"In Christ is man perfected and made complete." Christian Doctrine As Freedom, Not Control

[Lyfe]

God is love. When we call upon and receive Christ for salvation we are essentially welcoming him into our life and becoming reconciled to God himself. God's desire for us is so great that he makes his abode directly inside of us. His delight is to be with us wherever we go as true love for someone often desires their nearness. Salvation is so simple and it's tragic how we have turned it into so many systems and doctrines of theology and head knowledge. God created us to be recipients of his agape love. If we are in Christ he is always with us through his spirit!

and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5:5

Your unfailing love is better than life itself; how I praise you! Psalm 63:3

...steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Psalm 32:10

...I HAVE LOVED THEE with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Jeremiah 31:3

 

[Lyfe]

Psalm 92:1-2
English Standard Version
92 It is good to give thanks to the Lord,
to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
2 to declare your steadfast love in the morning,
and your faithfulness by night,

Psalm 94:18
English Standard Version
18 When I thought, “My foot slips,”
your steadfast love, O Lord, held me up.

 

[Lyfe]

If you really think about it there can be no endeavor more fulfilling than the one that God has specifically designed us for. We were created in his image which means it would only stand to reason that the things that bring him joy would also do the same for us. He is the one who has fashioned our hearts. It says of Jesus that he rejoiced in the holy spirit while doing his father's will. God's will is for the healing and restoration of lives and in being used as an extension of this purpose we ourselves taste his same joy. People may wonder some days how I can flood their feed. The truth is that I just feel prompted to make God known and it actually brings me much gladness and joy in doing it. The mind stayed on God is a mind that is at perfect peace according(to his word). We have flesh, but we were created as spiritual beings. Sin brings our flesh pleasure, but our spirit is satisfied by something else entirely. God is the only one who can satisfy the human soul. If we are doing his will then we are doing what we were created for and as a result of this our hearts will find joy in what they were created to find joy in.

We were created to receive of Gods love and goodness and as result give thanks and proclaim his excellencies. We are vessels of the holy spirit and his desire is always to make God known. The book of psalms is a perfect example. The holy spirit is always declaring the works and goodness of God in the Psalms!

I don't think King David could have stopped proclaiming God and the things of God even if he tried to. I'm nobody special and the truth is that anyone can drink from the living waters of Christ and become FULL. His word says he gives the holy spirit without measure. God will give someone about as much of himself as a person wants. He meets those who joyfully works righteousness. His word is a fire in their bones and if they try to keep it in they can't.

I'm sure there are allot of people who think I am just looking for attention and trying to promote myself, but most often I just pray and invite God in and listen to a worship song and something comes to mind and I feel prompted to speak of God and the things of God. The holy spirit wants to make God known and use us a vessel to do this.

All I have literally done today is listen to worship songs and thank God and seek his face and it's been the most at peace I have been in the last few days. It's as the scripture says the mind stayed on him is a mind that is at perfect peace!

 

[Lyfe]

...sincere repentance and what God is looking for is when a person does as Josiah did and TURNS to God with their WHOLE heart. It's humbling yourself and refusing to no longer justify your own ways and rebellious actions toward God like most people do. It is accepting that God is in the right and you are in the wrong. It's acknowledging God's authority as the creator and supreme lawgiver of man and saying "I have sinned against you and done what is evil in your sight, please forgive me for violating your rules and commandments!". It is after having your understanding awakened to who God is then becoming one who now revere's him and turns away from evil as Job did.

This is part of it. The other part is Christ. It is after acknowledging how truly offensive sin is to God then throwing yourself at Christ for mercy and looking toward him for divine intervention and restoration(salvation). It is acknowledging your total and absolute need for Christ to be reconciled to God and to have your sins and record of wrongdoing blotted out. God came into the world through Christ and only IN HIM there is a restored relationship to the creator. God is merciful, slow to anger, he delights in steadfast love, he desires mercy and that none should perish. He wants men and women everywhere to seek his face and call upon him for salvation. If you don't understand then seek him for answers. Ask him to help your unbelief. He desires you to repent and turn to him with your WHOLE heart!

Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who TURNED to the LORD with ALL HIS HEART AND SOUL AND STRENGTH 2 Kings 23:25

Joel 2:12-13
English Standard Version
Return to the Lord
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord,
“reTURN TO ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
13 and REND YOUR HEARTS and not your garments.”
Return to the Lord your God,
for he is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love;
and he relents over disaster.

2 Corinthians 7:10
New Living Translation
10 For the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There’s no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death.

Psalm 66:18-19
English Standard Version
18 IF I HAD CHERISHED INIQUITY IN MY HEART,

THE LORD WOULD NOT HAVE LISTENED.

19 But truly God has listened;
he has attended to the voice of my prayer.

The LORD is near to all who call on him, to ALL WHO CALL ON HIM IN TRUTH. Psalm 145:18

 

[Lyfe]

If God has given you a new heart and put his spirit within you then you will absolutely experience change and see the world differently. Salvation and being spiritually transformed by the power of God go hand in hand.

The Bible says that one is saved through Christ and by the washing and REGENERATION of the holy spirit. The apostle John even goes on to reveal that this transformation comes as a direct result of a new birth and being being born again by God's very own seed. In Christ we are recreated after his likeness through the spirit of God.

There are many who think that, because we are human and that God created us we are all his children. According to The Bible we come into this world with an inherited corrupt nature(from the fall of man) and must be reborn from above through Christ to become true sons and daughters of God. We are born children of the flesh and the only way to become an actual child of God is through receiving Christ and being united to(and becoming a part of) him by the spirit of adoption. The version of humanity that exists today was twisted and changed by sin much like a virus infects a host and makes them sick. This sickness and disease of the soul called sin has spread into all men. Gods purpose in Christ is to undo the damage and warping that was done and restore humanity back to spiritual wholeness after his image and likeness.

