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Glen Park Gospel Church >> Archive >> Editorial >> 2005
Each month the Glen Park Gospel Church produce a one page newsletter called the Green Leaf. It's available from the chapel each Sunday. Some months include a topical article or report. We thought you might appreciate reading those previously published.
Be Really Alive in 2005
Jesus said,
"I tell you the truth, he who believes has everlasting
life."
Be really alive in 2005. Of all people in this world Christians have every reason to be really alive. God in Christ has given His people life, for 'he who has the Son has life' and 'this life is in His Son'. Life is intended for living. Only Christians know this life in Christ.
Life means knowing all sins forgiven and all guilt removed. God does not give His life to those who are lost in sin. Before He gives us His life in Christ Jesus, He makes us fit to receive Him. This is something God does and only He can do. We can not make our selves ‘good enough'. There is no ‘good enough' with God.
God made us fit when He sent His Son into this world to die on our behalf on the cross. In this act God put upon Jesus the sin of this world. Because He has paid the penalty we may be free of guilt. As it is all done there is nothing we need do except trust Him. But we must consciously trust His provision, believing that He died for us personally, as the Bible says:
"Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life,
but whoever rejects the Son will not see life,
for God's wrath remains on him."
John 3:36.
Life means living in the Spirit, for the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of life. This is His name in Romans 8 where we are told that 'through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death', and having been set free we are now one of 'those who live in accordance with the Spirit (and) have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.'
The Holy Spirit is also known as the Spirit of Jesus and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. The Spirit who animated Jesus in His days on earth now animates we who trust Him in our daily lives. Living as a Christian is living in the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to make Jesus real in our daily life. Just as we consciously believe in Jesus for the removal of sin's guilt, so we consciously set our minds on what the Spirit of Jesus desires for us.
Life means reigning in life by one Christ Jesus. Paul tells us that ‘those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness (will) reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.'
When Jesus is active in our life as a Christian by the direction and power of the Holy Spirit, we will be in charge of life and able to take life's knocks and shocks in our stride This life that is in Christ by the Holy Spirit is a stabilising and strengthening force.
Life means flowing like a river, bringing new life to a thirsty land. Jesus said, ‘whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.' There are two blessings. The water of life first quenches our thirst and then it overflows to others.
Every Christian has a responsibility to share his or her life with others. Living water is running water. Still water stagnates. Sharing God's life refreshes all concerned. When we share our faith with others, we are re-freshed along with them.
Life means here and now and through all eternity. It was Jesus Himself who first spoke so much about eternal live. That was what He called the life that He had come to give. The Bible also uses the word ‘everlasting' life. Do you remember the old Sunday School text, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.' That word ‘everlasting' is translated ‘eternal' in newer versions. It has this same meaning, ‘without beginning and end'.
Logically, if the eternal God has given us life, then the life that He gives must be eternal life. As time is one of God's creations, God's own life far transcends His creation. Our time that has a beginning and an end is all but lost, except that He Himself stepped into our time, into our humanity at the first Christmas. What greater gift could He give than Himself. Rejoice in God's goodness and be really alive in 2005.
John 3.16; 4.14; 6.47; 1 Romans 5.17; 8.2; 8.5; John 5.11&12. (Quotations are from NIV)
Suffering
"For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal."
Job 5:18
This world abounds with tragedy and suffering, national, universal and personal. It is part of the fabric of life, but to those who are truly spiritual, interwoven with the threads of crimson and black are cords of silver and gold. They no longer ask ‘Why?' for that question has been answered long ago, but they look to their God for His unfailing love and care. Here Dr. FB Meyer in a devotional written many years ago ministers comfort to those who in patience turn to their God.
‘Has this been your experience lately? Have you been made sore by the heavy scourge of pain, and wounded by the nails of the cross? Do not look at second causes. Men may have been the instruments, but God is the Agent. The cup has been presented by a Judas, but the Father permitted it; and it is therefore the cup that the father hath given you to drink. Shall you not drink it? How much He must love you, to dare to inflict this awful discipline, which makes your love and trust, that He values so infinitely, tremble in the scale! ‘Despise thou not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him; for whom the Lord loveth He chasten-eth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.'
