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Receiving Christ and Christian Growth The Bible is full of wonderful
assurance and promise for all who believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. But
each person must accept Jesus as his or her own personal Saviour before he can
claim these promises personally. How can these promises be yours? The Bible
tells us that each of us must.....
RECOGNIZE that you CANNOT be saved by trying to be good, or
by doing the best you can, or because you are a member of a social group or
religious organization.......for God says that we are NOT saved by our good
works......
(Ephesians
2:8-9) For by grace you are
saved, through faith,
and that faith
is not of yourselves...
it is the gift of
God,
not of
works,
lest any man should
boast.
(Romans 6:
23)
The wages of sin is
death,
but the gift of God
is eternal life,
through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
(Isaiah 6:
46) But we are all as an unclean thing,
and all our
righteousnesses are as filthy rags;
and we
all do fade as a leaf;
and our iniquities,
like the wind, have taken us away.
CONFESS that you can not save yourself...in fact
there is nothing you can do to undo any of the sins you have already commited,
or their consequences. This forgiveness must be a divine act of God, because of
His mercy which He extends to us.....the Bible says...
(1 John 1:8-9)
If we say that we have no
sin,
we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
(Psalm 32:1-6 -The Living
Bible) What
happiness for those whose guilt has been forgiven!
What joys when sins are
covered over!
What relief for those who have
confessed their sins
and God has cleared their
record.
There was a time when I wouldn't admit what a sinner I
was.
But my dishonesty made me miserable and filled my days with frustration.
All day and all night your hand
was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water
on a sunny day,
until I finally admitted all my
sins to you
and stopped trying to hide
them.
I said to myself, "I will
confess them to the Lord."
And you
forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Now I say that each believer should confess his sins to God
when he is aware of them,
while there is time to be
forgiven.
Judgment will not touch him if he
does.
BELIEVE the good news that Jesus Christ, God's Son, died to pay
the the penalty for your sins. He died for
you and settled your debt from sin by His death on Calvary's cross. Believe the
blessed news that Christ was raised from the dead, and now lives in eternity to
save all those who will come to Him by faith. Believe that you now have eternal
life, and that Jesus will never leave you nor forsake you
(Rom 5:6-
8) For when we were yet without
strength,
in due time Christ died for
the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die:
yet possibly for a good man some
would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates his
great love toward us,
in that, while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for
us.
(John
3:36) He that believes on the Son of God has
everlasting life:
and he
that believes not the Son shall not see life;
but
the wrath of God remains on him.
(1 John 5:10-
13) He
that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself:
he that believeth not God has made
him a liar;
because he does not believe the
record that God gave of his Son.
And this is the
record,
that God has given to us
eternal life,
and this life is in his
Son.
He that has the Son has life;
and he that does not have the Son
of God does not have life.
These things have I written unto
you
that
believe on the name of the Son of God
that
you may know that you have eternal life,
and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God.
HUMBLE YOURSELF before God in prayer. Talk to God, just like you
would talk to a good friend, and yet reverence Him because of the Almighty and
Holy God that He is. See Him as the Creator and Lord of the universe, the
sovereign King over all.... and yet He is kindly and forgiving to the person who
will turn away from pride and ego and sin, and submit himself to the safekeeping
of God.
(Isaiah
57:15) For thus saith the high and lofty
One that inhabits eternity,
whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy
place,
with him also that is of a bruised
and humble spirit;
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to
bring life to the heart of the contrite ones.
(Isa 66:1-2) Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the
earth is my footstool:
where is the house that you build unto me?
and
where is the place of my rest?
For all those things has mine hand made,
and all those things have been,
saith the LORD:
but to this man will I
look,
even to him that is poor and of a
contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word.
CALL
on Jesus Christ, Himself, to save you and to come into your soul, and to
make you a new person. The christian life is not a list of do's and don'ts, of
religious rituals or observances: it is rather a personal relationship between
you and Jesus Christ. Jesus says....
(Rev
3:20) Behold, I stand at the door, and
knock:
if any man hear my voice,
and open the door,
I will come in to him, and will sup with him,
and he
with me.
