-Removed-Back to sucking up to the atheists I see.
Keep one foot firmly planted in each camp so you can enjoy the approval of the world while you’re in the flesh and the approval of Jesus after you die.
But maybe don’t count too much on the latter.
“I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.”
(Revelation 3:15-16)
From godlife.com
How Does God Change My Life?
What does it mean to receive the Holy Spirit?
Written by Gary Fleetwood on 15/05/2018
Series: Weekly Devotional
Tags: Holy Spirit, Life Change, Conversion
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17
What does it mean to have a life-changing experience?
When I first became a Christian many years ago, my life was filled with many dirty things that I knew were displeasing to God. My problem was that I did not have the power to change – even when I wanted to change. I tried to change things in my life a lot of different times and a lot of different ways, but nothing ever lasted. I kept going back to living the way I had always lived.
However, the night that I was saved and Christ became real to me, my heart radically changed. I immediately learned that God was willing to give to me both the desire and the power to change my life. The things that I used to hate, I now loved, and the things that I used to love, I now hated. For instance, before I was saved, I never wanted to go to church and after I was saved, you couldn’t keep me away from church. Before I was saved, I thought the Bible was boring, but after I could not stop reading it. Just like God had promised, the old things passed away and everything became new. It was literally life changing!
What does someone need in order for his or her life to change?
In order to change, a person needs two things – the desire to change and the power to change. If a man deeply desires to walk, but he is paralyzed in both of his legs, he is still not able to walk. Having the desire to change but not having the actual power to do so is very, very frustrating and makes it impossible to change.
Applying this truth to the Christian life, the desire to change comes from within, but the power we need to change is only made available through the work of the Holy Spirit.
“… it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13)
That means we need to receive the Holy Spirit in order to make true, lasting changes in our lives. The moment someone becomes a Christian, God the Father gives the Holy Spirit to permanently live inside of them, which gives them everything they need in order to make any change in their life:
“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3)
The Holy Spirit not only gives us godly desires, but He also gives us the power we need to help those desires be fulfilled in our lives.
How does the Holy Spirit help me make these major changes in my life?
When we give our lives to the Lord, the Holy Spirit immediately begins to give us a hunger for the truth. With the Holy Spirit living inside of us, our desire to know Christ begins to dominate and control our life. It is important to appreciate that this is a supernatural work of God when the Holy Spirit helps us understand what the Bible is saying in a simple way.
As we read the Bible more, we learn about the things that please God and the things that do not please Him. As we read, the Holy Spirit gives us a new desire to do what pleases God and to get rid of all that do not please Him. This time can be extremely refreshing to the new believer because they have never experienced it before, but now the Holy Spirit has made it amazingly real to them.
If I yield my life to the Holy Spirit, can I trust Him to make the right changes in my life?
“What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11–13)
Early on in my Christian walk, I noticed a pattern of the Holy Spirit: 1) He convinced me that something in my life was wrong, 2) I allowed Him to help me remove it and 3) He put something much better in my life to replace what He had removed. God never takes anything out of our lives without replacing it with something much better. Put this life-changing truth into practice in your life, and you will see how God makes you become more and more like His amazing Son. How extremely exciting!
Pray this week:
Father, please help me allow your Holy Spirit to begin to show me all the ways He wants to enrich my life through His godly work in my life, and help me not be afraid to simply yield my life to Him so He can do exactly that – change my life.
Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good. His love endures forever.—Psalm 136:1
Someone in our Bible-study group suggested, “Let’s write our own psalms!” Initially, some protested that they didn’t have the flair for writing, but after some encouragement everyone wrote a moving poetic song narrating how God had been working in their lives. Out of trials, protection, provision, and even pain and tears came enduring messages that gave our psalms fascinating themes. Like Psalm 136, each psalm revealed the truth that God’s love endures forever.
We all have a story to tell about God’s love—whether we write or sing or tell it. For some, our experiences may be dramatic or intense—like the writer of Psalm 136 who recounted how God delivered His people from captivity and conquered His enemies (vv. 10-15). Others may simply describe God’s marvelous creation: “who by his understanding made the heavens . . . spread out the earth upon the waters . . . made the great lights— . . . the sun to govern the day . . . the moon and stars to govern the night” (vv. 5-9).