But do not look back on what you have suffered; look on and up! As surely as He has made sore, He will bind up; as soon as He has wounded His hands will begin to make whole. Consider the reparative purposes of nature. As soon as the unsightly ruin or chasm yawns, nature begins to weave her rich festoons, to cover with moss and lichen; let the flesh be punctured or lacerated, the blood begins to pour out the protoplasmic matter to be woven into a new fabric. So when the heart seems to be bleeding its life away, God is at work binding up and healing. Think of those dear and tender hands that fashioned the heavens, and touched the eyeballs of the blind, as laid upon you to make you whole. Trust Him; He loves infinitely, and will suffer none that trust in Him to be desolate.
We must be careful however that nothing on our part shall hinder the life of the Son of God from flowing through us, as the sap of the vine through every branch.' *
Dr. Meyer's verse comes from the following passage with which Eliphaz climaxes his desire to bring comfort to Job in his calamities. Was Eliphaz more spiritually aware than Job? Was one right and the other wrong? Sometimes truth is held in tension.
Job 5:17-27 "Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty. For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will befall you.
"In famine he will ransom you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes. You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the beasts of the earth. For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you. You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing.
"You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth. You will come to the grave in full vigour, like sheaves gathered in season."
"We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself." (NIV)
This admonition will only be true if we do as Eliphaz says in his concluding words. Each must relate himself with God.
* Taken from Great Verses Through the Bible
by FB Meyer Copyright © by Marshall Morgan & Scott Ltd
1966. Used by permission of Zondervan.
Thou Art My Son
"Thou art My Son, this day have I begotten Thee."
Psalm 2:7
The Holy Spirit tells us that this was addressed by God the Father to the Son in His resurrection (see Acts 13.33). It was from the grave that our Lord stepped up to His mediatorial throne, whence all hatred of His foes had no power to to dislodge Him, and never shall have. Death is a birth into true life. Jesus was the firstborn from the dead; we too are to be born out of the darkness of the grave into the Life Immortal.
There is a beyond and he who has once caught a glimpse of it is like a man who has gazed at the sun. Wherever he looks he sees everywhere the image of the sun. Speak to him of finite things and he will tell you that the finite is impossible and meaningless without the infinite. Speak to him of death and he will call it birth. Speak to him of time, and he will call it the mere shadow of eternity.
But is it not wonderful that He has begotten us also unto a living hope by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead to an incorruptible inheritance? We are sons of the resurrection. In Jesus we are already on resurrection ground. Our sun shall no more go down, nor our moon withdraw her self. For us at least, God hath destroyed "the vail that is spread over all nations".*
"And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it."
Isaiah 25.7&8
* Selected from Great Verses through the Bible
by F B Meyer
Copyright© by Marshall Morgan & Scott
Ltd.
Used by permission of Zondervan.
The Spiritual Value of a Good Memory
There is many a book on the techniques of memory improvement. Their main ‘secret' seems to be to remember to remember, which begs the question. However the thought occurred that here is a spiritual lesson also. The principles of the natural world also often apply to the spiritual world, and why not, God is lord of both.
1. Listen to what you are being told. Do we hear without listening? "I will listen to what God the Lord will say." Psalm 85:8(NIV) The psalmist lament's his people's sin and calling for the mercy of the Lord promises to listen to Him. The Lord tried three times to speak to Samuel, and it was not until the youth, instructed by Eli, told God that he was listening that the Lord told him the message He wanted Samuel to hear. "Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth." When you read God's word, do you look for God to speak to you through it? God speaks in a still, small voice. If we are to hear Him we must take time and trouble to listen. If we do, we will remember.