The door Jesus is talking about is the
entrance to your innermost being...your soul or heart..the real you. He wants to
live inside your soul with you, to guide you and give you comfort for life's
difficult journey, and to give you a purpose for living, where there was only
confusion and aimless drifting before. Jesus is giving you the opportunity to
CHOOSE to let Him be your personal Savior and your God.
(Josh 24:15-16
KJV)
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the
LORD,
choose you this day whom ye will serve;
whether the gods which your fathers served that were
on the other side of the flood,
or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye
dwell:
but as for me and my house, we will serve the
LORD.
{16} And the people answered and said,
God forbid that we should forsake the LORD, to serve
other gods;
(Jeremiah
29:11-14)
For I know the thoughts that I
think toward you, saith the LORD,
thoughts of peace, and not
of evil,
to give you an expected end.
Then shall you call upon
me,
and you shall go and pray
unto me,
and I
will listen and respond to you.
And
you shall seek me, and find me,
when
you shall search for me with all your heart.
And I will be found of you, saith
the LORD:
RELY upon God's promises in the Bible, not on your feelings or
worldly teachings. Your life is new from this point forward. The old things must
be thrown out and not returned to. Old sinful habits must be done away with by
the power of Christ Who now lives inside you. You may never have had the power
to overcome these things before, but Christ can overcome them by the Power of
the Holy Spirit who lives in you now...
Old opinions and ways of thinking must
be replaced by God's Words and instructions from the Bible. You must consciously
choose to do things God's way when the Bible tells you that your way is
wrong.
(2 Cor 5:17)
Therefore if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature:
old things are passed
away;
behold, all things are
become new.
(Rom 12:1-2 LIVING
BIBLE)
And so, dear brothers, I
plead with you to give your bodies to God.
Let them be a living
sacrifice,
holy--the kind he can accept.
When you think of what he has done
for you,
is this too much to
ask?
Don't copy the behavior and
customs of this world,
but be transformed into a
new and different person
as you let God's thoughts replace
your old thoughts.
Then you will learn from your own
experience
how His ways will really satisfy
you.
TELL
someone else about your decision to receive Christ, and what He has done
for you. Tell your family, your friends, your co-workers or fellow students.
And plan to be baptized in your local
church, as a testimony to your faith in Christ. and plan to attend a
Bible-believing, Christ-centered church. Become involved in its ministries and
with your new family in Christ. As Jesus said:
(Mat 28:18-20
KJV)
And Jesus came and spake
unto them, saying,
All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth.
{19} Go ye therefore, and teach
all nations,
baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
{20} Teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:
and, lo, I am with you alway,
even unto the end of the world.
Amen.
WALK AND TALK every day in prayer and fellowship with Jesus.
Someone has once described fellowship as "two fellows in the same ship". The
ship is your body and soul... the two fellows are you and Jesus. You have the
priviledge of sailing through the waters of life, calm or rough, with Jesus as
your Captain and Navigator. He knows the way to get you to His destination
safely and with maximum spiritual profit.
Talk to Him continually through the
day. Ask for His strength, His guidance, His presence, for the words to speak,
for the necessities of life and ministry. Praise Him continually for His care
and provision.
Jesus puts it this
way...
(John 14:15-23 KJV)
If ye love me, keep my
commandments.
{16} And I will pray the Father,
and he shall give you another
Comforter,
that he may abide with you
for ever;
{17} Even the Spirit of truth;
whom the world cannot
receive,
because it seeth him not,
neither knoweth him:
but ye know him; for he dwelleth
with you, and shall be in you.
{18} I will not leave you
comfortless: I will come to you.
{19} Yet a little while, and the
world seeth me no more;
but ye see me: because I
live, ye shall live also.
{20} At that day ye shall
know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
{21} He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me:
and he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father,
and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him.
{22} Judas saith unto him, not
Iscariot,
Lord, how is it that thou wilt
manifest thyself unto us, and not unto the world?
{23} Jesus answered and said
unto him,
If a man love me, he will
keep my words:
and my Father will love him,
and we will come unto him, and
make our abode with him.
May your life and your family be blessed as you decide to
live for Jesus.
in Christ....brother
bob.......<><
IXTHEUS CHRISTIAN GROWTH DEVOTIONALS
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God Bless You.....brother
bob.......<>< This message scanned for viruses by CoreComm
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