Expressions of Faith by Our Members

          Expressions of Faith by Our Members

Spring—New Life

God is so Faithful!  Of course, He cannot be unfaithful because He would be denying Himself. (II Timothy 2: 11-13.)  Truly, look  out your windows!  God promises the newness of Spring every year! (Gal 4:10)   The trees are laced with buds and tiny unfurling leaves.  The ground has exploded with fresh green grass and beautiful flowers of all kinds.  And the birds have returned!  Their music fills the air as they busily prepare their new nests for this year’s brood.  If you find yourself in some degree of depression, my heart goes out to you.  Be kind to yourself and allow God to be kind to you by spending some time outside on a nice day and commune with Him.   Feel the warmth of the sun on your face and thank God for the sun.  Smell the fresh new growth and thank Him.  Hear the birds chirping and notice the different songs He gave to the different birds.  Allow God to bless you with His creation, and praise Him for it!  The more we slow down and begin counting our blessings, the more we realize God’s loving care and steadfast faithfulness.  If He does all these things for nature, how much more will He take care of you? (Mat 7: 7&11)

Jesus didn’t come this first time to judge the world, but rather to save it.  Without outside aid, we humans are totally separated from God and stuck in Satan’s kingdom, earth.  Way back when sin entered the world through Adam, God already had a plan to reconcile (repair the relationship) us to Himself, (Gen 3:15) because without such a plan, we would never, ever be able to find any way to come into His presence ever again!  Our most Holy God cannot even look upon sin, and since we all have committed at least one sin (Rom 5:12) (which is as bad as a zillion sins, even if unintended) (Lev 4:2) we cannot find a way back to Him on our own.  Only God Himself can bear the wrath of God!  The Father asked Jesus, the 2nd person of the Triune God, to leave His position of Glory in heaven, clothe Himself in flesh and be born as a Baby (without any sin) at the exact right time.  He fulfilled all of the prophecies (predictions) that were in the Bible from the very beginning!  And the plan was to die on a cross and shed His blood for us as the Father piled upon Him all the sin in the world, past, present, and future, from each of us and sacrificed Him there once and for all.  And the Father was pleased with the sacrifice and as proof raised Jesus from the dead 3 days later.

So the opportunity is there for every human being still alive on this planet to make it right with God, to be reconciled to Him.  In God’s eyes, however, we only make it a legal transaction for ourselves when we meet with Jesus in prayer, recognize His deity (that He is God) and that we ask for the payment He made for our sins be applied to our account.  (For all your sin, paid in full!) When asked in faith, He will remove your sins from you as far as the east is from the west, (Psalm 103:12) and then give you His righteousness, “so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him Who died and rose again on their behalf.” (II Cor. 5:15)  When Jesus knows you are serious with Him, He forgives you of all your sin and sends the Holy Spirit (the 3rd person of the trinity) to come and live with your spirit and seal you forever as a child of God.  “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” (II Cor 5:17)  Through this process which Jesus referred to as being “born again” (John 3: 5, 7 & 13-21) we are now reconciled to God the Father through the work of Jesus on the cross.  And we will live forever in eternity with God.