2. Routines. Develop good habits. There are four steps to locking a door. i. Insert the key. ii. Turn the bolt fully home. iii. Return the key to its usual place. iv. Test the door to ensure that it really is locked. If you train yourself to always perform this routine, you will remember that you did lock the door and you will remember where to find the key. All things can have their routine. Do you have difficulty keeping your special time with God? David shares with us one of his secrets, "O God, thou my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee. . ." Psalm 63:1(AV) David's habit was so rewarding he became addicted to his time with God. What a wonderful addiction! Jesus had the same habit, "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." Mark 1:35(AV)
3. Participate. Act on what you hear. Getting involved brings in other senses, reinforces memory and helps to set patterns and routines. God through Moses taught His people how to live a godly life in an evil world, "Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do; you shall not add to nor take away from it." Deuteronomy 12:32 AV. That is; ‘follow this instruction exactly until you learn it'. Believe it or not we find remembering so difficult because we have trained ourselves to forget. Paul told his converts to ‘put off the old' evil way of life and ‘put on the new' way of life. Apply yourself to do the right things until your sub-conscious memory takes over (Ephesians 4). The old pattern must be erased by a new response being recorded in its place. We are not machines and God will by His Spirit give us the ability as we trust Him and persevere until the task is done. Be it big things or little things the strategy is the same; participate, get involved.
4. Set a marker. This can be the old maxim; ‘Tie a piece of string around your finger'. And the old joke; ‘I'm sitting here trying to remember what this string is there for!' Put something where you will see it to remind you. However the principle is good and God is aware of our difficulty. He told His ancient people to put a border of blue on their clothes, "And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them." Numbers 15:39a(AV). The communion is a marker "Do this in remembrance of me" said Jesus. Many things can be a marker. We remember by association. When we see the communion bread we remember the broken body of Jesus and give thanks. Do you not give thanks when you take a slice of bread from its plastic pack and gather the family around the table. It is as often as you do it.
5. Trust your memory. Having done your homework let your memory do what God made it to do. We are not computers we are people. It may take a moment for a word to come to mind. Jesus understood that. He told his disciples, "When they bring you unto the . . . magistrates, and powers, take ye no thought how or what thing ye shall answer, or what ye shall say." Luke 12:11. Also when you have opportunity to share your faith with another, let the Holy Spirit bring the thoughts He wants you to share. He knows their thoughts as well as yours. Afterwards you may think, ‘Oh! I should have said this or that' Don't reprove yourself, just ask the Lord to use the word you were able to give in a free, easy and happy manner, and leave the result to Him.
But beware. There is one thing we must NEVER allow ourselves to forget, as some do, and that one thing is the Lord Himself:
"If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."
Psalm 137:6
The Spiritual Value of a Good Memory
These Psalms are called a Maskil which means a ‘teaching song'. It was presented to the sons of Korah, who were singers in the tabernacle and temple. The author was possibly David, but we are not sure. The reference to Jordan (v6) could have been 2 Samuel 17:22 when he was pursued by his rebellious son Absalom who had usurped his throne and was seeking to kill him.
The five books of psalms correspond with the five books of the Pentateuch. These two Psalms are at the commencement of the Second Book (or collection) of psalms and corresponds to the book of Exodus. Exodus tells of the Hebrew people being under bondage to Pharaoh in Egypt, and their subsequent deliverance through the blood of the sacrificial lamb. This experience is significant.
The Psalms fall into three parts, each part having three sections, one telling of the problems that caused the psalmist so much distress, the next of the strategy he employed and the last a summary. Each part tells of increasing oppression. Each strategy builds on the last and raises the sufferer to a new level of relationship with God and a greater capacity to cope. They deserve our detailed study and application in our life.
We are not told what the problem was, but it was severe. David was in tears day and night. He could not eat. He had almost lost his sanity and longed for God to come to his rescue. Every prayer increased his thirst for God. His friends only added to his despair. 42:1-3. Any stressful thing can push us over the edge. What is it for you, loss of health, stress at work or home, impending financial disaster, broken relationships, rebellious children, overwork, excessive demands. We are pushed beyond the edge. We lose our ability to cope and anything is too much. What is your need.
David's first strategy is to remember what God has done in the past 42:4. When he was in trouble before, did not God see him through? See 2 Samuel 6:12-18. Our memory of God's faithfulness in the past gives us hope for the future. "Why are you in despair . . . Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him" 42:5.
