Posts Tagged ‘sin’

My Christmas Prayer For You

Posted in Christian, devotional, Gospel, Holidays, inspirational, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 20, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Dear Heavenly Father,  I come before you a poor soul who has been graciously saved by grace.  Lord, I don’t know why you chose me, but I am forever grateful that you did.  I certainly didn’t deserve anything at all.
You are a holy God and you are full of mercy and grace.  Lord, I lift up to you all of those who read this prayer and ask that you open up their eyes of understanding to know that they are sinners because of their heritage in Adam and Eve.  When they sinned in the garden, sin entered into the world and has been passed down from generation to generation. 
Help the reader take a good look at themselves and be honest.  Help them see that they  are not capable of saving themselves but need a Savior.  God, you sent your Son Jesus Christ to this earth in the form of man so we can identify with Him. Your precious Son took on all the sins of mankind when He went to the cross and died.  He took on mine and He took on the sins of those who read this prayer. Oh, Lord, thank you that you made a way for us to be right before a holy God.
Jesus beat death when He rose from the grave three days after he was buried.  He is ALIVE, in Heaven right now at your side.  This shows us that we too can have the promise of a new life after death. 
I pray that the reader will turn to you Lord. That they will bow their knee to you and allow you to be master over their life.  Lord, please open their spiritual eyes so that they may see their desperate need. 
Your Word tells us that this life is not the end of it all.  When we die we will either go to heaven or hell depending on who we serve down here.  Some will continue to serve themselves and will not respond to your Word.  They will spend eternity in Hell.  Your Word teaches that Hell is a real place and it is eternal torment.  Lord, please, don’t let anyone who is reading this prayer go to Hell.  I beg you Lord. Please help their unbelief right this minute.
There are others who believe they are Christians and on their way to Heaven, but have been deceived by false teaching.  Lord, if anyone is reading this prayer falls into this category, please give them a nudge in their hearts to examine themselves to see if they are truly in the faith.  It is not by good works that they will be saved, and it is not by being a nice person, joining a church, giving money or anything else man can do. 
Lord you want us!  You want our soul and you want our bodies for service.  If there is someone out there who does all the right things in their mind, but does not love you God, does not love your Word, and does not love their fellow Christian brothers and sisters, then by you own Word, that person is not saved.
They need to be born again.  Born anew, and become a new creation.  That is what you do for us.  And, it is wonderful that you actually adopt us into your family, God.  You become our Heavenly Father, and we can call you Father.  Once that happens then you take care of us.  We don’t have to worry or fear anymore.  We will have peace deep down inside knowing when we die we will go to Heaven.  There is no uncertainty about it.  We can be sure! 
If there is someone reading this that is not sure, then Lord I pray you will touch their heart today and nudge them to get right with you.  Open their eyes that they might see.  Help that person to become one of your family members Lord.  Help that person to make a fresh new committment to live the rest of their life for you and not for themself.  Help them to allow you to be Lord and Master.
Oh, this is a beautiful time of the year when we celebrate the birth of Jesus.  But, it is so much more.  It is a time when we can take a look at ourselves and make sure we are on the right path for eternity.  Jesus did so much more for us than we can even imagine, and Heaven awaits us with multitudes of blessings and things we can only dream of.  What a day that will be when we meet him face to face! 
Lord, please bless the readers of this prayer and have mercy on them. 
In Jesus name, thy will be done.  Amen

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You Can Overcome!

Posted in Agoraphobia, Anxiety & Stress, Bible Study, Christian, Faith, Health, inspirational, Panic Attacks, Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , , on December 10, 2009| Leave a Comment »

Do you have problems?  Does fear and worry seem to follow you around all day long?  Does the future seem scary?  Do you face trials that seem overwhelming?  If you answer “yes,” to any of these questions I want to encourage you today that you can overcome!

How do I know that?  Well, I know because of the written Word.  Yes, the Bible clearly states that we will have trials and temptations.  Look at James.

Jas 1:2-4 NASB Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, (3) knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. (4) And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

God tests our faith by trials to see if we are genuine. We get through them and as a result we have more endurance and our faith grows which helps us to work toward perfection and completeness.  Of course, we will not be perfect and totally complete until we are in Heaven. 

When anxiety and fear raise their ugly heads in your life, God gives you choices. What do you do?  Do you give in to it? Or do you resist the temptation to sin and set your mind on things of the Lord? 

