kiwidenis

We have been adopted into God's family WOW !!!! accepted in Christ as son's and heirs - co-heirs with Christ. what blessings are ours. This is a legal transaction made for us by Christ through His sacrifice and resurrection. The Holy Spirit is God's stamp of ownership on us (Ephesians 1:12) He is our foretaste of the glory that is to come (1 Cor 6:19, 2 Cor1:21) We belong to Jesus Christ through the renewing of our spirits by God's Holy Spirit we have been born again into His family. Change? This depends on our willingness to trust and obey our Lord... if we do this HE will change us more and more through the power of His Spirit living within us. blessings - kiwidenis

The world's (Satan's) programs can seem so alluring. We need God's power to be an overcomer in life. The Holy Spirit is God in us - directing and guiding us into His ways of Holiness (IF we will listen!) He speaks into our mind telling us what is OK and not OK. God the Holy Spirit sets us apart for His purposes (Sanctifies) though His guidance and control over our lives as we yield to HIM... making us more and more like our Master. Blessings - kiwidenis

When Christ comes for us we shall 'see Him in His glory' falling at His feet we will be overcome by His love and holiness. Any unconfessed sin in our life will hand around our necks like a lead anchor causing us such shame! Whe He comes Jesus Christ will judge the saints as well as the ungodly. The saints will have to answer how we have used the talents and grace HE has given us (viz the parable of the Talents) We must work for His Kingdom while He gives us time... not motivated by fear - but by love for our Lord and Saviour. The more w know and receive God's grace the more we want to be live clean lives for His glory... putting away anything in our lives that is not pleasing to Him. blessings - kiwidenis

Our Lord Jesus commanded us to abide in Him (John 15:7) abiding is in the present continous tense = continually abiding in Him. If we want tHis blessings and His strength for the journey we must. If we do not we so easily go astray. Abiding means special time spent alone with our Lord every day if possible ... at the least it means living minute by minute knowing His presence with you - speaking and listening to Him ... conscious of His presence through the Holy Spirit living IN US. Hallelujah. Not abiding in Christ leads to a cold faith and even eventually a loss of faith - It has been said that a back slider is simply a 'slack abider!' blessings - Denis

Brother Ralph - you are so good at raising such important, pointed questions !! Paul said in Galatians 2:20 "It's no longer I who lives but Christ lives in me!" ... we know Jesus our Saviour is at the Fathers right hand in glory. The Holy Spirit is His emissary to us to live in us, empowering and guiding us to live for the glory of our Heavenly Father. The Holy Spirit is the life and breath of God living in us ... he speaks to our hearts (if we are listening) He corrects us through the 'voice of our conscience' as we surrender our lives to serve Jesus Christ. He also speaks through Godly people's advice (sometimes its my wife!!) The Holy Spirit always bears witness to Jesus Christ ... John 15:26. Anything that contradicts our Lord's teaching or does not honour Jesus cannot be from the Holy Spirit.

We are anointed by the HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD and therefore can discern truth from error. This anointing we have is due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our lives - praise HIS name. Everyone who loves and follows the Lord Jesus has this anointing (Paul to the Romans 8:9-10) blessings - Denis

In general John sees 'AntiChrists' coming - people who oppose or twist the true doctrines of the church. Probably the 'antichrists of our day are similar in many ways to those of John's day - people who oppose the gospel or want to use it fo their own gains - for power or control. Today we see people denying the gospel - denying the resurrection and the authenticity of the Bible.. just as some did in the early church. However there will be a major individual with sweeping powers given to him in the last days -- and I believe we are living in those days.

Three kinds of sins are: cravings for alcohol or other addictions .. **** of the eyes could be *********** or the adverts on TV for things we don't need!! .. boasting is the exact opporsite of what Christ tells us we should be like in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) We are so immersed in the world we cannot see things in ourselves - sometimes we need our husband or wife or a close friend to wake us up to these. blessings - Denis

I believe 'the world' here refers to area and sphere of the influence of Satan ... all the things that are 'ungodly' or sinful drive us from God and towards our enemy's influence. John speaks of 'the cravings of sinful man' - man without God lusts for the things that are not of God... and for us this is forbidden territory. He is talking about love for anything that will not help us to grow stronger in faith and service for our Saviour. In eternity all these things of the world will be so insignificant - but now they can seem so important. blessings - Kiwidenis

What JOY to know HIS PROMISE to hear and to forgive. Not on any merit of ours BUT on the basis of Christs' death on the cross to take the penalty on our behalf so we, the guilty, can now walk free. GLORY. We want to avoid bringing shame on our risen Lord Jesus or despising HIS great sacrifice on Calvary.

I believe this is one of the major problems with the church in the West. I have this deep conviction that we are not obeying the clear instructions of our Lord Jesus - EVEN THO' WE KNOW THEM. As a result of our disobedience we lose the power and enabling of His Holy Spirit and live a second-class Christian life. One example is our Lord commanded us to 'be His witnesses' (eg Matt. 28:18-20). Less than 5% of Christians in the West obey this command. Sure we still have the the indwelling of the Holy Spirit - but NOT in His fullness of power - and we wonder why we are not living a victorious life! Its a case of Romans 12:1-2 commitment. If we are 'living sacrifices' then we are not afraid of anything except disobeying our precious Savior. It seems (and me included) we are too often driven by our hunger to be liked! and of course the 'world' does not like the Gospel - the Good News of eternal salvation in Christ Jesus. We need to work past this - to remember life is a short visit - and eternity is coming. Remember WHO are we trying to please and work to obey our Lord at every turn. We are self deceived - thinking - everyone is the same so it must be OK. and our Savior must weep to see the pale lethargy of His Western church. One cure is to visit a mission field such as China, Africa or India and get involved with a church that is on fire for service to her Lord. I submit that living as a half-hearted Christian is also living a lie - we need to repent and get busy spending quality time with our Lord,listening to the promptings of His Holy Spirit minute by minute and obeying HIM. THEN the church in the West will come alive - as her people come alive and become obedient to their Lord. Other issues we could raise are that the rate of divorce and of abortion are about as high amongst the Lord's people as they are outside the church. When we sin our only recourse is instant confession and repentance asking the Lord for restoration for service. We live in a fallen world and cannot help but be affected by this in our daily living - for this reason I believe it is important to have a time of confession every morning for things done or not done and asking for a fresh filling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit for the new day. Blessings on you all - kiwidenis