But David is still in trouble "O my God, my soul is cast down within me" 42:6 His troubles like breakers wash over and over and over him. There seems to be no end. Where is answered prayer? Where is there deliverance?
His second strategy is to fill his heart and mind with the good word of God 42:8. Troubles are always worse at night. We cannot see answers when hemmed in with darkness, but we hear the taunt of the enemy, "Where is thy God? Where is he now?" Physical darkness holds no terror fo those who are children of light. Use the daylight hours to fortify your heart soul to meet the hour of need, for "ye are children of light, and children of the day; we are not of the night nor of darkness." Again the refrain, "Why are you in despair . . . Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him" 42:11. He is the healing of my countenance and my God.
If God is my strength, why am I still in mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? There is no answer! no relief! no release! 43:2. David is still being pursued, still living in caves in the hills. His problem is yet unresolved.
David's third strategy is to call for wisdom from above. "O send out Thy light and Thy truth, let them lead me . . ." 43:3 Truth is the datum of reality. It is knowing things as they are. We cannot deal with the unknown. Some things are beyond us; we need them to be clearly defined. Our part is to open our eyes to see what we are shown and apply it. Light is understanding. It adds meaning to truth. Light links data into relationship with its setting. Light is understanding the detail. It makes sense of the mystery. Light is stepping out of the fog. The rising sun dispels the doubt of dark.
Look at 43:5 "Why are you in despair . . . Hope in God for I shall yet praise Him". What had changed? David had changed, not his situation. He had progressed along the pathway, but although deliverance had not yet come, the streaks of first light have flushed gloom of night. The change that we fear may be God's pathway for us, but it is God's path, and we know it, and it is enough.
Faith Hope Love
If you were to look for a model church in the New Testament, you would need to look no further than Thessalonica. The great Apostle wrote to them in 1 Thessalonians 1:3:
"We are remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father." AV
Faith, hope and love he told the erring Corinthians, were the three graces of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which would remain. The others were transitory, but these three continue to build character in the experience of the believer and transform him into the image and likeness of Jesus. The greatest of these is love, said Paul. ‘Greatest' comes from a word indicating quantity, not importance. Love is a balm that heals painful wounds. It is a soothing oil that stills angry waters. It is a helper to encourage in the day of difficulty. We have love in greater abundance because there is so much need.
The Church at Thessalonica excelled in what their brethren at Corinth lacked. Their faith was evidenced by their work. Work here is translated from the word for busyness or activity. The work of faith is the doings of the believer or Church. It is the nuts and bolts of the Christian life, the actions that are the evidence that saving faith exists in the heart. What were the kinds of things that the Thessalonians were doing? It was shown in their zeal to reach others (1:8), their kindness toward each other (4:9-10) and their loyalty to Christ in the face of stiff opposition. (1:6). Paul had no need to preach in Macedonia, because this Church had taken care of their own responsibilities.
Their hope was seen in their endurance. Hope in this sense is not an iffy maybe. It is the confident expectation that God has all things in his care and under control, no matter what is going on around about us. One major cause of the social problems facing the Australian community today is hopelessness. So many young people have so little for which to live. They are taught that there is no God, that this is all there is and there is nothing for which to look forward. Life is so empty, meaningless and boring. They turn to drugs, speed machines, vandalism, crime, sex and suicide seeking to fill the void. They need to commit themselves to Jesus
for a life changing experience. The Christian knows sins forgiven, power to live over weaknesses and problems, a meaningful involvement and a fellowship with the Lord which begins now and endures past the grave. Our world as never before needs this hope.
Their love was experienced in their labours. The word translated labour is different from the word translated as the work of faith. Labour is the effort, the cost or even pain that is expended by someone. It derives originally from a word meaning to wound, cut or slash. It is the heart that bleeds for another. What pain will a mother endure for her child. What is it that sends our young people, often to another culture, at their own expense, often all that they have or are likely to have, to work in hospitals and slums and prisons to help people they do not know and of whom they have only heard? It is the love of God in their hearts. It is the same love that God had which sent Jesus into this world to die for helpless, godless, rebellious sinners.
