Abba's Own. David R. Lumsden

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СКАЧАТЬ the Life Everlasting. Amen.”⁷

      God says of His Only Begotten (not created) Son, “But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right (power) to become the children of God, even to them that believe on His name,” (Jn 1: 12). Will you believe God?” Ask yourself the question about receiving Christ. You may decide to say ‘Yes.’ You do not have to go through life alone. The answer is not easy, nor simplistic, but eternal life in God’s presence, for each of us depends on our answer to God. We need His Promised Holy Spirit at the time of Salvation for being able to perceive and understand God’s gift for everyone, who will believe God, the Majestic Glory as Heavenly Father. The matter is simple on the other side of complexity. God wants to give you His gift of eternal life through His Son Jesus. That is why an individual must be born of God the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said, (Jn 3: 5-8); receive rather than work for one’s salvation. Billy Graham reflects on true spirituality, when in his autobiography, Just as I Am, he writes: “Most of all, if anything has been accomplished through my life, it has been solely God’s doing, not mine, and He, not I, must get all the credit.”⁸ The true believer gives all the glory with thanksgiving to God for eternal life and, being used in Christian service in God’s fields white unto harvest, soul-winning.

      In His Word, God introduces Himself to humankind as Elohim (Hebrew) and says: “In the beginning, God (Elohim, Hebrew for God, one God-Three Persons) created the heavens and the earth,” (Gen 1: 1). God crowns his one- week creation with the creation of man: “And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them,” (Gen 1:27). In the New Testament, God opens the Gospel of Matthew by saying, “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham (regarding the Eternal Son of God, Deity Incarnate),” (Matt 1: 1). In the Gospel According to John, God says of His only begotten Son, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” (Jn 1: 1). Toward the end of the New Testament, God says, in the Book of James:

      “Whence come wars and whence come fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your pleasures that war in your members (inside you)? Ye lust and ye have not: ye kill, and you covet and cannot obtain: ye fight and war; ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss (marked by fault or defect; wrong), that ye may spend it in your pleasures. Ye adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God (causes God to be ill-willed toward you)? Whosoever, therefore, would be a friend of the world maketh himself an enemy of God. Or think ye that the scripture (the Word of God) speaketh in vain? Doth the spirit (He, the Holy Spirit) which he made to dwell in us long unto envying? But he giveth more grace. Wherefore the scripture saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble. Be subject, therefore, unto God; but resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall exalt you.

      Speak not one against another, brethren. He that speaketh against a brother, or judgeth his brother, speaketh against the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judgest the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge. One only is the lawgiver and judge, even he who can save and destroy: but who art thou that judges your neighbour? In God’s sight, humans are lost sinners, who need redemption through Christ and His work, alone.

      Come now, ye that say, Today or tomorrow we will go into this city, and spend a year there, and trade, and get gain: whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. What is your life? For ye are a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall both live, and do this or that. But now ye glory in your vauntings (boastings): all such glorying is evil. To him, therefore, that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin,” (Jas 4: 1- 17).

      Some people who profess to be Christian do not believe and heed this Word, sad to say. They are not ignorant, but not willing to be humble for which God resisteth the proud, but gives grace to the humble and obedient, for which God is gracious to forgive and save them.

      Due to sin, man is morally estranged (separated, out of relationship and fellowship with God) from God. Unless a person repents, turns away from sin and turns to God through faith His only begotten Son, man remains in this condition of moral estrangement, and if he dies in his sins, he faces eternal punishment. But if a sinner confesses sin to God, repents and forsakes sin and turns to trust in Jesus, he is forgiven and cleansed from all his sin and unrighteousness, (1 Jn 1: 9). One who believes God will have one’s sin, transgressions, guilt, and misery removed as far as the east is from the west (Ps 103: 12) and have peace with God (Rom 5: 1), forever. God promises.

      Faith is the biblical response to God's truth. God says that without faith it is impossible to please God. God says that faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen, (Heb 11: 1). You can have eternal life and know a living hope. The Word of God is faithful and real. You may ask, ‘What is the truth?’ ‘What is reality?’ Our believing God does not make Him truth; God is God and, He is Truth. We do not create reality by what we believe exists. God is God, our loving creator and, our trustworthy owner. He does exist, and what He says is the Truth. Your faith is only as high as the knowledge of the object of your faith: God who has spoken in His Word, “I Am Jehovah,” in the OT, (Ex 6: 3; Ps 83: 18), and “LORD GOD the ALMIGHTY, who was, who is, and who is to come,” in the NT, (Rev 4: 8). He only is worthy of belief, trust, and worship in spirit and truth.

      The thought of this age being Post-Christian and Post-Evangelistic is filled with alternative truth (a lie). This age is filled with the 'selfie,' digital information, artificial intelligence, human labour trafficking, the Big Bang theory, ‘scientific evidence,’ lack of biblical foundations taught by parents at home and teachers in the schools to Generation-X and Millennial children, so they understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This age is filled with corrupt TV, religious and cultural pluralism, relativism, and privatism (one’s religion is a private matter, not to be shared, but kept to oneself) and, yes, the old sinful nature even of every believer. All are an effort of the enemy to deny a person the opportunity to know God, be known by God, receive Jesus, have new life and meaning for their life now, and in eternity. Even some former evangelical God-honoring churches have adopted the occult. But, this is the Church Age, and the Church is a body of believers in a place to worship God. Worshippers are thankful for the availability of God’s grace, for the forgiveness of sin. They are thankful to God for all who believe God and repent of their sins, and for the building of His Kingdom of which they will belong through Jesus Christ their Lord. The above information (involvement of the occult) provides part of the explanation why the Church is on the decline; souls are not being converted and added to the kingdom of God, rather, churches are collecting dollars and counting attendance to support a ‘counterfeit’ religion.

      The thought of being a personal idol lures some people into worshiping themselves. They are swept off their feet into a whirlwind of thinking of themselves as a god. Some move from a pantheistic view (God is in everything) to thinking of themselves as a god. How well they appear on social media, they believe. They look famous in their self-conceit by how many people follow them on social media, as on Facebook or Twitter. Fame is more important to them than a willingness to believe God and worship Him. Their claim to fame (temporary at best) seems to be measured in their following. Claim to fame is a trap by Satan to draw people’s attention away from God and His Christ, to themselves. One individual asked the author, “How large is your following?” I wonder how he would inquire if not focused on self-aggrandizement and fame on this earth. There is nothing more significant that gives one a sense of usefulness and fulfillment for one’s existence, than being an influence in another person’s eternal state and leading that person to readiness for eternity in Jesus Christ. If you are sensing God’s call upon you to preach and soul win, you could not be more privileged, even in your wildest dreams. The author encourages you in your calling, to pray, to study diligently, to preach the Word for soul-winning. Converts СКАЧАТЬ