Building on the cornerstone/foundation. (Spiritual house and living stones)
Greeting to you, reader, young or not so young. It is an honor to have you visit the blog again. And to those reading for the first time, you are welcome! Before I get into the topic of this week’s post, I have a couple of announcements I’d like to share with you.
First, I have decided to commit to a weekly posting schedule. This is so I remember to honor this platform and all those God may be reaching through it. Even if that is one person. So if you plan on visiting the blog often, you can expect a brand new post on the Sunday of every week. If you’d like to be informed about new posts, be sure to subscribe to the blog at the end of this post.
Secondly, I was supposed to have posted a second part the the “Bible Reading” series. Unfortunately, I have not been as diligent in conducting the necessary research and investing the time into producing a clear body of work. I will continue working on this, and hope to be posting it soon.
Now to focus on the title of this post: Building on the cornerstone/foundation. This is a theme in the bible that I just find so fascinating and truly enlightening to the understanding of God. Let’s get into it!
There are a few scriptures I will work with to explain this theme but the main ones are; 1 Peter 2v4-12 and Ephesians 4v4-16. I encourage you to read them for yourself before hand, and also read the other scriptures in this post for a whole and clearer understanding.
I’m praying that the Holy Spirit will help me communicate this in a true and clear way. What fascinates me here is the duality of God’s working and building. By ‘duality of God’s working and building’ I mean how God is actively building a church as well as working on individual stones. The church being the global and eternal church, the body of Christ. The stones being you and me as individuals in respect to the body of Christ.
The cornerstone or the foundation?
Often times in the bible, Jesus is referred to as the cornerstone or the foundation(the living rock). At first glance there is no distiction between the two, but I have come to learn that there is such a cool difference!
The most clear distinction I’ve been able to understand is found in Ephesians 2v19-20. “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone,…”
In a physical first century building or house, cornerstone was the first stone lain. The foundation and is subsequently put together in response to the cornerstone. In essence, the cornerstone in the foundation of the foundation.
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone. Putting our faith in Christ as well as His finished work, surrendering our lives to Christ and conforming to His image, becoming His disciples who will follow Him everyday.
This is the cornerstone of the life of a Christian and the work of God in the world.
The apostles and prophets are the foundation: the words of Christ delivered to us through the apostles and prophets, the Holy Scriptures. The apostles and prophets are obviously not equal to Jesus in foundational importance, but the words of Jesus came by the Holy Spirit through them. Building on this foundation means living in agreement with the teachings of Jesus, living out the word of God and submitting to the scriptures which are the foundation. Jesus in Matthew 7v24-27 speaks of everyone who when hearing the words and does them, will be a wise man who builds on the rock(foundation or living rock).
Our lives as well as the life of the global and eternal church should build on the foundations of the scriptures.
We are living stones?
In 1 Peter 2v5 speaks about the members of a church being living stones and Ephesians 4v7 of how grace has been given to ‘each one of us by the measure of Christ’s gift’.
Each believer is a living stone that God is building/assembling into a bigger building. God is concerned with each stone and works within each of us through the Holy Spirit and each other. None of the stones are a perfect fit for this building which is why we constantly yield to the working of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Romans 12v1-2 says “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”
Meditating the love, grave and mercy of God in Christ Jesus will lead us to surrender and to pursue holiness. This is God’s will for each individual in the family of believers: sanctification.
And Ephesians 4v16 says that when each of these parts of the body are working properly it makes the whole body grow and build itself up in love. The functioning of the body of Christ as a whole, is affected by the work of God within each believer or living stone.
The spiritual house or a holy temple?
In 1 Peter 2:4-12 the Apostle explains that we are being ‘built up into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood’ and are ‘a chosen race,…, a holy nation, a people for His own possession.’ Ephesians 4v4-16 speaks of ‘one body’ and ‘unity’.
Here we see God’s hand at work in building a group of people who are His own people. Who will be set apart for Him. God is building a temple, using His people, that He can dwell in. He dwells in this temple by the Holy Spirit.