Faith, hope and love give heart to Christian experience. At the end of the first century the Lord Jesus sent a message to the Church at Ephesus (Read about it in Revelation 2:1-7) There He told them ‘I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience'. You can see what is missing without the graces of faith hope and love Christian living is just hard work The Christian's in first century Thessalonica took Paul's word to heart. This changed their lives and the effect was a chain reaction as the blessing flowed into the hearts of others.
A church or a Christian who is strong in faith and hope and love is one who is living as God intended. Be the person, the people God intended you to be.
O God, Why...?
"O God, why hast thou cast us off for ever? why doth thine anger smoke against the sheep of thy pasture?"
Psalm 74:1
Who has not asked this question? Who has not lain awake in the small hours of the morning when all the house is quiet, nursing a heavy heart of pain and asked God, "Why?" He has allowed it to happen. Why? It is not as though this is the only hurt to come our way. God has the right, we do not dispute that. But there seems no reason. What possible benefit can come out of all this? How many other days and nights have we so suffered!
There is a parable which helps a little. A bar of steel from the foundry is worth $10. If it is stretched a little and made into nails it will bring $40. The same bar processed heated and processed then beaten into needles may fetch $400. If it is hardened further, sharpened and honed to make keen knife blades it could be worth $1000. With each punishing treatment its usefulness is enhanced and that enhancement increases its value immensely.
In one way or another God's own have suffered much. It has
always been. It always will. You can see the application. You
can make your own.
God's Twin Sisters
"Mercy and Truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other."
Psalm 85:10
This has been fitly called "the bridal of earth and sky." Mercy is the love that finds its reason in its self, its measure in helplessness and ill-desert. But in God it has always blended with truth. God must be faithful to his covenant relations, to His Son and to Himself, and to the law which He has instituted. Any display of mercy must be consistent with truth. These are heavenly twins. Where you meet one you will be sure of the other. Jesus was full of grace and truth. The love He brings is consistent with the highest considerations; and by His death it is so arranged that God acts consistently with His holy law in loving and saving the meanest and weakest believer.
Righteousness has for her twin sister peace. "The effect of righteousness shall be peace." The King of Righteousness is after the King of Peace. If you want peace you must be right with God; and if you would be right with God, you must come to Jesus and become united to Him, who is made unto us the righteousness of God. At the cross these two kissed. The righteousness of God was satisfied and the peace of man secured.
What a wondrous cross is that on which the Prince of Glory died! The question was - how could God be just, and yet justify the ungodly? How could He uphold the majesty of the moral law, and yet take sinners to His heart? But the answer came clear and satisfying, when the Maker of man took on Himself our sin and gave justice its due. Now see that perfect blending of the divine attributes, and that God is "just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus." Oh that truth might spring up and echo in our hearts.
Taken from Great Verses Through the Bible by F B Meyer.
Copyright © Marshall Morgan and Scott Limited 1966.
Used by Permission of Zondervan Publishing.
Peacemakers
"Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."
James 3:18
We live in a day of trouble; personally, nationally and internationally.
We also live in a day when most people want peace. To many, peace means the ability to do what we want to do without fear of being opposed by others. We do not mind what others do so long as they allow us to do what we want.
We also live in a day when there are men of good will in many places seeking to bring peace into the trouble spots of the world. There are blessings promised in the Bible for those who seek and long for peace.
James tells us that sowing peace raises a harvest of righteousness. We ought to stop and think about that. Righteousness is a right inner harmony that results among other things in right relationships with others.
The problem comes when our doing what we want to do interferes with others, either directly or their perception of their future welfare. It is in this way that discord increases and peace is lost. James comments further:
"What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don't they come from your desires that battle within you?"
James 4:1
When we see conflict, we ought to see a relationship fractured by real or perceived selfishness brought about by inordinate desire. ‘I want what they have.'
If we are a prime minister or an international celebrity we may be able to plant seeds of peace in the soil of national or international relations. However, most of us are not in that position but it does not mean that we cannot be a peace maker where we are, in our home, our marriage, our school, our work-place, our street or our church.
