Beginning and Deepening Our Christian Walk

In John 10:10, Christ our Savior states that He has come that we may have life , and have it more abundantly.  Our focus and attention must be constantly fixed upon Him.   From an earlier blog, we learned that once we have confessed our sins to Jesus and have received Him as our Personal Savior, we are sealed unto the day of redemption by His Holy Spirit; and nothing will be able to snatch us away.  Yet, we still battle with the old sinful nature that wars against our new nature in Christ. And so, Jesus desires us not only to experience the new life in Him, but for us to "have life, and that they may have it more abundantly."  We must be on guard to have Jesus protect us from the thief.  And in this verse and associated Bible verses in the broader passage, John 10:7-9, Jesus spoke of Himself as the Shepherd who guards His sheep.   In contrast, the thief is a false shepherd.  He "cares only about feeding himself, not building up the flock....

  The Holy Spirit may best be described as a part of the triune God (the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) with equal power but a distinct function.   1 Corinthians 6:19-20 states: Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.   The moment we received Christ as our Personal Savior, we were indwelt by the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is present in the life of every believer. God, in His wisdom, created the Holy Spirit to function in our lives so that according to Romans 15:13 , "we may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."  This hope is in reference to what God's word refers to as eternal hope .  The believer, the one who has confessed his/her sins and received the Lord, Jesus Christ as his/her Personal Savior, "will not perish, but will have eternal life." (J...

  This verse is the epitome of who Jesus is, from eternity past to eternity future.    In this one verse, we are able to establish that Jesus didn't only exist from the time He was born as a baby.   In John 1:1, we read:   "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."   It was this Word, the full essence of God, that became flesh in the form of a baby, Jesus.  Jesus spent thirty years on earth just like any other human being, while being fully God, born of a virgin, before beginning His ministry for three years on earth. In Luke 1:30-35, we read:  “ The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the ...

  Have you ever read this Bible verse and wondered about it? Let's break it down:  Fear not.   I am with you.  Be not dismayed. I am your God. I will strengthen you.   I will help you. I will uphold you with My righteous right hand. Is there really a God out there who does this?  Isn't there something I need to do to actually experience these claims?  The answer is, yes. Another Bible verse states in John 3:16:   For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [Jesus] that whosoever believeth in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus was sent by His Father to earth to die for our sins so that we could have eternal life.  No one else could fill that role but Jesus.  And the word "perish" in John 3:16 does not mean going into non-existence.  Here, it refers to separation from God in an eternal state of torment.   The first step you need to take in order to experience the claims of Isaiah...