God desires that this people, this ‘holy nation’, be holy. Set apart. Different from the nations around it, living and operating to please God and to fulfill His purposes on earth. In fact, the Bible goes as far as to label the family of faith as foreigners and sojourners on this earth. Jesus commands us in John 15v12 to love one another as He has loved us. And with a deeper dive into the scriptures and teachings of Jesus, we realize that God has very clear expectations for the church. Whether it be in how we feel about one another, how we represent on another, how we treat one another or what we do when we are gathered together, God is concerned with the church.
I encourage us to read the Bible eager to see God’s purposes for the church, seeing how we can conform to His design, and not tweeking His design to fit our structures.
Conclusion
I’ve come to see that God is just so wise in everything He does.
I’ve fallen into a selfish way of living, even in Christ. Where I viewed my walk with God as something exclusively personal and as not involving anyone else apart from me. It is true that we all have to make a personal confession of faith and build a personal relationship with God as He works within us. However, it does not end there.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ says that God created a good and perfect creation, but sin entered and created a rift between man and God. Sin creates a chasm between man and the Creator of the universe. But God, being rich in love and mercy, sent Jesus Christ, His Son. Jesus being fully God and fully human, lived a blameless life and knew no sin, but died as a perfect sacrifice for our sins. He died a criminals death on the cross and rose again 3 days later, defeating death and sin. Jesus is now the mediator between man and God, buying redemption and forgiveness for all those who believe in Him and turn to the Father in repentance. An undeserved gift of grace.
If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. From that point on God is at work within the believer, transformation into the new creation they are meant to be in Christ. This is where we build a personal relationship with God by walking with God. Getting to know God, and daily submitting ourselves to Him.
God is also continuously building His holy temple out of His people. So we shouldn’t turn a blind eye to God’s desire to create oneness within the the believers, just as the Father and the Son have oneness(John 17v20-21).
Matthew 22v34-40: And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Let us be obedient children of God yielding to God’s transformative work within us, and move away from individualism by conforming to God’s expectations of us within the global and eternal church.
Until next time, dear reader, continue to live a life conscious of the King of kings and what it means to be a part His kingdom. The old has passed, the new has come. This is your reality. May the love and peace of Christ be with you!
Reading the Bible as a christian (all ages)
Reading the Bible as a christian (ALL AGES)
The Bible is the holy book of the Christian faith, this makes it clear that it is very important. There is a difference between reading the Bible and studying it. I will explain what it means and how to study the scriptures in the steps I follow when reading the Bible later. So please note, ‘reading’ and ‘studying’ will be used interchangeably in this post.
I will make this post the first post of a two to three part series. There is just so much that I know is so important with regards to the Bible. So I hope you will be back to read more once I have gathered as much information as possible.
For this post I will focus on the importance of the scriptures in our lives and how we can effectively read the Bible. Let’s jump into it!
Why should I read the Bible as a christian?
I’ve heard a few of my peers say things like “I’m christian but I don’t read the Bible.” And I think it’s so detrimental to make this a normal way of thinking within the christian community. This is in no way to judge those who believe this, but to correct the indifference to the Word of God. The Bible also isn’t just a book recollecting many stories and historical events. 2 Timothy 3v16-17 says “All scripture is breathed out by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
To see the Word of God as a necessary tool for the Christian, I believe, begins with the understanding that the human being is limited and is not equipped to walk in holiness. And this is because of the sinful nature. Because of the fall in the garden of Eden, we all have an inherited brokenness and a sinful nature that is instinctive to follow. God designed a perfect creation but because of sin we are wired to do all that is bad in God’s sight, heading straight for destruction.
John 3v16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have eternal life.” When we believe and thus proclaim Jesus as our Lord and Savior, we are also saying we will follow Him. God also gives us the Holy Spirit, who lives within us and helps us.
Jesus lived a perfect and holy life while He was on the earth, He modeled perfect righteousness. It’s very clear that not one of us can live the way Jesus did (follow Him) with our own understanding, wisdom, strength or capacity. So when the Apostle Paul writes that the Word of God is breathed out by God and ultimately makes us complete for every good work that means a great deal to us!
Ephesians 2:10 says: “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” God wants us to walk in ways of holiness and righteousness and goodness and he gives us all we need to do so. To be a Christian is to believe in Jesus, His death and resurrection and to walk by faith and follow Him. It’s not enough just to say it. We must live it.