Col 3:2 NASB Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.

When you are worried, stop doing that, and think about Bible verses.  Meditate on them.  Read some of the Psalms.  Get your mind on things above and off from your feelings, and fears.  This needs to become a new habit.

We can take comfort in the fact that God will not allow us to undergo a trail or temptation that is too great for us.  He is still there, Sovereign, and in control.  He is our Heavenly Father, loving and kind.  He only allows anything into our lives that will be good for us in the end.  It may not seem that way now, but someday we will see the purpose.

1Co 10:13 NASB No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

“As a ground of encouragement to those who are in temptation and trial. God knows what they are able to endure; and he will sustain them in their temptations. It matters not how severe the trial; or how long it may be continued; or how much they may feel their own feebleness; yet He who has appointed the trial is abundantly able to uphold them. They may, therefore, repose their all upon Him, and trust to His sustaining grace.”  (Barnes commentary)

Remember, that others have survived the same trials and temptations that you are experiencing.  You are not different.  You are not the only one who feels the way you feel. It might not seem that way, but it is true.

God still loves you no matter how you feel.  We sometimes get caught up in our feelings and forget the facts.

Rom 8:35-39 LITV Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (36) Even as it has been written, “For Your sake we are killed all the day; we are counted as sheep of slaughter.” Psa. 44:22 (37) But in all these things we more than conquer through Him loving us. (38) For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, (39) nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

No matter what we go through God is there with us and His love sustains us.  That allows us to be “more than conquers through Him loving us.”  That means to over-conquer, to conquer completely without any real threat to personal life or health.  NOTHING can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ.  That is an amazing statement. 

Whatever is going on in our life right now we know that God is totally in control. He is raising us up because we are His own children.  Sometimes He allows bad things to come our way in order to test and train us.  We are slowing becoming more and more like Christ as we journey through this life.  We face our trials and we grow in Him.  We learn many lessons and depend on Christ alone to sustain us.

1Jn 4:4 LITV Little children, you are of God and have overcome them, because He in you is greater than he in the world.

Yes, we can be overcomers!  God is greater than the evil one who is in this world.

Again, I ask, “Are you overcome by the trials in your life?”  Seek God and obey the things you learn in the Word.  You will overcome!  You have God on your side!  What a Wonderful Savior!

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When is Sin not Sin?

Posted in Bible Study, Christian, Faith, Scripture, tagged , , , on November 8, 2009| 2 Comments »

When is sin not sin?   I’d like to read your comments on this question.  What do you think?

Update: Nov. 13, 2009
I have only had one comment so far on this. I’m wondering where is everyone? Maybe I didn’t write it correctly. What I’m asking is: When do you think it is okay to sin? Is there any time or circumstance when it would be okay?

 

 

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Sin is a Choice!

Posted in Bible Study, Christian, devotional, inspirational, Panic Disorder Support, Religion, Scripture, tagged , , , on November 6, 2009| 5 Comments »

1Jn 3:5 NASB  You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.

So many times I’ve thought about how Christ died on the cross to forgive me of my sins.  What a wonderful thought it is to know that the God of all creation would actually forgive ME an unworthy, selfish, rebellious sinner.  It has always boggled my mind that he would do that for me.

But, the above verse tells us He actually not only came to bear our sins on the cross and forgive us of our sins, but to “take away sins.”  Did you get that?  He came to take them away!  That means we don’t have to sin any more!

Wow! What a revelation that was to me!  When we become a Christian we become a new creation in Christ.  Our old self is recreated.  We are brand new.  Yes, we still have our old bodies, but we are new inside, in our spirit.  

Sometimes, I’ve written a long email to someone.  I’ve spent an hour or more and looked up scripture and pasted in several quotes.  Finally, I’m almost finished and I either hit a wrong key, or my computer acts up, and in a blink of an eye that email that I’d spent so much time on completely disappears.  Something has taken it away, and it can never be found or recovered again.  I simply have to start all over again! 

I think when Christ takes away our sins it is something like that.  He actually takes them away never to come back to us.  Those sins are gone!

In the Old Testament there is a good example of the meaning “take away sins.” 

Lev 16:21 LITV  “then Aaron shall lay his two hands on the head of the living goat, and shall confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel, and all their transgressions, and all their sins, and shall put them on the head of the goat, and shall send it by the hand of a chosen man into the wilderness.”

