May 30, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen

This has been a great week and a horrid week. My son and his class mates arrived back safely from their university orchestra and chorus tour of France and Germany. They got in at 1:30 am in the midst of severe thunderstorms. They were no worse for wear and had an incredible trip. We thank God for His blessings.

 

The bad news is that my sleep schedule is so badly jumbled that I am having a difficult time getting this blog and my podcast accomplished. The fact that this blog is a day late is probably a clue. And I have not even thought about recording the podcast for today. I am going to try to work ahead on these projects so that hopefully this will not happen again in the future.

 

It is in times like this that we really can use some peace with God: 

We are now ready to take up the next step in finding peace with God. You are ready to forsake your past sinful life. Moses was forty years old when he fled Egypt for fear of his life. Forty years later he came back to lead the Israelites out of Egypt. He concluded that faith and truth in company with agony and hardship were better than wealth and fame and the absence of God’s love.

 

Moses was a man of education and culture, a man of wealth and prominence. As the son of Pharaoh’s daughter he had been accustomed to every honor, every luxury, and every privilege. The throne of Egypt was within his grasp, but by faith he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God. This is the next step-faith.

 

Moses did not run from the flesh and the devil. He chose to do so. Moses had more than the dreams to which most men would aspire; and yet out of his mature judgment in the prime of his life he turned his back on wealth and power and chose faith in God. Whenever people say that religion is only for the hopeless and helpless, think of Moses!

 

When men and women reject Christ as their Lord and Master, they do it because they seek to avoid the responsibilities and obligations that Christian life demands. They are not willing to submit themselves and surrender everything to Christ. It is interesting to note that the two men most used of God in the Bible (Moses and Paul) were also the most educated.

 

Moses realized that if he was to embrace God that he would have to do so at the sacrifice of the things that men usually hold most dear. He knew how much was at stake and arrived at his decision with the full use of his superior mental faculties. He burned his bridges and committed himself for all time to God and His commands. When you come to Christ, every bridge has to be burned with no thought of ever turning back!

 

The Bible teaches that faith is the only approach to God. God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. The greatest thing that we can do to please God is to believe His word. Are we actually saved by faith? No, we are saved by grace through faith. Faith is simply the channel through which God’s grace to us is received.

 

Three things are involved in faith. First, there must be knowledge of what God has said. There must be knowledge that you are a sinner. You must have the knowledge that Christ died for your sins and that He rose again for your justification. The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the very heart of the Gospel. That must be believed and accepted as a minimum for conversion.

 

Second, emotions are involved. When you fall in love with Jesus Christ, your emotions are bound to be stirred. And Third is the will. It is actually the will that makes the final and lasting decision. Faith will manifest itself in doctrine, worship, and morality. Faith continues and grows. When you have saving faith in Jesus Christ, you have taken an additional step toward having peace with God.   

 

Jesus said that you can be born anew. No matter how snarled your past, no matter how hopeless your future seems to be-there is a way out. You can decide right now to wipe out your sinful past and make a new start. The Bible teaches that you were born the first time into the physical world, but your spiritual nature was born into sin. Unless we have experienced a new birth we cannot get into the kingdom of heaven.

 

The life that comes from the new birth cannot be obtained by natural development or self-effort. Man does not by nature have this holiness that God requires for heaven. Being born again is altogether a work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us that we must be born again. It is something that has to be done for us. The new birth is a divine work.

 

Even though the new birth seems mysterious, that does not make it untrue. We do not understand many mysteries, but we accept by faith the fact that at the moment we repent of sin and turn by faith to Jesus Christ we are born again. If you are born again, you will live as long as God lives, because you are now sharing His very life. The long lost fellowship man had with God in the Garden of Eden has been restored. 

That's it for right now. I will get done what I can. I promise that if nothing else gets done, I will start the next blog cycle again tomorrow!

Until next time, thanks and God Bless.

Pastor Bob Emery