We are living for a God who saves us, gives us Himself in the person of the Holy Spirit who helps us AND gives us the scriptures He breathed out to live according to. All so we can live in the ways He has called us to…it’s too good not believe.
“The Bible contains the mind of God, the state on man, the way of salvation, the doom of sinners and [joy] of believers… Read it to be wise, believe it to be safe, and practice it to be holy. It contains light to direct you, food to support you, and comfort to cheer you… It’s the traveler’s map, soldiers sword…”
-The Gideons
In Romans 12v2 instructs: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” And before this we are told to present ourselves as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. We make ourselves living sacrifices when we offer every single part of ourselves to God. And our minds are a crucial part of that. This is where the scriptures come in.
The Word of God renews our minds.
When we read the Word of God we are filling our minds with the scriptures, which the Holy Spirit uses to convict and direct us by way of rememberance. John 14v26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
Okay but should I read the Bible everyday?
There is a passage of scripture that so beautifully answered this question. Matthew 4v4: But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” This is when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting.
It is so significant that Jesus uses bread in comparison to every word that comes from the mouth of God. We should be eating everyday, so the body can function normally. The Word of God is, in the same way, sustenance for our spiritual and eternal bodies. We live by it.
Jesus also says this while the devil is tempting Him in the wilderness, demontrating one of the ways scripture should be used. In spiritual warfare, Jesus quotes scripture. There’s no coincidence in that. If Jesus read and ingested the scriptures so much that He could use them to push back the enemy’s schemes (despite physically weakness), we are to do the same. We are followers of Jesus.
So now, to the dear young christian. Yes, you. The Bible isn’t ony read by old people who need hope or have nothing better to do. The physical book can’t fend off scary dreams from underneath your pillow at night. It’s the scriptures inside that have been breathed out by God. The Bible is relatable and true. Daily bread (Mathew 6v11).
I hope that has been enlightening. However, now that we know that reading the word of God is imperative, it surely matters that we do it right. Right?
How do I read the Bible?
The first step is to set a time everyday to spend time in the Word. Speaking from experience, it’s hard to stick to a specific time, daily, to spend in quiet with the Lord. School, extracurricular activities, work, friends, family and the list could go on and on. The secondary priorities and distractions are ALWAYS going to be there. Yours, however, is to make the choice to place God as the biggest priority in you life, in your day.
It’s best to stick to the same time daily, if your schedule is consistent enough. And if you can, stick to that time. Commit to spending time with God in the Word everyday at that time. It is also advised that you select a general area that is free from distractions to spend time with the Lord. We’ll call this time and place the secret place.
Additionally, a shift that can really change our perspectives toward this discipline is a simple change in thinking. Think of it less as reading the Bible, but rather studying the scriptures.
I have found that having more than one translation of the Bible has helped broadened my understanding and insight into the scriptures. Whether you’re starting out or are more advanced, a selection of 3 translations that vary in difficulty is great. I ,for example, have and English Standard Version bible as my primary translation, and complement it with the Contemporary English Version and the New Living Translation bibles. I occasionally go online to find more translations or read in my home language (siSwati). You are not limited!
Confession: when I started reading the Bible I went straight for it. Arrogantly. One of the first books I read was the book of James. I read it like I already knew all there was about Christianity and was only reading to make sure I was right. This is WRONG. Don’t do what I did, no matter how long you’ve been at it. We have to acknowledge that God’s ways are not our ways and that His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isiah 55v8). We have to be eager to seek God’s face, His character and heart, and His will in the scriptures and to lean on Him.
Working off of the S.O.A.P study method (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) I discovered a method that worked for me.
Steps I follow when reading the Bible:
- Get into right posture by praying. God has given us the Holy Spirit and He helps us. Pray that He will help you to understand the scriptures by His wisdom and ask Him to transform you as you read the word. Ask for the Holy Spirit to open your mind and heart up to the word of God. (Your mind to the right thinking and understanding of God and your heart to the right valuing of God.) Pray that God, by His Spirit, may help you to stay focused and attentive during the time of studying the word. Assuming you have selected the scripture, gather all your study material; Bibles, notebook, pens, highlighters etc.