Ezekiel 36:25-27
English Standard Version

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I WILL GIVE YOU A NEW HEART, and A NEW SPIRIT I WILL PUT WITHIN YOU. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT WITHIN YOU, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.[a]

Proverbs 1:23
TURN you at my reproof: behold, I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT unto you, I will make known my words unto you.

Acts 2:38
And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Titus 3:5
he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of REGENERATION and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

1 John 3:9
Amplified Bible
9 No one who is BORN OF GOD [deliberately, knowingly, and habitually] practices sin, because [a]GOD’S SEED [His principle of life, the essence of His righteous character] REMAINS [permanently] IN HIM [who is born again—who is REBORN FROM ABOVE—spiritually transformed, renewed, and set apart for His purpose]; and he [who is born again] cannot habitually [live a life characterized by] sin, because he is born of God and longs to please Him.

 

[Lyfe]

ALL genuine repentance toward God precedes real acknowledgement and godly sorrow for sin. The holy spirit will convict someone and reveal that they have been living in darkness and rebellion toward God and that they absolutely need Christ in order to be right with him and have their record of wrong doing blotted out. There is a perfect record of everyone's sin and wrong doing before God. He is a perfectly just and an impartial judge which means he will fully uphold the law without partiality or respect to persons on the day of judgment. Have you ever lied, cheated, stolen, taken God's name in vain before? Have you ever looked upon a woman with lust before? If you were to be judged by this standard then would you be found innocent or guilty? You would be found guilty. That is the entire point! This guilt is to show us that we need a savior!

God dealt with and punished sin at the cross two thousands years ago which means if you are in Christ then God is not counting your sins against you, because his son already bore the punishment for them that you and I deserve at the cross! Christ stood in the court room and took upon himself the punishment that your guilt deserves. In and through him ones case is legally dismissed so they can have peace with God! If you acknowledge your guilt and repent and call upon the name of Jesus to save you then God is faithful and just to forgive your sin and reconcile you unto himself, delivering you from the kingdom of darkness and transferring you into the kingdom of light as a true son or daughter of God!

2 Corinthians 7:8-10
English Standard Version
8 For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it—though I did regret it, for I see that that letter grieved you, though only for a while. 9 As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.

10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

1 John 1:6-7
King James Version
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.

1 John 1:9
King James Bible
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

[Lyfe]

It's impossible to arrive at God if your relying on your own understanding and reasoning in determing whether or not his words are true. We can't find God through the pride and discretion of our own intellect, we have to humble ourselves as little children and ASK him. God hides himself from the proud, but he reveals himself to and gives grace to the humble!

Matthew 11:25-27
At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that YOU HAVE HIDDEN THESE THINGS FROM THE WISE and understanding and REVEALED THEM TO LITTLE CHILDREN; yes, Father, for SUCH WAS YOUR GRACIOUS WILL. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and ANYONE TO WHOM THE SON CHOOSES TO REVEAL HIM.

Matthew 18:3-4
and said, “Truly, I say to you, UNLESS YOU TURN AND BECOME LIKE CHILDREN, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

John 3:12
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

John 3:31-32
He who comes from above is above all. He who is of the earth belongs to the earth and speaks in an earthly way. He who comes from heaven is above all. He bears witness to what he has seen and heard, yet no one receives his testimony

1 Corinthians 2:13-14
And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. THE NATURAL PERSON DOES NOT ACCEPT THE THINGS OF THE SPIRIT OF GOD, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

2 Corinthians 4:6
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” HAS SHONE in our hearts TO GIVE the light of THE KNOWLEDGE of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

[Lyfe]

God came into the world through Christ and by receiving and welcoming him you are acctually receiving God and entering into a comminion with him. The Bible is very clear that If a person rejects Christ(and who he claimed to be) they are also rejecting God.

God will not force anyone to accept or listen to him, but humanity has been separated from him since the fall of man and will also perish (without him) apart from Christ and what he did to RESCUE his creation. Christ takes away sin, he removes the wall of partition and hostility barring sinful men from a holy, perfect, and set apart God. Jesus is the only bridge to God. The scriptures reveal that without him you do not have a connection or relationship to God. They point out that you are alienated from him, that you dont and can't even know him without Jesus. People dont necessarily go to hell because they are bad. They go there, because man was separated from God long ago and without that connection being restored they simply die in that state of separation and have no way to ever get back to God. In order for a person to be accepted by God they absolutely need Jesus!

John 1:1
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and THE WORD WAS GOD.

John 1:14
14 And THE WORD BECAME FLESH and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son[a] from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John 1:10
10 HE WAS IN THE WORLD, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him.

John 1:11-13
11 He came to his own,[a] and HIS OWN PEOPLE DID NOT RECEIVE HIM. 12 BUT TO ALL WHO DID RECEIVE HIM, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Matthew 10:40
40 “Anyone who receives you RECEIVES ME, and ANYONE WHO RECEIVES ME RECEIVES THE FATHER WHO SENT ME.

1 John 2:23
23 NO ONE WHO DENIES THE SON HAS THE FATHER. Whoever confesses the Son has the Father also.

Revelation 3:20
20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

 

[Lyfe]

In Christ one has access to the NEARNESS of God through prayer.

He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love. Song of Solomon 2:4

Blessed is the one you choose and bring near, to dwell in your courts! We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, the holiness of your temple! Psalm 65:4

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Ephesians 2:13