Showing posts with label loving God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label loving God. Show all posts
Monday, June 16, 2008
What is meant by “believe in Him”
John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
So who are the ones that have everlasting life – the people that believe in Jesus Christ. So the real question is – what does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ. I will try to explain the answer to this question in the most direct and biblical way.
Most people think it means - to believe in the existence of Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, the 2nd identity in the Trinity, and that He died on the cross for our sins. The devil and all the demons believe this also – so why aren’t they all saved? If this is the extent of your belief – you are still headed to an eternity in hell.
Everybody has beliefs in someone or something and as a result of those beliefs, we all act on what we believe. If we believe in our ability to reason out what is best for us and others, we will then act on our own reasoning over the truths of the Bible. If we believe in money and material things to sustain us and make us happy, we will then act on making and producing as much financial wealth as possible. If we believe in our own reasoning and/or financial wealth – then anyone that gets in the way of reaching our goals in these areas of belief will be trampled down under our feet so that they will be removed as an obstruction to our goals and beliefs. Anyone that believes this way is of the devil and not of God.
Belief in Jesus Christ is when you believe in Jesus as your Lord and forsake any human reasoning that contradicts the Word of God. When we truly believe in Jesus as our Lord, we in essence become a slave to His truth and ways. We believe the Bible as our road map to eternal salvation with Him. We no longer act primarily on our human reasoning and emotions, but primarily act on God’s Word and His Spiritual leadings.
If we say we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but do not act on His truths, we are a liar and the truth is not in us. If we believe in something – we will always act on that belief if we really believe it. If we don’t act on what we say we believe – then we really don’t believe what we are saying.
Through a true belief in Christ, we must love Him above all others and/or things in our life, otherwise we cannot be His disciple.
Luke 14:26-27 - If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters — yes, even his own life — he cannot be my disciple. And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Anyone that does not love God more than anyone else or anything else in their life – will not be worthy of receiving Him.
Matt 10:37-39 - Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and anyone who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind is not an option – it is a requirement.
Matt 22:36-39 - Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law? Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment.
If we truly believe in Jesus Christ, we will obey His Word and all His commandments. After we truly believe and act on that belief by being totally obedient to His commandments – then we will receive Jesus’ Spirit – “the Spirit of truth”.
John 14:15-17 - If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth.
If through our total belief in Christ we end up obeying every teaching of Christ – we then have the Spirit of God and Jesus come live with us forever. If we don’t obey His teachings – then we have not believed with our heart and will not become a home for His Spirit and in turn will not be worthy of entering an eternal life with God.
John 14:23-24 - If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching.
A relationship with God has become a possibility to everyone through Jesus Christ dying on the cross for our sins, but what you do with that relationship is your choice. You can come to a total belief and love for God and be saved unto eternal life or you can decide to reject God’s great gift of grace by rejecting even a portion of His love - because of a lack of belief in Him (faith). If you end up rejecting any of His truth and/or commands – then that shows that you don’t really believe in Jesus Christ and you will not be worthy of His eternal life. You have your whole life to come to this total belief. The question is - will you submit to Jesus Christ as Lord and when will you die?
You can tell when you have come to this total belief (faith) in God when you stop sinning. Sinning is when you have been brought to a knowledge of God’s ways and commandments by way of His Word and/or His Spirit and then you decide to reject that knowledge of God and do what you think best instead.
Because of the fact that we all act on what we really believe – then every time you knowingly sin – you are really saying to God that you don’t believe in Him and His ways. When you sin, you are really believing in your own self and not God. When you sin, you are still putting yourself and your own understanding and reasoning above God’s Word. When you sin, you are rejecting God by depending on yourself and not totally depending on God’s Word and all His promises. When you sin – you are simply saying that you don’t believe in God and His Son Jesus Christ.
God demands a total belief and love for Him. Anything falling short of this will condemn us to an eternal life in hell.
God’s servant – Michael Reid
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Who Are We Repenting For
Are we repenting for us or are we repenting for God? Are we repenting out of love for ourselves or out of love for God?
What does repenting mean? When we repent, we are sorrowful of our sin(s) and turn from our acts of sin that come from our selfish nature and at the same time turn to God in total obedience to eradicate those sins by the power of His Spirit.
