Many and grateful thanks to both in the title line, (John B)
This author points out TWO things God does for us all that make it possible for us to live a new life. While yet upon this earth, in these flesh bodies.
IN 1867, an american visited Cuba on a trip he would not ever forget. Because a revolution was stirring, he soon found himself arrested as a spy and condemned to death. His background was British, but he had immigrated to the United States, where he earned citizenship. Unfortunately, the efforts of consuls from both nation failed to free him from the Cuban prison. On execution day, the black hooded prisoner was led to the place where he would stand before the firing squad,. But the moment the guns were raised, American and British consuls quickly ran up to him and covered him with their nation's falgs. The captain was about to give the order to shoot, but he knew that under such circumstances such an order would invite a war. Instead he looked away, allowing the foreign official to rescue the man and arrange for his return to America.
You and I are saved from spiritual death by two banners from God's kingdom, the flags of God's grace and the power He gives us to live a new life.
THE FLAG OF GOD'S GRACE.
THE first flag of Salvation is God's work for us. Like the prisoner whose only hope was a dramatic intervention from representatives of his home countries, we are in desperate need of Someone to run up to us and cover our sinfulness. This through Christ's death on the Cross, God has flown His "colors" of his Saving Grace, and He has rushed forward to cover us with those colors, thus saving us from eternal death.......>
NOTE(JB): Yes HE has also given each of us a free-will, and sadly many have rejected His love and His gift of eternal life, by living our lives as we each chose to live without Him! It is no small wonder all who reject Him will be themselves rejected by God! They are snared by Satan, and many don't even know it!Sadly I've had these people tell me, "I'd rather serve forever in Hell than ten minutes in heaven!" What these Biblically Illiterate do not know is that they shall share the fire, the Lake of Fire with satan himself who will not ever be again! The Father shall not give sinners eternal life, in order to punish them eternally, the results alone are eternal! Why reject heaven's love????
....> WE become the fortunate recipients of a "NOT GUILTY" verdict. The gift of spiritual protection known as " the Righteousness od God" is not restricted to any gender, race or creed, nor languages, nor cultures but is "unto all upon all those who believe'. { Romans 3:22]
The benefit is down-to-earth. We find freedom from "tyranny of the shoulds," a small voice in our heads that accuses us that we "should have listened more carefully to your parents" or "You should never have started to drinking, or smoking, or "You should not have cheated on that test, or...??????.
Your reading the Gospels brings rescue from the bondage of guilt by promising "No Condemnation for those who are "IN" Jesus Christ [Romans 1:8] This "being 'IN' Christ is the key. The indictments of our guilty consciences are silenced by a voice from heaven declaring our acquittal. Clothed in HIS righteousness, we stand before God just as we had never sinned.
So.... how do we, YOU and I receive this gift?
BY FAITH...Romans 10:17" So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Hebrews 11:6 " But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
It's likened to taking a trip on a commercial jet.We trust our very lives to the competence of the pilots and carefulness of the plance's builder. We also have confidence in the preflight safety checks,, the crew, and the air traffic controllers. BY FAITH, we board, our plane, bus or train or taxi, and enjoy our journey. This is an earthly experience of hopeful surrender, is it not?
In the same way, submitting ourselves to Jesus Christ gives spiritual confidence and assurance that our sins are indeed.. forgiven, because Jesus has already paid the price for them all. We can revel in this happiness for as long as we trust Him!
THE FLAG OF GOD'S POWER.
THE second flag of salvation is a new life.....> Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" Note(JB): This is the total rebuilding of our character to be nas Jesus's character, over time.
....> that proves the power of the Gospel 2 Corinthians 3:18 " But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." ....> to change us for the better. After Paul says we are not condemned in Christ, he explains that it's because os something God does in us, Romans 8:1-2 "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The power of the Holy Spirit can set us free from the powers of any habit and or addictions that Satan has chained us with.