- Read the passage of scripture/book you’re reading, and try to understand by conducting research. I suggest getting an easy to use commentary on the bible to help you in this(optional). A very necessary disclaimer is to take heed not to value commentary above the scriptures. Commentaries are useful, helpful and good ones lead us back to the word of God and don’t disagree with it. We need not depend on them above the scriptures themselves. Read the scripture and study the face of God in it, then read the commentary. Since all scripture is God breathed, all scripture reveals Him in some way or another. Ours is to observe and try to understand, through the Holy Spirit.
- Meditate on the passage you have read. In the S.O.A.P method this is titled application. This is where you sit with the scripture and apply it to your own life. A video on Godly meditation I find very clear is this one by the late Dr. Charles Stanley. Ask questions such as: What is God saying? What do I need to change? What does this scripture reveal about God, what He likes/loves, what He doesn’t like/hates, His character and His heart? How can I apply this to my life? What verse can I memorize today? Essentially, this is the time of this whole activity where you should be the most still and patient. This is the time to shut everything out, and focus on God, believe what He says and absorb it.
- Close this time off with prayer. After that time of quietness from the previous step, you will now speak what you have learnt back to God. And what I mean is to agree with God with whatever He has said in Him word. Confess sins that you have realized and ask for forgiveness, thank Him for blessing and promises He provided or ask Him for strength to fully believe, obey, and apply what you have read. The word of God is profitable for reproof and correction, so there are going to be some difficult feelings to work through. So be honest and earnest in your prayers to God. He cares about you.
I pray this post has been helpful to you for your journey in reading the Bible. I will be back again shortly to upload a post defending the holy manuscripts, their relevance and significance.
Untill then, live conscious of the kingdom of God and it’s King, which is not on earth but in heaven. Child of God, this is your reality.
The testimony of God’s goodness and mercy in my life
“Go home to your friends, and tell them what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He has had compassion on you.”
This post is a retelling of the events in my life before Christ(BC), when Christ became known to me and my life now with Christ. Basically, the story of God in my life. I pray that you will be encouraged, seeing the How God has been so merciful and gracious to me.
I just want to start by saying that my walk with God did not begin on the day of my repentance. God has been in my life since I was a thought in my heavenly Father’s mind, and I believe that to be true about you as well
Before Christ:
I won’t spend too much time explaining my early childhood memories. This is not because they’re not important, but because there is just so much that is worth dissecting that it makes my brain itch.
My childhood seemingly had nothing wrong with it. I was born and bred in Soweto and lived there untill I was 9, with my grandmother and my mother in a single room house. I always had food to eat, clothes on my back and a place to lay my head. My physical needs were always taken care of. During those years I was primarily closer to my grandmother as she was home more often, while my mother was working to support us. It’s worth mentioning that my grandmother connected me to a church from very young. I remember attending the children’s ministry group while the adults stayed in the main hall, but I don’t remember grasping very much about the gospel.
In that environment I was in, I was exposed to many things and realities that children typically can’t handle nor understand. Fun fact is that I am Swati-South African, which for me meant having more than a few differences from the other children. I didn’t really fit in, and as “pick me” as that sounds, it’s the truth. On the natural scale my childhood was a happy one, but unfortunately, because of a lack of emotional support, I developed a pseudo emotional intelligence.
By the grace of God, my mother moved her and I from the township to a quaint little suburb. This move was a difficult one. Enrolling in a [great] new school at the begining of grade 4, in a new environment, with new people around, a new home and nothing familiar at all. Loneliness and rejection crept into the cracks and slowly began perverting my view of the world around me. Bullying is the unfortunate tale of many children and it is a part of mine. It didn’t look like being slammed into a wall or having my books thrown on the floor. No, no. It was the subtle joking about appearance or a blunt segregation during lunch times. And because of the way humans are wired, I wanted revenge for everything. I wanted a big comeback so I could show the world, my small world, that I didn’t deserve to be rejected so harshly.
With my primary school years taking place in the midst of an uneasy living situation, I turned to school for comfort and a sense of identity. I became very manipulative and calculating (some would say observant). I had become so good at appearing to be someone I wasn’t, so I could fit in with almost any group of kids. This got me into many sticky situations with the girls around me. By grade 6 I was willing to do about anything to get a little bit of attention and traction, and this willingness was most available to boys. I began experiencing attention from boys that fit into the gap of a fatherless upbringing so well. It was all just so confusing and my behavior expressed it.