There is mainly two ways in which we repent. One is out of a selfish fear and the other is out of the love we have for our Father in heaven. Almost all people come to God initially out of frustration and fear for themselves. They come to a breaking point where they realize their sins and have no way of healing themselves. They also come to believe that if they continue in these sins, they will go to hell instead of heaven. When God calls these people, most people come to God out of desperation. This desperation is motivated out of a fear of God and a fear for themselves. Fear is a big motivator and even though fear is not from the Lord, but from our own selfishness, God will use it to fulfill His purposes.
Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge
So how do we repent in a way most pleasing to God? This is where most people run into trouble. Most of this message will concentrate on repenting in a way that is most pleasing to God. We must remember when it comes to righteousness, there is only one way to do things, and that is God’s way.
What is the right way to repent after our initial coming to the Lord? To find out let’s dig a little deeper. Sin can only come from selfishness and pride and cannot come out of love. Every time we sin, we are acting out of our own selfishness or pride and we cannot be loving God or others. Jesus came to conquer all sin in believers. What was the main weapon He sent through the Holy Spirit to do this? Love - pure love. When we are born again, God gives us a new heart. God does this by removing the sinful selfish nature and replacing it with His love. Since sin cannot come out of a heart filled with love, the sinful nature is eradicated with the over powering love of God.
So, should we repent because we want to be saved or continue in our salvation state, or do we repent because we love God? There is a big difference and what way is acceptable to God after our justification experience. To help us understand, I want to look at the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.
When the prodigal son came to himself and started the journey back to his fathers land, this represented the initial turning back to his father out of fear for himself. He had run out of his inheritance money and was hungry. He knew there was plenty of food back at his father’s home. (This was the motivating fear for self preservation). But he also wanted to return to be under his fathers love and protection again. (This was the wanting to be saved from his worldly life). This fear of self preservation and wanting to be saved from himself drove him to be humbled and willing to be one of his father’s servants. This initial repentance was all about the prodigal son benefit and not about the father. This repentance was still all generated out of love and fear for himself.
After the son returned to his father and the father loved him and accepted him fully back into the family. Do you think that son continued repenting out of fear for himself, or out of love for his father? After we come to our Father through Jesus Christ and realize the love He showed and shows us, do we continue in our repenting and try to be obedient to God commandments so He won’t throw us back from where we came, or do we repent and be obedient to His will because we want to please Him alone in everything we do. We might initially repent from fear, but our repenting should not continue out of fear, it should continue out of love for our Father.
When our reason for repenting is to hopefully be good enough to stay saved, we are trying to turn from our sin out of our own selfishness. When we repent in this way, we are still trying to save ourselves.
Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it
When we repent because we think we might not have eternal life if we don’t, we are still only repenting out of our own selfishness and fear. Since this kind of repenting is self centered, you are actually sinning while you are trying to repent. Also, unless you repent in a way pleasing to God, which is out of love for the Father, the turning from the sin will not usually take hold and you will find yourself repenting over and over for the same sins.
So what does repenting out of love look like? Remember repenting is turning away from the sin and turning to God. When we repent out of selfishness in order to try to save ourselves, we are trying to abstain from sin, but not turning to God. We must turn to God at the same time or else it won’t work.
What does turning to God mean? It is all about growing in love with God.
James 4:8 - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
When we are self centered we only love ourselves. You know, just like the devil loved only himself. This is maybe how we start out with God, but it can’t be how we stay in relationship with God. After justification we start being sanctified if we let God’s Spirit work in our lives. Sanctification is a process of becoming holy as God is holy. Almost all of us have to go through this process. The key to understanding sanctification is that it is not really a process of getting rid of our sins; it is a process in which we are transferring our love from ourselves to loving God only. In doing this we end up giving our whole life over to him.
Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
John 14:24 - He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
The key to repenting is repenting out of love for God and His glory; it has nothing to do with us. It is all about Him. When we repent out of love for our Father in Heaven, we want to repent of all our sins because we want to truly please Him, not us. This is totally opposite to repenting for us. When we repent for us, we don’t want to repent, but we do it because we think we need to. When we repent out of love, it is like my son being obedient to me because he loves me, not because he fears me. When my son is obedient out of love, he is obedient because he wants to be obedient. If my son is being obedient out of fear, he is not being obedient because he wants to; he is being obedient because of the consequences he might receive if he isn’t obedient. If the obedience is out of fear, he will quit being obedient as soon as he is away from me.
John 14:15 - If you love Me, keep My commandments.
So start loving God by getting to know Him through His word and Spirit. If you are trying to save yourself, STOP IT. Repent out of love for our Father in heaven and for His Glory.
God Bless,
Mike Reid
What does repenting mean? When we repent, we are sorrowful of our sin(s) and turn from our acts of sin that come from our selfish nature and at the same time turn to God in total obedience to eradicate those sins by the power of His Spirit.
There is mainly two ways in which we repent. One is out of a selfish fear and the other is out of the love we have for our Father in heaven. Almost all people come to God initially out of frustration and fear for themselves. They come to a breaking point where they realize their sins and have no way of healing themselves. They also come to believe that if they continue in these sins, they will go to hell instead of heaven. When God calls these people, most people come to God out of desperation. This desperation is motivated out of a fear of God and a fear for themselves. Fear is a big motivator and even though fear is not from the Lord, but from our own selfishness, God will use it to fulfill His purposes.
Proverbs 1:7 - The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge
So how do we repent in a way most pleasing to God? This is where most people run into trouble. Most of this message will concentrate on repenting in a way that is most pleasing to God. We must remember when it comes to righteousness, there is only one way to do things, and that is God’s way.
What is the right way to repent after our initial coming to the Lord? To find out let’s dig a little deeper. Sin can only come from selfishness and pride and cannot come out of love. Every time we sin, we are acting out of our own selfishness or pride and we cannot be loving God or others. Jesus came to conquer all sin in believers. What was the main weapon He sent through the Holy Spirit to do this? Love - pure love. When we are born again, God gives us a new heart. God does this by removing the sinful selfish nature and replacing it with His love. Since sin cannot come out of a heart filled with love, the sinful nature is eradicated with the over powering love of God.
So, should we repent because we want to be saved or continue in our salvation state, or do we repent because we love God? There is a big difference and what way is acceptable to God after our justification experience. To help us understand, I want to look at the parable of the prodigal son in the Bible.
When the prodigal son came to himself and started the journey back to his fathers land, this represented the initial turning back to his father out of fear for himself. He had run out of his inheritance money and was hungry. He knew there was plenty of food back at his father’s home. (This was the motivating fear for self preservation). But he also wanted to return to be under his fathers love and protection again. (This was the wanting to be saved from his worldly life). This fear of self preservation and wanting to be saved from himself drove him to be humbled and willing to be one of his father’s servants. This initial repentance was all about the prodigal son benefit and not about the father. This repentance was still all generated out of love and fear for himself.
After the son returned to his father and the father loved him and accepted him fully back into the family. Do you think that son continued repenting out of fear for himself, or out of love for his father? After we come to our Father through Jesus Christ and realize the love He showed and shows us, do we continue in our repenting and try to be obedient to God commandments so He won’t throw us back from where we came, or do we repent and be obedient to His will because we want to please Him alone in everything we do. We might initially repent from fear, but our repenting should not continue out of fear, it should continue out of love for our Father.
When our reason for repenting is to hopefully be good enough to stay saved, we are trying to turn from our sin out of our own selfishness. When we repent in this way, we are still trying to save ourselves.
Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it
When we repent because we think we might not have eternal life if we don’t, we are still only repenting out of our own selfishness and fear. Since this kind of repenting is self centered, you are actually sinning while you are trying to repent. Also, unless you repent in a way pleasing to God, which is out of love for the Father, the turning from the sin will not usually take hold and you will find yourself repenting over and over for the same sins.
So what does repenting out of love look like? Remember repenting is turning away from the sin and turning to God. When we repent out of selfishness in order to try to save ourselves, we are trying to abstain from sin, but not turning to God. We must turn to God at the same time or else it won’t work.
What does turning to God mean? It is all about growing in love with God.
