Saturday, April 21, 2012

Basis for Being a Christian

 Who a believer is in Christ is more than a feeling, more than a thought, a reality which we receive and recognize by faith. Faith is not ephemeral, flimsy abstract postive thinking:

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11: 1)

We are in His stead on this Earth (1 John 4: 17), or otherwise we would be dead in our trespasses (Ephesians 2: 1) We had no life in us, were are lost, not just because we are facing eternal death.

We are not saved because we had an emotional epiphany one day. We are not saved because we had a sense of discernment within us. We are saved by grace through faith, infused with the same righteousness as God's own Son, for only His righteousness could meet the standard of God the Father.

One lady I spoke to told me that she became a believer because she was moved in her feelings no to go to a certain meeting. Our faith in Jesus Christ must be based on much more than a set of feelings.  Otherwise, how do we expect to overcome the hardships in our  lives? What do we do can do nothing to make us righteous before God. We are sinners who need grace, but as soon as we are adopted into the family, we are then made children of light, sons of God, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

What do you do when you do not "feel" God? What do you do when your thoughts go astray? Are you then not saved? Do you lose fellowship with God? I used to think like that. But scripture is very clear:

"Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

"For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

"Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 8: 37-39)

and

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13: 5)


So, if I feel out of sorts, there is nothing wrong with God, or the word. In fact, there is nothing wrong with me in my spirit, but my mind must be renewed to this truth:

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12: 1-2)

We yield our bodies a living sacrifice, letting Him live in and through us. Our minds are renewed by the Word of God:

"But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." (2 Corinthians 3:18)

and

"For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." (2 Corinthians 4: 16)

How is our inner man renewed, or strengthened. By the Spirit of God through greater knowledge of His Love:

"That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love," (Ephesians 3: 16 -17)

And that is the basis of the Christian's live: Christ reigning in our hearts, and our heats established by his grace (Hebrews 13: 9)

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