New Creature

When a person becomes a Christian, he becomes a new creature. A change takes place where the person is no longer the same, no longer lives as he once did, is transformed into someone new. There are some passages that give further explanation of this change; we'll look at a few here.

In 2 Peter 1, we read that the Christian should have faith, virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness, and love. Verse 9, "..he who lacks these things is short-sighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins." The Christian is not committing his "old sins."

Romans 6, talking about grace and sin: "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death.." Verse 7, "For he who has died has been freed from sin." When we become a Christian, we are baptized into Jesus' death and come forth a new creature.

Ephesians 4:22 says that we are to "put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness."

When we become a Christian, we become a new creature, one committed to serving God. And I might add, serving Him in His way; not our way; not in what seems right to us, but in His way. His way is found clearly in the Bible, there for us to learn and to follow.

Thanks for reading again. Have a great week!

Denominations

We should note right up front that the discussion of denominations cannot be furthered by looking for them in the Bible. It never was God's intention that His people find a way to divide, to form various churches with different names and individual beliefs, however minor the differences may be.

In fact, what we see in the NT is a lot of teaching regarding unity. Jesus, praying right before His arrest (John 17), went to the Father and prayed that His disciples "may be one." This is repeated several times in this one prayer, showing that Jesus was concerned about His followers splintering after He left them.

We see this very same problem occurring in Corinth, causing Paul to have to address this matter to the Christians in his letter of 1Cor. In 1:10, Paul says, "Now I plead with you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." He goes on to say that some were saying "I am of Paul," or others, "Apollos" or "Cephas" etc. In 3:3, he continues the discussion by saying, "For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men?"

But this is exactly what has evolved in Christendom today; and for the most part, nobody really sees a problem with it. The common answer is: "We are all headed for the same place; we just are getting there a little differently." But that isn't the attitude of the Bible, which is God's Word to us. The Bible attitude is clearly: "NO!" Christians are to be one; just Christians.

Ephesian 4, (read chapter 3 also) says, "...keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body" (church), one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Oneness, unity, means a great deal to God....and thus, it needs to be important to us. The denominational setup that we men have created is not right, not Biblical, not pleasing to God.

Thanks for reading. Have a great week!

The Resurrection

Nothing stands out as the theme of the New Testament like the subject of the resurrection. Jesus taught His disciples that He would have to die and be raised again the third day. And He made sure that they understood that even though He would leave them, they would be resurrected as well; that they would join Him in heaven, "I go to prepare a place for you. and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:2,3).

After Jesus leaves this earth to return to heaven to reign over the kingdom, the apostles begin teaching about Jesus. The main point of their teaching is the resurrection. An example of this is Acts 3 where Peter and John healed a lame man. This got them in trouble with the Jewish leaders as we read in Acts 4: "Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead." We find this theme all through the book of Acts...and all through the NT.

Especially note 1Corinthians 15. This whole chapter is emphasizing the resurrection; of Jesus and of us as we pass from this life. Verse 4: "...that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.." Verse 12: "Now if Christ is preached that He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?" And he goes on from here to show that if there is no resurrection from the dead, no life after death, we Christians have nothing except what happens in this life; verse 19: "If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men the most pitiable."

The significant point about Jesus, the proof that He is the Son of God, that what He taught is what we should follow, is that He has power over death. And since He has power over death, He has power over our death; i.e., we don't have to die and be like Rover, "dead all over," but instead, we can live, and live forever! Be sure and read all of 1Corinthians 15 and see this full description of the resurrection process.

Jesus saves. Thank you for reading again. If you are not already a "follower," sign on for automatic notification. And feel the love!

Good reading: http://thepreachersword.com/2012/03/10/what-cancer-cannot-do/

The Lord's Supper/Passover Feast

We read in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke where Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper. He had gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem with the apostles to partake of the Passover feast. But while doing that He told them that He would be leaving them, and to remember His death through the eating of bread and juice of the vine.

There are 4 places in the Bible where an account of the beginnings of this observance by Jesus and His apostles is given. The first 3 are 2 chapters back from the end of Matthew (chap. 26), Mark (chap. 14), and Luke (chap. 22). Then Paul gives an account in 1Corinthians 11.

The church that I am a part of observes the Lord's Supper every Sunday. The reason for this is that it appears that the early church, the church in the days of the apostles, partook every Sunday. Note Acts 20:7, "Now on the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul, ready to depart the next day, spoke to them and continued his message until midnight." Note that the purpose of their coming together was to "break bread;" not to sing, or preach or pray, though these things are valuable. But the primary purpose was to break bread, to partake of the Lord's Supper and to remember His death. It seems that should be our focus today.

Let us be sure that we don't forsake this important remembering of the Lord's sacrifice for us. It was a direct command of Jesus that this be done by His followers...so we know it is important.

Thanks for reading, and have a great week!