James 4:8 - Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
When we are self centered we only love ourselves. You know, just like the devil loved only himself. This is maybe how we start out with God, but it can’t be how we stay in relationship with God. After justification we start being sanctified if we let God’s Spirit work in our lives. Sanctification is a process of becoming holy as God is holy. Almost all of us have to go through this process. The key to understanding sanctification is that it is not really a process of getting rid of our sins; it is a process in which we are transferring our love from ourselves to loving God only. In doing this we end up giving our whole life over to him.
Mark 8:35 - For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.
John 14:24 - He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
The key to repenting is repenting out of love for God and His glory; it has nothing to do with us. It is all about Him. When we repent out of love for our Father in Heaven, we want to repent of all our sins because we want to truly please Him, not us. This is totally opposite to repenting for us. When we repent for us, we don’t want to repent, but we do it because we think we need to. When we repent out of love, it is like my son being obedient to me because he loves me, not because he fears me. When my son is obedient out of love, he is obedient because he wants to be obedient. If my son is being obedient out of fear, he is not being obedient because he wants to; he is being obedient because of the consequences he might receive if he isn’t obedient. If the obedience is out of fear, he will quit being obedient as soon as he is away from me.
John 14:15 - If you love Me, keep My commandments.
So start loving God by getting to know Him through His word and Spirit. If you are trying to save yourself, STOP IT. Repent out of love for our Father in heaven and for His Glory.
God Bless,
Mike Reid
Sanctification - What Is It Really
When we first come to the Lord and He starts changing us from the inside out, some of us don’t really know how he does this miracle. We talk about this as the sanctification process. Most of us think God’s Spirit is sanctifying us by ridding us of our sins. It is true He needs us to become people totally living for Him and living a righteous life for Him and in site of others. But getting rid of the sins is really a byproduct of something else that is really happening within our hearts.
The sanctification process is really all about changing who we love. When we first come to Christ, most of us are still absorbed in loving ourselves and only thinking of our self preservation and needs. The sanctification process changes this process from loving self to loving Him. This is done by getting to know and trust in God with an ever increasing love and dependence on God. The sanctification process in not really about purifying us from our sins, it is all about a transformation of our heart, it is all about transferring our love from loving ourselves to loving God alone.
What determines whether we sin or not, depends only on who we love the most. If we love the sin more than God, we will be disobedient to God and perform the sin. If we love God more than the sin, we will abstain from that sin for the glory of God. It is just like having a son who is obedient to his earthly father. If the son loves the father, he will try to please his father in everything he does, because the obedience is out of love for the father. But, if the son decides to be disobedient even though that son might have some love for the father, the love for himself over rules the love for the father and then the disobedience happens against the father.
It is all about who you love and who you are trying to please. Sin, disobedience, or righteousness is just the result of where your love lies.
God bless - Michael Reid
The sanctification process is really all about changing who we love. When we first come to Christ, most of us are still absorbed in loving ourselves and only thinking of our self preservation and needs. The sanctification process changes this process from loving self to loving Him. This is done by getting to know and trust in God with an ever increasing love and dependence on God. The sanctification process in not really about purifying us from our sins, it is all about a transformation of our heart, it is all about transferring our love from loving ourselves to loving God alone.
What determines whether we sin or not, depends only on who we love the most. If we love the sin more than God, we will be disobedient to God and perform the sin. If we love God more than the sin, we will abstain from that sin for the glory of God. It is just like having a son who is obedient to his earthly father. If the son loves the father, he will try to please his father in everything he does, because the obedience is out of love for the father. But, if the son decides to be disobedient even though that son might have some love for the father, the love for himself over rules the love for the father and then the disobedience happens against the father.
It is all about who you love and who you are trying to please. Sin, disobedience, or righteousness is just the result of where your love lies.
God bless - Michael Reid
Is It Possible To Do Jesus’ First Commandment?
Through my studies and walk in the Holy Spirit I have learned that God fully intends to bring us to a full loving relationship with Him. God wants our heart to be totally devoted to Him. It is by totally loving Him that brings us to living holy in Him and living a righteous life through this Godly love that He has put inside us.
