daily and renewing our mind.
Receive New Life
Jesus came as the Lamb of God to remove our sins. He came to forgive us and He came to set us free. To forgive us means that He does not overlook our sins anymore. No, He came to remove it. To set us free, so we do not need to be slaves to sin anymore. We are free. Free not to sin! We are free from sin, because ”when we are baptized into Christ, we die with Christ, and we rise with Christ”. We bury the old body that was under the law, under sin. When we bury the old body, we are no longer slaves to sin. By faith, we die with Christ and we rise up with Christ.
When we believe the Gospel, we are justified before God, perfect and blameless. Justification by faith is important, and it is only the beginning of a NEW LIFE in Christ, but after justification, there is a life to live in order to follow Jesus. In this life, we need to be baptized to symbolize the old sin nature dying and to rise to live in resurrection life in Christ. We also need justification by faith because Jesus did not die “just” to forgive us of our sins but also to break the power of sin, so that, in faith, we can live the holy life to which God has called us. Dynamic, living Faith is beleiving in God’s word with patience endurance. “And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6, ESV) Believing in Jesus Christ is just as important as obeying His word from the heart and living in love. Real faith says, “God I believe You but am not satisfied with just believing but experiencing You every step of the journey, one day at a time.”
“A NEW HEART also WILL I GIVE YOU , and a NEW SPIRIT WILL I PUT WITHIN YOU : and I will TAKE AWAY THE STONY HEART OUT OF YOUR FLESH AND I WILL GIVE YOU AN HEART OF FLESH. AND I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU , and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, AND DO THEM . (Ezekiel 36:26-27)
God’s Love gift IS what passes us from DEATH UNTO LIFE. To say otherwise would be to stand in opposition to a host of Scripture. Agape love bestowment IS THE REBIRTH EXPERIENCE OF THE REAL BORN AGAIN CHRISTIAN. Agape love brings life, for agape love IS LIFE. It will be proven that the very essence of God IS AGAPE LOVE. Without it, all human souls remain in what God calls DEATH. With Love, you have ‘life’ and you will enter heaven’s gate. Without it, you abide in death, and you will never see heaven at all. The love within man from natural birth is opposed in principle to the agape love of God. Therefore man MUST undergo a radical LOVE CHANGE FROM NATURAL TO DIVINE, or he cannot enter the NEW COVENANT.
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