This sin offering was laid upon the head of the scapegoat.  The goat then was sent away forever with the sins upon him.  Get the picture?  That is what Christ did for us on the cross. He took our sins away forever.

But, you say, “Wait a minute, I still find myself sinning at times.  I thought you said our sins were taken away.”

Those sins were taken away when we became a born-again Christian.  We were sanctified, made righteous and holy in God’s sight.  But, we still have our old flesh that we live in as long as we are in this world, and our righteousness will not be complete until we get to Heaven.  In the meantime, we are striving to become more and more like Christ.  We do not have the disposition to sin anymore.  We really don’t want to sin, but sometimes in a weak moment we do.

Yes, we do fall and sin at times, but it is not our way of life now.  If you are a true Christian you will see that your life has been transformed.  You are not the same person as you were before.  When you do sin, you will feel it in your spirit and not be able to live with it.  You will confess it and repent of it and get right with God.  That is what a true Christian does.

On the other hand if you call yourself a Christian but you still live your life the same way as before you got saved then you need to question if you are truly a Christian.  It is impossible for a true believer to continue to live in sin.  Your conscience won’t let you do that.  You are a NEW creation. 

2Co 5:17 LITV  So that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new!

Here again the scripture says, those old things have “passed away.”  They are gone, “taken away,” by Christ. 

The bottom line is this:  Once we are a true Christian we do not have to live in sin anymore!  Isn’t that great?  Sin does not have to control us anymore!  Now, we have a choice.  Before it wasn’t up to us as the devil controlled us, but now, God has given us a choice.  We can choose to reject sin in our lives! 

The way we do this is by living close to God.  We obey the scriptures.  We ask God to allow the Holy Spirit to give us the courage, and strength we need to overcome any sin that keeps us from living the way we should.

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Audio Sermons

Posted in Audio Sermons, Bible Study, Christian, devotional, Gospel, inspirational, Religion, Scripture, Worship, tagged , , , , , on April 1, 2009| 1 Comment »

 

bible2s

Pastor Bob O’Leary has given us many wonderful sermons over the past few years and I would like to share many of them with you.

The first ones I’ve put up are on the Book of Colossians.  This book was written by Paul the Apostle to correct the false teaching that was infiltrating  the church. 

The theme of Colossians is the complete adequacy of Christ as contrasted with the emptiness of mere human philosophy.

Colossians 2:8 “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ.”

As you listen to these sermons I guarantee that if you take them to heart and put them to work in your own life you will see growth in Christ.

Click here to listen to our Audio Sermons

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Where Did Fear Originate?

Posted in Agoraphobia, Anxiety & Stress, Bible Study, Christian, Faith, Health, inspirational, Panic Attacks, Panic Disorder Support, Scripture, tagged , , , , , , , on February 4, 2009| 7 Comments »

Wild Turkey

wild turkey at our bird feeder

 

Have you ever wondered?  Where did all this fear come from anyway?  Where did it originate?

Fear had it origins way back in the Garden of Eden.  Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree.  That started the whole ball rolling.  When they did that their eyes were opened and they realized they were naked.  So, they made some coverings out of leaves.

“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”  (italics mine) Gen 3:8-10 NASB

Sin and fear entered the picture at this time.  Before that they were not afraid and they lived a very peaceful and fulfilling life in the beautiful garden where they had special and sweet fellowship with the Lord.  Oh, how I wish they had never eaten that fruit!

In this case we could reasonably say that their fear was a result of their sin.  This is something to think about.  When God gives us a command as He did Adam and Eve, which was not to eat of the fruit of that tree, and they disobeyed His command that was sin.  That sin nature has been passed down to all of us, unfortunately.

Today, God has given us many commands in the Bible and when go against them we also sin.  God says,

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.”  Php 4:6 NASB

Thank goodness God has given the Christian an antidote for when we mess up and sin, because we all will and do.  It is found over in the book of John.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1Jn 1:9 NASB

You will notice the little word “if” in this verse.  Well, in reality that is not so little, because the promise God gives us hinges on it.  “If we confess our sins,” then he is faithful to forgive us and cleanse us for our wrongdoing. So, it takes something on our part first, (confession) then he is faithful to fulfill His part. (forgiveness and cleansing.)
Actually confession means that we agree with God.  And, we should be sorry that we disobeyed.