Jesus Christ has paid the full debt owing for my salvation -- I belong to him -- all I have -- my longings and desires and my future belong to him. Perhaps this is best expressed through Romans 12 verse 1: "I urge you brothers in view of God's mercy to offer your whole lives as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you will be able to test and approved what God's will is - -his good, perfect and pleasing will." - Paul God is pleased with the offering of our lives for His service - it honours the tremendous sacrifice His son made on the cross and brings Him great joy. it is evidence of our love for him .. for Jesus said he who loves me would obey my commands. John 14. blessings - kiwidenis

"Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever." For the original readers this would have had two different responses: 1. Unbelievers this is heresy because only God can make this claim. 2. Followers of Jesus Christ - this is an amazing and encouraging, faith building promise from the Lord. the same Jesus they talked with and knew on earth so recently will remain unchangingly faithful to his promises and his mercy, as they knew him to be when he walked amongst them. For me today it is the same as number 2. Knowing that Jesus Christ is to he claims to be - and he is unchanging - I know I can trust when I don't always understand what's happening because he is always the same - because he is God. he is faithful, trustworthy and always with me and watching over me through the power of his Holy Spirit. therefore I do not fear whatever is happening now or in the future. I also know that my future after death is secure... my name is already in the 'Lambs book of life' and I look forward to (and some days I long for) the joys of heaven... blessings - Kiwidenis

Hello - I am Denis from New Zealand (South Pacific) spent 20 years in business (Pharmacy) - retrained and the last 18 years served as CEO of NZ branch OMS International missions organization... thrilling years - the best of my life and there is still much to come as I am now writing faith-based adventure books for children. Thanks Psr Ralph for your work and blessings on you all ... in the only cause that really matters - kiwidenis

The first covenant failed because its base was on flawed humanity who could never be perfect and 'please' God. The law could never take away sin only cover it for a time. There was always a need for a new covenant - but nobody on earth was able to do anything to bring it in... that's why Christ came - the perfect sacrifice for all time introducing the new covenant that worked!! Hallelujah. The primary promises are ALL THINGS NEW .. new covenant - new heart - new beginning - new hope. Blessings on you all -- Kiwidenis

Abraham was a man - just like us. He failed sometimes but yet he had a seed of faith and obeyed God with the faith he had. This is a great encouragement to us today. God revealed Himself in a limited way to different people in the Old Testament. We have fewer excuses for disobedience as we have the complete revelation of God from Genesis to Revelation and we also have God the Holy Spirit living and abiding with us to give us the strength and faith to obey. Abraham had none of these advantages ... As followers of Jesus Christ ... We are all on a journey to a city - to be in the presence of Jesus our Saviour will be incredibly rewarding. Heaven is real and it is waiting NOW ... but we don't get there until we leave this mortal life and enter eternity WOW !

Importantly we know that before we seek God - HE first sought out us! this is the amazing Good News of our Father's love. and NOW knowing that we are loved and that our Father seeks us out we obey HIS commandment to seek him. The word seek [Gk] is in the continuous present meaning We don't just look out for HIM one time. it is a continuous task we are urged to be continuously seeking and following our Abba Father... it makes sense - if someone as wonderful as our Heavenly Father has sought us out - its a no brainer that we should be attentive and respond to HIS love for us by giving HIM our full attention and devotion. As Jesus taught us in Matt 6:33 "Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all other (necessary) things will be yours as well." As someone said .. If we don't seek His Kingdom FIRST .. then we do not really seek it at all! I believe it may make no difference if we did not know God will reward seekers ... He commands us to seek - so we obey - knowing that our rewards are 'laid up in glory' Our task is to 'Trust and Obey' Him now. and there is no better option available. God bless you all and may HE continue to draw us closer to Himself through HIS mighty love for you and me : )

The thing that amazes me is that it is all about HIM and NOT about ME. OUR FAITH IS A GIFT to us from GOD ... it is not something we can work up it is a GIFT of the Holy Spirit. Do we need more Faith? We certainly do - Then at every opportunity we must ask God for it James Ch 1. Even our faith in God is a gift. Amazing. So - through the faith that God gives us - we are certain ... we are sure of what we hope for but do not see. We know it is certain because God has put it into our hearts through His Holy Spirit. Hallelujah. -- what a witness. God does it and then witnesses to our hearts that HE did it. Praise His name. This means we must come in complete humility and thank HIM for ALL he has done and is doing ..

we know that we are saved by Grace - not by any works that we can do. It is all God's work. Our response to his immeasurable love and grace is to obey and serve our heavenly Father. This temptation comes from our enemy who wants to ambush our faith and ultimately wants to destroy us. As soon as we take our eyes off our Saviour and think about ourselves and what we do - and what we 'deserve' Satan has got us. The answer is to stay strong in our faith in our walk with Jesus every day through daily meditation on God's Word and prayer. God bless you.