Kid Brother to a Ragamuffin

In a nut shell

david — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 19:31:34 +0000

A lot of people (even Christians) ask me how they know they can be saved. There are actually a couple of ways to know but they all require a sensitive heart to the Spirit of God.
When ever someone asks me about salvation I ask them a couple of questions. I’m not God so I can’t tell them if they’re saved. But I’ll start off with;

What does it mean to be saved?
The Bible uses a lot of terminology when it comes to salvation such as:
Lost
Dead
Darkened
Imprisoned
When you’re without the salvation of God you are without life. Sure you may live a ‘life’ but it is without purpose, you do vain things that in the end amount to one thing… death.

-You must then be saved from death-

Ever feel like your life isn’t going anywhere? Like you’re beating at the wind trying to get something to come from nothing, perhaps you have your mindset wrong.

Salvation starts in the mind. Christ said “To Him that has ears let him understand.” That means if you can listen, consider God’s word. God’s word from the beginning has been one thing. “Repent”

I hear people all the time tell me that they’re saved, I ask them how they know and they tell me. “Because in my heart I just know”. The Bible tells us that “The heart of man is deceitfully wicked” don’t trust your heart for salvation trust Christ.

What does it mean to trust Christ?
The Bible uses some great words when it comes to trusting
Faith
Believe
Earnest
Lean on
These words give us this idea that we must abandon our ideas of what “good is” and let someone else define it. So you’ve lived your life for yourself, for your possessions, or for your gain. You did things because of what you can get.

Repentance is a hard word to understand for a lot of people but all it means is to ‘change your mind.’ God wants you to stop living for yourself and start living for Him. If you change your mind to start living for Him you’ve got half of salvation.

Christ said you must repent and believe the gospel.

What does it mean to believe the Gospel?
A lot of people use the word gospel like it is some mantra you can say that will usher you into the presence of God.
Good news
Happy report
A wonderful story!
The Gospel is the good news. Because you were living for yourself you’re living to your death. The Bible is explicit, those who are not living for God are dead, and they will be in hell forever after their bodies perish. Why? You see God is a Holy God and He cannot overlook sin. Say for instance a man stole thirty five dollars from the cash register. Regardless of how much it was, or whether or not he meant to that register is now thirty five dollars less.
We were created for God’s glory, when we don’t fulfill our purpose we rob God of His glory. He can’t just overlook it because that would mean He has no glory, but because of His holiness He must separate Himself from that which is unholy.

Whether we mean to or not we have made ourselves disgusting in sin.

But the good news is this, that Christ God’s own son can make you holy. Not by you working, but by his death. You see Christ was separated so that you would not have to be. That’s the good news, all you have to do is to believe that He paid this debt confess that He is able to save you, and you will be saved.
If you are saved you will change from who you are to who God wants you to be. You can know that you are a child of God by His comfort through His Spirit, and by the change through His Son. You need to ask yourself, “do I love the things of the world?” if you do repent. Love the things that God loves, hate the things that God hates. This is the Gospel in a nut shell.

Knowing God

david — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:39:48 +0000

“This is eternal life, that they might know thee the only true God.”

Christ said these words in the gospel account of John. He was praying to God. I find that interesting because this is a prayer you are given a glimpse of the heart of Christ. Firstly, in the context of this verse Christ says that He gives Eternal life. He also talks of His obedience in showing the Glory of an eternal Father. He said that it was because He glorifies the Father that Christ is worthy of glory. How does He show this Glory of the Father? By giving eternal life to those God has given Him. Which is obedience to the command of God. You see God’s goal is to have you saved, God’s glory is to give eternal life to you a wretch. Not because you are something to glory about, but eternal life is. Eternal life is only accessable by the obedience of Christ. Christ goes on to say that He has glorified God, by completing the work that He gave to Christ. What is this work? To give eternal Life.

Secondly, Christ explains through His prayer that He is glorified through the Father’s glory. So Christ Himself is glorified through your salvation, He is shown to be an obedient Son and glorified before men and before God.

Thridly, You are given purpose through Christ’s Glory. You see His Glory is that you recieve Eternal Life. What is eternal life? That you would know God. God’s Glory is that we know Him, Christ’s Glory is to Obey the Father, and Our Glory is to know God.

The Important Stuff

david — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 02:06:05 +0000

Fear… We often think of fear as a thing most undesirable, but I wonder, what would the world be like if men had a little more of it. Surely I will be misunderstood in all this, thus I shall be brief and will pray that my words have clarity. God is no terrorist, no bully, and nor is He without compassion. However, His Compassion does not supercede His wrath, nor does His love negate our condition. Realise that Christ was sent as a token of that Love, but only through God’s grace given for our faith are we yet saved. Thusly, we are saved because of our dependance on that love through belief and repentance towards holiness. God’s wrath is no thing to be trifled with, instead let us approach His presence with Humility of his glory, and terror of that wrath, but boldness in the holiness of His son. We should have no confidence in our merits but rather His mercy.

A good report (HEB. 11)

david — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 05:36:37 +0000

What a wonderful thing to have someone say about you! That Because of your Faith, your trust, belief and effectual work in the Grace and person of God you have a “good report.” Not only do yo have a good report of men, but more importantly of God!

I am ever weary of a person seeking the approval or emulation of other men. We as God’s people should desire holiness, for our father in Heaven is Holy, we shall likewise be, through the working of Christ’s blood.

Holiness is having faith, and working such a faith outward. We talk about walking in the Spirit as baptist, but we hardly ever give an accurate account of what it means to walk in the Spirit.

Walking in the Spirit is working along the same plan God has for you.

Education of walking in the Spirit: To learn how to walk you must first come to reality of who it is that makes you walk. God is our only motive and should be our energy to walk. Thus you must understand God to walk, in such a life we can not afford ignorance or we shall miss the glory of God’s intention. God will expect us to be educated about Him, but more importantly to have an intimacy with Him. You must look into the word of God and understand who God is, and what He wants for your life, there is no easy fix to all this, you must desire the word of God, not passively as modern theologians proport, but as the psalmist said hard after Him. To have a desire of God you must realize who He is, and who you aren’t. I challenge you to look into God’s word and study he life of Christ with the mind that God Hated his son for you, He despised Jesus because your sin was laid upon Him, if your Dad screamed “I hate you” and turned His back because of something someone else did you would still have no Idea the price Jesus Paid for you. When you understand what God did for you, understanding what He wants for you is simply discipline in prayer and study.

Application of walking in the Spirit: We put a lot of Importance on learning in our churches. We have a great deal of people who have succeeded in the first step to a Spirit filled life but fail at this point. You see we get some of Pride out of knowing, we have security, Christ if you will let Him will strip yo from this foolishness. If you let Christ He will break you, He will make you to work His righteousness. Let yourself die, give in to the hard way, if you cannot give something up you may not be saved, the mark of a true Christian is that he is not enslaved to this present evil age. Thus you must know what God wants from you, and when you do, you are without excuse, you have reached the moral imperative you must now apply your knowledge or disobey God. You know what you must do.

When you have faith you obtain a good report.

The end, the means… but more important the begining

david — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 19:37:46 +0000

I keep thinking how amazing the grace of God is. If it were for that grace the end would be so dismal and the means even moreso. If it weren’t for the mercy of God my works would be for nothing, but because of the death and ressurection of Christ I can work the glory of living.

Someone once asked me do you think the end justifies the means. I said the means and the end will be the same ultimately, the begining is what matters because that’s where the end is determined. We work because where we are going, and we end on what we started.