Do you realize that God’s love is much more powerful than our fears?  Look at this scripture.

…that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.   Heb 2:14-15 NASB

Isn’t that a wonderful scripture?  We can be free from the power of fear in our lives because Jesus Christ already took care of it. That is what he died on the cross for. What wonderful and powerful love that took.

We will end on a positive note.  Not all fear is sinful.  God has given all of us a kind of fear that protects us from danger. That is not sinful.  Also, God has given us a kind of fear that is godly. 

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. Pro 9:10 KJV

The fear of the Lord is a reverence of God’s majesty.  This is also a good kind of fear.

May God bless you today!

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The Most Important Thing!

Posted in Christian, devotional, Faith, Gospel, Holidays, inspirational, Religion, Scripture, tagged , , , , , on December 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »

 merry-christmas-bar41

Greetings!

The most important thing I can leave you with this season is that you get right with God. If you don’t you will spend eternity in Hell. It’s that serious. So, how do you get right with God?

First admit you are a sinner. We all are. The Bible even says so in, Romans 6:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Everyone ever born has sinned, and has a sin nature.

Most people think that when someone dies they automatically go to Heaven. Growing up whenever any of our relatives died the family talked about them as being in a “better place.“ But, that is not always the case. If that person didn’t get right with God first they would not be in Heaven.

Others, don’t believe there is a Heaven or Hell and figure this life is all there is. We live, we die, are buried, and that’s it. But, that is not true either. There is an afterlife. Our bodies die, but our spirits (which are our true selves) live on forever.

Another myth people believe in is if they live a decent life, go to church, contribute to charity, or do good deeds, then they will go to Heaven when they die. Good works will not get you to Heaven.

We only get one chance to get right with God and that is in the here and now. It is crucial that you understand that. Life is fragile and none of us know what tomorrow will bring.

The Bible tells us there is a Heaven for those who believe. John 14: 2 “In my Father’s house are many dwelling places; …I am going there to prepare a place for you.”

To get right with God you need to acknowledge you are a sinner, and repent, (which means turn from your sins.) Acts 3:19 “Repent then and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out….” God is holy and can’t look upon sin, so He provided us a solution.

I Corinthians 15:3-4 tells us what we need to believe. “…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.”

Many times a person’s pride will stand in the way. But, please don’t let that happen to you. Admit the truth, and ask God to accept you and adopt you into His family. Make Jesus Christ Lord or your life. Let Him lead you and control you. You will not be sorry you did, and you will be welcomed Home when your time comes.

There is an excellent book written by John MacArthur called, The Gospel According to Jesus.

If you would like to know more about how to get right with God, click on this link where you can order the book.

http://www.gty.org/Products/Books/G

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I Will Sing of My Redeemer

Posted in Christian, Faith, Gospel, Hymns, inspirational, Praise, Worship, tagged , , , , , on October 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »

This is a wonderful Christian hymn.  The words are true and comforting even today.  Jesus Christ did it all and he did it all for you and me.  Amazing!

Philip P. Bliss (1838-1876)
Words: Phil­ip P. Bliss, 1876. This is per­haps the last hymn Bliss wrote be­fore he died in a train wreck. He sur­vived the in­i­tial crash, but was killed try­ing (un­suc­cess­ful­ly) to res­cue his wife. The lyr­ics were found in his be­long­ings af­ter the ac­ci­dent.This song is one of the first ever re­cord­ed on a phon­o­graph. George Steb­bins made the re­cord­ing dur­ing a dem­on­stra­tion of Thom­as Ed­i­son’s new in­ven­tion in New York C­ity.Music: James Mc­Gran­a­han, 1877 (MI­DI, score).
James McGranahan (1840-1907)

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His wondrous love to me;
On the cruel cross He suffered,
From the curse to set me free.

Refrain

Sing, oh sing, of my Redeemer,
With His blood, He purchased me.
On the cross, He sealed my pardon,
Paid the debt, and made me free.

I will tell the wondrous story,
How my lost estate to save,
In His boundless love and mercy,
He the ransom freely gave.

Refrain

I will praise my dear Redeemer,
His triumphant power I’ll tell,
How the victory He giveth
Over sin, and death, and hell.

Refrain

I will sing of my Redeemer,
And His heav’nly love to me;
He from death to life hath brought me,
Son of God with Him to be.

Refrain

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