To plant seeds of peace we need to think about what James has to say, and then listen to what the others have to say, then look into our own heart and ask ourselves, ‘What am I doing that is causing this other person so much pain or fear, and what can I offer to answer that problem?' This will mean that I have to give something up, something that I possess, an ambition I have, an opportunity, or a value I hold dear. There is a cost to being a peace maker. These costs are the seeds of peace.
What a benefit there is in being a peacemaker. Not only do we enjoy the resulting peace and knowing that we helped bring it about, and knowing that the needs of others are better met, but there is the added blessing. Jesus said:
"Blessed are the peacemakers:
for they shall be called the children of God."
Matthew 5:9
The Grace of Giving
"One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty."
Pr 11:24NIV
This scattering is a conception borrowed from the husbandman. From out of his barns he takes the precious seed and scatters it broadcast. The child of the city might wonder at his prodigality, little weening that each of the scattered seeds may live in a hundred more, and perpetuate itself to successive autumns.
We are bidden to measure our life by its losses, rather than by its gains; by the blood poured out, rather than by its storage in the arteries of life; by its sacrifices, rather than by its self preservation; by its gifts, rather than its accumulations. He is the richest man in the esteem of the world who has gotten the most; he is the richest in the esteem of heaven who has given the most.
And it is so ordered that as we give we get. If we miserly hoard the grain, it is eaten by weevils; if we cast it away it returns to us multiplied. Stagnant water is covered by scum; flowing water is fresh and living. He who gives his five barley loaves and two fishes into the hands of Jesus sees the people fed and receives twelve baskets over.
Tell out all you know and you will have enough for another meal, and yet another. Set no limit on your gifts of money, time, energy; in the act of giving the whole that you have expended will return to you, and more also.
Freely ye have received, freely give; freely give and freely ye will receive. "He that soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully . . . And He that supplieth seed to the sower and bread for food, shall supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness, ye being enriched in everything unto all liberality.*
Assignment:
This verse is but part of a wisdom passage in the book of the Wisdom of Solomon. To see it in its setting is to appreciate it most fully. Go through Proverbs 10 & 11 and make a list of all the sayings which deal with giving and getting and note the principal lesson of each. Then, review your work, and build the precepts into your life. For example: 10:4 Laziness, 10:5 Timeliness, etc. You complete the exercise!
A Christmas Celebration
It is time to once again celebrate Christmas. It is a time to remember and rejoice, to remember that God did a wonderful thing when He sent His Son into our world. The miracle of the virgin birth is wonderful enough, but that, if we can put it reverently, is just the mechanics of the event. What is wonderful is what God actually did when He accomplished this miracle. Paul the apostle put it like this:
"For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit."
Romans 8:3&4
God accomplished two things: First, God sent His son to condemn sin in our nature. Second, God enabled the keeping of the spirit of a perfect law. He, Jesus, was given a body like ours, like but not the same. He was without sin and so was able to deal with our sin, the sin of humankind, once and for all. And then, having done that bring us up to scratch, dealing with man's inability to perform. That's what is so wonderful. That is why we celebrate Christmas.
The best way to celebrate Christmas is to take advantage of what God has done. It is all free to you and me. He paid the cost that we might go free. It is free but like anything on offer, it must be accepted.
How do we accept the gift. How do you accept any gift? We say thank-you and take what is on offer. Could we offend the giver by refusing! I know that I am sinful and my sin needs to be put away. I see that Jesus came to do that. Faith is the hand we put out to take. We take Him at his word and say thank-you, just say thank-you to God and really mean it.
With the package of forgiveness comes a new life-style. That is what Paul means by living in the Spirit. The moment we receive God's great gift in Christ, forgiveness is instantaneous, ongoing and complete. But the new life-style usually needs a little encouragement. So that we can answer any questions and give you any help you might need, please contact us at the email address below, or come and visit us on Sunday.
You are most welcome.
leader@glenparkgospel.org.au
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