Remembering who God is and what He has done brings out praise and thanksgiving that glorifies Him. We can then “[speak] to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit” (Ephesians 5:19) about the goodness of the Lord whose love endures forever! Turn your experience of God’s love into a praise song of your own and enjoy an overflow of His never-ending goodness. —Lawrence Darmani
Lord, thank You for the world You made and for the blessings on my life. Fill my heart with gratitude and put words in my mouth to acknowledge and appreciate You.
For all eternity, God’s love endures forever.
INSIGHT: As with Psalm 136, many of the psalms encourage us to remember and praise God’s goodness. In Psalm 42, when the writer’s soul is “downcast” (v. 5), he remembers “by day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me” (v. 8). He puts his “hope in God,” and praises his Savior and God (v. 11). The psalmist David remembers God in the desert and is comforted: “On my bed I remember you; I think of you through the watches of the night. Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings” (63:6-7). And in his distress the psalmist Asaph “[seeks] the Lord” and is prompted to “remember the deeds of the Lord; . . . [His] miracles of long ago . . . and meditate on all [His] mighty deeds” (77:2, 10-12).
What would you include in your psalm of remembrance? Alyson Kieda
And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, returned, and with a loud voice glorified God,
Luke 17:15
- MAY 18 -
THANK YOUR WAY TO GREATER BLESSINGS
People who have a grateful heart are always praising God. You often hear them say, “God is good!” They know that God is the reason for every blessing they get.
But there are those who look to God for blessings and when they get blessed, they just go on their merry way. Their hearts are captivated by the blessings instead of the One who has blessed them.
Jesus had an encounter with both these types of people when He walked into a village one day. Ten lepers cried out to Him, “Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!” (Luke 17:13) Now, when you call out to Jesus for mercy, He always hears you. On another occasion, when two blind men cried out to Him, “Son of David, have mercy on us!” He took the time to give them their miracles. (Matthew 9:27–30)
So these 10 lepers cried out to Him for mercy. He stopped, looked at them and said, “Go, show yourselves to the priests.” And “as they went, they were cleansed”. (Luke 17:14) But only one came back and fell at Jesus’ feet, giving Him thanks. Notice the very sad words of Jesus that followed: “Were there not 10 cleansed? But where are the nine?” (Luke 17:17)
The other nine obviously knew that it was Jesus who had cleansed them. Yet, they did not bother to go back and thank Him. My friend, let it be said of you that when the blessings come, you remember to give God the praise, glory and honor, and acknowledge that He is the source of every blessing in your life.
Do you know that when the man came back to thank Jesus, he received the additional blessing of becoming whole? Jesus said to him, “Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.” (Luke 17:19, KJV) He was not just cleansed of leprosy, he got his missing fingers and toes back!
My friend, when your heart is thankful toward God, you position yourself for even greater blessings!
- Joined
- 01 Oct 04
- Moves
- 12095
-Removed-Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat,
What dread hand? & what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp,
Dare its deadly terrors clasp!
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?
-William Blake
Do not pass by my epitaph, traveler.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
No caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
Have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
Lest even while dead I seem talkative to you.
Ancient Roman tombstone
Originally posted by @ghost-of-a-dukeThere’s quite a bit of Biblical truth there. The first part is nowhere to be found in the Bible and one’s body (obviously) decomposes upon death and burial. While I believe a Christian’s soul/spirit immediately goes to God upon death, some Christians believe in what I think is termed “soul sleep” until Christ’s return - if they’re right, that Roman tombstone is totally accurate!
Do not pass by my epitaph, traveler.
But having stopped, listen and learn, then go your way.
There is no boat in Hades, no ferryman Charon,
No caretaker Aiakos, no dog Cerberus.
All we who are dead below
Have become bones and ashes, but nothing else.
I have spoken to you honestly, go on, traveler,
Lest even while dead I seem talkative to you.
Ancient Roman tombstone