Note(JB)" I was a smoker for 40+ years, yet when I cast away all the stuff, got on my knees and prayeed Father, You have see me discard all things tobacco I need you you Father-God, remove my urge, my desire to smoke. HE DID and it was three weeks latter that I realized not one time did I reach without thinking of an other cancer stick! Thank YOU Father! That was getting onto 20 years age, yet still today I suffer from shortness of breath. Yes we are forgiven of our sins, but NOT of its consequences, like my shortness of breath! Yet this also will be corrected in the Resurrection!
.....> The power of the Holy Spirit is able to deliver anyone WILLING, from any and all things, unhealthy or wrong!
IS THIS NOT THE ULTIMATE ESCAPE? God is bigger than the Universe He created, no person's sins can be this big, that He can not forgive, and He forgets them all! Revelation 21:4-5 "And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful."
It may all seem impossible when we think how often we've struggled to resist a cigarette, or that next drink of alcohol, or that tempting, suggestive language of a late-night T.V. show. Humanly, it can't be done. But God delights to do in us what we can't do ourselves. Please remember people used think the earth as flat, and that people could not ever fly. Then on December 17, 1903 the Wright Brothers did it in a home-made airplane that weighing in at 605 pounds for a mighty 12 seconds of flight! Not one person then could have dreamed that from a cufe gas engine, bicycle chains and sprockets and a hand carved propellers, wings and trail and error, that man would soon be in a plane that weighs in at 1.32 million pounds and fly from New York to Los Angeles, non-stop in just a few hours. Or the world's largest plane the Antonov AN-225, with a wing-span of nearly a whole football field, and take off holding four main-battle tanks, weighing in at 280 tons! What we once considered absurdly impossible has become routine, and we hardly take note of it, anymore.
If God can help flight engineers turn the impossible into the ordinary, surely He can help us get off the ground, spiritually.
Like gravity, the law os sin and death keeps us down.....> Romans 6:23 "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
......> Like the law of aerodynamics, God lifts us up. With the thrust of the Holy Spirit's powers, and the lifting wings of faith, we can soar spiritually in the ways we never thought we could. The practical side of the Gospel is its ultimate purpose: " Romans 8:2-4 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Our doing rightly, because we want to---- an ability that sin has robbed from us----can be restored to us by the Holy Bible! {JB if we but "EAT OUR DAILY BREAD", and study the Word of God each day, so read your BIBLE again for the .....'first time'!}
John 6:35 "And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst."
PUTTING IT TO WORK.
What deos this look like in everyday life? Take gosip, for example: "Yes, he's a smart guy," we say, "but what a bad father he is!" "Do you know what I heard"? For many , this is the kind of talk, that is a habit hard to break. But through the influence of the Holy Spirit we can begin to see the good in others. When we git the urge to gossip, we can pray for God's help to say something good about the person instead.
The sales lady at the desk next to you at work may have trouble arriving on time, but she may also be very talented. Thus instead of being critical, we learn to say something positive such as, "She sells more that anyone else here."
Knowing this: "The power of the Spirit can deliver us from our own built,..... prisons!"
What a huge difference it would make if we all learned just this one spiritual skill. Would it not be a miracle?
Be it known, that we ALL have a Miracle-working Savior. No matter the problem, He has the cure.
Standing before the firing squad of guilt and hopelessness, let us gratefully receive God's rescue flags of pardon and power. Than God for spiritual freedom, won for us at such a high cost!
Thanking Y O U for your time.
Questions? Comments? John at servant@frontier.com
WANT/NEED more? Visit your Seventh-day Adventist Church any Saturday/Sabbath @ 9-10 AM. With the knowing that Heaven has reserved a place just for you, and no other, because God loves
Y O U , so much that He willingly died for Y O U, as payment for sins!
Other sites: aftv.org blbn.org redeem.international amazingdiscoveries.org itiswritten.com
servantsite@wordpress.com
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