Around this time I started attending a small Christian youth group on Friday nights. All for the wrong reasons might I add. To hang out with and make more relevant friends, to get a boy’s attention and build my epic comeback story. My time and experience at this small church was just so distracted that whatever I did learn about God I also managed to stifle with my thirst for what was pulling me away from God. This is how I know for certain that sin doesn’t discriminate. Young or old, it is always eager to devour and rule over us (Genesis 4v7). I had experienced things no child is meant to experience, and become rebellious in my heart. Blatantly rejecting my mother’s and my grandmother’s guidance.
I started highschool still strongly determined to pave my own way. My secondary schooling began at an All-Girls school then transferred to a Co-Ed school half way through my first year. I had lost all sense of the word ‘identity’, all types of perversion and rebellion were justified in my pursuit of ‘happiness’ in my life. Even after moving high schools, I was still making the same mistakes. My 9th grade year collided with the global shutdown due to Covid-19.
When I met Christ:
I had not directly heard anyone preach the gospel to me. Apart from hearing about the character of Jesus back in children’s ministry (which I stopped attending in grade 3) and the youth group I attended briefly, I was clueless. But there came a point when I just knew that the things I was doing and the way I was living was not good. I knew there was a God and I was certain that the way I was doing things was not pleasing to Him. The weight of the emotional burden that I kept on carrying to all these sins was also not getting lighter. After spending the whole quarantine period in a miserable cycle of sin, loneliness and what I know now to be depression, I came to the end of 2020 just so hopeless.
There came one night in the December of 2020, and I found myself crying my eyes out and pleading with the pain in me to stop. I had an old, hard-cover bible my grandmother had given that sat in a desolate corner of my room. I tried opening it and reading from Genesis to Revelation a few times in the past (unsuccessfully). Some nights I slept with it under my pillow when I was a little scared of the dark. But that night I took it in my arms and just hugged it and prayed through the tears: “God, please help me! I can’t do this alone, please help me!”
I remember I sleeping really well that night.
Looking back now, I see how serious the Lord is about bringing us to Himself. When I went back to school the next year I slipped back into my old ways, even though it was [surprisingly] harder. There was a small disagreement I had with my friends. That small disagreement was a way God had created for me to get out of my old ways by choosing to be honest and removing myself. But my old ways were just so natural to me, that I didn’t think I needed a way out. I missed the opportunity.
In my grade 10 year I was actively trying to change my ways. Reading the Bible, telling girls I didn’t wanna gossip anymore, trying to lie less to my mom, trying to work harder in school etc. I just had a desire to be less like the girl I was before. But like the Lord said, “the spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26v41). I was still stuck seeking validation from popularity, friends and boys.
Untill finally…God shook the ground of my old foundations and my house came CRUMBLING!
I had been in girl drama before, I was no stranger to it. But what happened in my grade 10 year is so significant because it felt like a personal ‘attack’ on everything I had built my life on, I lost all security and identity I had forged. I sincerely thank God for that experience. He, so lovingly, yanked me out of that situation because I now belonged to Him and He had different plans.
A little bit before the time of this epic turning point I began attending a small youth group in the area I lived (different to the one of my primary years). And I was able to see God for the first time, even though my understanding of Him was so limited. I often say that at the time, I had an “I have to have it” mentality, like a collector at an antique furniture store. I had to have this Christianity, it was just so beautiful. The people were kind, accepting, joyful and so loving. I wanted to be like them. I know now that Christ is not an accessory that we get to put on, but that we follow Him and we must deny ourselves (Luke 9v23). And how faithful God is to correct us.
My life with Christ:
From mid-2021 God started doing incredible things in my life and in my heart. From the time of that big falling out with my friend group, I wanted to isolate myself. I truly didn’t want to let myself recieve good things. I wanted to be punished for what I had been in the past. God spoke to me in that space through the most unlikely character, the friend I had wronged the most. She said: “God said it’s not good to be alone. Look what He did in the garden with Adam and Eve.” That could’ve been nothing else but the goodness of God reaching out to me!
