SUMMARY
Linda Gates
Spiritual Nourishment
30 daily messages based on the ones I have written for my Facebook Page “Spiritual Nourishment”. I hope to bless readers with these messages during the difficult times in which we are living.
ABC OF SALVATION
Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”
A - ACKNOWLEDGE YOUR SIN – Admit that you are a sinner and come to God without any claim of righteousness or merit of your own, without any dependence upon your own works, goodness, religion or morality. Acknowledge that, without the blood of Christ, you are completely and eternally lost.
John 1:7-10 “This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him.”
B - BELIEVE AND RECEIVE the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour and you will be saved – it is faith alone in His atoning work at Calvary that saves because God does not recognize the merits of any man’s work for salvation.
John 1:12 “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.”
C - CONFESS THE LORD JESUS CHRIST as your Saviour
John 1:13 “who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Romans 10:8-11 “But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
If you have not done so before, please take a moment to say this simple prayer – which will bring you in right standing with Jesus Christ our Lord:
Father God
I come to you in the Name of Your Son Jesus Christ
I confess that I am a sinner in need of forgiveness, and I now repent of all my sins
I believe that Jesus is Your Son, Who died for the forgiveness of all my sin
I invite Jesus into my heart right now
And thank You Father for having forgiven all my sins and for Your saving grace
In Jesus' precious Name
Amen
ABIDE IN CHRIST
John 15:4 "Abide in Me, and I in you.”
Unless we abide in Christ, He cannot abide in us. We are called to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour, to receive Him into our hearts, to take this a step further and commence a love-relationship with our Saviour.
1 John 4:7-8 “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.”
In a love-relationship, you take time to get to know someone, you talk to them, you listen to them, you go out of your way to really get to know their personality, their likes and dislikes, what makes them laugh and what makes them sad. As you spend more time together, you may decide to get married and spend a lifetime together. If you do, then you commit to this person and they commit to you. As the years go by, you get to know each other so well that you finish each other's sentences, you become alike.
1 John 4:10-12 “Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and His love is perfected in us.”
Jesus, when He tells us to abide in Him and He in you, is asking for that same commitment – that same union between Him and you. He wants you to get to know all about Him, He wants to be involved in every aspect of your life, He wants you to greet Him upon awakening, to spend time talking to Him and listening to the Holy Spirit which brings life to His Word. He wants you to build upon the relationship in union with Him until you become like Him, in deed, in word, in action. Until you know how He feels about things, what He would do in any given circumstances, how He views that which is going on in this world today. He wants you to understand Him, through the Holy Spirit which is given to each one of us who asks.
Abiding in Christ and He in you is not a temporary fling, a once-a-week hour spent at Church. It is a full time 24/7 relationship where everything you do, everything you say, everything you WANT is based on ‘WHAT WOULD JESUS DO’.
Even in a marriage-relationship, you are not likely to do anything without first consulting with your spouse – what would they do? What is their view on something? What would their reaction be to you doing something? Only then, together, you make the decision. You cannot take time off to be like the world and of the world just as you won't take time off from your marriage-union.
Jesus said we are in the world, but not of the world. How is your relationship with Jesus today? Do you still have one foot in the world and a toe dipped in the Word once a week? Or are you abiding in Christ, and He in you?
1 John 2:15 “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
John 17:14 “I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."
AMAZING GRACE
John 8:32 "And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Are you still walking with your eyes closed, or have you seen the truth? Are you ready to receive God's free gift of amazing grace?
Due to the fall of man, through Adam, all of humankind were placed in a lost condition.
Romans 5:12 “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.”
Romans 5:19a “For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners”
There was only one way in which man could be reconciled to God – it was exclusively through the pure, holy, unblemished blood of His Son, Jesus Christ. And so, God sacrificed His only begotten Son for your sin and for mine.
John 3:16-17 “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. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved."
1 Peter 1:19 “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Hebrews 9:22 “So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”
1 John 2:2 “And He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.”
1 John 4:9-10 “ In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.”
Those who are lost in the world, are found again by the Father, in the Lord Jesus Christ. In the case of the prodigal son, we see the father's joy when his son returned home. Just so there is joy in heaven over each person who returns to God:
Luke 15:24 "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.”
Luke 15:10 "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."
In the miracle of the blind man, we see that, when Jesus came upon him, he was no longer blind, but his eyes were opened and he could see, he received both healing and salvation when he believed and received Jesus:
John 9:25 “one thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see.”
John 9:35-39 “Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, "Thou hast both seen Him, and it is He that talketh with thee." And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him. And Jesus said, "For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind."
The moment we believe and receive Christ as our Lord and Saviour, the grace of God is apportioned to us:
Romans 5:8 “But God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
Every human being became a sinner through Adam, having received the adamic nature of a sinner. Every human being falls short of the glory of God. There is only one way in which our adamic nature can be changed and that is through our first accepting the sacrifice God made in Christ, and through the transformation process undertaken in us by the Holy Spirit of God. We can only be made righteous before God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Without Christ, we remain lost, eternally.
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 3:24-25 “Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God.”
1 Peter 1:19 “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.”
Through Christ, we are made righteous, justified by His blood, and receive eternal life in Christ. Made to be disobedient by Adam, we are made righteous by the Lord Jesus Christ. Made to lose our eternal hope by Adam, we receive eternal hope and life in the Lord Jesus Christ. Made to live a hopeless, discouraged, depressed, fearful, burdened life, bound by the chains of Satan through Adam, we have freedom, peace, newfound joy and hope and are able to overcome all things in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:22 “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.”
Romans 5:19b “so by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.”
Romans 5:9 “Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.”
Romans 5:21 “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.”
2 Peter 1:2 “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord.”
Revelation 1:5-7 “And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to Him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen. Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him. Even so, Amen.”
It is up to each individual to accept or reject God's grace in Christ Jesus.
ANSWERED PRAYER
Jeremiah 29:12-13 “Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart.”
Prayer is the means of communication between God and His children. It is a means of fellowship with our Heavenly Father.
God tells us that when we call upon His Name (those who are born again) He will hear us. When we seek our Father with all of our hearts, we will find Him.
Because prayer is a two-way communication between God and His children, we pray to God, the Father – not to angels, not to saints, not to Mary – it is a two-way conversation between God and His children.
Impressum
Verlag: BookRix GmbH & Co. KG
Texte: Linda Gates
Cover: Freely.Photos.com
Lektorat: Linda Gates
Tag der Veröffentlichung: 08.11.2017
ISBN: 978-3-7438-4043-0
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