Born in original sin we are flawed, unredeemed and without a true understanding of God. As offspring of our original parents who sinned in the Garden of Eden we are born sinners at war with a holy and just God. Ecclesiastes 7:20 For there is not a just man on earth who does good and does not sin.
In our natural condition of darkness in sin’s power, presence and effect we are ignorant of God’s truth and live as an offense to God. Corrupted in our spiritual deadness all humans are destined for hell. Without God’s supernatural intervention our perpetual life of sin deceives and misleads our hearts, minds and emotions in thinking about life as if it were outside of God’s control. Sins play out there desires in the manifestations of our words, thoughts and deeds.
In our Creators plans by the grace of God, His gift of redemption is received in obedience. A true Christian’s soul is saved from going to hell and we are born again. For the first time we become spiritually alive.
Through His Son Christ Jesus our Lord, we are made righteous in the eyes of God and become children of God. In the family of God we are privileged to receive the loving guidance of His Holy Spirit. We are given the ability to discern the things of God, His divine truth given to us His Holy Scriptures. Psalm 32:11 Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous; And shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Each saved soul made alive by the will of God will remain alive in heaven forever. Until the glory of heaven is fully ours we must strive to imitate our Lord in Luke 2:49. And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?” Our Lord was on a mission as the only Savior from the punishment of sin which is hell and torment. As followers of Christ our mission is to point to Jesus, the only source of salvation from eternal suffering. By telling others of how God’s Son changed us, we are active instruments, vessels and messengers of God.
What we do with the truth of God should help us develop, maintain and grow in the right attitude toward God’s ever increasing Sovereign control of our lives. With this right attitude in our position as called creatures of the Creator we need to mature healthy doses of both joy and fear should be ours. Proverbs 1:7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, But fools despise wisdom and instruction.
The sincerity of the product of our thoughts is heard in our words and made manifest in the frequency of our godly actions. There is always exhortation in scripture to make more room in our life for the quality of God’s union with us. James 4:8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. The exchange of our natural sin condition for God’s supernatural began with the miracle of salvation and is a great ongoing privilege. Our divine mission to live lives in Christ bringing glory to God is a great calling worth fighting for, in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Our Lord crushed the power of sin by conquering death which was once over us. We must not forget or treat lightly the truth of spiritual darkness that still lingers in our fallen natures. The workings of Satan and an evil world system promoting sin can still influence sin’s presence and effect on us.
Therefore we are not to grow cold toward our first love when God first richly blessed us and we received spiritual sight to love the Holy Scriptures. Ephesians 5:8-11 for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light verse 9 (for the fruit of the spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), verse 10 finding out what is acceptable to the Lord. Verse 11 And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
Being proactive we commune with our Lord against our inbred sin nature from Adam and Eve. Not being blinded by the allurements of grand excesses offered in this temporary world we seek to do the will of the Father. 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. The challenge to put the will of God first is a daily, hour to hour duty in the operation of our mission as sojourners on this earth pointing others to Christ.
We must strive to be in harmony with the Holy Spirit in the just cause of mortifying sin in our hearts, minds and emotions. We must contend with the forces of darkness that would cause distractions of accumulating more than the necessities of life. We do that by trusting God through the mighty power of the Holy Scriptures, prayer and fellowship.
Christians are collectively, universally and historically known as the church of Jesus Christ. Since the Old and New Testaments writings the ongoing battle between good and evil is increasing. True Christians as a group of God’s millions through time have always united with pray against the wide variety of daily conflicts with sin and potential compromise.
Separately Christians are either proactive or reactive on a day-to-day basis as individuals in the Army of Christ. Jesus teaches there are many who only think they are in His army. These are the self-deceived described to us in Matthew 7:13-14 “Enter by the narrow; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.” But make no mistake about it, every true saved soul is the Army of Christ. Verse 14 “Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.”
Hell will be full of people who thought they were going to heaven. People from all false religions that never accepted Christ alone in faith alone and the Bible alone. The lost souls in hell either rejected Jesus and the Bible or added someone or some ceremonies to the finished work of Jesus and His resurrection. Oppositely, those in heaven will be there by the grace of God alone.
Saved by grace we are the army acquiring knowledge of the enemy through the lives found in Holy Scriptures. We are the army gaining strength to combat evil as we learn to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit. And we are the army revealing the mysteries of the gospel to those who have eyes to see and ears to hear. Isaiah 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Thank God for the Bible, He has given us His spoken word out of His great love for us. 2 Peter 1:21 for prophecy never came by will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Scriptures tell us what sins are and teach us how to fight in unseen spiritual warfare. As saved souls we are soldiers in Christ’s army and should remain aware of the ongoing battles as we proceed in our mission of spreading the gospel. Protected by the Armor of God in both offence and defense we are to remain alert by looking out for and expecting the enemy of God and Christians to thwart us or do us harm.
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