Category: Gospels

What is our Assurance? Part 1

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A question that often comes up and there is much debate is “do we have assurance of eternal life?” Or “can we lose our salvation once we have obtained it?”  Or is it ‘once saved always saved?’ I have my opinion, but I am going to withhold it for now and just give you some scriptures that talk about this very subject.  I will let you read these and let you decide for yourself.  As you read, I suggest that you pray and ask God to reveal the truth and speak to you through these scripture before reading.  Ask Him to remove any bias or preconceptions and read as though this is the first time you have read or heard of this subject.  Then, read the context of each of these (read part 1 and part 2 before making any conclusions).  Read the chapter before and after.  Ask yourself, who is the author speaking to?  What is his intent?  Is he speaking about a certain group of people?  Is he speaking literally or hypothetically?  After doing all that, pray again.  Then, make a conclusion.  Please write a comment.  I would like to see what you think. Continue reading “What is our Assurance? Part 1”

Love and the Commandments

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God is gracious and loves His children.  Jesus came to save the world and fulfill the law.  He gave us a new covenant, that salvation comes through faith in Jesus Christ.  The  Lord has come to save us, Jew and Gentile alike.  The law was brought to us to show us that we could never be righteous enough to obtain salvation on our own.  We should not ignore God’s commandments, though.  God’s commands are good and His ways are best for our lives.  As one who is born again, a person follows the commandments of God and live by the Spirit because we love Him.  We obey God not to gain salvation, but because of it.

Jesus taught us that it is not about the act of obedience, but the heart and desire to obey our Lord. The teachers of the law asked Jesus about God’s commandments.  They were always focusing on the doing, but Jesus taught people to take it a step further and to do things out of love. Continue reading “Love and the Commandments”

How do We Pick up Our Cross?

What does it look like to ‘pick up our cross?’ I think Matthew 25:31-46 may be a partial answer – Continue reading “How do We Pick up Our Cross?”

Carry Your Own Cross

It is such an awesome thing when someone decides to believe in Jesus Christ.  Believing in Jesus Christ is different than just believing that He is real and that He is the Son of God.  It takes surrender.  It takes following Him and obeying His commands.  Those of us who confess that we are believers in Christ, do we do these things?  Let us surrender to Jesus and remember that our old self is dead and hung on the cross with Jesus (see my post, Christ in Me).  We are a new creation in Christ Jesus (see my post, God’s Grace Frees Us from Sin ).  I thank God that He did this for me and changed my life!  He did it for you, too.  I hope that you take this opportunity to surrender to Him and be free.  Free from your sin, free from your past. Continue reading “Carry Your Own Cross”

God Loves You!

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Today I want to share with you how much God loves you. He changed my life so much and filled my heart with joy. He never gave up on me and He won’t give up on you. His desire is that all will be saved. God the Father sent His one and only Son, Jesus who is God, came to this earth to save us by taking the sins of the world on His shoulders and gave His life by dying on the cross, to be raised from the dead on the third day to sit on the right hand of God the Father.

 John 3:16-21

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done by God.”

We are saved by grace (a gift of God through His Son) through faith in Jesus Christ. Thank you Jesus.