. .. and especially at this age for me as a born again believer I do ponder often what it's like growing old gracefully ~ ~ . .I think it's a learning day by day, year by year wisdom gained in knowing how Cherished and valued Christ is to our God . ~ ~ living and receiving Jesus and His Love His Way, in His Light, in His Spirit indwelling assures us true peace and gifted Grace . . , ~ ~ what better or higher place to be than living in the Heart of our Father, ever sheltered, kept, and held ONLY in Jesus Who never leaves us . . ~~ There are 2 kinds of beliefs out there … unfortunately many only have a head knowledge “faith” and do believe Jesus died on the Cross, was buried and rose again … BUT … they are trusting in their works or praying to Mary or some other saint or the pope or confessing their sins to a priest and haven’t prayed to Jesus directly for their salvation, that is not true salvation. Heck, even the devil and demons believe Jesus is Lord and Creator of everything and came to die for mankind and they tremble at the thought and yet they are not saved. Then we have real genuine “faith” in trusting fully in Jesus atonement and nothing else! Its His blood that washes away our sins … we can’t work for it. Then after we believe, we are saved and in the family of God and become new creatures and should have a conscious in not wanting to sin like we once did. We should have the zeal to want to please the Lord and follow His Word. That is the sanctification process of growing in the faith … totally separate from the salvation process … some people grow faster and mature and others stay as babies and struggle. Psalm 73:25 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you.” John 15:4-5 “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” Romans 8:11 “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” :prayer-hands: The defiled will not enter into God's Kingdom, so we must be diligent with our lives to be real servants of Jesus Christ. We must look to the power in Jesus' blood to set us free from anything that defiles us. Revelation 22 [10] And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand. [11] He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still. [12] And, behold, I [Jesus] come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be. [13] I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. [14] Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. [15] For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. 16I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. Revelation 21 [6] And he said unto me, It is done. I [Jesus] am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. [7] He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. [8] But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Mark 7 [14] And when he [Jesus] had called all the people unto him, he said unto them, Hearken unto me every one of you, and understand: [15] There is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him, those are they that defile the man. [16] If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. [20] And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. [21] For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, [22] Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: 23All these evil things come from within, and defile the man. I find it fascinating that the list in Rev 21:8, quoted above in Stephen's message, is topped by "the fearful". The devil wants us to be fearful, but we have not been given a spirit of fear by God. We have to resist fear with prayer and worship and submission to our Lord. James 4:7 says: "Submit yourself to God, resist the devil and he will flee". If you have a problem with fear and anxiety, run to the Lord! Just speak to Him and, if necessary, find a believer or believers you can trust, talk to them and let them help you to find peace. Jesus said: "Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give. Let not your heart be troubled. Neither let it be afraid". (John 14) I just sense that somebody needs to hear that. Whatever it is that you're fearful about, take it to God in prayer and cast your cares on Him. He really cares for you and He is waiting for you to call on Him. Don't be reluctant to ask for help. Men, especially, think they have to deal with everything themselves. You can't! It will just build up and build up until you break. The Lord will always make a way for you if you ask. Hi Stephen Any particular reason why all your posts seem to be threats about not making heaven and reminding us of our past sins? This is a pre-trib rapture forum board with born again brothers and sisters that fellowship here. You are pretty much preaching to the choir. Once we get saved our slate is wiped clean … God sees the blood of Jesus covering our sins … we are justified … “just as if we have never sinned” Praise the Lord 🙌. Please look carefully at verse 11 in this passage I Corinthians 6: 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. And its a given we are still going to sin in these mortal bodies until .. at the rapture event when we get our glorified bodies … so God’s promise to us is … I John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. 1 Jn 5 That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with your heart you believe and are justified, and with your mouth you confess and are saved. It is just as the Scripture says: Anyone who believes in Him will never be put to shame. Ro 10 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the un-circumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses. Col 2 We as Christians have been transferred from the kingdom of darkness in to the Kingdom of God's beloved Son Jesus. The Spirit of God dwells within us, from the moment we were saved. We don't live in the flesh but in the Spirit, because the Spirit of God dwells in us. Being born again and new creatures in Christ and His Spirit working within us, causes us to not choose or want to walk in the sins you mentioned Stephen. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin if we should fall, and if that happens, the Spirit if God is always wooing us back in to His loving arms of forgiveness and continued walk with Him in the Name of Jesus. We are saints, not sinners. We are secure in Him. We don't need to fear those sins mentioned because we know to Whom we belong! In that, we choose to walk in accordance to His will, but again, if we fall in any area, the Lord is there to pick us up as we are convicted by the Holy Spirit, and ask for forgiveness. We are redeemed, restored and blessed; one with the Lord our God and Savior. We do not fear separation because we are bought by the Blood of the Lamb, once, for all and forever. See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God. Our "old man" has been crucified in Christ. We are a new creation. We are spiritually rooted and centered in Christ with the ongoing desire to be more like Him every day that He gives us breath. Knowing this that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. Rom 6 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for (us) who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time...though you have not seen Him, you love Him. Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1 The defiled will not enter into God’s Kingdom, so we must be diligent with our lives to be real servants of Jesus Christ. We must look to the power in Jesus’ blood to set us free from anything that defiles us. The defiled are those who refuse to submit to Jesus as their Savior. Believes will still fall into sin. It is our very nature in the flesh. Jesus atoned for all of our sin but that does not mean we will be sinless in this earthly body. Lately I have read and heard a lot of people stating that if we still have a sin nature then we are not truly saved because those who are saved have been regenerated and their desire to sin has been removed. This is not true either. Regeneration is a life-long process that only ends once we have died. You're so right, Yohanan! Sin consciousness needs to be replaced by a Christ consciousness -- the Lord Jesus fully dealt with sin on the cross. It is finished! God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (1 Cor 5:21). When Father God looks at us, He sees Jesus -- because we are in Him. For those people who insist on being obsessive about sin, consider this: "...whatever is not of faith is sin" (Rom 14:23). Did you perform every single action out of faith today? Of course not! As Yohanan says, it's a gracious work in progress. In fact, grace teaches us by the Holy Spirit to deny sin (Titus 2:11-12). Again, it's a process! We have the glorious gift of no condemnation (Rom 8:1); we are the righteousness of God in Christ... so just chill out and rest in the knowledge of His finished work at the cross. It's done! It's over! Once you really believe/know this in your heart, you will steadily and progressively lose your desire to sin. It took me a while to get this head knowledge into my heart, but now nothing and no-one can take it away from me. It's real freedom... and it's all because of Him! Hello Geri9. The message is from the Word of God for all of us, including myself. We cannot knowingly walk in the works of the flesh and use Jesus as our defense. If we truly have Jesus, we no longer willfully walk in the works of the flesh that defile us. You are mistaken in your understanding of 1 Corinthians 6, as though one is justified in the name of the Lord Jesus even though he/she commits the same sins as those who God will judge. No, Jesus' blood does not cover willful acts of sin. That's why Jesus admonishes the Church to walk in holiness and righteousness in Revelation. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still."
