Matthew Henry calls John 3: "levelling the soul and removing all that hinders us in the way of Christ and grace."
Give up your sins for the Savior. And a teenager whispers in my ear: I just want to have fun in this world so I cannot follow Him. What are the limits to your fun? Remove all that hinders us from bringing our thoughts into obedience or we will not be redeemed.
The fruits must meet with repentance. We can say we love, we live, we learn by Christ. But what does my life look like today? We don't accept Christ's offer of salvation without true repentance, once and for all that we do. The evidence and the effects mark us for life.
Man lives by every word out of the mouth of God. Luke 4:12. We walk according to Providence and Promises. This Word. It is our sword. We do not live by bread alone but by every Word out of the mouth of God. It has been 400 years of waiting for this Word. Malachi told us to study it and make sense of it. And here it is. Invading our hearts. And His Word was with Power. Luke 4:32.
COME BOLDLY: Timeless Prayers
Father, we need You so. The God Who came to earth and spoke the Word with Power. Can You do that in our lives today? May we glimpse Your Providence over all our moments. May we grasp Your Promises for all that we embrace. Let us remove all that hinders us from repenting before You. Level our souls. Just as Satan tried to shake the Providence confidence of Christ in the wilderness, we must not let Satan shake our confidence in Your Promises, O God. We need your help!
PHOTO: High Thoughts to the High Heavens of Texas. We are the most important person in our lives----as we deal with the high thoughts and tear down anything that hinders us from knowing God.
We are not following the Bible Reading to the right. Annette, can you take it off? We are only going to read one Gospel, the Book of Luke, in order to be able to spend almost one more month in reading Acts through Revelation. Follow the plan in the subject line each day.
ReplyDeleteRepent is no longer a popular concept in many churches yet so vital to our minute to minute walk with the Lord, yet we know He will return for His unblemished bride. Lord - by the power of the Holy Spirit minister to the people who hear 1/2 truths and out and out lies from the pulpit on Sunday mornings. Show them Your ways.
ReplyDeleteI have had conversations with dear friends over the years who have told me that a.) I was just too serious about all this---need to throw in a few entertaining remarks, jokes . . . b.) I will not attract people to the Gospel if I scare them off. I'm shaking my head to myself. This is not the Bible I read. Moses, Joseph, Jeremiah, Nehemiah---they didn't wrap up the Word in a beautiful gift package. The Bible calls it
ReplyDelete"tickling ears." Wondering what God thinks of all this. We are all called to repent. Love this Paul Tripp quote I read yesterday: "God doesn't just discipline you. No, He daily forgives, enables, ,transforms, and delivers you as well. Repentance breeds freedom and faith.