Believe Right!

Believers, have you noticed how even nominal christians are unable to escape memorizing Psalms 23 (The Lord is my Shepherd....) from childhood? The Lord made it so:) Our Saviour did not call us His sheep and Himself our Shepherd just to fill up space in the bible. He did so for us to see how hopelessly helpless we would be without Him. He Himself said "For without me you can do nothing." David was a shepherd before he became king and he understood that a sheep is absolutely dependent on its shepherd. This is reflected throughout the popular Psalm. Remember verse 4: Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. The rod of a shepherd is a two to four foot club used for defending and protecting the sheep from predators and robbers. It is a weapon or tool to provide safety for the flock: Christ our Shepherd and His promise of protection for His sheep in all of ...

Many of us believers in Christ think that being caught up with our Saviour when He returns for His saints (the Rapture) depends on our ability to keep the Ten Commandments, "how good we are" here on earth or even what we are doing at the time of His coming. Not so! Commendable as these things are, they cannot save anybody. Just a quick intro before we see why not and what the word of the Lord says is the condition for being caught up with Christ at His coming. The bible says in Ephesians 2:- 8 "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." "Saved" in verse 8 above encompasses salvation from hell to heaven, salvation from the power, pleasure and penalty of sin; deliverance from oppression and molestations of the enemy; deliver...

Believers, it is absolutely impossible for a person to be (abide) in Christ and not bear fruit, much like how it is impossible to jump into a swimming pool filled with water without clothing and not get wet. See our Saviour's words in John 15:1-6- “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the Gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and He prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you.4 Remain in Me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in Me." 5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in Me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. 6 Anyone who does not remain in Me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers." In verse 4 above, we see that the way for the branch to not produce fruit is to be severed (cut o...

Jesus never says "Change your ways first and be good, and then I will accept you when you come." Like Zacchaeus, He called us to Himself in our sinful "dead in trespasses" state and fills us with His Spirit who transforms us to the image of His glory, from glory to glory (2 Cor. 3:18.) Like Zacchaeus, we cannot come to Him unless He calls us. In John 6:44, He says: "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. " And there we were thinking "I decided by myself to follow Jesus," when the Sower (God the Father) was the one who scattered the seed (the Word-Jesus Christ) our way; He made fertile the ground (our hearts where the seed died,) made sure that Satan did not steal the seed and took care of the plant so that it became fruitful. He raised the Vine (Christ raised from the dead and we the branches resurrected with Him.) He tends the Vine and makes sure that we the branches of th...

Believers, we don't need the Holy Spirit to teach us that we will be punished for our wrongdoings and rewarded for doing good. Almost every religion on earth teaches this. This is not of faith. This is not Christianity. This is law. And the law is not of faith (Gal. 3:12.) The Letter kills but the Spirit gives life. Our Saviour Jesus Christ says of the Holy Spirit in John 16 (MSG): 8-11 “When he comes, he’ll expose the error of the godless world’s view of sin, righteousness, and judgment: He’ll show them that their refusal to believe in me is their basic sin; that righteousness comes from above, where I am with the Father, out of their sight and control; that judgment takes place as the ruler of this godless world is brought to trial and convicted." The Spirit teaches us that we (who believe Christ) do not get the punishment that we deserve because Another, our Lord Jesus, took our place. Remember Isaiah 53:5 "He was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for ou...

Believers, James 2:10 says "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws." For example lying is a sin and so is homosexuality; the one who only lied about his location to his boss for a good reason but does everything else right is just as guilty as the child-molesting rapist, murdering homosexual. Ask James 2:10😊: "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws." The same curse of the law applies to both. The same wages of sin apply. Death preceded by its symptoms aka ALL of the curses in Deut.28. God hates ALL sin because sin destroys His beloved - you and I. Sin kills. The wages of  sin, any sin, is death. But some people think that they are better than the homosexuals and other "core sinners" because they are not gay and do not commit certain sins. Recall the story of the Pharisees who wanted to stone the woman caught i...

Believers whose righteousness is in Christ, when the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write the words “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 5:8,) he was talking about religious leaders in the church that the devil uses to try to make you feel that you are not really a child of God because you sinned, because you're not doing/giving enough or because you are not righteous enough, usually according to their own standards; those that tell you, just as the devil told Eve, that you have to perform certain tasks in order for you to be godly aka "be like God."  The bible interprets this for us in Matthew 27 and Psalm 22. As Jesus hung on the cross, the people, including the religious leaders of the day mocked Him - Matt. 27:39-40 – “And those who passed by blasphemed Him, wagging their heads and saying,  “You who destroy the temple and build it in three days, save Yourself! If You are...

Believers, most of us know why our Saviour Jesus Christ came to die - because of our sins. But do you know why our Abba Father raised Him from the dead? We see why in Romans 4:25 where it is said of our Saviour: "who was delivered up because of our offenses, and was raised because of our justification." The YLT translation  puts it this way: "who was delivered up because of our offences, and was raised up because of our being declared righteous." Think of this as being put on prison death row for something you did ( "all have sinned" and "the wages of sin is death" .) This prison is not just any kind of prison. The inmates range from well-behaved, moral people to the vilest offenders (James 2:10 says "For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws." ) It is one from which escape by human effort is impossible. In order avoid this prison, you must be 100% righteous befor...