Colossians: As the Elect of God
As the elect of God put on the new man
Feeling at Ease with Who You are In Christ
John 15:1, 2, 4 I am the true vine and the Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me not bearing fruit He lifts up and every branch bearing fruit He cleanses in order that it may bear more fruit…. Abide in me and I in you. Just as the branch does not have the natural ability to bear fruit from itself except it abides in the vine, thus neither can you, except you abide in me.
When we believed the Gospel for Salvation (Christ died for our sins, was buried, and rose again on the third day according to the Scriptures) we were placed into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. This body is a new creation by God in which Christ is the head and we are the body. In this new creation, old thing have passed away. We are no longer in Adam and therefore no longer condemned. Behold, all things have become new. We are in Christ, were we are now counted to be righteous before God, our spirits are connected to God, we are no longer a slave to the sin nature, we have a quality of the mind of Christ, and share in a quality of the Divine Nature. The change that happens at salvation is not a visible change because it begins in our spiritual part, and ends with our full redemption at the rapture with a resurrected body and a saved soul. Nonetheless, this change is very real. We are now able to receive the things of the Spirit and live a life that manifests the character of the resurrected Christ.
How comfortable are you with who you are in Christ? When Jesus first revealed the […]
To “Be” or to “Bear” a Witness
Acts 1:8 …but you will receive natural ability, when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be to me witnesses in both Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and up to the ends of the earth.
Do your words line up with your actions?
True evangelism does not come from speaking to everyone you meet about God, it is a natural result of you living your life according to who you are in Christ because by doing so you will show others a quality of God’s character. The threat of hell and damnation never saved anyone. Oh, it may bring hoards into the Churches at times, but they are not truly seeking to know the Lord. How a person comes to a saving faith in Christ is by the kindness of God, never by an expression of His wrath.
Actions always speak loader than words. Telling a person that you are a Christian and living a lifestyle that is no different than an unsaved person is no testimony at all. It just simply shows that you do not really believe what you are saying.
Before Christ ascends to the third heaven to sit upon the throne, He informs the apostles that the Holy Spirit will give them the natural ability to be His witnesses in all the earth. Christ did not instruct them to bear a witness, but rather, he told them they would be a witness. It is the same with us today. We are never told to go out and evangelize the world; rather, we are told to always be ready to give a defense for the hope that we have when we are questioned about it. Even the verse used for the Great […]