We must understand the sanctification process. Sanctification is not a process of ridding us from sins, it is a process of growing in love with God, and it is a process of transferring our love from our selfishness to loving God only. When we love our selfishness we will sin. When we love God we will not sin against Him. If anyone is still sinning, it is out of him/her loving themselves instead of God. When a person loves God with ALL their heart, soul, and mind, they will not sin. Sin cannot come from a heart that totally loves God. When we are given a new heart from God, it is only filled with His love and no sin can come out of a heart filled with His love. Almost all professing Christians say very fervently that born again Christians cannot live a day with out sinning let alone not sinning for a day, week, or year after being born again. So what most people are really saying is that no one can do the first commandment that Jesus gave, which is: Matt 22:37-39 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. What a defeating message these people are giving. If we can't do this first commandment through Jesus Christ living in us, we then can say that God sending the Holy Spirit to reside in us has no value. It is only after we are doing this first commandment that we can do Jesus’ second commandment. Matt 22:39-40 - And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Jesus came and sent His Holy Spirit to free us from the bondage of sin and supposedly born again Christians are telling everybody we will never be free from the bondage of sin.
Where is this logic coming from? Is this understanding that most believers have coming from God’s Word or is it coming from their experiences, or lack of experiences of these professing Christians. Are we “Christians” just fooling ourselves? I don’t see this defeating message in God’s Word of the New Testament. Christians today are living like the Jews in the Old Testament where they did not have the Spirit living inside them which enables us under the New Testament to do all of God’s commandments. The Jews in the Old Testament were not born again and could not live by the Holy Spirit, but Christians today are supposed to be born again and be living by the Holy Spirit which in turn allows us to do all of God’s commandments. As born again Christians we still might sin for awhile because of the renewing of our minds, but we need not keep on sinning. With Jesus’ Spirit living inside us we really have no reason to keep on sinning.
God says if we are His children, He will always give us a way out from our temptations. 1 Cor 10:13 - And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. So if God always gives us a way to not let our temptations turn into sin, is there any reason that we need to sin anymore at all?
God Bless – Mike Reid
We must understand the sanctification process. Sanctification is not a process of ridding us from sins, it is a process of growing in love with God, and it is a process of transferring our love from our selfishness to loving God only. When we love our selfishness we will sin. When we love God we will not sin against Him. If anyone is still sinning, it is out of him/her loving themselves instead of God. When a person loves God with ALL their heart, soul, and mind, they will not sin. Sin cannot come from a heart that totally loves God. When we are given a new heart from God, it is only filled with His love and no sin can come out of a heart filled with His love. Almost all professing Christians say very fervently that born again Christians cannot live a day with out sinning let alone not sinning for a day, week, or year after being born again. So what most people are really saying is that no one can do the first commandment that Jesus gave, which is: Matt 22:37-39 - Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. What a defeating message these people are giving. If we can't do this first commandment through Jesus Christ living in us, we then can say that God sending the Holy Spirit to reside in us has no value. It is only after we are doing this first commandment that we can do Jesus’ second commandment. Matt 22:39-40 - And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." Jesus came and sent His Holy Spirit to free us from the bondage of sin and supposedly born again Christians are telling everybody we will never be free from the bondage of sin.
Where is this logic coming from? Is this understanding that most believers have coming from God’s Word or is it coming from their experiences, or lack of experiences of these professing Christians. Are we “Christians” just fooling ourselves? I don’t see this defeating message in God’s Word of the New Testament. Christians today are living like the Jews in the Old Testament where they did not have the Spirit living inside them which enables us under the New Testament to do all of God’s commandments. The Jews in the Old Testament were not born again and could not live by the Holy Spirit, but Christians today are supposed to be born again and be living by the Holy Spirit which in turn allows us to do all of God’s commandments. As born again Christians we still might sin for awhile because of the renewing of our minds, but we need not keep on sinning. With Jesus’ Spirit living inside us we really have no reason to keep on sinning.
God says if we are His children, He will always give us a way out from our temptations. 1 Cor 10:13 - And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it. So if God always gives us a way to not let our temptations turn into sin, is there any reason that we need to sin anymore at all?
God Bless – Mike Reid
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