I found a community of people who loved Jesus and who were willing to love me. I had never had that. People who I didn’t have to feel guarded around. God blessed me with 2 ladies who are still my closest friends today. We would leave school in the afternoon and go sit on some person’s lawn and have Bible studies once or twice a week. We would pray, read the Word and even dance before the Lord on the street, making ourselves jokes in eyes of many.
At the youth group I was attending on Friday nights and Sunday mornings, I began forming really loving friendships and relationships. A true blessing. I was recieving discipleship in the cell groups we were divided into. I had a space to laugh, to confess my sins, to recieve prayer, to be loved and to love. It was so wonderful for me to see the hand of God in the social sphere of my life because that’s the place where I trusted myself the least because hurt so many people. I was afraid to get close to people. I remember actually referring to myself as somewhat of a social hazard. And I know now that that was a lie from the enemy, planted to keep me in isolation.
In my school life I also had a miraculous break through. I excelled academically, culturally and as well as in the various student leadership roles I volunteered for. I was never great at sport but I also did well in that area. I’m convinced it was miraculous because I wasn’t doing anything different in those spaces, my mind was just constantly going back to God. I don’t know how else to explain it. God made the difference. In October of 2021, I was invited to step into youth ministry leadership, where I still currently serve the Lord and His people.
On the 5th of November 2021, I got baptized and proclaimed the faith.
Fast forward to 2022 and I’m still just falling in love with this new way of living. It was an academically intense year. I still struggled with many of the sins of my past and the guilt of sin. Because the human nature is so weak, it became very easy for me to remove my eyes from God, His holiness and His love and to rather fix my gaze on all the gifts He had blessed me with. The friends, the freedom(my mother trusted me more, so she loosened her grip), the achievement and the spiritual gifts. These things all become idols in my life, and I was just so ignorant to it.
I was still writing a comeback story, forgetting that I had already come home.
Convictions about the posture of my heart were being set before me by the Holy Spirit and it felt like torture because I didn’t know what conviction was at that point. I once wrote a poem about how even though my life was now Jesus’, my mind and heart were still so filthy and it ate me up. I wanted to be pure but it felt impossible. This is mainly because I was neglecting reading and meditating on God’s Word. I wish I had prioritized getting to know God more!
But God is faithful. (1 Thessalonians 5v23-24)
I had allowed all the things God had done for me and all the rejection I experienced to shape the way I knew God instead of allowing Him to be God. To teach me who He was. 2022 was a fight to do as much as I could so I would be who God wanted me to be. I had strayed from the truths in Ephesians 2v8-10, spending so much time outside of the house. Filling my time with so many things that weren’t necessarily bad. I was just putting them before God in my heart.
2023 on the other hand was my final year in high school. I don’t know how it works in other places but here in South Africa, the Matric year is notorious for leaving many beaten up and wounded. Surprisingly, however, it was a much simpler year for me. I was now seeking to make my heart pleasing to God. I was so ready to be wholly devoted to God and seeking Him FIRST by the end of that year. It was difficult seeing how selfish I could be even with God Himself and I was discouraged. But then I was encouraged, knowing that God would help me. Being convinced that He was [and still is] sanctifying me.
My prayer was [and is]: “Let it be real, God I’m ready.”
Jump to right now. 2024. I’m relearning the Lord, so to say. On an adventure of time with God. Knowing that God, who began the good work within [me], will continue His work untill it is finally finished on the day when Christ return(Phillipians1v6).
The gospel of Jesus Christ:
God created a perfect creation, He created man so He could dwell with them. When sin entered the world, we were separated from God’s good and perfect design, and from His presence. But God, in His grace and mercy, sent His only Son Jesus Christ to redeem humanity. Jesus, who is equal with the Father and is God, lived a perfect and sinless life while walking in the very bodies you and I have. He gave His life away as a holy and living sacrifice for our sin. Three days later, the Father raised Him from the grave and He defeated sin’s power, thus creating a new covenant. A covenant of grace, that allows for those who believe in the Son of God and His sacrifice to be made right with God! Hallelujah! Romans 10v9-10 NLT
[9] If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. [10] For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.10.9-10.NLT
This is the Good News of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has not lost its power because Jesus is alive!
Untill next time, beloved reader, may God be with you.
Here’s a quick poll I’d really appreciate you answer.